Britain's Reasons For Going to War in 1939

Britain's Reasons For Going to War in 1939

In 1939, Britain declared war on Nazi Germany. There were of course

many different reasons for this, both in the long term and in the

short term. In the long term, The Treaty of Versailles, signed at the

end of World War One had succeeded only in angering Germany, as it

made her feel weak and powerless, in addition to economically ruining

her with the expense of rearmament. This allowed the rise of Hitler

and therefore Nazism in Germany as a solution to the problems, without

which the Second World War would almost certainly have been avoided.

Secondly, Britain had not been strong enough to prevent this rise of

Hitler, or to prevent him taking over Europe. They had not prevented

Hitler from breaking the Treaty, which in itself eventually led to

War. Chamberlain's policy of Appeasement had failed dismally, only

succeeding in allowing Hitler to think that he could do as he pleased

with Europe. As well as Britain's apparent weakness against Hitler,

the League of Nations was also not strong enough to hold Hitler back.

However, this essay aims to argue that the two most important reasons

that Britain eventually went to War in 1939, are firstly, Germany's

invasion of Poland, which forced Britain to take action, and secondly

that Hitler's aggressive action eventually had to be combated, he

could not be allowed to take over Europe. By 1939, Britain had

abandoned all hope of keeping the peace through Appeasement and

negotiation. Hitler had to be stopped, and War was Britain's last

resort.

The Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919 by Britain, France and

America to decide on what to do with Germany following World War One.

The treaty was extremely harsh on Germany, ordering reparations and

huge territorial losses in order to make her weak. This caused huge

anger within Germany, the ideal situation for the rise of a dictator

who seemed to have all the answers to save Germany. Therefore the

Treaty of Versailles can be seen to be the earliest cause of the