Military considerations in the appeasement policy
For both Britain and France, their economic policies mainly focused on ensuring that they maintained a balanced budget throughout. During the Nazi regime when the Germans constantly invaded other nations, these two countries opted to appease the Germans and hence maintain a balanced budget as they desired. They considered that any military confrontation with the Nazis could have dire consequences on their budgets. France and Britain chose to apply the appeasement policy because they felt that they were not facing any security threats. It was therefore not necessary for them to employ their military personnel to protect people of other nations. These nations assumed that they did not have any foreign policy which could have prompted them to interfere in an international matter which was not affecting them directly. The lack of a foreign policy implied that these two nations could not employ their military forces in foreign nations especially if their own people were not facing any security threats arising from the external conflict. By appeasing the Nazis, Britain and France minimised chances of exposing their military forces and civilians of facing external aggression.
In late 1920s and early 1930s, the world suffered its first and possibly the worst economic depression. Many European nations suffered substantially as a result of the economic crunch. Britain and France were among the European nations which were devastated by the economic depression. Having participated in WWI, these two nations were more enlightened about the actual economic costs of a conflict. They did not have sufficient economic capacity to participate effectively in a major conflict. Economic military consideration was thus a major factor which made these two nations to apply the appeasement policy on the Nazis.
Furthermore, these nations feared the economic implications of a conflict with the Nazis and therefore avoided one as much as possible. The appeasement policy thus enabled Britain and France to choose economic prosperity instead of military success. The devastations of WWI to both France and Britain made them to avoid another conflict at whatever cost even if it meant applying the appeasement policy.
The former German chancellor, Hitler tested both France and Britain through the civil war of Spain and the march of the Nazis into Rhineland. Since France was not ready to enter into a military confrontation with German or any other nation, it opted to deal with the situation in Rhineland in a non military manner through the use of negotiations. France and Britain opted to stay away of the Spanish conflict and watch Mussolini and Hitler as they armed the Fascists. During the Czechoslovakia and Austria conflicts, the German leader anticipated that France and Britain would illustrate their military weaknesses and stay out of the conflicts. True to his expectations, neither Britain nor France bothered to intervene in the conflict. However, they did not stay out of these conflicts because their armed forces were weak as Hitler thought, but because that any military action in a foreign nation would have devastating effects back home.
Because France had close ties with Czechoslovakia, while Britain desired to prevent any possibility of having a military clash with the Germans or any other nation, Hitler deemed it wise to call for a conference in which he would suggest a diplomatic approach in resolving the conflict. France and Britain agreed to be convinced by Hitler that he had a sincere mission of unifying the German people. They were aware that that was not the real objective of the Nazi leader but he gave into their demands of bringing an end to the conflict by pretending that they had been convinced by the Germans that their objective in the conflict was noble.
Chamberlain attempted to justify the actions of the Nazis by arguing that staying out of the Nazi led conflicts would enable great Britain and France to rearm and thus increase their military capacity which had been greatly weakened by WWI and the 1930s great economic depression. Although this was true and was one of the military considerations of France and Britain, Chamberlain cared less if Czechoslovakia was attacked by the Nazis or not, all that he cared was for his nation to stay out of any military conflict not only to rearm, but also to remain focused on economic progress. Chamberlain desired to keep everything free and settled from the conflict via close economic relationships with the Nazis. Despite the fact that Great Britain and France had suggested that they were avoiding the conflicts, in order to rearm their military forces, German got rearmed far much better than either of them. In fact, German increased its military strength at a rate which was much higher than both Britain and France.
The appeasement policy that was applied by both Britain and France in the 1930s on the Nazis was considered by these two nations because the French people and the Britons approved most of Hitlers policies. It was therefore inappropriate for the governments of these two nations to join and oppose a conflict which was being supported by their people. This was yet another military consideration that was applied by both France and Britain. They argued that it was logically impossible for them to employ military force to oppose a cause that was being supported by majority of their citizens. For a nation to join a conflict and fight for a certain objective, the support of the common citizens is always very essential. Britain and France are no exception and they also needed to be supported by their citizens in opposing Hitlers policies. But since it was evident that most of its citizens were in support of the Nazi policies, it became hard for these two nations to march their troops in 1930s to oppose the Nazis. As a result, they opted to apply the appeasement policy and pretend that conflicts taking place beyond their borders did not concern them in any way since they did not have foreign policy and the conflicts were not bringing about any security threat to these two nations.
