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The Treaty of Versailles, made in 1919 at the end of the First World War, was intended to make a lasting peace. However, the treaty caused terrible resentment in Germany on which Hitler played in order to achieve power. Some believed that Hitler and Germany had genuine grievances, and that if these could be met Hitler would be satisfied and become less demanding.
Limits Under Versailles
According to the Treaty, the Rhineland, a strip of land inside western Germany bordering on France, Belgium and the Netherlands, was to be de-militarized. That is, no German troops were to be stationed inside that area or any fortifications built. Other terms restricted the German army to 100,000 men and the navy to just 36 ships. Germany objected to the terms of the treaty but was forced to sign it or the war would begin again.
Hitler was open about his refusal to accept many of the terms of Versailles. Soon after he became Chancellor of Germany in 1933 he began to re-arm the country by building up the military beginning from his own stormtroopers. This broke the restrictions placed on the German armed forces, then in 1936, he sent German troops into the Rhineland.
The League of Nations Fails to Respond
When Germany was not reprimanded for this breach, it empowered Hitler, and he began testing his limits. He would begin to seek to reunite all of the German peoples that had been divided after World War I. In March 1938, he brought his army into his homeland of Austria. The Austrian government surrendered before them and the two countries were joined together without a shot being fired. If you watch the newsreels, it seems that the people of Austria wanted it. This annexation is known as the Anschluss or “Joining.”
As you can see from the map above, Czechoslovakia was in a very compromised position. It was completely surrounded by German forces on its western half. They did have an alliance with both France and Russia who had vowed to come to their aid in the event of a German invasion. The Nazis claimed that they only wanted to reunite the German people of the Sudetenland into Germany, and England’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain stepped in to broker a peace deal.
A Deal With The Devil
In September 1938, Chamberlain got an international agreement that Hitler should have the Sudetenland in exchange for Germany making no further demands for land in Europe. Hitler lied saying that he had “No more territorial demands to make in Europe.” And Chamberlain called this move “Peace for our time.” So, on October 1st, German troops occupied the Sudetenland and again, Hitler had got what he wanted without firing a single shot.
Many wonder now if Chamberlain made this deal with Hitler not because he thought that it would completely stop Hitler, but rather because it delayed the onset of war long enough for Britain and its allies to increase their armament in preparation for war.
Six months later, however, in March 1939, German troops took over the rest of Czechoslovakia, and the world did nothing as Hitler broke another treaty. Hitler was continuing to spout his ideology that the German people needed living space or lebensraum.
To the watching world, it seemed that Poland would be the next most likely victim of Nazi aggression and Chamberlain made an agreement with the Poles to defend them if Germany invaded. It seems that Hitler did not think that Britain would go to war over Poland, since they had failed to step up to the plate over Czechoslovakia.
Alliance with Italy
Despite having some differing views on race, Mussolini and Hitler had a strong alliance as the first two European Fascist governments. Mussolini took a swipe at the Nazis in one of his speeches describing it as a “pity” how the Nazis expressed their racial views since the Germans were “the descendants of those who were illiterate when Rome had Caesar, Virgil, and Augustus.”
But after their joint efforts in vaulting Francisco Franco to power in the Spanish Civil War, Mussolini said of Hitler and Germany that they were the “axis” around which Europe would revolve, giving rise to the term “axis” powers. Then in May 1939, their alliance deepened with the “Pact of Steel,” a ten-year agreement that committed Rome and Berlin to supply each other with military and economic aid if either nation was at war.
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
However, the alliance that provided the biggest push for German expansion was a secret alliance that was made with one of their ideological enemies. Russia was Bolshevik Communist and Germany was Nazi-Fascist. These are the two opposite ends of the spectrum. Remember that Hitler came to power because of a fire in the Reichstag building that was blamed on a Communist plot. Germany and Russia were on opposite sides of World War I as well as the Spanish Civil War which ended in April 1939.
But on August 23, 1939, The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed in Moscow between the Foreign Ministers of each country for which the Treaty is named. It was a non-aggression pact, meaning that neither government would ally itself to or aid an enemy of the other. This allowed these two powers to secretly make agreements about agreed-upon borders and spheres of influence divide up Poland (in addition to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland) between them.
Please take the reading quiz below. Feel free to look for answers in the text. Also, please leave any comments or questions in the comments box. I’d love to get a conversation going about these crazy events that led up to the most deadly war in history.
Did Russia form a pact with Germany simply because they wanted to get in on their (previously successful) territoral acquisitions? Were they frightened by Germany’s rapidly increasing influence/power? Surely, they felt some hesitance allying with a group whose ideologies were so far from their own.
