German Expansion 1936-39 and the Policy of Appeasement

A pattern of escalating demands

Between 1936 and 1939 Hitler carried out a series of increasingly bold moves that overturned the European settlement of 1919 and led directly to war. Each step tested the resolve of Britain and France, and each success made the next demand more likely. Understanding this sequence, and the policy of appeasement with which the Western democracies met it, is central to the European case study.

The remilitarization of the Rhineland, 1936

Under the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaties, the Rhineland — German territory bordering France — was to remain permanently free of German troops. In March 1936, gambling that Britain and France would not act while distracted by the Abyssinian Crisis, Hitler ordered his army to march in. The German force was small and