Churchill’s View Of Events 1929-40 Flashcards
Conservative Party by the 1900s
-Party leader Stanley Baldwin from 1923-37
-PM:
~1923 - Jan 1924
~Nov 1924 - 1929
~1935 - 1937
-more right wing party
-low taxes
-pro empire
-firm punishment
Labour Party by the 1900’s
-formed in 1900
-party leader Ramsay MacDonald from 1922-1931
-PM:
~Jan 1924 - Nov 1924
~1929 - 1935
-more left wing party
-proposed inheritance tax
-introduced national health insurance
-introduced old age pensions
Churchill and the political parties
-Conservative: Churchill joined in 1900 then left in 1904. He joined back in 1924 and stayed conservative for the rest of his career
-Liberal: Churchill joined in 1904 due to him preferring their ideas but left in 1924 for the conservatives who then suited him better
-Labour: Churchill never agreed with their policies and frequently called them communists.
- Churchill was known for being unagreeable and he only followed his own policies and wasn’t loyal to anyone but himself
Dominion Status
-Dominion = a country that is still overly ruled by another country but they have their own government in power for day to day ruling
-Canada
-Australia
-New Zealand
-South Africa
- India wanted to gain dominion status
What kind of man was Churchill?
-Had military experience (albeit unsuccessful (Gallipoli 1915 ))
-had government experience (also largely unsuccessful (gold standard ))
-not loyal to a party
-only loyal to his beliefs
-Old fashioned
Why was Churchill out of office from 1929 - 39?
His views on:
-India
-the abdication crisis
-rearmament
-appeasement
India
- India wanted dominion status but was the ‘Jewel in the crown’ of the British empire
- main source of the spice trade
- Churchill argued that once they got serve independence they will only want more
- made him a controversial figure as people became more liberal due to media exposure of other countries in things like cinema and photographs
Rowlatt acts
- Reduced Indian freedom of speech and their right to assemble
- led to Amritsar massacre
- increased police powers by allowing imprisonment without a trial beforehand
Amritsar massacre
- 1919
- 400 Indians killed and 1200 injured
- entrances and exits sealed off by British military and they opened fire
- brutally uncalled for and leader of shooting reprimanded
Salt march
- 1930
- thousands of Indians protested the salt tax by making their own salt from the sea
- led by Gandhi
- 60,000 people arrested but made British look stupid
- round table conference set up + Gandhi attended the second
Government of India act
- 1935 but took effect in 1937
- allowed more Indians to vote
- gave them a little more freedom but not dominion status
- Churchill angry
- thought they’d want more and more
Conflict due to India (Churchill )
- MacDonald and Baldwin felt India should have more independence
- Churchill opposed this
- resigned from shadow chancellor to back bench in 1931 due to conflict between himself and Baldwin
- later wasn’t invited to the national government in 1931 (set up to deal with financial crisis which stemmed from the Wall Street crash in 1929 )
Abdication crisis
- King Edward VIII
- wanted to marry Wallis Simpson in 1936
- she was a divorcee once already and on her second husband who she could technically divorce but if she and Edward got married it wouldn’t count and divorce wasn’t recognised in the eyes of God
- pope cosmolang said no
- eventually forced to abdicate
Edward’s solution to the abdication crisis
- Edward VIII wanted to make Wallis Simpson Queen consort rather then Queen
Queen consort = king’s wife without full power of Queen (not practical)
Churchill on abdication crisis
- Part of unofficial group ‘the king’s friends’
- unexpectedly backed the king despite his traditionalist views
- believed more in the king saying in power than the fact Wallis was divorced
- close friends with Edward VIII, had been friends for 25 years
Rearmament
- Churchill for rearmament but most of people in Britain including prominent politicians were against the idea of war
- Britain behind Germany in terms of rearmament
- 10 year rule, fulham east by-election and the Oxford union debate proved this
Churchill for rearmament
- Worried Britain wasn’t fully prepared for conflict due to Germany’s rearmament
