Explain Why Britain and France Followed a Policy of Appeasement In the Autumn of 1935, Yet Declared War On Hitler One Year Later.
Ben Musty - History Coursework - 19/09/2001
EXPLAIN WHY BRITAIN AND FRANCE FOLLOWED A POLICY OF APPEASEMENT IN THE AUTUMN OF 1935, YET DECLARED WAR ON HITLER ONE YEAR LATER.
For many reasons, both England and France decided that the best and most sensible way of dealing with Hitler's demands would be to follow a policy of appeasement.
When Hitler increased his army, navy and air force, although breaking the rules of the treaty, England and France allowed him to do so, as they did when he invaded the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia, which was also ignored.
Britain and Frances attitude to what Germany was doing was called appeasement, which meant giving Germany what they wanted, mainly in the interest of peace.
Britain and France could not afford to go to war because the large cost of repairing their cities and towns which had been damaged during the First World War. They also had a decreased economy due to the amount of money they were paying, funding their over-seas empires. From these economic reasons, Britain and France thought that it would be easier to follow a policy of appeasement, rather than spending money that they did not have to go to war.
Due to their weak military, Britain and France were not strong enough at the time to attack Germany. This military reason, that they were still building up their army, meant it would be easier to follow a policy of appeasement rather than go to war with Germany, when they knew they had a small chance of defeating them, especially as Germany had been building up a strong military.
From the political point of view, Britain and France decided that the treaty was very harsh on Germany and so decided that it was only fair for Germany to ...
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Due to their weak military, Britain and France were not strong enough at the time to attack Germany. This military reason, that they were still building up their army, meant it would be easier to follow a policy of appeasement rather than go to war with Germany, when they knew they had a small chance of defeating them, especially as Germany had been building up a strong military.
From the political point of view, Britain and France decided that the treaty was very harsh on Germany and so decided that it was only fair for Germany to reclaim land that was originally theirs, and was mainly populated by German people. Therefore, Britain and France decided to be lenient towards Germany.
Another political reason to follow a policy of appeasement was that most people who had survived the first world war, were still alive and strongly against another war. A lot of people remembered how destructive 'The Great War' was and realised that they did not want the same thing to happen again, just as they were recovering from the first world war. If Britain and France did decide to go to war, then the governments could have expected to lose a large amount of support and possible riots could be formed opposing war. Due to these reasons, the leaders of Britain and France were seen as heroes for avoiding another war.
Great Britain was against communism and was very afraid of their country becoming communist from Russian invasion. Britain and France realised that with Germany being fascist, Russia would not be able to invade through Germany without war. Britain and France decided to follow a policy of appeasement with Germany so that they were protected from the communist threat.
In geographical terms, the countries Hitler was invading were on the other side of Europe, and if Britain and France did want to help the countries, then they would have to get through Germany or Austria first. Therefore, Britain and France decided it would be much easier to follow a policy of appeasement than to start a war with Germany over countries they were not bothered about.
One year later, in 1939, Britain and France had realised that appeasement had failed and wouldn't work. They realised this from the way Hitler invaded Poland. The other countries were not particularly important to Britain or France, but they were allied to Poland and had promised to protect them if an invasion did occur.
In 1939, Britain and France had a lot more money and resources, they were now prepared for war. The countries had built up large militaries and were powerful enough to stand up to Germany.
Not only were Britain and France now prepared for war, but the population were also. People in these countries hated Hitler from the way he was getting away with lots of thing, breaking the treaty and invading other countries. The British and French people felt threatened by the fascist dictator and would agree with a war to stop Hitler.
Britain and France were still afraid or Russian invasion and the threat of communism. The only thing stopping Russia was Germany, until 1939, in August, when the Nazi-Soviet pact was created.
The pact meant that Poland would be slit between Russia and Germany and that they would not fight each other. Russia's leader, Stalin, distrusted Britain and France, and so agreed to the pact. Britain and France now realised that appeasement would fail in stopping communist invasion.
Therefore, in 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany.
One year later in 1939, many of the reasons with justified following a policy of appeasement were no longer needed and the countries were now prepared for war against Germany.
I think the main reason why Britain and France abandoned their policy of appeasement and decided to go to war, was that they were much more prepared. Without a large enough military they would not be prepared for war it would be unlikely that they would win. With a larger army, air force and navy, they would have a chance to stand up to Germany and would be able to defeat them.