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In the lead-up to the Second World War, Germany was on a bit of an expansion spree, and as you'll be aware, it was the demands for Danzig and some of the lands around it from Poland that led to the outbreak of the war. However, had German leaders simply stopped after obtaining all of this, Germany would have been in a much stronger position than it had been a mere 3 years earlier. Its population had grown by over 10 million, its economy and industry were now greater, and its military was larger and free from the restrictions of Versailles, which raises the question, why didn't the Germans just stop there?
Why risk a war by demanding even more? So, as you'll know, in the aftermath of Germany's First World War, Germany lost all of this territory, and for a long time, the Germans wanted it back. Many there felt aggrieved by the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles, and the new Republican government that came about after the Kaiser's abdication wasn't exactly a stable one. And when combined with the terrible economy, the loss of international prestige, and Germans being told that the First World War was their fault, political extremism took root. As you'll be aware, this man who I cannot name because YouTube, after winning numerous elections, was appointed German Chancellor. He'd come first in the latest election by
promising the German people that he would ignore all the Versailles Treaty's dictats, and that he'd fix the economy and expand Germany's borders to incorporate all of the German-speaking people in Europe. After a somewhat suspicious fire and some legislative shenanigans in 1933, and President Paul von Hindenburg snuffing it in 1934, Germany was firmly under new management. Its new leaders were keen to undo the Treaty of Versailles, but to begin with, this needed to be done discreetly. This started with rearmament, although you should know that the previous Weimar governments hadn't exactly been the best at upholding these terms. In 1935, after pressuring Britain and France, Germany was granted a referendum in the League
of Nations mandate of Saarland to decide whether or not it should remain independent, become a part of France, or join Germany. Reunification with Germany won overwhelmingly, and this provided a major propaganda boost for the government, who were now seen as reversing Germany's decline. The toothbrush mustache-having Austrian man soon openly declared the reconstitution of the army, and the beginnings of small-scale conscription, which had been banned under the Treaty of Versailles. The French were outraged, but the number of new conscripts that Germany would be training as a result was so small that it was too little to justify a war over.
The same happened when the British government learned of Germany building submarines again. It also wasn't prepared to go to war over it, and so it decided to just sort things out diplomatically. In 1935, after some negotiations, the two nations signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement that limited the size of the German Navy at 1/3 of the Royal Navy, and importantly was done without consulting France, the US, or Italy. And this drove a wedge between the British and the rest of the Versailles signatories. And the next year, when the German government announced the remilitarization of the Rhineland, the growing political distance between Britain and France became obvious. Many in France wanted to send in the army, which was much larger
than the German forces in the region, but its economy was doing very poorly, and Britain didn't want to risk all that war over something that wasn't vital to its own security. And the people of both nations firmly opposed going to war, and the French military argued against fighting Germany on their own. And so France just had to stand by and let it happen. This was yet another propaganda victory, and the Germans, now free from the Treaty of Versailles, began to rearm in earnest. In order to help with that, there were those in government who wanted the annexation of Austria to the south. Although there were concerns that doing this would alienate the Italians, who saw Austria as a part of their
sphere of influence. By 1938, Austria was a mess and was plagued by political violence. Kurt Schuschnigg, the Austrian Chancellor, had harshly repressed those pushing for union with Germany. This angered that toothbrush-having Austrian man, who demanded that he stop doing this and give the leaders of pro-annexation movements roles in government or face invasion. Schuschnigg reluctantly agreed to this, and to prevent things from progressing further, he scheduled a referendum in March to show the world that Austrians in fact didn't want to join Germany. The problem was that he didn't want to let those that disagreed with him have a vote.
