Editing Winston Churchill (section)

==The "Wilderness Years": 1929–1939==
{{main|Winston Churchill's "Wilderness" years, 1929–1939}}

===''Marlborough'' and the India Question: 1929–1932===
[[File:ChurchillChaplin0001.jpg|thumb|Churchill meeting with film star [[Charlie Chaplin]] in 1929]]
In the [[1929 United Kingdom general election|1929 general election]], Churchill retained his Epping seat, but the Conservatives were defeated, and MacDonald formed his second Labour government.{{sfnm|1a1=Rhodes James|1y=1970|1p=183|2a1=Gilbert|2y=1991|2p=489}} Out of office, Churchill was prone to depression (his "black dog") but addressed this by writing.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|pp=466, 819}} He began work on ''[[Marlborough: His Life and Times]]'', a biography of his ancestor John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=491}}{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|pp=421–423}} He had developed a reputation for being a heavy drinker, although Jenkins believes that was often exaggerated.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=51}}

Hoping that the Labour government could be ousted, he gained Baldwin's approval to work towards establishing a Conservative-Liberal coalition, although many Liberals were reluctant.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=491}} In October 1930, after his return from a trip to North America, Churchill published his autobiography, ''[[My Early Life]]'', which sold well and was translated into multiple languages.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=496}} In January 1931, Churchill resigned from the Conservative Shadow Cabinet because Baldwin supported the government's decision to grant [[Dominion]] Status to India.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=434}} Churchill believed that enhanced home rule status would hasten calls for full independence.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=495}} He was particularly opposed to [[Mohandas Gandhi]], whom he considered "a seditious [[Middle Temple]] lawyer, now posing as a [[fakir]]".{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|pp=499–500}} His views enraged Labour and Liberal opinion, though he was supported by many grassroot Conservatives.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=500}}

The [[1931 United Kingdom general election|October 1931 general election]] was a landslide victory for the Conservatives.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=443}} Churchill nearly doubled his majority in Epping, but was not given a ministerial position.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|pp=502–503}} The Commons debated Dominion Status for India on 3 December and Churchill insisted on dividing the House, but this backfired as only 43 MPs supported him.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=503}} He embarked on a lecture tour of North America, hoping to recoup financial losses sustained in the [[Wall Street crash]].{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=443}}{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=503}} On 13 December, he was crossing [[Fifth Avenue]] in New York when he was knocked down by a car, suffering a head wound from which he developed [[neuritis]].{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|pp=443–444}} To further his convalescence, he and Clementine took ship to [[Nassau, Bahamas|Nassau]] for three weeks, but Churchill became depressed about his financial and political losses.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=444}} He returned to America in late January 1932 and completed most of his lectures before arriving home on 18 March.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=444}}

Having worked on ''Marlborough'' for much of 1932, Churchill in August decided to visit his ancestor's battlefields.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=445}} In [[Munich]], he met [[Ernst Hanfstaengl]], a friend of [[Hitler]], who was then rising in prominence. Hanfstaengl tried to arrange a meeting between Churchill and Hitler, but Hitler was unenthusiastic: "What on earth would I talk to him about?"<ref>{{cite web |url=https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/meeting-hitler-1932/ |title=Meeting Hitler, 1932 |work=The Churchill Project |publisher=Hillsdale College |location=Hillsdale, Missouri |date=5 March 2015 |access-date=22 May 2021 |archive-date=21 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210421115056/https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/meeting-hitler-1932/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Soon after visiting [[Blindheim|Blenheim]], Churchill was affected by [[paratyphoid fever]] and spent two weeks at a sanatorium in [[Salzburg]].{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|pp=445–446}} He returned to Chartwell on 25 September, still working on ''Marlborough''. Two days later, he collapsed after a recurrence of paratyphoid which caused an ulcer to haemorrhage. He was taken to a London nursing home and remained there until late October.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|pp=508–509}}