- Germany’s air force was significantly larger and the same with the amount of men in their armed forces
- new aero tech from Germans
- tov broken by Hitler so Churchill wanted to stick to it as he was a part of its creation
- after the night of the long knives in 1934, Churchill called for the air force to be quadrupled
Baldwin against rearmament
- Churchill known to exaggerate
- 10 year rule popular with the public
- tov was 15 years ago so people were more relaxed about it being broken
- Locarno part and Kellog-Briand pact reassured them
- great depression in the 1930s: economically couldn’t afford to rearm
- Fulham east by-election and oxford union debate showed public feelings
10 year rule
- Reduced military spending for 10 years (renewed due to public favour of no war)
- showed anti-war attitudes of the whole country
Fulham east by-election
- Previous conservative MP passed away so vote was held to replace him
- pacifist Labour MP outvoted the conservative MP who supported rearmament
- shows public attitudes
Locarno pact
- European countries promised to keep the borders set out by the TOV
- thought Germany wouldn’t ignore this
Kellogg - Briand pact
- States war is outlawed to settle international disputes and they must be discussed by the league of nations
- 62 countries sighed so they didn’t think Germany would disobey
Appeasement
- giving someone (Hitler) some of what they want in the hopes that they are satisfied enough to prevent conflict
- started with Stanley Baldwin but Neville Chamberlain was notorious for appeasing Hitler
Munich agreement
- Previously Chamberlain only agreed to give Hitler areas of the Sudetenland with 50% or more ethnic Germans
- Hitler kept pushing and eventually got all of it if he promised not to start a war
- chamberlain was triumphant but soon proved wrong
Churchill on appeasement
- Unhappy with appeasing Hitler due to him thinking Hitler would keep pushing
- after Munich he proposed the grand alliance which would include Britain, France and possibly the USSR, USA and others
- however this was seen as unrealistic
Lead up to war - 1933
- 30th January 1933, Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany
- Hitler stops paying reparations however it’s been 15 years since the TOV so Britain does nothing
Lead up to war - 1935
- Saarland has a vote to return to Germany
- breaks the TOV but Britain does nothing because it was technically a democratic vote
- hitter starts rearming from 100,000 soldiers to 500,000 which also breaks the TOV
Anglo-german naval treaty
- Increased the cap on the number of soldiers allowed in the German military past what was set out by the TOV
- TOV basically meaningless now
Lead up to war - 1936
- March 1936, 3000 German soldiers march into the Rhineland and remilitarise it (breaks TOV)
- Britain rearms a little
Lead up to war - 1938
- 9th March - Austrian Nazi support calls for Anschluss
- 12th March - Nazi troops enter Austria and unite the 2 countries
- 10th April - plebiscite held, 99.7% voted for unification but it was likely rigged
- September - Hitler demands the entire Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia due to the 3.5 million ethnic Germans and eventually gets it
- Chamberlain speeds up rearmament
Lead up to war - 1939
- March - rest of Czechoslovakia is invaded and illegally occupied. Britain + France promise to protect Poland
- August - Stalin signs non-agression pact with Hitler to share Poland
- 1st September - Poland invaded
- 3rd September - Britain + France declare war on Germany after trying to negotiate
- Churchill becomes 1st lord of the admiralty
Churchill in positions of power pre-1940
- During WWI was first lord of the admiralty and failed the Gallipoli campaign in 1915
- chancellor of the exchequer during the 1920s and reintroduced the gold standard which led to a crash in the economy
- had failures in positions of power which led to distrust in his judgement
Why was Chamberlain reluctant to form the grand alliance?
- British military wasn’t ready for a war
- war with Germany meant war with Italy and Japan
- doubtful USSR would get involved
- French reluctant to start another war and wanted to focus on defense (maginot line)
- League of Nations proved ineffective
- most of US public favoured isolationism (not getting involved in European affairs)
Start of WWII
- 3rd September 1939