Shockingly, this upset the Germans, who then mobilized the army and massed it along the border. And they demanded that Schuschnigg resign. He did this, and the day before his referendum was supposed to be held, German troops marched into Austria. Berlin declared its annexation, which would be subject to another referendum held a month later, which was overwhelmingly backed. And yet again, the Western powers did nothing. Britain saw it as a fait accompli, and that anything short of war would change little. The French grumbled, but yet again weren't willing to fight a war because they were politically fragile and didn't want to go in alone, especially against an army that had a further two years of rearmament after
the Rhineland incident. It was only Mexico that actually complained and denounced the German annexation as a violation of Austria's sovereignty. Austria's annexation meant that Germany now had another 6.5 million citizens, greater iron reserves, and an enlarged economy. The government was now incredibly popular at this point, but it still wanted those Germans living outside of the country to come under its authority. And after Austria's disappearance, the largest group of Germans living outside of Germany were those in the Sudetenland, within the borders of Czechoslovakia. Now, tensions
there between the Germans and the Prague government had existed since the state's formation. But after Germany's change in management, things escalated with the Sudeten German party pushing for unification with Germany and using impolite tactics to get it. Political leaders in the region with Berlin's backing made demands that the Czechoslovakian government could never reasonably accept, thereby pushing the region into a crisis. Edvard Beneš, the Czechoslovakian president, thought that this time the Western powers would come through for him, but fun fact, no. Instead, Britain offered to mediate, by which I mean its representatives told the Czechs to just give in to everything
because Britain really didn't want to go to war. Despite this, the Sudeten Germans refused to negotiate, and within a few months the region was plagued with growing political violence. Sensing that things were going to escalate, the allies stepped in and asked Prague to just, well, cede the territory. The Czechs refused, and when border clashes grew in intensity, the British and the French called for a conference with the Germans and Italians to sort this out. They all agreed that Czechoslovakia should just cede the territory, and realizing that they were on their own, the Prague government reluctantly agreed. This was done on the promise that Germany was done with its territorial expansion and would leave
the remaining Czechoslovakia alone. This promise was kept for all of about 5 seconds, and through a series of treaties and ultimatums, Czechoslovakia was picked apart. In early 1939, the Slovakian half of the country declared its independence, but it was really now a German puppet state. And a day later, Germany invaded the remaining Czech lands and turned them into the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. All of this gave Germany access to a large amount of industry, as well as a sizable population of laborers, taxpayers, and of course, potential conscripts. Whilst all of this was ongoing, the Germans had been in contact with the Lithuanian government to discuss the return of
Memel, which Germany had lost in 1919. Much like the Sudetenland and Austria before it, the Germans living there had been aided in agitating for union with Germany. As things escalated, the Germans had hoped that the Lithuanians would just simply hand it over, but the Lithuanians had a plan. They would just pretend that the problem didn't exist, hoping that it would go away. Now, the toothbrush mustache-having Austrian man felt that he had to intervene, and Germany issued an ultimatum to Lithuania. Lithuania accepted this because if the Western powers didn't want to risk war for Czechoslovakia, it definitely wasn't going to do so for Lithuania. And with this, Germany had managed to go from this to this in four
short years. And had it stopped there, the Allies would have had little reason to start a war. So, why didn't the Germans just stop? Well, the first reason was that Britain and France's responses so far had been those of acquiescence and appeasement, and as such, German political thought was that they wouldn't suddenly grow a backbone and start fighting now when it would have been much easier for them to do so 4 years ago. And seeing Britain and France as utterly spineless meant that when it was time for the Germans to make demands of Poland, they felt that it was a low-risk, high-reward gambit. Initially, they wanted the return of Danzig as well as control over some of the roads and railways linking it with
Germany proper, and they also wanted Poland to join the Anti-Comintern Pact to isolate the USSR. The Polish government refused because Poland needed the port there for international trade, without which it would have to trade through Germany, thereby essentially ending its economic independence. Also, the government in Warsaw was confident that it would be overthrown by riots if it were to hand over Danzig. And to complicate things, it technically didn't have the authority to do so anyway because it was a League of Nations mandate and not a full part of Poland itself. Unsurprisingly, most German politicians weren't happy with this response, except for a few at the very, very top of government that is, who
really, really wanted war. You see, whilst the return of Danzig was seen as extremely important, what German leaders really wanted was the end of Poland and the incorporation of its lands into Germany for the purposes of living space, into which Germans would expand and increase their numbers to help bring about what was seen as their inevitable domination of the European continent. And this is one of the most important reasons why Germany didn't stop at these borders. The ideology of his leadership emphasized expansion, military glory, and geopolitical hegemony over Europe. As such, the Germans sabotaged negotiations with the Polish to make it impossible for them to support Danzig's
return and take away Germany's primary justification for war. The government also acted to confuse everyone else by sending officials who would advocate for different positions on behalf of Berlin, meaning that nobody really knew when things were going to come to a head or if they ever were. The plan being that the upcoming surprise invasion of Poland would be so quick that even if Britain and France wanted to help, they couldn't because it would be over too quickly. And again, it cannot be stressed enough that the Berlin government was 100% convinced that neither Britain nor France would do anything to help Poland. A position which was bolstered when Germany signed a treaty of friendship with the Soviet
Union, which included secret clauses dividing Eastern Europe between the two. And with both of those great powers seemingly on the same side, there was no way that London or Paris would risk a war. Of course, when the Germans crossed the border on September the 1st, that assumption was proven completely wrong. One which would lead to Germany not just losing the lands that it had recently gained, but also losing much more. I hope you enjoyed this episode with a special thanks to my patrons, James Bizenet, Sky Chapel, Katowice Winston K Wood, Marvin Cassel, YN Hockey, Michael Holbert, Pool H Castle Bravo, Shu Enin, Alex Schwinn, Gustav Swan, Andy McGeehee, Lester Diamond, Yiduan Wang,
Anthony Beckett, Air Firefly, Respectful Level of Chaos, Captain Sci, Doc the Flying Deutschland, Spencer Lightfoot, Robert C Perkins, The Mac Wapper, Rod D Martin, Kamoon Yoon, Dr. Frederick, Dan Lyman, The Jim Stannum, Remco Heusman, Jim Strunberg, and Lord Beak.
