Churchill's view of events 1929-1940 Flashcards
Why was Churchill disliked by Labour and the Liberals?
- Labour remembered his bitter attacks on trade unions during the General Strike of 1926
- his responsibility for the failed Gallipoli attacks in 1915 also made him unpopular
- he had taken a strong line against making concessions to Indian self-government, which went against the views of moderates in all parties
- he was considered to have aligned himself with extreme right-wing imperialists and to be out of touch with more modern Conservative policies
Why was Churchill’s stance in the mid-1930s unrealistic?
- he seemed too willing to risk war again when public opinion was opposed to conflict, and there was a belief in reaching negotiated settlements
- Chamberlain became Prime Minister in 1937 and was very committed to a policy of appeasement
- his criticism of British defences seemed hypocritical because it was his defence cuts of the 1920s which laid the basis for Britain’s military weakness
- his urge to rearm also ignored the economic realities of the 1930s, when government spending had been cut and unemployment was high
- many people believed that WW1 started due to an arms race, did not want a repeat
Why did Churchill oppose the British Government’s moves towards change in India?
- he thought that Gandhi and Indian nationalism would be content only with full independence, so concessions were a waste of time
- he saw India as the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the empire
What were the consequences of Churchill’s opposition to British policy towards India?
- He had aligned himself with extreme and old-fashioned imperialists and cut himself off from mainstream Conservative party opinion
- even some of Churchill’s friends and supporters found some of his views on India too extreme - seen as a racist
Why was the Abdication unpopular?
- Edward VIII marrying an American who had been twice divorced would have been difficult for the British public to accept at a time when divorce still bore a stigma
- the cabinet did not give its approval for the marriage and therefore if Edward had married Mrs Simpson, the Government would have had to resign
Why did Churchill support the King?
- he joined a small group called the ‘King’s friends’
- he had a sincere devotion to hereditary monarchy and saw it as his duty to support the rightful kind
What were the consequences of Churchill supporting the King?
- Churchill was in a minority, yet again, and at odds with his party and its leadership
- he seemed oblivious to public opinion and appeared eccentric and old-fashioned
What was Churchill’s attitude towards developments in Germany
- Churchill had been part of the government that established the peace treaty with Germany in 1919
- when Hitler reintroduced conscription in 1935, he was worried this was another sign of a revival of German militarism
- The British Government’s response to German rearmament was to try to limit it through the Anglo-German Naval Treaty of 1935. Churchill criticised this as weak.
Why did Churchill not gain more support for his views?
- some thought Germany had been treated too harshly by the Treaty of Versailles
- Churchill seemed to be advocating initiating another arms race. It was widely thought that the naval race between Britain and Germany had led to the First World War
- Churchill’s worry about German air power so early seemed to be alarmist
- He appeared somewhat hypocritical as he initiated much British disarmament in the 1920s
- Churchill seemed to ignore the role of the League of Nations in keeping peace at a time when there were still high hopes for the League’s success
- Given Churchill’s views on the Empire and India, his anti-German stance seemed to be yet another example of his living in the past
Munich Agreement of 1938
Chamberlain agreed to the dismembering of the independent state of Czechoslovakia, making the German-speaking part, the Sudetenland, part of Germany
Hitler promised ‘no more territorial demands in Europe’
Anschluss
1938 - Hitler’s annexation of Austria
Churchill’s reaction to appeasement
- As Chamberlain had given in to German demands in a conference on German soil (Munich Agreement), Churchill believed Britain had come across as weak and was in danger of being dominated by Germany
- He believed the Munich Agreement strengthened Germany and would make it more difficult for Britain to control future expansion
- He saw it as a ‘defeat without a war’
- Britain failed to maintain a stand against Hitler after he had gone back on his word
What was Churchill’s policy instead of Appeasement?
- his view was that Britain should have gone to war in 1938
- Churchill believed that a strong stand by Britain and other nations would deter Germany, and may have encouraged opposition to Hitler within Germany itself
Why was Churchill’s policy criticised at the time?
- it was unlikely that Britain would find allies in a war against Germany:
- There was no certainty that France would have supported joint military action, the USA was following a policy of isolationism, Churchill was openly anti-communist - not a good relationship with the USSR
- rearmament had not really begun, and there was no expeditionary force ready to send to Europe
-The British chiefs of staff were worried that war against Germany would also become a war against Hitler’s allies, Italy and Japan
- Churchill did not really speak or write much about Japan and neglected its possible threat to Britain’s Asian colonies in the event of war
When was the Luftwaffe created?
1935 - broke the Treaty of Versailles