I’ve never understood why Russia would have wanted to make a deal with Germany. It’s not like they needed more land. But war makes strange bedfellows.
War does have the ability to uncover hidden loyalties. Theirs seemed to be to greed, and possibly self-preservation.
Did Germany expand because of what they had lost in the Treaty of Versailles, are did they just want more land? The Nazis claimed that they only wanted to reunite the German people of the Sudetenland into Germany, but then German troops took over the rest of Czechoslovakia. Apparently, no one cared about how the Germans had gone back on their word.
It was clear after the collapse of Czechoslovakia that Hitler was not going to stop. Appeasement had failed. If Russia had allied with Britain and France to begin with, things might have played out very differently.
Motivation is a powerful thing. People will literally do anything for what they want. Common motivators in history are power, greed and anger. Hitler was really good at manipulating people’s emotions so they did what he wanted. He was greedy for power, and in his ridiculous attempt to “fix” everything gave Germany a bad name.
i agree completely. Hitler cared nothing about the people he was affecting. he wanted all the power he could get his hands on and he was willing to do way to much to get it. people did describe him as having a way with words and he was very smart. he just used his smarts to get himself on top
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Since Hitler did not like the Treaty of Versailles and he made it known. Why did Belgium, Netherlands and France not go invade Germany while Hitler was building his forces?
Probably because no one (except Hitler) wanted a repeat of World War I.
Its funny how the Treaty of Versailles was intended to make a lasting peace but instead brought resentment in Germany and of course Hitler used to achieve power. Some believed that Hitler and Germany had grievances, and that if these could be met Hitler would be satisfied and become less demanding. But would he really? He seems to never be satisfied. He always wants more, especially more power.
hitler was really pushing the lines to see when they would break. the fact that people in power let him get away with it is whats scary to me. we probably have no idea about any of the small bribes or deals that went on in dark places where no one could see how twisted these people where. also, is the little country on the border in germany called rhineland? its to blurry for me to make out and i think i might have gotten it wrong on the quiz
Yes, the area of West Germany that was controlled by the French that they were forbidden to militarize was the Rhineland. That should have been Hitler’s first and last violation.
It is interesting that chamberlain thought giving Hitler studetenland would stop him from continuing to take over Europe
I tend to be an optimist like Chamberlain. No one knew what Hitler was capable of. We use this kind of appeasement with dictators all the time today. No one really wants to go to war.
I don’t really understand why Hitler decided to expand his territories. It might be because of the treaty of Versailles but I am starting to think it was because Hitler really just hated all races except for German and he enjoyed seeing other nations being oppressed
If you understand how much the German territory shrunk after WWI then you can see that much of what Hitler began going after was just that area which was lost. He was not shy about his beliefs in a superior race and the idea that others, particularly Jews, were inferior. However, I think the argument comes back to Lebensraum. If you need the space to thrive then you must remove those who are using the resources. The only difference between Hitler and the Jews taking the promised land and wiping out the Amorites and Hittites, etc. was that God commanded one and not the other.
Was there a particular reason that no one reprimanded Hitler for re-arming the Rhineland? It should have been obvious that Hitler was pushing the limits, trying to see what he could get away with. Did they think Germany could not truly do any damage because of the broken state it was in? It just confuses me as to why there were no repercussions from a move that blatantly broke the rules.
Well, there were mixed feelings about it. Hitler moved to remilitarize after the signing of the French-Russian alliance. He saw this as a threat to Germany and moved to defend his country. This was actually applauded by some as nothing more than healthy patriotism. After all, the Rhineland was part of Germany. Many began to think that the Versailles treaty was too restrictive and they sympathized with the Germans. Meanwhile, Hitler was waving the white flag. He offered to rejoin the League of Nations and to sign a 25-year non-aggression pact to show that this was not meant as an act of aggression, simply defense.
On the other hand, you had small voices like those of the then minority minister Winston Churchill and the Soviet Union who were in favor of the League of Nations imposing sanctions on Germany for this violation. They were voted down in favor of appeasement.
I didn’t know that the treaty with Russia was under the radar that’s pretty neat
Mr. Mauldin
Do you get a problem wrong if the term is misspelled?
If it is not spelled correctly then the computer will mark it wrong, but I will not consider it incorrect when I put your grade in the grade book.
It is interesting that Germany was not reprimanded when Hitler began re-arming and building up the military. I wonder what would have happened if he had been stopped then. But instead Hitler became even bolder.
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