During the 1930s period, communism of the Russians was growing at a high speed and it seemed that it would soon affect west Europe including Britain and France. However, the growing military strength of the Nazis was capable of stopping the spread of Russian communism to Western Europe. France and Britain thus considered that by allowing the Nazis grow militarily and fail to interfere with their conflicts, the growth of the Russian communism especially to Western Europe could have been stopped effectively. These two Western Europe super powers therefore hoped to use the Nazis indirectly in stopping a future battle with the Russians. There was an ideological difference between the two Western Europe super powers and the Russians. While both France and Britain applied political ideologies supporting democracy and capitalism, the Russians on the other hand were in support of communism. To make matters worse, the Russians believed in forcing other nations to adopt communism. This therefore meant that growth of Russian communism could have in future affected these two nations by forcing them to do away with capitalism and democracy in favour of communism. As a result, a conflict between these two western European nations was inevitable in future. Since both France and Britain felt they were not ready for an armed conflict following the great lessons they learned from WWI, they had to avoid a military clash with the Russians as much as possible. Using the appeasement policy towards the Nazis was the best option available. If these two nations engaged in an armed conflict with the Nazis, they could have greatly increased their chances of also fighting with the Russians and they could therefore have participated in two conflicts. But by leaving the Germans alone without interfering in their conflicts, Britain and France could effectively avoid two major conflicts.
Most of the Britons and French people felt that 1930s events taking place in Europe were not part of the business of their governments. The citizens of these two nations were therefore more concerned with events which were taking place within their territories and less concerned with those taking place in other places but within the European continent. These views were also shared by their governments making the appeasement policy to be adopted much easily by these two nations since it did not face significant internal resistance. The citizens of these two nations felt that their military forces should only be used when their nations were facing real security threat. All the security threats resulting from the Nazis were not affecting the security situation in these two nations. The British and the French governments considered that by employing their military forces to fight with the Nazis, they would in the real sense be doing so against the spirit of their nations and the governed. Although the soldiers could have participated effectively in the conflict and possibly stop Hitler from pursuing his own personal goals at the expense of weaker governments, they could not have been supported by the general public.
It is not only the British and the France governments which had learnt the devastating effects of war following the end of WWI. Their citizens had also learnt the dire effects of war and were therefore reluctant to support their governments in joining a conflict especially when such a conflict was not affecting them in any way.
Following First World War, the first conflict which affected most nations around the world, the Britons and the French desired peace and were ready to make any sacrifice to ensure that their nations remained at peace. Their governments thus opted to apply appeasement policy and avoid conflicts with the Nazis or any other external parties. The most important thing for these two governments and their people was enhancing capacity of their military forces to be able to protect their national borders as opposed to assisting other nations in times of conflicts which least affect them.
The Versailles Treaty was one of the major reasons that led to increased military aggression by the Nazis. They argued that it was unfair and they were not well taken care of in the treaty as they were less considered. Both the British and the French were in agreement with this view and thus felt that there was need to allow Hitler to use his military forces to gain better bargaining powers and grounds. However, Hitler proved to have a great appetite of expanding the German territory through several invasions he made. The conflict expanded rather fast and before both Britain and France realised, the Nazis had already started WWII. Although they had done everything within their powers to avoid a conflict, it was not possible for them to escape the wrath of the second global conflict. The appeasement policy thus turned to be a great lesson to these two nations as they realised that it was very crucial to intervene in international security matters since if they go unchecked for a long time, they will eventually spill over and affect everyone. This was the case in WWII where all nations irrespective of their initial participation in the war eventually became affected by the global conflict.
Conclusion
The British and the French had the capacity to intervene in the international conflicts that were resulting from the Nazis. They however opted to apply the appeasement policy whereby they condoned the acts of aggression being perpetrated by the Nazis. These two nations pretended that the security issues arising as a result of Nazis invasions were not affecting them and they therefore did not have any business getting involved in such conflicts. Both the British and the French had suffered great economic losses from the first global conflict and the 1930s great depression. First World War had made them realise and appreciate the devastating effects of a conflict and they therefore avoided one as much as possible. Furthermore, both the economic depression and WWI had greatly weakened their ability to participate effectively in a conflict.
Appeasement was therefore the safe option they considered since it could give them ample room of rearming their forces as well as growing economically. They were however wrong since their failure to intervene the Nazis madness eventually led to the start of the Second World War and they had no alternative but to be involved despite the fact that they were not willing to participate in any conflict.
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