Question

What were some reasons as to why Britain and France followed a policy of appeasement when dealing with German, Italian and Japanese aggression (Give me 3)? What did this policy lead to?

Answer 1

- What were some reasons as to why Britain and France followed a policy of appeasement when dealing with German, Italian and Japanese aggression (Give me 3)?

1.- The public opinion and governments of Britain and France were weary of another war since WWI had been so devastating that they did not want to go through with such a trying and horrendous experience ever again.

2.- Because of the ongoing worldwide great depression and the fact that Germany had been financially crushed by the extremely harsh conditions of the Treaty of Versailles in the aftermath of WWI. Britain and France did not want to further alienate Germany and much less invest trillions billions in military spending that was needed to mitigate the current economic hardship. Also, the fact that both Italy and Germany had been hit very hard by the Great Depression (France and Britain were not hit as hard as these nations), made France and Britain confident that Germany was not interested in another all-out war. Japan was considered to be too far and incapable of any real damage since the US would deter it from any kind of aggression and provided its territorial conquests in Manchuria and other parts of China were not challenged.

3.- Since Germany and Italy were fascist powers, they were seen as useful to prevent the spread of Communism into Western Europe. Japan was also fiercely anti-communist and was seen as a good counterbalance to the Soviet Union. That is one of the reasons why Britain and France did not support the left-wing Spanish Republic in its war against Franco’s fascist rebellion.

What did this policy lead to?

It inevitably led to the emboldening of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy and their rearming. It specially allowed Germany to expand its size by Invading Czechoslovakia and Austria, Italy to invade Abyssinia and Japan to further encroach into China (Manchuria, Shanghai).  Ultimately such policy lead to “war and dishonor” as Churchill put it.