2 December 1936
Hello everyone,
So much has happened in three years! I have a lot of world news to update you on, so lets get started.
You probably already knew that Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933 after the end of World War I. The way he did this was by leading the German people to believe that he only wanted to reclaim Germany’s “rightful land” after their defeat in the war. The terms for Germany in the Treaty of Versailles were also set after the war. The terms were that Germany would be a “demilitarized zone”, have a small army and naval forces, and no air force. Germany would also have to be disarmed.
However, Hitler had violated the treaty and continues violating the treaty to this day. In 1933, Germany stopped paying the US for reparation costs and started their secret rearmament. In 1935, he ignored the term in the treaty that Germany could only have a small army and added 800,000 men. The same year, the Anglo-German Naval Pact of 1935 was signed between Britain and Germany and allowed the German naval forces to be 35% the size of Britain’s navy. Britain, France, and Italy had appeased Hitler because they don’t want another war. Let’s see how that works…..
Most recently (1936), Hitler re-militarized the Rhineland despite the term in the Treaty of Versailles which states that the buffer between Germany and France had to be completely demilitarized. Again, Britain and France have appeased Hitler and did not take military action against him because France does not want to take action against Germany without the support of Britain.
Here is a photo of Hitler’s troops occupying the Rhineland:
http://www.ww2incolor.com/german/Rhineland.html
This is going to get really interesting. I wonder when Britain and France will stop appeasing Germany and take action. It could take a while. We’ll see..
Until I write again,
Maggie Smith
Life According to Maggie 