The Reoccupation of the Rhineland occurred on the 7 March 1936 when German military forces entered the Rhineland which violated the treaty of Versailles. Hitler believed that the treaty of Versailles was unfair and he was only striving to equality and that as a result of Versailles apart of Germany was demilitarized. The Rhineland was highly significant as it was land inside Germany on the border of France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The Treaty of Versailles violated German troops to be stationed in that area or any fortifications built. This action was put forward to increase security and to prevent Germany to invade France.
Hitler and the Nazis party wanted to gain more territory and resources, this ideology was evident in the Reoccupation of the Rhineland as Hitler gambled and won back a land that belonged to the Germans pre-WWI this was useful as they gained security and the Rhineland was an important industrial area this also publicly opposed the treaty of Versailles without being stopped by France and Britain which Hitler took to his advantage as they feared another war. Hitler and
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the Nazis party wanted to restore a pure Germany which was evident in the foreign policy. Hitler took whatever necessary means and lengths to get to that one important and absolute point “make Germany great again”. Hitler would make Germany great again by creating a fit Aryan race obedient to the Nazi government and more space for Germans to live this would be done by the removal of Jewish people as they opposed a threat to the German population and resources this also. The Reoccupation of the Rhineland confirms the Nazi ideology that Germany requires more space to grow and expand “in order to remain healthy, species must continually expand the amount of space they occupy” and the treaty of Versailles prevented that. Hitler’s actions to regain land and remilitarise was to regain Germany’s stance and power in the world which made Hitler and nazi party popular. Source 1 and Source 2 do not display any similarities between them and how they interpret the event as they are written from two different perspectives and have no common belief. Source 1 is from Hitler’s point of view as he points he is only overturning the treaty of Versailles to achieve equality for Germany and the aim of the nazi foreign policy. Hitler also claims he is a man of peace and wants no war, Source 2 contradicts this statement and states in the phoenix Gazette that France believes that Hitler's invasion of Rhineland was an act of war. European countries knew that Hitler's success of achieving his Foreign policy will result in the outbreak of war. Source 1 and source 2 show different reactions to the Reoccupation of the Rhineland from France’s point of view and Hitler’s point of view and the different intentions German had.
Source 1 is a secondary source of extract from Kershaw (1998), p. 587 stating what Hitler addressed to the Reichstag about the Rhineland, during his address he declares he wants war with no one and was only seeking equality by overturning the treaty of Versailles which took away land that belonged to them. Differently Source 2 is a primary source of a newspaper by the PHOENIX GAZETTE, published on March 7, 1936 stating that Hitler's action of invading Rhineland is seen as an ‘act of war’ by France as it directly violates the treaty of Versailles/Lourenco and threatens world peace as Germany was rebuilding its army as well as expanding its territory and nations feared that Hitler’s intentions was
war. Source 1 is a secondary source of an extract from Kershaw (1998), p. 587 stating what Hitler addressed to the Reichstag about the Reoccupation of the Rhineland. Hitler’s address confirms the Nazi foreign policy “seeking equality for Germany by peacefully overturning the unfair Treaty of Versailles.” As well as they were only taking back what was theirs and did not want war. This source is from Germans point of view and people from other European countries did not believe this. This source is highly reliable to a historian as it provides clear and correct insight of what the Nazi foreign policy is and how it was put into action. This extract is also useful for a historian to understand how Hitler justified his action and putting the foreign policy into operation. Through this source, A historian is able to clearly understand the blame on the treaty of Versailles as it was unfair and their policy was to undo everything that was taken away from them to achieve equality.
First Germany lost lots of land bordering Poland, France, and Denmark. East Prussia was still a part of Germany, but was like an island, disconnected from the homeland. This weakened Germany very much, having land be stripped from her. In Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf he says, “No nation can remove the hand from it’s throat except by the sword” (Document A). Hitler is saying in order to stop the unfair treatment, war is inevitable. He said this to help him come to power. He inspired people to not get pushed around by other countries with the Versailles Treaty. Hitler promised redemption and glory if he was put to
In 19th century Italian states united to make Italy while the Germanic states united and made Germany. For Italy there were three people who had a major role in unifying Italy. They were Mazzini, Garibaldi and Cavour. For Germany it was more like one person who united the German states to make Germany and that was Bismarck. On the other hand there was a strong Austrian empire that would not tolerate any nationalist feelings to rise anywhere in Europe.
Hitler blamed the Jews for the evils of the world. He believed a democracy would lead to communism. Therefore, in Hitler’s eyes, a dictatorship was the only way to save Germany from the threats of communism and Jewish treason. The Program of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party was the instrument for the Nazis to convince the German people to put Hitler into power. Point one of the document states, “We demand the union of all Germans in a great Germany on the basis of the principle of self-determination of all peoples.” 1 This point explicates the Nazi proposition that Germany will only contain German citizens and also, that these citizens would display his or her self-determination towards Germany to the fullest.
...erman economy was down. This led to migrations to other countries. In his speech, Hitler just wanted to liberate nearly four million Germans, and return to their thousand-year-old Reich. For Hitler to united his Germans he had to remove different national and ethnic groups in Germany. Which clearly broke the treaty.
The harshness of the Treaty and the way in which it blamed Germany for World War I crippled Germany. Much of its territory was taken away from it, including West Prussia that went to form a new Polish Corridor to the sea. Plus the Treaty forced Germany to reduce its army, demilitarise the Rhineland and get rid of its navy. The Treaty also forced harsh reparations for the War resulting in a great deal of the German people resenting the Allies. And it was later that Hitler used the bitter memories of Versailles to gain public support for his actions.
