Why didn't Britain and France do anything about the remilitarisation of the Rhineland?

Answer 1

Chamberlain was acting on the policy of appeasement, so he was trying to meet Hitler's demands in order to avoid another war. Hitler was planning to pull out of the Rhineland as soon as Britain and France told him to, but they never did. They were fearful he ould declare war and reject the Treaty of Versailles, so hey said he was 'marching in his own back yard'. However this made Hitler more confident that he could get away with break more terms of the treaty, especially having seen the effects of the Manchurian crisis, so he was only stopped when he eventually invaded Poland in 1939. (Also Britain and France were a bit tied up with the worrying situation with Mussolini in Africa, and basically the League of Nations was falling apart so there was nothing much they could do anyway.)

Answer 2

That is a very excellent question. The best answer is that neither Britain nor France had the political will to do so, and the people were not demanding it.

At that point German rearmament had only just begun, there were still no U-boats, the German Air Force, dead since 1918, had only just been recreated. Hitler had only a very small, if extremely professional army.

If the French and the British had dealt with him firmly at that time, it probably would have been the end of Hitler's career, and millions would have gotten to grow old and die in their beds, instead of finding an early grave. But they let him get away with it, and this emboldened him and the German people to ever greater depredations.

Answer 3

It could be argued that both countries did have a choice, firstly in how a majority of the British populace believed that the treaty of Versailles was to hard on the German people and that they had to regain the Rhineland as a sign of honour being restored. This Sentiment is also echoed by many of the Ranking Officials of the British Government including the Prime-minister Neville Chamberlain And the Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden ,the latter of which spoke these words "We must discourage any military action by France against Germany". This is further shown in how the later policy of appeasement Which Chamberlain believed Would be "the continuation of world peace". These policies emboldened Hitler and gave him confidence to spur the German people into reinstating laws of conscription and later the territorial demands of the Anschluss, Sudentland and Czechoslovakia.

There is also the believe that the French chose not to interfere because France was about to hold a General Election and was suffering major financial problems. The French Military advised that a full mobilisation would be required if forces were to be sent into the Rhineland: as provision would need to be made for a German response to any military action. This simply wasn’t affordable so the French adopted a public attitude that it was down to the League to decide and that they would support whatever actions were seen fit by the League.

On the Other Hand, it could be seen that France and Britain were both powerless to stop Hitlers advances on the Rhineland because both countries economies had been hit hard by the great depression and whilst countries such as America could rely on there loans to other countries and Germany with the initiation of the 4 year plan in 1936 Britain and France did not have such options and though were both recovering from the depression they both did not believe that they would be able to commit to a full scale military engagement with the fresh and modernised German military. It could also be argued that the demilitarisation of the Rhineland was League business and there respective governments did not have a choice or authority to take aggressive action and so would leave it to the League officials to decide the course of action to take against the German aggression.

In conclusion, i believe I believe that Britain and France did both have a choice and the means to repel the German Aggression and that they were lacking in there responses to the Germans and duty to the integrity of the League of Nations and the mandates of Article 42 in the treaty of Versailles and that it was the Foreign Policies of these two countries that lead to the loss of Czechoslovakian Austrian and Polish independence.