British Foreign Policy Between the Wars, 1918–1939

This chapter is concerned with Britain’s relations with other powers in the period between the wars. It was a period in which fear of another terrible world war weighed heavily on the minds of every statesman, yet which ended with Britain declaring war once again on Germany. Britain also faced problems from her colonies, who were increasingly impatient for greater autonomy, and even from parts of the United Kingdom, as the southern Irish effectively set up their own government and went to war with Britain. That Britain had to face these challenges at a time of industrial depression and social hardship, may explain why she was reluctant to confront aggression even when it threatened her interests.

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Britain’s world position in 1919

The Versailles Treaty

The principles of Britain’s foreign policy after 1919

The Empire

Foreign policy in the 1920s

Foreign policy after 1930

a

Japan

b

Germany

c

Italy and the Abyssinian crisis

The reoccupation of the Rhineland, 1936

The Spanish Civil War 1936–39

Neville Chamberlain’s foreign policy

The Anschluss with Austria, 1938

Czechoslovakia and the Munich crisis

The uneasy peace – September 1938–March 1939

The end of Czechoslovakia

The Polish crisis

Anglo-Soviet relations

The outbreak of war

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The Treaty of Versailles

Ireland

British foreign policy in the 1920s

British imperial policy

British responses to aggression in the 1930s

Relations with Germany after 1933

Chamberlain and the Munich Agreement

The outbreak of war

British foreign policy in the 1930s

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Anglo-Russian relations in the 1920s

Neville Chamberlain and appeasement

Imperial defence in the inter-war years

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Investigation of the foreign policy options available to the British government through a role play

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