How far do you agree that support for the League of Nations was the main reason why Britain made so few commitments to maintain the peace of Europe in 1920's?

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Lucy Davey

How far do you agree that support for the League of Nations was the main reason why Britain made so few commitments to maintain the peace of Europe in 1920’s?

To a certain extent Britain made so few commitments to maintaining the peace because of the League of Nations but however there were other factors which influenced Britain’s decision to stay out of European affairs. A Continental commitment was a binding military alliance with an ally, in Britain’s case France, which would have tied down British forces in the event of a war. The avoidance of such an agreement in the post WW1 years was a staple of Britain’s defence policy.

One reason for Britain’s few commitments to maintaining the peace was that of being overstretched by her Empire. Britain was trying to police too vast an area with highly limited resources. There were many uprisings taking place in different parts of the Empire. For example in India, the British passed the Rowlatt Acts to try to control protests. The acts attempted to restrict liberties and rights of Indians, but demonstrations against the government increased as a response to the acts. After the Amritsar Massacre of 1919 Indians demanded independence from British rule. In 1920 Ghandi persuaded the Congress to adopt his non violent non co-operation policy; Ghandi transformed Congress to a mass party with millions of followers. Similarly in Ireland the IRA waged a guerrilla war against the British army. All these uprisings meant that if there were problems defending the Empire, it would mean there would be inadequate forces to help defend Europe in a major conflict and maintain peace. This therefore made it crucial to avoid a Continental commitment.

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Another reason Britain avoided many commitments was the fact that Continental Wars were particularly expensive and necessitated raising taxes and government borrowing. Britain’s national and imperial interests could be better and more cheaply secured by avoiding entanglement in European wars and using diplomacy to resolve tension. Also Britain was a major exporting nation with important markets in North America, the Pacific and parts of Africa had to be protected by the navy. A peaceful Europe which Britain had few commitments to contributed towards the ability to fund the navy.

A brief reason for Britain’s lack of commitments was also the ...

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