Polarization, January 1936–March 1939
Polarization, January 1936–March 1939
Britain's attitude towards international relations was altered by the triple crisis of 1936: the remilitarization of the Rhineland, the final defeat of Abyssinia in May, and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Both the peace movement and public opinion had started to polarize. One current of opinion was drawn to the pole of accommodation: many pacifists advocated peaceful change: many defencists supported appeasement; unprecedented numbers of pacifists threw in their lot with the Peace Pledge Union and other new associations; and a section of the far left still favoured war resistance. Another current of opinion was attracted by the opposite pole of containment: the leaders of the League of Nations Union still supported collective security even though they now understood that it required rearmament: many socialist pacificists came to advocate a ‘peace front’ of the progressive states against the fascist ones: and those defencists who shared the concerns of Winston Churchill, since 1929 a backbencher, called for more energetic rearmament.
Keywords: international relations, foreign policy, remilitarisation, Abyssinia, Spanish Civil War, peace movement, pacifists, defencists, war resistance
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
