German & Italian Expansion 1933-1940

German & Italian Expansion 1933-1940

Economic Realignment Relations between Germany and the rest of Europe did not stay this way permanently. It was not the case that the post-WWI relations between Germany on one hand and Britain and France on the other remained the same all the way through to the outbreak of WWII. In the interwar years there was a change in relations on this front, and there lay the change in diplomatic alignments in Europe.

Germany started the interwar years as an outcast within Europe, but relations between Germany and the victors of WWI improved over time and alignments between European nations evolved for a number of reasons.

With regard to Germany, Britain and France had ulterior motives for eventually improving their relations with Germany. In the first instance, reparations –ironically enough -created the first steps to something of a reconciliation. Germany was forced to pay huge amounts in reparations under the terms of the Versailles Treaty. The famous Economist J. M. Keynes had warned that the sum of £6600 million which was set at the Treaty of Versailles was too much to expect from Germany.

The amount was certainly unrealistic and Germany could not possibly pay the full amount –certainly not without any assistance. In 1923 Germany faltered on her reparations to France and the French took over the Ruhr Valley (which is situated on the Franco-German Rhineland border) with a view to taking reparations in coal. The French eventually withdrew their troops from the Ruhr Valley, but not before the drawing up of the Dawes Plan.

Economic Realignment The Dawes Plan (formed in 1924 and named after Charles Dawes who chaired the committee that agreed to the plan, and became US Vice President the following year) was basically a payment plan for Germany to make the reparations bill more manageable. Germany still had to pay the full amount but the new installments made repayment more realistic and they came with a £40 million loan to help Germany pay.

Economic Realignment The payments were phased in steps of £50 million in the first year and building up to £125 million in the fifth year. The USA’s ulterior motive for this was to get Britain and France’s re-payments back to her! Britain and France owed the USA money, which they could not pay without Germany paying them her reparations, and Germany could not re-pay money it did not have!

Economic Realignment The Dawes Plan served as a means to get money back in circulation –and for the USA to finally get her money owed to her by Britain and France! By way of the Dawes Plan, the USA lent Germany money with which she could pay her reparations to Britain and France, who could then pay their debts back to the USA.

Economic Realignment There were three significant effects of the Dawes Plan: Firstly the Ruhr Valley was evacuated by the French in July 1925. Secondly Germany was treated as an equal for the first time since the end of WWI –as opposed to an entity beneath everyone else. Thirdly the Dawes Plan helped Germany’s economy improve under her Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann.

Economic Realignment In 1929 Stresemann appealed to the USA for further assistance with reparations payments. Further to the Dawes Plan a committee headed by American Industrialist Owen Young reduced Germany’s reparations bill to £2000 million (less than a third of the £6600 originally set at the Treaty of Versailles).

Economic Realignment The Young Plan (as it is famously known) also set a time scale of 59 years for the amount to be paid. Under the terms of the plan payments would start in May 1930 and end in 1988. This was a much more realistic time scale for paying a much more realistic amount, and as such enabled better relations between Germany, France, and Britain.

Economic Realignment Stresemann’s efforts to achieve a better reparations deal for Germany -along with the successful outcome helped to achieve stability in Germany (after years of turmoil in the early years of the Weimar Republic), increased his popularity amongst the German people and his status as an international leader, and therefore improved Germany’s standing within Europe from her wretched Pariah status in 1919.

Economic Realignment This improvement in prospects for Germany, and relations between Germany on one hand and Britain and France on the other however did not last. Barely had the Young Plan been agreed when everything was shattered by the Wall Street Crash on 24th October 1929. The consequent Great Depression spread through much of the world, and Germany in particular was hard-hit by the Depression. The USA called in all her loans and Germany was unable to pay anything by 1931-32.

Economic Realignment The Dawes Plan and Young Plan had helped improve Germany’s standing after WWI and improve relations between Germany on and France and Britain on the other, but the Wall Street Crash shattered all of this. There would be further re-alignments between Germany and other European nations, but these would be more ideological…

Political Realignment As well as changes in alignments due to economic factors, there were changes also due to political factors.

Political Realignment Germany’s boundaries had been greatly reduced by the terms of the Versailles. She had had land taken off her and given to other countries e.g. Alsace-Lorraine to France, Memel to Belgium, Upper Silesia and West Prussia to Poland, Schleswig Holstein to Denmark, and the Sudetenland to Czechoslovakia.

Political Realignment Poland and Czechoslovakia were two new countries in Europe that had been created after the end of WWI and were the product of Wilson’s Fourteen Points. As time progressed various treaties took place to solidify Germany’s newly set frontiers.

Political Realignment One of the first such treaties to take place was the Locarno Pacts in 1925. Britain, France, and Germany agreed to meet in Locarno, Switzerland where Germany accepted her frontiers with France and Belgium and agreed that they should remain unchanged. Germany further agreed not to change her borders with Poland or Czechoslovakia without first consulting with France and her ‘Little Entente Partners’ i.e. Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia.

Political Realignment This treaty in itself helped improve relations between France and Germany because France now felt more secure about her boundaries with Germany and for Germany there was now some hope of regaining land on her eastern borders that had been taken off her in the Treaty of Versailles. Furthermore the Locarno Pacts were followed by Germany’s entry into the League of Nations as a permanent council member in 1926.

Political Realignment In 1926 Germany signed a Treaty of Neutrality with the USSR, which was a renewal of the Treaty of Rapallo in 1922 (in which normal relations were re-established between the two countries, all financial claims against each other were cancelled, and strengthened the countries’ economic and military ties). The Treaty of Rapallo was Germany’s first agreement concluded by Germany as an independent party since the end of WWI.

Political Realignment It had angered the Western Allies (i.e. Britain and France) and the Treaty of Neutrality (which was a renewal of the Treaty of Rapallo) further worried the French. In light of this the French Prime Minister, Aristide Briand turned to the US Secretary of State, F B. Kellogg for assistance, and in August 1928 a nine power conference took place in Paris and the end result was the Kellogg-Briand Pact, by which the 65 signatories agreed to outlaw war except in self-defense.

Political Realignment As with the Locarno Pacts, the Kellogg-Briand Pact had significant effects on changes in alignments in Europe, and Germany’s progress back amongst the other nations of Europe from her previous pariah status. The USSR was one of the signatories which gave her some recognition by other powers. Germany signed the pact and this allayed France’s fears of German aggression.

Political Realignment Unfortunately the pact had no means of preventing war, and this would prove crucial in light of the Great Depression that would hit Europe within two years of the pact being singed. The Great Depression would destroy the economic apparatus by which Germany’s standing in Europe had improved, and pave the way for extremist groups in Germany.

Political Realignment In Germany Hitler and the Nazis were able to use the Great Depression to their advantage and play on the German people’s anger at the futility of the established Weimar government to deal with the situation. This culminated in Hitler becoming German Chancellor and that in turn led to a major change in alignments in Europe…

Assignment Questions 1-6, page 22 Questions 1-5, pages 24-25

German & Italian Expansion 1933-1940