8 Steps to War

Steps 1-4

Guiding Questions

• What were Hitler’s major successes along the road to war?

• How did Hitler threaten peace in Europe in the years 1933-1938?

Rearmament (Step 1)

• Hitler’s policy of rearmament NOT ONLY increased Germany’s armed forces, it:– Made him very popular at home– Destroyed the Treaty of Versailles– Undermined the principle of collective security of

the League – Drove wedges between all his enemies • Bi-lateral Treaties

Withdrawal from the Disarmament Conference 1933

• Germany demanded gleichberechtigung (“equality of armaments”) with other countries in 1932– In October 1933 Hitler withdrew from the Conference and the

League, blaming the French • Success for Hitler?

– It wrecked the conference– It drove a wedge between the French and the British

• Angered France who deemed Britain sellouts– In April 1934, French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou withdrew from the conference

• British delegation tried to persuade Germany to return to the conference• British politicians agreed in that the arms clauses of the Treaty of Versailles

were too harsh

– It left him free to rearm however he wanted

Non-Aggression Pact with Poland 1934

• The Polish chief of state Józef Pilsudski signed a treaty with Germany– Refrain from war with each other for the next ten years – Followed by a trade treaty

• Speculation that the treaty is a result of the French refusing Poland’s suggestion to invade Germany – no proof of this

• Success for Hitler? This arrangement:– Left his eastern border safe and gave him time to rearm– Undermined the principle of collective security of the League

• Afterwards, Poland actively neglected the League

– Divided the countries allied against him– When he was ready, he simply invaded Poland anyway

Conscription and Rearmament 1935-6

• Conscription was specifically forbidden • Rearmament going on secretly since 1933• 1935 Hitler held a huge ‘Freedom to Rearm’ military rally • 1936 he reintroduced conscription

– 1932-9, the number of soldiers grew 10-fold from 100,000 to a million– Number of airplanes grew 200-fold from 36 to 8250

• Success for Hitler?:• Military rally risk paid off

– No country questioned his breach of the Treaty of Versailles– Other countries backed down and his prestige grew

• It made him very popular in Germany – It reduced unemployment– It made Germany strong– Defied the hated Treaty of Versailles

Anglo-German Naval Agreement, 1935

• What about the Washington Naval Conference of 1921-22 and the London Naval Conference of 1930? – Navies of the USA, France and Japan proportionally fixed (10-10-7)

• Why uphold the disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles when Germany was blatantly disregarding them? – And nobody was willing to go to war to enforce them…– ‘Part V of the Treaty of Versailles is, for practical purposes, dead’ (1934)

• On second thought…Was wiser to make an agreement which accepted German rearmament but limited it by treaty, than to condemn it and watch while Germany rearmed without any regulation.– Thus, the British government accepted a naval agreement with Hitler in

May 1935

Anglo-German Naval Agreement, 1935

• Regulate rearmament?• The German navy wanted to grow until it was equal to the

French navy – Emphasis on cruisers and submarines

• Frightened the British Admiralty– Admiralty wanted to fix the German navy to that of Britain

• Hitler overruled his Admirals and agreed to a percentages agreement

• Signed a treaty in June 1935 – British agreed to allow the Germans to build their tonnage up to

35% of whatever the British tonnage was in the various categories of warship

Anglo-German Naval Agreement, 1935

• Success for Hitler? The treaty:– Secured and validated his breaking of the Treaty of Versailles– Continued the undermining of the principle of collective

security of the League.– Britain signed the treaty without consulting the French, who

were furious– Gave him power over Britain

• Hoped that the A.G.N.A marked the beginning of an Anglo-German alliance– But, when it came to it, he was able simply to cancel it in

1939.

Saar Plebiscite (Step 2)

• Background– Not an example of Hitler breaking the Treaty of Versailles– Was a major step in his build up to World War Two.

• Saar under the control of the League of Nations for 15 years– Region was administered by the League

• In 1935, League prepared to hold the plebiscite – Ultimately, inhabitants would decide whether they

returned to Germany, or retained their separate identity

Background cont.

• What would the people decide?– Many anti-Nazis had fled to the Saar after 1933• Communists and Social Democrats tried to retain

League of Nations status (‘united front’)

– Saar Nazis were equally determined that the Saar should return to Germany• Formed a 'German Front' with the Catholics • Helped by the Saar police and the German Gestapo,

they boycotted and beat up their opponents – League took no action

Background cont.

