WI: Britain didn't follow a policy of appeasement in the 1920s and 30s?

Im not sure how this would happen, this is my first WI, but right now, i'm considering it would happen if we had enforced the treaty of versailles, and gone to war when Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936, even though public opinion was against this.

I realise this is a bit improbable, and again, I know puplic opinion at the time was strongly against war, and armament wise, we couldn't have fought a strong war, but i'm interested in what would happen and had to have happened to bring this about.

Would we have supported the Republicans in the Spanish civil war?

I would love to hear your opinions on this.

Edit: What would the consequences of Britian losing an early war be? I understand we still had WW1 planes and armament in 1936, would we have lost with these?

Edit2: What would be the League of Nations reaction to this? Would Britain be condemned or supported? How would France react?
 
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Im not sure how this would happen, this is my first WI, but right now, i'm considering it would happen if we had enforced the treaty of versailles, and gone to war when Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936, even though public opinion was against this.

That's not a likley place to do it. Both the Rhineland and Austria (and the re-armament "revalations") were fait accomplis: we thought the status-quo was unsustainable, we wanted to change it as part of an imaginary "general settlement of German grievances", and they figured we wouldn't mind much if they just took it.

Czechoslovakia is the place to look. Hitler actually wanted war, until he got some inkling of how bad his situation was just before Munich. It was only a (very) active policy on our part that averted it.

I realise this is a bit improbable, and again, I know puplic opinion at the time was strongly against war,

Public opinion was only part of the equation. Chamberlain was for one thing very good at manipulating it; and the euphoric relief after Munich, besides being extensively stage-managed to begin with, faded very rapidly. IIRC, Gallup polls showed the public was much more in favour of making a proper alliance with the Soviets than the government, which would figure.

The appeasement policy was a policy, based on the belief that German ambitions were if not wholly justified then at least finite, and that by fulfilling them Britain would make Germany part of Europe and thus seal out the Evil Commies. Chamberlain was both a pusher for re-armament and a fairly typical Tory russophobe. Appeasement was not dictated solely by public opinion or military necessity (in fact, Harold Nicholson explicitly said in 1936 "We can beat the Germans with one hand, but that will only help the Evil Commies!")

and armament wise, we couldn't have fought a strong war, but i'm interested in what would happen and had to have happened to bring this about.

In 1936, Germany's army was pathetic. The forces going into the Rhineland were in real terms fairly trivial and had secret orders to run like hell if anyone smelled a Frenchman.

Would we have supported the Republicans in the Spanish civil war?

Almost certainly not, with the same government. The Conservatives could be anti-appeasement (Churchill was tory, after all) but their support for the Franco gang was pretty general (and "non-intervention" was pretty blatantly support for the Nationalists; we even let the Italians get away with torpedoing our ships with a slap on the wrist).

Edit: What would the consequences of Britian losing an early war be? I understand we still had WW1 planes and armament in 1936, would we have lost with these?

In 1936, Germany would have crumpled in a minute. Their army was no more advanced, and piddling by comparison to the French.

Even in 1938, the Germans would go down eventually. The Czech army was, if I'm not wrong, better than the Polish and certainly had better natural defences going for it (Horthy, with Yugoslavia and Romania right there, isn't stupid enough to try anything), and then the Germans stole vast resources from the Czechs, militarily, industrially, and financially.

You've got a smaller, weaker Germany army against the Czechs. If our (lack of) assistance to Poland is anything to go by, they'll still be sqashed before we get our act together, but the Germans will be given a severe bloody nose and barring catastrophe will lose a war of attrition against France and Britain by 1941 at the latest.

That's all keeping the conflict limited, of course. The Italians aren't coming in (except maybe as vultures against Germany in the last minutes), but Poland did a bit of vulturing on the Czechs itself, and the Soviets, as well as being pro-Czech, were very pissed at the Poles. It would require blunders, but a reluctant German-Polish alliance versus CZS and the USSR isn't out of the question.

Edit2: What would be the League of Nations reaction to this? Would Britain be condemned or supported? How would France react?

