1. Terms of the Treaty of Versailles
- Germany’s armed forces to be
severely limited.
2. Disarmament Conference.
This was one of the big 3 failures of the League of
Nations in the 1930s. In the 1920s they had
already had no success in disarming, but in the
1930s there was increased pressure for the
League to do something about disarmament. The
Germans had long been angry about the fact that
they had been forced to disarm while other
nations had not done the same. Many countries
were actually spending more in their armaments
than they had spent before WWI.
3. In February 1932 the Disarmament Conference began. By
July 1932 it had produced resolutions to prohibit bombing
of civilian populations, limit the size of artillery, limit the
tonnage of tanks, and prohibit chemical warfare. But there
was very little in the resolutions to show how these limits
would be achieved. For example, the bombing at civilians
was to be prohibited, but all attempts to agree to abolish
planes capable of bombing were defeated.
And the biggest problem of the Conference was what to do
with Germany. Most people now accepted that they should
be treated more equally than under the Treaty of
Versailles. There was a dilemma between choosing
whether:
► Everyone else should disarm to the level Germany had
been forced to.
► Or the Germans should be allowed to rearm to a level
closer to that of the other powers.
4. ► This is how events relating to Germany moved over the next 18 months.
► July 1932
► Germany tabled proposals for all countries to disarm down to its level. When the
Conference failed to agree the principle of equality the Germans walked out.
► December 1932
► An agreement was finally reached to treat Germany equally.
► January 1933
► Germany announced it was coming back.
► February 1933
► Hitler became the chancellor of Germany and immediately started rearming secretly.
► May 1933
► Hitler promised not to rearm if in five years all other nations destroyed theirs arms.
► June 1933
► Britain produced and ambitious disarmament plan.
► October 1933
► Hitler withdrew from the Disarmament Conference and soon after took Germany out of
the League.
► By this stage, all the powers knew that Hitler was secretly rearming Germany already,
but instead of trying to stop him, everyone started to rebuild their own armaments. After
another year of not achieving anything the Disarmament Conference ended in 1934.
5.
6. What did the treaty say about
disarmament?
The fourth point of the terms of the treaty was
about German armed forces: this means that the
treaty restricted Germany’s army to a level well
below:
► The army was limited to 100,000 men.
► Germany was not allowed vehicles, submarines or
aircraft.
► The navy could build only six battleships.
► The Rhineland became a demilitarised zone. The
Rhineland was important because it was the
border area between Germany and France.
7. Disarmament:
► An army of 100,000 was very small for a
country of Germany’s size and the army was
a symbol of German pride. None of the
Allies disarmed to the extent that Germany
was made to disarm in the 1920s.
8. What Hitler did and when.
In 1933: reached the
power and started to
rearm.
In 1935: staged a
massive military rally.
10. Reasons Hitler gave for rearming.
► Hitlerused as an
excuse for rearming
Germany the fact that
the other countries
refused to disarm; and
it was not fair that
Germany kept on
being unprotected and
without a complete
army while the other
nations had not
disarmed.
11. Real reasons for rearming Germany
► Hitler was also fighting
unemployment, giving jobs in the
army. At that time in Germany most
of the population was unemployed;
so he killed two birds with one
stone.
► Besides he did it to make Germany
strong again and to challenge the
Treaty of Versailles. For the German
people their army was a symbol of
power, so they were ashamed of
losing it.
► Another cause was that promising
rearmaming the Nazi party was
going to have much more support
from the population.
12. The response from Britain and
France.
► -Hitler knew that Britain had some sympathy on
this issue.
► -Britain thought the limits put on Germany's armed
forces were too tight.
► -Britain believed Germany was a good buffer
against communism
► -Britain allowed Germany to increase their navy up
to 35% of the size of the British navy.
► -France did not agree with this decision but there
was little she could do about it.
13. Group members:
Agustina Subirá
Isabella Carneiro
Sofía Honens
Tomás Lucas
Lucas Guglielmone
