The Development of Tension in Europe (PDF)

## The development of tension in Europe ### The Dollfuss Affair, Austria When Hitler came to power in 1933, the League of Nations was holding a World Disarmament Conference. Hitler proposed Germany should have an army equal in size to France's army. France refused and this gave Hitler an excuse to...

## The development of tension in Europe ### The Dollfuss Affair, Austria When Hitler came to power in 1933, the League of Nations was holding a World Disarmament Conference. Hitler proposed Germany should have an army equal in size to France's army. France refused and this gave Hitler an excuse to storm out of the conference and accuse France of being unreasonable. Hitler also used this disagreement as an excuse to quit the League. Now he was no longer required to avoid war and keep the League's Covenant. Hitler's attention turned first to Austria, his homeland, which had been linked to Germany for six centuries. Austrians and Germans alike had been outraged when Anschluss was forbidden in 1919 by the Treaty of Versailles. Engelbert Dollfuss, the Austrian chancellor, did not want to unite with Nazi Germany and banned the Nazi Party in Austria in 1933. In 1934, Hitler responded by encouraging Austrian Nazis to create havoc. They murdered Dollfuss in a bid for power. The Austrian army backed the Austrian government rather than the Nazi Party, and Mussolini moved troops to the Austrian border promising to stop Anschluss. Hitler was forced to back down, his army not yet strong enough for war. ### Engelbert Dollfuss Chancellor of Austria from 1932, he was not a fan of Hitler. In March 1933 he shut down the Austrian parliament and became the Fascist dictator of Austria. He was influenced and supported by Mussolini's Italy. ### The Saar * The rich industrial region of the Saar was part of western Germany before the First World War. In 1919, it was entrusted to the League for 15 years as part of the Treaty of Versailles. * In 1935, a plebiscite was held to decide whether France or Germany should take control thereafter. * 90 per cent of the population voted to rejoin Germany. This was a great propaganda victory for Hitler and his desire to unite all German-speaking peoples. * The rich coal fields of the Saar were a great boost to German industries, especially the armaments industry. ### Key terms Make sure you can write a definition for these key terms: rearmament, Lebensraum, antisemitic, appeasement, Stalin, Spanish Civil War, Fascist. ### German rearmament Hitler quickly rebuilt the German army, despite it being against international law (against the terms of the Treaty of Versailles). At the 'Freedom to Rearm Rally' in 1935, he showcased some of the weapons and troops he had been building up. * He announced he would reintroduce conscription from 1936. This helped to expand the army to almost a million people by 1939. (the Treaty of Versailles had limited the German army to 100,000 people). * He also announced he was building an air force, the Luftwaffe (also banned by the Treaty of Versailles). The aircraft industry already employed 72,000 Germans by this time. The rally showed that Hitler could openly defy the Treaty of Versailles without a reaction from other countries. German arms spending jumped from 3.5 billion marks in 1933 to 26 billion marks by 1939. ### The Stresa Front In April 1935, Britain, France, and Italy signed the Stresa Front: an agreement to try to limit Hitler. They agreed to: * guarantee the terms of the Locarno Treaties * protect Austrian independence * work together to stop Hitler breaking more terms of the Treaty of Versailles Hitler did not seem at all concerned by this open agreement. Indeed, Mussolini's Italy eventually sided with Hitler when war broke out. ### The Anglo-German Naval Agreement The British people had increasingly come to think that the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh on Germany. In June 1935, Britain and Germany signed a naval agreement that effectively ended the military restrictions in the treaty. * Hitler was permitted to build up a navy to 35 per cent of the size of the British Navy. In return, he agreed to respect British naval supremacy and not seek to challenge it. * Hitler was also allowed to build submarines, up to 45 per cent of the number held by the British. (German submarines were banned by the Treaty of Versailles.) With this agreement, Britain effectively declared that the military terms of the Treaty of Versailles had ended. Britain did this without consulting either France or Italy. Hitler felt increasingly confident that he could ignore the treaty. ***REVISION TIP*** * There is rarely only one side to a story. Make sure you understand the different perspectives of an event so that you can give balanced arguments that weigh the different perspectives before deciding 'how far you agree' with any given statement. ***REVISION TIP*** * It is important to understand not just who each of the key political leaders of the period were, but why they thought and acted as they did. Why might Britain have signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement? Why might Hitler?