British policy towards Germany prior to World War II is often studied in the context of its failed appeasement policies. While many narratives discuss appeasement in the context of Neville Chamberlain and the September 1938 Munich Conference, German aggression began much earlier. Nor were German actions as provocative as popular storytelling suggests. German troops first marched during the Remilitarization of the Rhineland in March 1936, and the British responded with little more than a yawn. When Hitler annexed Austria in the Anschluss two years later, however, the British literally responded by taking up arms. The intervening two years, what this thesis titles the "Phony Peace," saw no overt acts of German aggression except for its veiled intervention in the Spanish Civil War. This thesis analyzes the period of the "Phony Peace" to examine how German actions in Spain shaped British appeasement, in particular its multilateral collective security policies. It traces the beginning of each policy, the effects of German intervention, and their endpoints at the Anschluss. The research helps to answer two questions: how did the Germans strive to undermine British collective security efforts, and how did Neville Chamberlain come to play such an expansive role in British foreign policy?

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