Britain had suffered from several economic and social difficulties during the inter-war period, which is one of the main reasons why appeasement was necessary. As well as being in £9 million debt, Britain needed further money to improve the standard of housing, health care and education which for the poorer members of society, was in a state of desperation. Unemployment rose dramatically during this time and it was felt, especially by the Labour Government MP’s, that the British government should prioritise its policies to ensure that Britain's needs were met at home as opposed to tackling the issue of foreign affairs. Before 1914, Britain had always traded more with the outside world rather than her formal possessions. Throughout the 1920’s, Conservative MP’s encouraged the idea of an imperial tariff which would obstruct foreign imports and instead encourage inter-imperial trade, a policy that would make the British Empire economically self-sufficient and less vulnerable to foreign competition. Throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s Britain focused a lot of attention on its Empire in order to raise its reputation and status, even though the growing spread of nationalism throughout Europe meant that countries belonging to the empire were beginning to break away.
There was great hostility in Britain around this time due to the growth of communism. Communism, which aimed to destroy capitalist businesses, was feared more than fascism in Britain's industrial network and hence public opinion supported the views of Hitler and Mussolini at the time as they posed a strong stand against the policy. However, Britain was reluctant to offer military support to European conflict. Britain was even reluctant to offer military support to her strongest war-time ally - France. Without the pledge of support from the British, France engaged on a strong policy of defence, and took matters into her own hands on several occasions, which didn’t always leave Britain in the best position as she would have to step in, in order to avoid possible conflict.
There is no doubt that the state of Britain’s military played a part in the adoption of appeasement. After the war, Britain could not afford to continue her defensive policy as well as solve her domestic issues and so designed the 10 year rule. The 10 year rule stated that Britain was unlikely to be involved in war for the next ten years and that her armed forces would be gauged accordingly. Britain chose not to rearm or increase her army for the next ten years so that the money could be spent on establishing Britain’s domestic policies. The ten year rule was good for public opinion as people did not want war and were still exhausted from the last. Britain managed to reduce its defence spending by 80% from the years 1919 to 1932 where the amount dropped by £654 million.
The mass media played a large part in the decision for appeasement as well as public opinion. Most people in Britain at the time had access to a newspaper, radio or cinema newsreels. The leading newspaper at the time, The Times, was a strong supporter of the appeasement policy. The BBC also supported appeasement and talk of foreign policy was restricted by the British Government. Opinion polls were a new concept in the 1920’s and 30’s, but the polls did show that people were more concerned with collective security and the League of Nations rather than the idea of appeasement, even though they were against the idea of rearmament.
The supporters of appeasement were mainly the Conservative Party, upper-class aristocracy and business groups, several leading newspapers and the Church of England but appeasement also gained support from a few right-wing extremist groups. The Conservatives deeply opposed relations with the communist Soviet Union along with the majority of appeasement supporters who rather show support to the Nazi fascist regime than to communism.
Appeasement was not the only policy that Britain could have followed. Appeasement grew due to domestic and economic difficulties faced by Britain at the time as well as the reluctance to face another devastating world war. The logic behind appeasement was quite simple. Britain could not afford to go to war; she were already in large amounts of debt, the military was not strong enough, domestic issues were rising at home and the Empire had been weakened and so to accommodate the Nazi’s in Germany as opposed to risking a second world war seemed quite reasonable. Britain in the 1930’s realised the strength of Germany and did have to consider then finally begin rearming but even so, Britain maintained a policy of appeasement in an attempt to solve German grievances concerning mainly the Treaty of Versailles by peaceful negotiation.
Appeasement seemed the only logical and peaceful way of preventing what now appears to have been an inevitable war. Without Britain following a policy of appeasement I think it is fair enough to say that war would have surely broken out before 1939 and would have produced even further devastating effects on Europe.
