Transcript PowerPoint Presentation - Deans Community High School

Reason 1.
Attitudes to Versailles Settlement
Too harsh – unreasonable & unrealistic
Treaty already broken many times
People no longer wanted revenge so badly
Between 1936 – 1938 Hitler hadn’t
attacked anyone!
• Moved troops ‘into own back garden’
• Anschluss 1938 – welcomed?
• Skilful use of propaganda convinced
people his demands were justified,
ambitions did not threaten Europe?
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Reason 2.
Economic weakness
• Britain was in a
depression
• Jobs and houses were
priority
• ‘butter before guns’
• Spending better on
social welfare reforms
than military
defence/weaponry
Reason 3.
Concerns over the Empire
• ¼ of worlds population under British rule
• Defending wealth and power that came from
this was Britain’s no.1 priority
• ‘Committee of Imperial Defence’ warned that
Britain could not fight war on three fronts
• Would Empire troops fight again?
Reason 4.
Military weakness
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Disarmed hugely
10 year rule
Defence spending cut
Advice from Chiefs of Staff
Britain needed time!
Hitler’s propaganda led to belief he was
stronger than he actually was
Reason 5.
Lack of reliable allies
• USA was following isolationist policy
• France politically unstable
• Maginot mentality
Reason 6.
Fear of Communism
• Threat of communism was
most pressing problem
• Germany seen as best hope
of preventing it
• ‘Better Hitlerism than
Communism’
• Communism promised
destruction of European
governments and economies
Reason 7.
Pacifism and Public Opinion
• Widespread hostility
- elections
- Co-operative Women’s Guild
- Manchester Guardian
- Peace Pledge Union
- Oxford University Union
• Fear of modern warfare:
‘bomber will always get through’
• Horrors of WWI