The Failure to Contain Hitler
http://wheremydogs.at/articles/2007/...contain-hitler Hitler announces German rearmament
In March 1935, Hitler openly defied the victors of the First of World. He bluntly declared that he had re-introduced conscription, enlarged the standing army and ordered to build an air force.
Hitler was bluffing—he was testing the temperature of the water to see how the other powers would react.
His bluff was not called. Although there were protests from Paris, it became clear that neither Britain nor France were prepared to risk a war, however slight the chance.
Hitler’s success had a profound impact on his attitude. He had for the first time unabashedly broken the Treaty of Versailles. The meek reactions by Britain and France foreshadowed the “appeasement policy” that would follow and convinced Hitler to continue his line.
The Stresa Front
Although the victors of World War I failed to call Hitler’s bluff, they did not sit idle. Shocked into action by the pace of Hitler’s rearmament, Britain, France and Italy signed the Stresa Front
1 in which they condemned German rearmament and agreed to resist future German breaches of the Treaty of Versailles.
Although the “Stresa Front” marked the first real attempt to stop and contain Hitler, it was soon rendered ineffective, first by the Anglo-German Naval Agreement only to be fully destroyed by the Italian invasion of Abyssinia (TODO: cross reference).
Alliance between France and the Soviet Union
In fear of the German expansion, the Soviet Union become more involved in European affairs: in 1934, she joined the League of Nations and in May 1935 signed a defensive alliance with France, guaranteeing mutual assistance (for five years) in case of an unprovoked attack.
The Treaty marked an attempt by both parties to isolate Germany and keep her in check.
Anglo-German Naval Agreement
Hitler, after the “Stresa Front”, was eager to convince the other powers of his peaceful intentions and proposed a naval agreement to Britain, designed to guarantee British naval superiority by fixing the ratio of the German navy to the British navy at of 35:100
2.
British hopes in the agreement were to keep the German navy in check and to avoid a repeat of the
Anglo-German naval race that contributed it’s part to the First World War.
To Hitler, the agreement brought two advantages: it a) meant a next step to re-armament and the re-gaining of German strength, and this in accord with Britain, and b) concluded a further revision of Versailles, which had severely reduced Germany’s navy.
As Hitler had hoped, the agreement resulted in a) the Treaty of Versailles to be further revised in Germany’s favour – meaning also French fears that German re-armament would be further encouraged, and, more significantly, b) a severe breach of the recently created “Stresa Front” and thus an attempt to contain Germany had been undermined (the French had not been consulted prior!).
Re-militarisation of the Rhineland
When Hitler ordered the re-militarisation of the Rhineland (1936), which had been made a de-militarised zone by the Treaty of Versailles, he was bluffing again.
He banked on the French on over-estimating his troop strength but gave secret orders to retreat in case of a French attack. He also tested the waters carefully be sending in only light troops at first.
Why re-militarise? To Hitler, re-militarising the Rhineland a) provided the next step to revise Versailles and b) secured that France could no longer back her Eastern European allies (Czechoslovakia, Soviet Union) by invading the Rhineland and thus crippling Germany.
Why did the British and French not intervene? Public opinion in Britain was very much in favour of Hitler undoing the “wrongs” of Versailles – after all, it was believed, he was simply walking into his “back garden”. France was unwilling, and unable, to act without British support.
Apart from being a clear violation of the Locarno Treaty
3, the re-militarisation encouraged Hitler further to revise the Treaty of Versailles. Once again, his bluff was not called. The policy of appeasement continued to steer the continent into a war.
1 April 1935
2 June 1935
3 Signed in 1925 in which Germany confirmed the de-militarised Rhineland agreed by the Treaty of Versailles