Part of The Student Room Group

  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

Examine the main factors which led British governments to follow a policy of 'appeasement' in the period of 1931-1938.

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

Britain and Appeasement, 1931-1939 Examine the main factors which led British governments to follow a policy of 'appeasement' in the period of 1931-1938. There are many reasons why Britain followed a policy of appeasement during 1931-38, but one of the main reasons is Britain wanted to avoid going to war. After World War I the British public were shocked about such things like trench warfare, the Battle of the Somme (thousands of men lost their lives for a few miles of land) and as soldiers back then were encouraged to train, join and fight with friends, many villages lost their young men. Politicians such as Neville Chamberlain and Stanley Baldwin had witnessed the Great War and had lost relatives close to them and weren't willing to go through the same experience again. Also we know that public opinion was against war because in 1933, the Oxford University voted that it would not fight for King and Country. Also in 1935, the Peace Pledge Union held a nationwide poll to determine what was the public view on disarmament and 92.5% of the people said that they favoured disarmament. ...read more.

Middle

Also Hitler's attacks on German communists had won him strong support inside and outside Germany as well. Also many people and politicians thought that if Germany prospered then the Russian Communists weren't likely to come further into Europe and some had a few that if Britain left Germany alone so they could 'control' East European countries which prevented the expansion of communism. Also many people in Britain were unaware of what was going on in Nazi Germany and were more concerned with the Russians, so they were ready to turn a blind eye to Germany's aggressiveness. Also Bolshevik Russia propaganda was aimed at inciting revolts in capitalist countries and hopefully turning them communist. The Russians were the ultimate threat to the British although Russia had been had ally of Britain's in the First World War. Even if Britain had decided to turn to the Russia, the Russians couldn't have helped that much because she was isolationist and Stalin was concentrating on industrial development. This 'industrial development' involved killing lots of innocent civilians and many soldiers from the army, which caused the Russians army to be weak. ...read more.

Conclusion

Chamberlain believed in active appeasement and as he was Chancellor of the Exchequer (1931-1937) and so he knew what a war could do financially to Britain. He was also the Primeminister, from 1937-1940, and he believed in the reasonableness of all men and was on a mission to secure European Peace. Appeasement was also supported by Lord Halifax (Foreign Secretary), Sir Samuel Hoare (Home Secretary), Sir John Simon (Chancellor of the Exchequer) and also the Conservative Party. The Cliveden Set supported appeasement, and one of its members Lord Astor, owned the times, which was a very popular paper and therefore influenced the way the public viewed appeasement. All of these government officials supported the policy of appeasement, backed by the majority of the public and therefore Chamberlain probably thought he would have to try his utmost to avoid war with Germany. All of these different factors such as buying time to build up the military, to not having a repeat of the First World War left no doubt in the minds of British people, that it would be logical to support appeasement. ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level International History, 1945-1991 section.

Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

or


Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related AS and A Level International History, 1945-1991 essays

  1. Reasons for the increasing support given to NSDAP by the German people in the ...

    The propaganda experts of the NSDAP used the prevailing weather of political turmoil and economic crisis to draw support. Support although stretched across a large social base, was not randomly distributed across all German society. The urban lower-middle class and rural landlords made up the majority of supporters.

  2. Assess the view that Chamberlain's main aim in following a policy of appeasement in ...

    So chamberlain's policy of appeasement can be argued that it was done to amend genuine German grievances. Another possible reason for the policy of appeasement was that British public opinion was mostly against a new world war. This was mainly because of the lasting impression of the devastation of the 'The Great War' which ironically needed to be re-named.

  1. THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES

    We could destroy every Soviet city 50 times over. Neither side can win. What is the point of spending billions of dollars year after year on more and more nuclear bombs which we would never dare to use. Q.1 Study SOURCE A.

  2. Lion Led By Donkeys

    The majority of the public believed that the British soldiers were lions, but donkeys led them and that the Generals were stupid who could not think of ideas to win the war apart from the slaughtering men until one side was ground into submission.

  1. This graduation paper is about U.S. - Soviet relations in Cold War period. Our ...

    In the month before his death, FDR had evidently begun to question that presumption, becoming increasingly concerned about Soviet behavior. Had he lived, he may well have adopted a significantly tougher position toward Stalin than he had taken previously. Yet in his last communication with Churchill, Roosevelt was still urging

  2. Was Chamberlain's policy of Appeasement the best policy to follow in 1938?

    If Britain had have gone to war with Germany straight away they would have had a problem. Their strength was in the navy and Germany did not have a wide border with coast and was far inland. France had put all their money into the Maginot line, which was purely

  1. What factors have prompted democratisation in Argentina?

    An organisation had been formed of the political parties that had been rejuvenated during Viola's reign called the Multipartidaria. This organisation, in December 1981 issued a document which chastised the military for their failings in governance, and called for an immediate restoration of civilian rule.

  2. The Prelude to the 1975 War and the Cairo Agreement.

    Kamal Jumblatt and the PLO were heavily opposed to this document as an end to the war did not suit them. Jumblatt saw in this document a re-enactment of the 'no victot, no vanquished' formula of 1958, something which he was not willing to accept.

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work