Our official Rhineland policy was "Bugger. Prevent the French from doing anything!" We were the brakes on them, not the reverse. They would probably come in on our side after a dither, in the highly unlikely event of unilateral British action.

Britain had pursued a policy of appeasement since about 1870.

Uh, no, we had not. Unless we were appeasing ourselves.
 
Im not sure how this would happen, this is my first WI, but right now, i'm considering it would happen if we had enforced the treaty of versailles, and gone to war when Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936, even though public opinion was against this.

Hm. I would remind you that the punitive measures involved in Versailles did a lot to make the postwar world unappeasing (bad pun unintentional) to the Germans.

A war in 1936... basically, the allies would need to call Hitler's bluff before public pressure forces them to cave. Odds are that the Allies can pressure Hitler to back down; what happens next depends on political developments within Germany

I realise this is a bit improbable, and again, I know puplic opinion at the time was strongly against war, and armament wise, we couldn't have fought a strong war, but i'm interested in what would happen and had to have happened to bring this about.

Nobody was really ready for war, but Britain and France are more than a match for the Germans really until the outbreak of WWII IOTL. See below.

Would we have supported the Republicans in the Spanish civil war?

If by we you mean the British, certainly not under a Tory government.

Edit: What would the consequences of Britian losing an early war be? I understand we still had WW1 planes and armament in 1936, would we have lost with these?

False. German rearmament was nowhere near complete at that stage, and even the relatively unprepared Western allies are far superior. Not to mention that this military expansion was running the already-fragile German economy into the ground. Taking 1938 as an example: if the British and French stand by the Czechs, odds are that they triumph within a year or so, although Soviet intervention mucks things up a bit. The german military is completely unprepared: not really mechanized, reliant on Panzer I and IIs, few and inexperienced Bf 109 squadrons, lack of of Ju 88s or a strong bomber force in general, and very limited reserves that would be stretched thin keeping up with every commitment. In addition, the economy is effectively running on empty, surviving by virtue of raiding the Austrian treasury and unable to cope with a long war or blockade; while the army silently dissents against the Nazis. True, the Allies are in a bad shape as well, but I would give the Czechs decent odds of holding the Germans (or, at the very least, wearing them down), which would certainly buy time for the Allies to prepare and crush Germany.

Edit2: What would be the League of Nations reaction to this? Would Britain be condemned or supported? How would France react?

If things proceed as OTL until the 30s or so, the League of Nations is already considered toothless by most major powers. France... hard to say; their government was not the most stable at the time. As a rough summary, more than a few will approve of keeping a strong watch on Germany, more than a few will blanche at future war.
 
Im not sure how this would happen, this is my first WI, but right now, i'm considering it would happen if we had enforced the treaty of versailles, and gone to war when Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936, even though public opinion was against this.

I realise this is a bit improbable, and again, I know puplic opinion at the time was strongly against war, and armament wise, we couldn't have fought a strong war, but i'm interested in what would happen and had to have happened to bring this about.

Would we have supported the Republicans in the Spanish civil war?

I would love to hear your opinions on this.

Edit: What would the consequences of Britian losing an early war be? I understand we still had WW1 planes and armament in 1936, would we have lost with these?

Edit2: What would be the League of Nations reaction to this? Would Britain be condemned or supported? How would France react?

There are two completely different scenario about what would happen if they didn't declare war.
One is that the British (with the French) would easily crush the Germans because the Germans weren't all that strong and it was their appeasement that allowed Hitler's Germany to get that strong.
The other is that the British and the French would be crushed because they were unprepared for war and it had been argued that the reason Chamberlain appeased Hitler was to buy time to mobilize their forces.
Personally, I think each one is as plausible as the other.
 
And there's a sequel!

Uh. Um. Everybody. I guess I'm the only one aware of Turtledove's very well done work "Hitler's War"? I usually don't like a lot of his stuff, but this one actually has the good guys doing the right thing for once. It is so well done I'm not even going to say anything more than READ it. You won't be disappointed.
 
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