The British Government and the Rhineland Crisis

© 2010 Benjamin Thomas ReynoldsThe purpose of this thesis is to re-examine the historiographical debate concerning the response of the British Government to the German remilitarization of the Rhineland on 7 March 1936 in light of the recent resurgence of ‘traditional’ interpretations of the crisis. The traditional view argues that the Rhineland Crisis represented an opportunity for Britain and France to prevent the Second World War by using their armed forces to intimidate Hitler. By not opposing the weaker Wehrmacht in 1936, the British and French response, it is argued, encouraged Hitler’s later foreign policy demands. Despite ‘revisionist’ writers having uncovered evidence that Hitler was not prepared to withdraw his forces from the Rhineland and that efforts to do so would have provoked a war in Europe in 1936, the revisionist view has enjoyed a recent resurgence. This thesis investigates Britain’s social, economic, military and diplomatic situation between 1919 and 1936 and explores how these affected Britain’s response to the Rhineland Crisis. The thesis makes extensive use of archival records, especially the minutes from the Cabinet meetings held during the crisis. My analysis of this material leads to the conclusion that because of the social and economic crises of the inter-war years and the risk of simultaneous conflicts with other powers Britain did not possess sufficient armed forces to risk war with Germany in March 1936; the efforts of the Cabinet to reach a negotiated settlement can therefore be regarded as justified. I also conclude that Hitler would have resorted to war in March 1936 in the event of a military response to his move