Sending troops into the Rhineland broke treaty limits. The lack of military resistance encouraged Hitler and made later German expansion easier to defend.
The Rhineland lies in western Germany, near France. It remained German after the First World War, but was demilitarised: Germany was not allowed to station troops or build military defences there. This restriction helped protect France from attack. On 7 March 1936, Hitler sent troops in. Remilitarisation means bringing military forces back into an area; it was not the seizure of French territory.
The move broke Versailles and the later Locarno agreements. Hitler used a defence agreement between France and the Soviet Union as a justification, claiming that it threatened Germany. France was unwilling to take military action without British support, while British leaders did not want to risk war over German troops entering German land. The move therefore succeeded without military resistance from either country.
This mattered beyond the immediate dispute. Hitler gained confidence that further risks might meet limited resistance. Germany could also strengthen its western defences. If it later threatened an eastern neighbour such as Czechoslovakia, France would find it harder to intervene by threatening Germany from the west. The failure to enforce one treaty restriction therefore reduced obstacles to later expansion.
Worked example: How western defences affected an eastern neighbour
France lay west of Germany; Czechoslovakia lay to Germany's east and south-east.
- If Germany threatened Czechoslovakia, France could try to deter it by threatening military action from the west.
- German troops and stronger defences in the Rhineland made such French action harder and more dangerous.
- That weakened the protection France could offer its eastern allies, even though the Rhineland itself was far from them.
Watch out for this
Hitler took the Rhineland from France in 1936.
It remained German after Versailles. The breach was sending troops into and later fortifying a demilitarised area.
Check your understanding
How did remilitarising the Rhineland improve Germany's position for later expansion?
- It transferred French territory to Germany, giving Hitler a base inside France.
- It made French intervention in support of eastern allies easier.
- It strengthened Germany's western defences and encouraged Hitler by exposing reluctance to resist him.