===Warnings about Germany and the abdication crisis: 1933–1936===
After Hitler came to power in January 1933, Churchill was quick to recognise the menace of such a regime, and expressed alarm that the British government had reduced air force spending, and warned that Germany would soon overtake Britain in air force production.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=470}}{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|pp=513–515, 530–531}} Armed with data provided clandestinely by senior civil servants, [[Desmond Morton (civil servant)|Desmond Morton]] and [[Ralph Wigram]], Churchill was able to speak with authority about what was happening in Germany, especially the development of the [[Luftwaffe]].{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|pp=479–480}} He spoke of his concerns in a radio broadcast in November 1934,{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=533}} having denounced the intolerance and militarism of Nazism in the House of Commons.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1935/oct/24/international-situation |title=The International Situation |work=Hansard |date=24 October 1935 |series=5th |volume=305 |pages=357–369 |publisher=House of Commons |location=Westminster |access-date=17 May 2021 |quote=We cannot afford to see Nazidom in its present phase of cruelty and intolerance, with all its hatreds and all its gleaming weapons, paramount in Europe |archive-date=9 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309014409/https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1935/oct/24/international-situation |url-status=live}}</ref> While Churchill regarded Mussolini's regime as a bulwark against the threat of communist revolution, he opposed the Italian invasion of Ethiopia,{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=544}} despite describing the country as a primitive, uncivilised nation.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1935/oct/24/international-situation |title=The International Situation |work=Hansard |date=24 October 1935 |series=5th |volume=305 |pages=357–369 |publisher=House of Commons |location=Westminster |access-date=17 May 2021 |quote=No one can keep up the pretence that Abyssinia is a fit, worthy and equal member of a league of civilised nations. |archive-date=9 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309014409/https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1935/oct/24/international-situation |url-status=live}}</ref> He admired the exiled king of Spain [[Alfonso XIII]] and feared Communism was making inroads during the [[Spanish Civil War]]. He referred to [[Francisco Franco|Franco]]'s army as the "anti-red movement", but later became critical of Franco as too close to Mussolini and Hitler.{{sfn|Rhodes James|1970|p=408}}<ref>Roberts, (2018) pp. 402-403.</ref>

Between October 1933 and September 1938, the four volumes of ''Marlborough: His Life and Times'' were published and sold well.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|pp=522, 533, 563, 594}} In December 1934, the [[Government of India Act 1935|India Bill]] entered Parliament and was passed in February 1935. Churchill and 83 other Conservative MPs voted against it.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|pp=538–539}} In June 1935, MacDonald resigned and was succeeded as prime minister by Baldwin.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=544}} Baldwin then led the Conservatives to victory in the [[1935 United Kingdom general election|1935 general election]]; Churchill retained his seat, but was again left out of the government.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=547}} In January 1936, [[Edward&nbsp;VIII]] succeeded his father, [[George&nbsp;V]], as monarch. His desire to marry an American divorcee, [[Wallis Simpson]], caused the [[abdication crisis]].{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|pp=568–569}} Churchill supported Edward and clashed with Baldwin on the issue.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=569}} Afterwards, although Churchill immediately pledged loyalty to [[George&nbsp;VI]], he wrote that the abdication was "premature and probably quite unnecessary".{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=570}}

===Anti-appeasement: 1937–1939===
[[File:Churchill and Chamberlain.jpg|right|thumb|Churchill and [[Neville Chamberlain]], the chief proponent of [[appeasement]]]]
In May 1937, Baldwin resigned and was succeeded as prime minister by [[Neville Chamberlain]]. At first, Churchill welcomed Chamberlain's appointment but, in February 1938, matters came to a head after Foreign Secretary [[Anthony Eden]] resigned over Chamberlain's [[appeasement]] of Mussolini,{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|pp=514–515}} a policy which Chamberlain was extending towards Hitler.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|pp=576–577}} In 1938, Churchill warned the government against appeasement and called for collective action to deter German aggression.{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=516}}{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=588}} Following the [[Anschluss]], Churchill spoke in the House of Commons:

{{Cquote|A country like ours, possessed of immense territory and wealth, whose defence has been neglected, cannot avoid war by dilating upon its horrors, or even by a continuous display of pacific qualities, or by ignoring the fate of the victims of aggression elsewhere. War will be avoided, in present circumstances, only by the accumulation of deterrents against the aggressor.|source={{sfn|Langworth|2008|p=193}}}}

He began calling for a mutual defence pact among European states threatened by German expansionism, arguing this was the only way to halt Hitler.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|pp=590–591}} In September, Germany mobilised to invade the [[Sudetenland]] in Czechoslovakia.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=594}} Churchill visited Chamberlain and urged him to tell Germany that Britain would declare war if the Germans invaded Czechoslovak territory; Chamberlain was unwilling to do this.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=595}} On 30 September, Chamberlain signed the [[Munich Agreement]], agreeing to allow German annexation of the Sudetenland. Speaking in the House of Commons on 5 October, Churchill called the agreement "[[a total and unmitigated defeat]]".{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=598}}{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=527}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/Munich.html |title=Churchill's Wartime Speeches – A Total and Unmitigated Defeat |date=5 October 1938 |publisher=The Churchill Society |location=London |access-date=27 April 2020 |archive-date=13 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190913121253/http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/Munich.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> Following the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Churchill and his supporters called for the foundation of a national coalition. His popularity increased as a result.<ref name="HGN"/>