To avoid war in the years 1935 to 1938, Britain and France turned a blind eye to small acts of aggression and expansion, the United States went along with this policy. Even though Roosevelt knew of the threat the Fascist proposed he was still worried about the majority of the isolationist throughout the country. Testing the waters in 1937 he spoke about the democracies teaming up and trying to “quarantine” the problem. The public did not take to well on this idea, and he quickly dropped the subject. Even though that speech failed Roosevelt somehow managed to argue for neutrality but at the same time convince Congress to start building up the arms and increase the military and naval budget by nearly two-thirds in 1938.
This tells us that he had firm control of the country, and was allowing change in the safest of manors. On the other hand the lack of rebellions may have been due to Northumberland’s ruthless nature during previous rebellions making people afraid of repeating the same outcome. The movement to Protestantism can be attributed more to the Kings wishes, and not represent what Northumberland himself wanted. Northumberland’s social and economic ideas were primarily aiming towards getting the government’s finances back to stability. After Henry VIII’s erratic spending the crown and country were in financial crisis and this systematic and logical approach made by Northumberland towards the crisis shows his ability in this area of ruling.
“Between 1933 and 1937, the British public’s hostility to the confrontation of foreign powers left the National Government with no alternative to a policy of appeasing Hitler and Mussolini.” – How far do you agree with this judgement? Due to the aftermath of the First World War and the oncoming threat of further war, the general public opinion was to avoid war at all costs during the time between 1933 and 1937. It was in British interests to maintain peace because of similar reasons, and because of the state of the British economy. The British public were therefore not hostile to confrontation of foreign powers, but wanted to avoid the conflict, meaning there was a strong influence on the National Government to please the general public, and appeasement was a better option than to use violence. The public opinion of wanting to be peaceful was the main reason why the National Government felt as if there was no alternative to appeasing Hitler and Mussolini.
This source is not reliable because it seems that Lord Lansdowne is using his opinion and his status/authority to try and get the public to agree with him wanting the war to end which suggests it is not a genuine concern of Lord Lansdowne which may affect the usefulness of this source. Source 2 also agrees to a far extent because it is a letter from Vera Brittan to her brother saying that she wanted the war to continue even though she was against war and condemned it. This source is very reliable because the letter is from Vera Brittan whose fiancé died of wounds from the war which means the British public could relate to her emotionally. In addition Source 3 also agrees to an extent because it was a reply to a letter from a common soldier which entailed the support from women to the soldiers in the war. This source may not be reliable because it is only one person’s opinion.
Finally, France did not want to go to war at all. France, like America, wanted to keep the peace. They wanted to keep their involvement in the war strictly defensive. They were pulled into war because the Russians violated the Franco-Russian Treaty. France did not want any country to shed blood, but when Germany attacked France, France followed the Franco-Russian Treaty to the letter and defended France.
In what has since been referred to as the “four freedoms” speech, Roosevelt describes the ongoing war in Europe and the United States’ inevitable role in it. He calls for an end to the isolationist foreign policy that had been in effect since the end of World War I a generation earlier. He explains that our freedom and our way of life are directly threatened by the spread of fascism, and though he does not intend to immediately send American soldiers into combat, that we must be prepared for anything. He states that our aid and support of European democracies (via the Lend Lease Act) are vitally important if we are to “maintain a free world.” Roosevelt states, as a message to the Axis powers, that “such aid is not an act of war”. However, he then clearly tells the nation that “if the dictators are ready to make war upon us, they will not wait for an act of war on our part.” Sensing the seemingly inevitable involvement in the war, he tells Americans that “we must all prepare to make the sacrifices that the emergency demands”, meaning that we must be militarily prepared for anything, and that the nation must be mentally prepared to make significant sacrifices.
The failure of foreign policy in the years 1514-1525 can be attributed to many things. The combination of Henry's isolation from European affairs and the fact that his attempts to raise tax were ultimately unpopular failures, meant that he had no way to impose himself upon Europe. Even when he did manage to scrape together the finances needed for a strong foreign policy his reliance on his allies led to disaster. As soon as Henry took the throne in 1509, it was obvious that he was a king that wanted to fight a war. However, wars generally led to very expensive costs to the country.
Balfour’s position as Conservative prime minister after Salisbury’s death in 1902 did not help the Conservative cause. Although he was highly intelligent, Balfour lacked political skills. He was not as sensitive to public opinion as Salisbury, proved indecisive on tariffs and seriously miscalculated the reaction of the working class on key issues. Balfour had piloted the 1902 Education Act through parliament and so incurred the hostility of the nonconformists. He failed to foresee the anger that both the Chinese labour issue and his refusal to reverse Taff Vale would cause amongst British working men.
Germany now needed more money which resulted in more debts which were piling up from outstanding reparation payments. This shows that the Nazis really didn’t help Germany and its economy as all they wanted was more money to spend on the military, not to help re-build the previous strong Germany. Resulting in way more debts than they had started 1933 with. Although Germany faced many financial problems during the 1930’s, the Nazis did not make it much more worse than it already was. Without the Nazis, deals which had been set up between Hungary and Germany would not have existed meaning products being made would not have sold to that extra market, and Germany would not have gained some products too.
It was then primarily led by Europe at a decline. As it lacked real, confident power, League was mostly relied on goodwill and persuasion which wasn`t enough to keep up motto of collective security strong enough. No permanent army was present either to secure Europe from possible conflicts or to maintain confidence of members. Changing membership sides was also present which , even thought in some cases strengthened the League like joining of countries to support collective security, in some cases it failed to keep