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Explain Why Britain Did Not Intervene When Germany Re-Militarised the Rhineland in 1936 (12 Marks)

In: Historical Events

Submitted By Jackagreen
Words 386
Pages 2
Britain didn’t intervene when Germany remilitarised Rhineland for a few reasons. One being that relations with Germany had vastly improved since the Versailles and Locarno treaty. With Germany not being considered a great threat to European peace. We know this as Germany had a restricted amount of troops (100,000) and no air force under the Versailles treaty. This tells us Britain didn’t intervene when Germany remilitarised the Rhineland they were presumed not to be a threat.

Another reason is that British Government agreed with Public opinion of that its German land so why can’t they occupy it. We know this was the case as a taxi driver once said to Chamberlain, that Germany was only marching into “their own backyard”. Considering the public opinion was for pacifism they would agree to do nothing and therefore the Government would follow suit to keep supports happy.
My third reason for Baldwin not acting upon Germany was because he didn’t know that Hitler would have withdrew his troops if France or Britain had taken action upon Germany. We know this because many historians discovered that Hitler once told a group of guest whilst having dinner soon after the event. Although Hitler was renowned for over exaggerating or lying to make Germany sound greater or other countries weaker as historians also discovered.

My final point is that Britain were already following an approach of appeasement towards Hitler’s Germany. This is to keep the peace and try and use him as a “strongman of Europe” to stop the development of communism throughout Europe. We know that Britain were already appeasing Hitler because they officially broke the Versailles treaty by signing the Anglo-German Naval agreement which allowed Germany to have U-boats and a a third of the Navy Britain had. Another is that they didn’t react to the rearmament of Germany. We know this as many historians

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