German Rearmament and International Reaction

German Rearmament and International Reaction

• Germany drafted a naval program for a fleet of 8 battleships, 3 aircraft carriers, 8 cruisers, 48 destroyers, and 72 submarines by 1949

The Stresa Front

• British, French, and Italian heads of government met in April at Stresa, Italy, to condemn German rearmament and maintain peace settlements
• Hitler attempted to reassure the powers and proposed non-aggression pacts with Germany’s neighbors
• Hitler promised to observe Locarno and limit armaments
• Hitler offered Britain an agreement, limiting the German fleet to 35% of the Royal Navy's strength
• Britain accepted the German offer without consulting other Stresa powers, effectively destroying the Stresa Front's unity

Great Powers React to Nazi Germany (1933-1935)

• The great powers had to come to terms with Nazi Germany
• Germany's strength in 1933, even with initial rearmament, was potentially greater than in 1914 due to weak states created in 1919 from the Austrian and Russian Empires

France and Germany

• By 1934, France had lost diplomatic leadership, its economy weakened by the Depression, its social cohesion threatened by financial scandals
• French society was divided between negotiating with Hitler and Mussolini, or fighting fascism and looking to Russia
• The Locarno Treaties prevented France from reoccupying the Rhineland
• France could not rely on Poland after the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact of January 1934
• France's response to Nazi Germany was hesitant and contradictory, seeking to contain Germany through alliances but also negotiating with Hitler
• Britain remained France's partner, but was not ready to commit itself to an alliance, so France tried to strengthen links with eastern European states and negotiate with Italy and Russia

Franco-Italian Negotiations and the Rome Agreement

• France's attempts to negotiate an Italian alliance were helped by the unsuccessful Nazi coup in Vienna, convincing Mussolini that an agreement with France was essential
• In January 1935, both countries signed the Rome Agreement, promising not to interfere in Balkan affairs and to cooperate against German rearmament or threats to Austrian independence
• Franco-Italian military staff talks started in June to discuss joint military action against a German attack on Austria, Italy, or France

Franco-Russian Negotiations

• Talks occurred between France and Russia, with France aiming to involve Soviet Russia in a regional treaty
• The treaty would be akin to an eastern European version of the Locarno Treaty
• The treaty was to include Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Baltic states
• A separate Franco-Russian agreement would associate Russia with the Locarno Agreements and France with the proposed eastern pact
• Germany and Poland refused to join, so France negotiated with Soviet Russia alone
• The Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance signed in May
• Paris refused detailed military staff talks, amid French public opinion being suspicious of the USSR

Franco-German Negotiations

• France, conscious of economic weakness, social divisions, and aversion to another war, was willing to negotiate with Hitler
• France aimed to draw Germany into negotiating an agreement guaranteeing the Versailles system
• Hitler was ready to lower political tension through exchanges, but not to tolerate restrictions with which French and British diplomacy was attempting to entangle them

Great Britain and Germany

• Britain, suffering from economic problems and the costs of a global empire, was willing to negotiate and not oppose German rearmament
• In 1933, Britain faced a growing threat from Germany and Japan in the Far East
• The main aim of British policy was to blunt Hitler's aggression by modifying the Treaty of Versailles and drawing Germany back into the League, where its actions could be monitored

International Views and Diplomacy

• Sir John Simon saw the early months of 1935 as an opportunity to improve European relations
• He noted the need for German reconciliation to avoid a dangerous future and favored Germany entering the comity of nations to contribute to stability

Italy

• Mussolini tried to mediate between Germany, Britain, and France to gain concessions
• The Nazi putsch in Vienna and German conscription led Italy to align with Britain and France at the Stresa Conference to preserve the Versailles settlement
• Mussolini's alignment did not yield support for Italian colonization of Abyssinia, leading to the Rome-Berlin Axis

Soviet Russia

• Stalin reacted cautiously to the Nazi takeover, with distrust of the West and fear of Nazi Germany
• Stalin negotiated with the French and sought collective security by joining the League of Nations in 1934
• The USSR maintained relations with Germany despite the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact
• Soviet negotiations with France mirrored French tactics of trying for a settlement with Hitler in the summer of 1935
• Soviet-Nazi talks continued intermittently to February 1936, then resumed in the summer of 1939

Key Events in the Life of Joseph Stalin

• 1879: Born in Georgia
• 1903: Joined the Bolshevik Party
• 1917: Assisted Lenin in the Russian Revolution
• 1922: Became Secretary of the Communist Party
• 1929: Became dictator of the USSR and introduced Socialism in One Country
• 1936-38: Conducted the great purge
• August 23, 1939: Signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact
• September 17, 1939: Ordered Soviet occupation of eastern Poland
• November 30, 1939: Ordered invasion of Finland
• 1941-45: Supreme Director of the Soviet war effort
• 1953: Died

The USA

• The USA adhered to a foreign policy of non-involvement in European wars
• The rise of Hitler and his moves to rearm had little official reaction in the USA by 1935
• In 1933, there was sympathy in the USA for Germany's economic hardships, suspicion of Britain and France's colonial empires
• With Hitler's rise to power, public opinion in the USA became hostile to Germany, but foreign policy remained isolationist
• The USA was concerned about the Far East and the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, but only made diplomatic protests
• The Temporary Neutrality Act of 1935 strengthened the US policy of non-involvement by empowering President Roosevelt to ban arms supply to belligerents, aggressors or victims

Summary

• Reactions to Hitler's rise and policies demonstrated that powers were unlikely to unite against treaty violations
• Hitler took steps towards overturning the Treaty of Versailles and creating 'living space' in eastern Europe
• Causes for a lack of opposition include fear of public opposition to war, economic problems, Far East concerns, and unease about the peace settlement
• Only a few statesmen understood Hitler's long-term aims, and most statesmen assumed he could be negotiated with rationally