In WWII Germany was controlled as a fascist totalitarian state under the rule of Adolf Hitler. In 1933, the president of the Weimar Republic appointed Hitler as the chancellor of Germany. He continued gaining support from Germans by telling the Germans what they wanted to hear. He blamed problems on the Jews and promised to solve problems from the depression. Hitler gave the working class more jobs by destroying Jewish companies, the unemployed workers were given jobs of construction of building more works, and farmers were offered higher wages for crops. As chancellor, he controlled the media and censored comments against the war. As a fascist state, extreme nationalism was displayed and gained support through propaganda against Jews. Hitler wanted a larger military for territorial expansion. Eight countries were conquered by him: Poland, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the ...
The pent up emotions eventually led to the rise of the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler, who were angered by their loss of territory, military restrictions, economic reparations, and the war guilt clause. The stipulations of the Versailles Treaty were aimed at bringing down Germany and making it as weak as possible. One of the solutions the the victors came up with was to take territory away from Germany, resulting in the country losing more than forty percent of its coal producing areas. They took away the Polish Corridor, parts of East Prussia, parts of Denmark, as well as Lorraine-Alsace (Doc A). Taking away the Polish Corridor put Germany in a difficult position, as it geographically split Germany into two pieces.
the result of both Treaty of Versailles and League of Nations, as a result Hitler wanted to be
As an Austrian born soldier-turned-politician, Hitler was fascinated with the concept of the racial supremacy of the German people. He was also a very bitter, very evil little man. In addition, having lost the war, the humiliated Germans were forced by the Allies to sign the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 that officially ended World War I. According to the harsh terms of the treaty, Germany had to hand over many of its richest industrial territories to the victors, and was made to pay reparations to the Allied countries it devastated during the war. Germany lost its pride, prestige, wealth, power, and the status of being one of Europe's greatest nations.
The appeasement was an unnecessary course of action as due to the weakness it imposed on the Allies, as it gave Hitler the impression they were too morally weak to oppose him. This advocated the possibility of war as the appeasement allowed Hitler to challenge the Versailles settlement with bold initiatives: withdrawing from the League of Nations (1933), canceling war debt payments (1933), beginning a program of public rearmament (1935), and moving troops into the demilitarized German Rhineland (1936). By 1931 Britain’s vengeful mood of 1919 had shifted to one of guilt for the excesses done to punish Germany.That sentiment, coupled with a loathing and fear of a repeat of the “Butcher’s Bill” of World War I, drove British politicians to the mistaken belief that “righting” the wrongs of Versailles would ameliorate the situation and restore calm. However, when Hitler reoc-cupied the Rhineland in defiance of the treaties of Versailles and Locarno (1925). The Germans could not as yet have resisted any British and French military response, but Britain did nothing and France, which mobilized 150,000 troops behind the Maginot Line, would do nothing more without British support. Hitler later confessed that if the French army had advanced into the Rhineland in response to his actions, the Germans would have had to withdraw as they were incapable of mounting real
Hitler had long been obsessed with attacking and controlling France. After their defeat in World War I, the German people, government, and military were humiliated by the enormous post war sanctions leveraged against them from the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler wanted to defeat and humiliate the French people in the same way that his country had to. For him, revenge was necessary. The German plan was to swing into France using a new tactic known as Blitzkrieg or “Lightning War”.
Hitler was their "last hope". We can see clearly a distinct link between german unemployment figures and a rise in nazi seats in the Reichstag. People turned to Hitler for help due to the depression and the failure of the Weimar republic to cope with the ongoing problems in germany. In my opinion this is the main factor to why Hitler finally came about to doing a political deal.
The German people felt that with the Nazis in control they could overcome the problems caused by the Treaty of Versailles. Nazi militarism would restore the armed forces to their greatest capability. Nazi mobilization would create employment and new economic opportunities. Nazi expansionism would claim new territories for the German people to inhabit. Nazi racism would rid German society of those elements that weakened it. Nazi ultra-nationalism would restore a sense of identity and pride in a greater German nation. After great suffering as a result of the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles, a majority of Germans felt at the time that Nazi rule would bring them the most cherished thing of all, hope.
He believed that the Germans were the 'master race'. Going around saying this will make people feel inferior and think the Germans have no authority over them, this caused conflicts. Hitler thought that the Treaty of Versailles should be cancelled and land taken from Germany must be returned. This led to problems as they were demanding land, which not only is against the Treaty's wishes, but will make then a lot stronger when or if future wars do happen. He said that all people of German blood, including many in Austria and Czechoslovakia, must be allowed to live in Greater Germany.
Hitler (like most Germans) hated the Versailles Treaty and he didn’t want to follow the rules made by it. In fact, step by step he broke the laws. The first step he took was to increase the German army. Germany was only allowed to have an army of 100,000 men, no airforce, no tanks and no submarines. But in an interview with the Daily Mail on March 9, 1935, Goering revealed that there was a German airforce. One weak later Germany also announced that it had an army of 500,000 men. France and England didn’t even object to this. In 1936 Germany signed a treaty with England saying that Germany was allowed a navy one third the size of the British navy. Germany was rearming fast. It wasn’t hard thanks to the good economic growth. But the rearmament was so expensive that in 1936 it was clear that Germany was soon to go into an economic crisis if nothing was done.