Germany

The Death of the League of Nations

In March 1936 Hitler had been watching events in Abyssinia very closely indeed. He hated the League of Nations and saw it as an arm of the Treaty of Versailles. According to Hitler, and many Germans agreed with him, the league was there to protect the interests of the strong nations such as Britain and France.

The League had done nothing to help China in 1931, it had done nothing to help Abyssinia in 1935, so, believed Hitler they would do nothing about Germany breaking the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. 

Germany had been forbidden from building up an armed force and it had been told that it must keep soldiers out of the Rhineland (see the Rhineland on the map above; between France and Germany).

The plan to move soldiers into the Rhineland by Hitler was a gamble. He said;

"The 48 hours after the march into the Rhineland were the most nerve-racking in my life. If the French had marched into the Rhineland we would have had to withdraw, for the military resources at our disposal would have been wholly inadequate for even moderate resistance".

Does this show us that the League could have done something if it had tried? 

Hitler must of gained comfort from the British Prime Minister's comments about the re-militarising of the Rhineland "I see no reason to risk war in order to stop Hitler marching into his own backyard".

German soldiers march into their own backyard!

Not everyone took such a light view of this as you can see from the newspaper cartoon that appeared in a British newspaper.

The goose-step was the march of the German army. The goose has an olive branch (the symbol for peace) in its mouth but is clearly intending on war by the look of all the weapons. The children's rhyme about goosey gander wandering is intended to show that the Rhineland is far from Hitler's last conquest. It proved to be a correct view. Despite efforts the League of Nations was now effectively finished.