K+THE+DISARMAMENT+CONFERENCES

**__Disarmament__**


 * Under the League of Nations Covenant disarmament was one of the aims.
 * Despite this actions in Europe during the 1920s threatened the goal of disarmament (eg. the Maginot line, French alliances)

**__The 1932 Disarmament Conference__**


 * It was hoped that the spirit of international cooperation would be revived in Geneva.
 * The main issue was whether Germany should be allowed to re-arm. France believed she should not, the Germans, and Hitler, believed she had the right to protect herself.
 * In October 1933 Hitler withdrew Germany’s representatives after claiming that Germany was not being treated as equal.
 * Germany introduced conscription and began to re-arm.
 * As a response other countries dared not re-arm and the conference was a failure.

**[]**

**Disarmament Conference,** 1932–37, meeting for the discussion of general disarmament. The first systematic efforts to limit armaments on an international scale, in either a quantitative or a qualitative sense, occurred at the [|Hague Conferences] of 1899 and 1907. Although those efforts were unsuccessful, the Allied Powers (with the exception of the United States) after World War I committed themselves to disarmament in the Treaty of Versailles and in the Covenant of the League of Nations. The United States participated in the limitation of naval armaments by the Washington Conference (1921–22) and the London Naval Conference (1930) (see [|naval conferences]). In 1925 the League of Nations set up a preparatory commission to determine what arms should be limited and how this could be accomplished. By 1931 several points of agreement had been reached and a draft for discussion at the Disarmament Conference drawn up. The conference opened in Geneva in Feb., 1932, and was attended by League of Nations members, as well as by the United States and the Soviet Union. Disagreements over the definition of categories of war materials, which had obstructed the progress of the preparatory commission, continued to hinder the conference. Intent on maintaining its security against Germany, France was particularly reluctant to agree to any type of military limitation. Germany, whose military power had been severely limited by the Treaty of Versailles, responded by claiming that if world disarmament to the German level was not accomplished, Germany had the right to rearm and achieve military equality. Deadlock ensued. The conference was in adjournment from June to Oct., 1933. When it reassembled, Germany, now under the control of Adolf Hitler and already preparing to rearm, withdrew (Oct. 14) from the conference and from the League of Nations. The conference again adjourned, and reconvened only sporadically thereafter. It ceased to meet after May 1, 1937. By this time the general expansion of armaments that preceded World War II was already under way, and any hope for disarmament was unrealistic. The Treaty of Versailles cut Germany’s armed forces cut to a tiny proportion of what they had been during the First World War. During the 1920s the League of Nations tried to establish a programme for disarmament, but many countries were using rearmament as a way of staving off the Depression, especially after 1929. Nothing was done until 1932 when a World Disarmament Conference was called. Needless to say the conference was a failure with no country willing to risk major disarmament.. Hitler claimed that as no other power was willing to disarm, why should Germany? Germany withdrew from the Conference, and the League of Nations, in 1933 German rearmament began in secret at first, but by 1935 Hitler had introduced conscription and shown off his new armed forces in a massive military parade. Acting without French or Italian knowledge, the British government signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement in 1935. Britain knew that Germany was rebuilding its navy and could do little to stop it other than going to war, which she was not prepared to do. The Naval Agreement limited Germany to the same number of submarines and an overall strength of 35% of Royal Navy. Although this was a good agreement for Britain, it angered the French and Italians and contributed to the break up of the Stresa Front, which had prevented Hitler’s first attempt at anschluss with Austria in 1934. In 1936 Hitler took a major risk by moving German troops into the Rhineland. This remilitarisation was a clear contravention of the Treaty of Versailles, but it was unopposed. The Abyssinian Crisis and the shift of Mussolini towards an alliance with Hitler distracted Britain and France. In Britain, many felt that it was only fair that Germany should be able to protect her borders, after all the Rhineland was Germany’s ‘own backyard’. The success of the remilitarisation emboldened Hitler to attempt a series of foreign policy adventures in the certain knowledge that Britain and France would be reluctant to go to war with Germany unless directly threatened. Hitler not only rebuilt the German army and navy, but also spent a lot of money on the creation of an air force, or Luftwaffe. Aircraft technology developed quickly after the First World War and by the 1930s it was clear that air power would play an important role in modern warfare. Hitler had an opportunity to give combat experience to his pilots during the Spanish Civil War. In 1937 the German Condor Legion bombed the Basque town of Guernica in support of the fascist rebel leader General Franco. By 1939, Hitler had an army of nearly 1 million men, over 8,000 aircraft and 95 warships. This military strength had not been used in conflict, but the threat of it had helped him to achieve the remilitarisation of the Rhineland in 1936, the anschluss with Austria in 1938, the annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938 and the invasion of the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939. All of this had been achieved without a shot being fired.
 * Hitler and rearmament 1933-1939**
 * **German rearmament** ||  **1932**  ||  **1939**  ||
 * Army || 100,000 || 950,000 ||
 * Warships || 30 || 95 ||
 * Aircraft || 36 || 8,250 ||

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 * || French military planning:
 * Defence of the French empire.
 * Heavy investment in fixed defences along the French-German border (the Maginot Line) to prevent a German invasion.
 * French government put faith in military alliances with new countries on Germany’s eastern borders e.g. Poland and Czechoslovakia. These ‘little ententes’ were intended to encircle Germany

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 * || British military planning:
 * Overseas commitments. Defence of the British empire was paramount. Threats from Italy in Mediterranean and Japan in the Far East?
 * Military planning based on the assumption that there would be no major war for ten years (the Ten Year Rule).
 * A militarily strong Germany would act as a buffer against Soviet Russia.
 * Military strength based on the Royal Navy – very small army and air force.
 * 1) How did the Treaty of Versailles reduce Germany’s military strength? Give precise details of what happened to the Germany army, navy and air force?
 * 2) Why were the Allies so keen to reduce Germany’s military capability in 1919?
 * 3) Why did the League of Nations try to encourage disarmament?
 * 4) Why might it have taken so long to organise a Disarmament Conference?
 * 5) In 1933 Hitler started to rearm Germany. Which two Nazi objectives would have been met by rearmament?
 * 6) Why do you think Britain was so keen to come to a naval agreement with Germany in 1935?
 * 7) Why might the remilitarisation of the Rhineland be considered as a turning point in German rearmament?
 * 8) How did British and French military planning allow Germany to get away with rearmament?
 * 1) How did British and French military planning allow Germany to get away with rearmament?