When Hitler came into power through popular support, he promised land and to get back what was taken by the "Treaty of Versailles." Despite this promise, Britain and France kept on edge but made no plans to attack if Germany went off course. They started building their army above their designated limit, and yet still no action was taken. Now, they were in fact seen as a threat, but the past war's losses influenced any decisions.
In the first world war, France and Britain were all about attacking. In this war, however, they lost many more men than the united States and did in no way want to repeat their losses. France and Britain's first mistake was letting Germany take what they had lost from the treaty. Although a treaty was signed to stop Germany, out of fear negotiations took place to let Germany have this piece if they promised to take no more. The mistake was to trust Hitler would stop their. Instead he continued on to take Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Greece, Norway, and Crete before any action was taken. And yet even at this critical point, France waited to be attacked. This series of bad decisions led to the German attack on France. France's tactic of defense failed, and half of France was taken and occupied. This means that now they were like a puppet to Germany, and an important power incapable of fighting.
America and Britain finally came in by taking Sicily back from the German rule, and then advancing to Italy. Although this was an important piece of land, it had rough terrain and was difficult to take. Without France's help, the attacks on German's troops were much more difficult. In the end, the antiwar attitudes and fear of entering war on France's part only worsened the inevitable World War 2 for themselves and their allies.
It was really hard for the leaders of these countries to justify going to war to their citizens. Most countries experienced a drop in their economy after WWI and were not financially able to fight a war, especially as the Nazis became more and more powerful. On an individual level, people didn't want to send their brothers and fathers and sons to the war effort because it was extremely dangerous. The main reasons that people were afraid of going to war was because they were still recovering from the first World War and were tired of fighting.
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