• Nazis turned up the pressure • Spaniol led 17,000 Nazi Saarlanders – Threatened to invade the Saar and impose Nazi

rule – Had gone to the Sturmabteilung (SA) or

Brownshirts for help• Plan was thwarted in December 1935 when

Britain's Anthony Eden – Offered to send soldiers to keep the peace

Saar Plebiscite

• 13 January 1935• Overseen by representatives from Italy,

Holland (judges), and the USA (history professor)– Declared the election was fair and the result was

genuine – 90.3% of the voters voted to return to Germany

Effects of the Plebiscite

• Validated the Nazi regime– Quoted as 'the greatest triumph of the Nazis in a free election'.

• What did Germans who lived outside of Germany show to the rest of the world?– They were NOT being browbeaten into supporting Nazi

Brownshirts– They hated the Treaty of Versailles – Germans loved Germany more than they feared Hitler's regime

• Became difficult to argue that the German people were not wholly behind Hitler.

Further Effects

• Massive boost to Hitler's prestige• Confirmed Hitler’s expansionist agenda • Gave him the moral authority to demand unity

with Austrian and the Sudeten Germans – Barrier for democratic regimes to oppose Hitler’s

claims to Austria and the Sudentenland.

Final Effects

• Showed the League was scared to confront violence.

• Irony– Appeasers failed to notice that the Nazis had

immediately backed down when Eden had threatened to send soldiers

Rhineland (Step 3)

• "If France had then marched into the Rhineland, we would have had to withdraw with our tails between our legs." - Hitler

Rhineland

• March 7, 1936 German troops marched into the Rhineland– 32,000 soldiers and armed policemen

• Direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles• Hitler's first illegal act in foreign relations since

coming to power in 1933

Britain and France Reaction

• France dealing with internal political conflict• Britain felt it was reasonable• Success for Hitler?– France showed they weren’t willing to do anything• Wasn’t even willing to fight for the safety barrier• Eastern focus was would add to their reluctance

– Britain showed there was flexibility within the Treaty terms

– Empowered to set sights on Austria

Austria 1938 (Step 4)• By 1936 Mussolini withdraw his support for Austria• Hitler felt empowered to bully Schuschnigg for reunification with Germany

– He was born in the Austrian town of Brannau but considered himself German– Many Austrians had the same belief

• In February 1938, Hitler gave the Austrian chancellor a list of ten demands – Seyss-Inquart, an Austrian Nazi, should be made Minister of the Interior.

• Schuschnigg tried to order a plebiscite – Results could put Hitler is a precarious position– Hitler counter?

• Resignation or rescind the plebiscite order OR risk Luftwaffe invasion

• Schuschnigg resigned - along with his cabinet except for Seyss-Inquart • Seyss-Inquart Invited German troops into Austria in March 1938

– On March 15th 1938, Hitler entered Vienna in triumph – Austria became part of the German Greater Reich

Austria 1938

• Success for Hitler?• Mussolini, as expected, did nothing• Britain and France verbally protested to the

German government but did nothing else - just as Hitler had predicted

• German and Austrian people responded with overwhelming support

Axis Militarism

• Militarism has three facets: – Build up of armed forces • Between 1932 and 1939 Germany increased the navy

from 30 to 95 warships• Airforce increased from 36 to 8250 planes• Army increased from 100,000 to almost a million

soldiers

– Japan and Italy built up huge armed forces • In 1939, even Italy had an army greater than that of the

United States

Axis Militarism cont.

– Control of the government by the military and by the 'hawks' (people who want war) • Hitler gave a key role to the army

– Openly said that he was going to go to war to gain lebensraum in the east

• Mussolini boasted that he was going to rebuild the Roman Empire • Japan’s army established almost complete control over the

government– Political enemies were assassinated

» 26 February 1936, 1,500 soldiers assassinated current and former prime ministers and other cabinet members

» Navy and army officers soon occupied most of the important offices, including the one of the prime minister

» The civilian government was powerless

Axis Militarism cont.

• Aggressive foreign policy – Germany marched into the (1936), Austria and the

Sudetenland (1938) and Czechoslovakia and Poland (1939)

– Italy invaded Abyssinia (1935) Albania (1939) and Libya (1939), and attacked Egypt (1940)

– Japan invaded Manchuria (1931), Jehol (in China , 1933), China (1937) and attacked Pearl Harbor (1941)