Conclusion

Abstract

The contours of Anglo-French relations in the mid-1930s survived for the rest of the decade and beyond. Following the patterns established in the first British and French reactions to Hitler in power, the diplomacy of the crises over Spain, Austria and Czechoslovakia revealed the same attitudes — the same attraction and repulsion, the same French ardour and British resistance— that characterised the exchanges between London and Paris during the years 1934–6. Despite the general belief that Anglo-French unity was essential to European stability, the British government refused to commit itself wholeheartedly to alliance with France. As result, it was impossible to prevent the Second World War and difficult to win it when it came.