In March 1936, Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles. (a) Describe the terms of the Treaty of Versailles relating to...

The bar chart illustrates German territorial expansion between 1936 and 1939, showing the population (in thousands) absorbed through each annexation: the Rhineland (32,000 in 1936), Austria (84,000 in 1938), the Sudetenland (29,000 in 1938), and the rest of Czechoslovakia (70,000 in 1939). This pattern of escalating aggression is central to understanding the road to war.

(a) Treaty of Versailles terms on the Rhineland [4 marks]

• The Treaty of Versailles (1919) designated the Rhineland as a permanently demilitarised zone. Germany was forbidden from stationing troops, building fortifications, or placing military equipment in the Rhineland.
• The restriction applied to German territory west of the River Rhine and a 50-kilometre strip east of the Rhine.
• Allied forces (mainly French and Belgian) occupied the western Rhineland until 1930 as a guarantee of German compliance with the Treaty.
• The Locarno Treaties (1925) reaffirmed the demilitarised status voluntarily, with Germany, France and Belgium all accepting the arrangement and Britain and Italy acting as guarantors.

(b) Why Britain and France failed to act [6 marks]

• British public opinion: Many in Britain regarded the Rhineland as Germany's 'own backyard' and believed it was unreasonable to prevent Germany from stationing troops on its own territory. Public opinion strongly opposed war over the issue.
• French political weakness: France was politically divided, with a caretaker government in place during a period of elections, and was unwilling to act without British military support.
• Appeasement policy: Both countries were pursuing a policy of appeasement, hoping to avoid conflict by making reasonable concessions to German grievances about the Versailles settlement.
• League of Nations weakness: The League lacked its own military forces and had no mechanism to enforce its decisions, rendering it ineffective against a determined violator.
• Economic concerns: Both nations were still recovering from the Great Depression and feared the economic costs of military action or another war.
• Versailles guilt: Some British politicians, including those around Prime Minister Baldwin, believed the Treaty of Versailles had been too harsh on Germany and that Hitler's action was a justified correction of an unjust settlement.

(c) How far did the Rhineland encourage further expansion? [10 marks]

It encouraged further expansion:

• Hitler had gambled with only 22,000 troops, many of whom had orders to withdraw if France resisted. The fact that nothing happened gave him enormous confidence that the democracies would not fight.
• He learned that Britain and France were unwilling to enforce treaty obligations by force, which directly encouraged his next moves: the Anschluss with Austria (March 1938) and demands over the Sudetenland (September 1938).
• The success boosted Hitler's prestige domestically and silenced cautious generals who had warned against the gamble.
• Germany could now build the Siegfried Line (West Wall) fortifications along the French border, making any future French military response much more difficult.

Other factors also drove expansion:

• Hitler's foreign policy ambitions predated 1936. Mein Kampf (1925) outlined expansionist goals including Lebensraum (living space) in Eastern Europe and the destruction of the Versailles settlement.
• The weakness of the League of Nations was already demonstrated by its failure to stop Japan's invasion of Manchuria (1931) and Italy's conquest of Abyssinia (1935-36).
• Mussolini's successful aggression in Abyssinia showed the democracies would protest but not act, a lesson Hitler absorbed before the Rhineland.
• British and French appeasement was a policy choice driven by domestic factors (war-weariness, pacifism, economic concerns), not just a response to the Rhineland.

Conclusion: The remilitarisation of the Rhineland was a critical turning point because it showed Hitler that aggression would go unchallenged. It accelerated his timetable for expansion rather than creating it, but it was arguably the moment when he could most easily have been stopped, since his military forces were still weak.