Essay On How Far Was Britain's Policy Of Appeasement
How far was Britain’s policy of Appeasement the result of popular opinion?
Britain’s policy of appeasement was partly due to popular opinion. The British people did not want to enter another war after losing 722,000 lives and having 1,676,000 people wounded. There was a widespread feeling that death and destruction should never be allowed to happen on such a scale again. However public opinion was not the only reason Britain followed a policy of appeasement to Hitler. There were other factors such as Military Weakness, German Bombers, Lack of reliable allies and economic problems which also added to why Britain followed a policy of appeasement. The size of the army decreased in the 1920s because of government cost cuttings which meant the military was weak as there was not as many soldiers available as before. In the 1930s there was a great sense of fear that German bombers would attack Britain and kill 600,000 people. Economic problems contributed to Britain following appeasement as Britain did not have enough money to support a war. The USA was in isolation and Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa did not want to fight.
Popular opinion was …show more content…
Britain was in a time of financial problems after the war. In the First World War Britain had lent £1,419,000,000 to its allies and borrowed £1,285,000,000. It did not help that Russia never paid back its debts as the communist revolution leaders refused to pay debts from the Tsarist regime. This put Britain into even more financial problems and led to cost cuttings by the government. The treasury and the government did not support rapid rearmament as they believed it would lead to a balance of payment deficits. They were scared that bold economic policies would cause problems to arise again. This shows that if Britain went to war at this time they would not be able to fund a war without becoming bankrupt within a couple of
Britain’s policy of appeasement was partly due to popular opinion. The British people did not want to enter another war after losing 722,000 lives and having 1,676,000 people wounded. There was a widespread feeling that death and destruction should never be allowed to happen on such a scale again. However public opinion was not the only reason Britain followed a policy of appeasement to Hitler. There were other factors such as Military Weakness, German Bombers, Lack of reliable allies and economic problems which also added to why Britain followed a policy of appeasement. The size of the army decreased in the 1920s because of government cost cuttings which meant the military was weak as there was not as many soldiers available as before. In the 1930s there was a great sense of fear that German bombers would attack Britain and kill 600,000 people. Economic problems contributed to Britain following appeasement as Britain did not have enough money to support a war. The USA was in isolation and Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa did not want to fight.
Popular opinion was …show more content…
Britain was in a time of financial problems after the war. In the First World War Britain had lent £1,419,000,000 to its allies and borrowed £1,285,000,000. It did not help that Russia never paid back its debts as the communist revolution leaders refused to pay debts from the Tsarist regime. This put Britain into even more financial problems and led to cost cuttings by the government. The treasury and the government did not support rapid rearmament as they believed it would lead to a balance of payment deficits. They were scared that bold economic policies would cause problems to arise again. This shows that if Britain went to war at this time they would not be able to fund a war without becoming bankrupt within a couple of