How Did Hitler Come Into Power

Hitler, when he came into power, basically spat in the face of the treaty, and changed and violated it in several ways. Firstly, he completely violated the military terms set forth by the treaty. In 1934, shortly after take power, he figuratively demolished the League of Nations Disarmament Conference. He demanded an ‘equality of arms’ with both Britain and France. Clearly, this is not what the treaty intended, that which being a disarmament of Germany. He continued to breakdown the treaty’s terms by secretly constructing an army and training his volunteers with mock weapons. Once he was satisfied with their progress, he put on a gigantic ‘rearmament rally’. Oddly, European countries who had been involved in the treaty did nothing to try and put the rally down. Britain even agreed to new naval terms, which allowed Germany to make a navy that was about 1/3 the size of theirs. This was vast difference, obviously, from the treaty that which allowed them merely 6 ships. Steamrolling ahead, Hitler reinstated recruitment, and started funding Germany military efforts once again. Approaching 1940, Germany had nearly 100 ships and 8,250 airplanes. This is a clear alteration of the treaty, as before they were allowed zero airplanes. In addition, the army had swelled to nearly one million men. Remilitarizing Germany is one of the main alterations (more violations) of the treaty that Hitler committed. Also, in March of 1936, German troops filed across the bridges of the Rhine and into the demilitarized areas of Trier, Aachen, and Saarbrucken. In this situation once again, and quite oddly, Britain and France did not try and stop this movement though it was expressly forbidden. Some might suppose their lack of response was due to the fact that the French military quite outnumbered the Germans that were being placed in these zones, however these zones were meant to be free of German occupation per the treaty and other post-WW1 negotiations. Another way that Hitler broke the treaty was his …show more content…
This was forbidden by the treaty. In 1938, Hitler set out to annex Austria, and join the two nations. In Austria, native Nazis organized riots and uprisings, and began to gain some traction towards joining Germany. Hitler mounted pressure on the Austrian Chancellor, a man called Kurt von Schuschnigg, to declare that the two countries were joined. Schuschnigg turned to both Britain and France for help resisting Hitler, but they refused. (This is odd, seeing as they both worked on the treaty’s terms.) Because of their indifference to Hitler’s actions in Austria, Schuschnigg suggested a referendum. However, Hitler took matters into his own hands as it appeared a ‘non-decision’ was going to be reached. He invaded Austria with his new army, and reaped general havoc. The month after invasion, in a vote, nearly all Austrians voted to join Germany. This violated the treaty’s provision that Austria and Germany were never to join into one. From Austria, he moved on to the Sudentenland, which was given to Czechoslovakia in the terms of the treaty. Local Nazis behaved here much the same as they had in Austria, and claimed oppression by the Czech people. Hitler once again ordered that the countries be joined and threatened war yet again if his demand was not met. Czechoslovakia readied to fight Hitler, but our friends France and Britain once again gave into Hitler’s bullying, and gave the territory back to