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Why didn't Britain and France do anything about the remilitarisation of the Rhineland?
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.)
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TaigaThat 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.
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.
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Why did France and Britain fail to react to German remilitarization of the Rhineland?
Lol, Mr.Wooley
The Rhineland was a buffer zone between Germany and?
The Rhineland was a buffer zone between Germany and France.
Would you regard reoccupation of the Rhineland a success for Hitler of a failure for France and Britain?
Both, Hitler calculated correctly that France & Britain would not interfere. France & Britain had lost their joint resolve to prevent this action. Eventually any German leader would have forced the French & British to back-down on the demilitarization of the Rhineland. However, Hitler did this unilaterally & in a surprise action without negotiating with the French or British. This is an early indicator of the methods that Hitler will use in the future.
Why was the rhineland demilitarised?
Nowhere! The Rhineland was always the Rhine River Valley that covered the border between France and Germany, but it was not demilitarized until AFTER World War I in order to give France a measure of security.
What year did Germany remilitarize Rhineland?
The Treaty of Versailles prevented Germany from having armed forces in the area of Germany between the Rhine river & France or Belgium. Now we come to the contentious bit: Had Britain & France said to Hitler ' Either get your troops out of there now or else', but they didn't have the resolve to say that at the time. This was Hitlers first test of the resolve of the powers against him, and they failed dismally. I accept that hindsight is a great power, but..... -Emma - The remilitarization of the Rhineland was ordered by Hitler and carried out on the 7th of March in 1936. Hitler marched 22,000 of his troops onto demilitarised land breaking not only the Treaty of Versailles but also the Locarno Pact. As said above, Britain and France chose to take no action but for a number of reasons, 1. Economic trouble during the early 1930s meant Britain had reduced their spending on Arms and their military. Previous to the remilitarisation of the Rhineland, Britain had followed a policy of disarmament which left them vulnerable. 2. Britain believed that even combined with France, they did not have enough power to overcome Germany, not only that but also that they had already met to discuss the possibility of future remilitarisation but had decided against taking any action should it occur. 3. Britain's first priority was to protect their Empire therefore a War was not in their best interests as it would mean that the Navy would have to concentrate on other countries instead of the Empire. 4. The policy of appeasement meant Britain wished to avoid War, and the fear that a possible European War could occur also prevented them from conflict as this would help to form an alliance between two powerful fascist leaders, Hitler and Mussolini which was a dangerous risk that Britain was not prepared to take.
