Britain’s and France’s weaknesses were not the most important causes of World War 2 although they did have an effect on it. The Invasion of Poland actually started World War 2. Britain and France could have prevented WW2 from ever occurring at The Remilitarisation of the Rhineland, Munich Conference and The Invasion of Czechoslovakia. Britain and France could have also lowered reparations for Germany as Germany was bankrupt and with extremist parties taking power such as The Nazis would dislike the Allies and The Treaty of Versailles.
The major causes of WW2 were not the weaknesses of Britain and France as Czechoslovakia was too far away from Britain and France to help if the German Army invaded but Czechoslovakia would have been a very useful ally against Germany as Czech was positioned deep into Germany and their army was modern and well equipped. The failure of The League of Nations was a major long term cause of WW2 for without the League Europe in the 1930s would not have been able to keep peace as well as it could with The League.
Hitler’s aim was to get revenge for the Treaty of Versailles by overturning it and taking back land lost by the Treaty and making Germany more powerful but no-one had the power at that time to stop Hitler as the Allies were still weak from the Depression and needed prudent time to rearm and build up their armed forces. Britain and France could have done little to control the German population voting for the German occupation of the Saar.
Britain and France couldn’t have done anything about the Rome-Berlin axis/alliance. The main long term causes were that of the beginning of the League of America not joining and not allowing Germany to join until much later caused huge resentment against the League. Britain and France could do nothing about Germany’s ally Italy who were already at war with Ethiopia and there were increasing tensions between French and Italian colonies in Africa.
