The German Colonial Issue And The British-German Relations Between The Two World Wars

After World War I,the victorious nations established the Versailles-Washington system at adjusting the international order through the Paris Peace Conference and the Washington Conference.But this system has not properly solved problems left over from the first World War,there were various contradictions among the great powers,whether between the victorious nations or the victorious nations and defeated nations.Britain,after World War I,has maintained its status as a leader in international affairs.However,due to the weakening of economic and military power,it is in fact impossible to dominate the world as before the war.At the Washington conference,Britain had to accept that the United States was on an equal footing with naval power and abandoned the traditional Navy “two strong standards’ ’.In Europe,based on the tradition of European balance of power,the United Kingdom adopted the policy of supporting Germany and restraining France.With the revival of Germany and the rise of Nazism,Germany tried to get rid of the restraint of the Versailles Treaty.The lost overseas colonies are one of the actions taken to get rid of this shackle.In the face of the voice and challenge of German revisionism,the British government finally chose the appeasement policy towards Germany,trying to appease dissatisfaction of the Germany and avoid war.However,it has been proved that appeasement to Germany accelerated the arrival of the world war.The game between Britain and Germany at the negotiating table over colonial issues has never been interrupted between the two world wars.Until the eve of World War II,the British government was considering returning the German East African colonies to Germany,and the German government did not give up its demand for the return of the former colonies from beginning to end for the purpose of "amending the contract." However,with the outbreak of World War II,the colonial problem has not been finally resolved.Nonetheless the colonial issue had a profound impact on the relations between the two countries.For Britain,the security of colonies has always been the focus of British foreign policy makers,and the existence of colonial issues more or lessaffected the formulation of British foreign policy.For Germany,colonial issues were recognized as one of the outstanding cases left behind by the Treaty of Versailles.The German people considered “the war crimes” and “colonial crimes” imposed on them by the victorious countries to be unacceptable.Therefore,from the early days of the Weimar Republic to the time before Hitler came to power,the propaganda campaign calling for the return of the British-led victorious powers to the colonies never stopped.But under the pressure to restore the domestic economy and the influence of foreign forces,the government has not mentioned colonial issues too much in official diplomatic channels.With the rise of Hitler,the colonial problem gradually moved from behind to the front,and even affected the development of Anglo-German relations to a certain extent.Relevant scholars have already explored the political and economic aspects of the Anglo-German relationship between the two wars,but the colonial issue in the relationship between the two countries has been rarely mentioned.However,it is undeniable that the colonial issue did play an important role in the development of bilateral relations.The two countries have different attitudes towards this issue.Britain became tough in the 1920 s and gradually compromised in the 1930 s,while Germany’s attitude was the opposite.Hitler was good at using situations at home and abroad to achieve his goals,and colonial issues were just one of them.The discussion of colonial issues in domestic and overseas succeeded in distracting British policymakers,while Hitler was just to take advantage of this gap to expand the military preparations to achieve their goals step by step: withdrawal from the League of Nations and the Conference on Disarmament;armed the Rhineland demilitarized zone;annexation Austria and Czechoslovakia.In order to obtain peace,Britain continued to compromise with Germany on the colonial issue and other issues,but finally ushered in a war.