The Role of Rearmament in International Relations in 1933-39 - Essay Example

of The Role of Rearmament in International Relations, 1933-39 The Role of Rearmament in International Relations, 1933-39 Introduction Rearmament is the process by which nations get to acquire weapons again and arm themselves once more. Historically this could be taken to mean the period around 1933 to 1939 when there was considerable efforts by countries to re-arm themselves as Hitler had posed great threat to the European countries. Generally after the First World War, many nations in Europe wound down there military forces in the name of cease fire and the so called war to terminate all wars. Germany was not a threat to the region in the 1920s, however with the entry of Hitler into power in 1933; things drastically changed as he saw Germany get withdrawn from the League of Nations and Geneva disarmament conference. Re-armament in Germany After the World War I, many nations were disarming themselves to concentrate on rebuilding as the war had destroyed a lot of resources in terms of public infrastructure, killed a lot of people and the economies of most nations were on the downfall. Germany on the other hand left the league of nations and begun rearming itself again. This caused a threat to other nations in the region they could no sit back and wait to be attacked. 1The UK also embarked on rearmament program because Germany was becoming a threat. In the middle of 1930s, the British government obtained the biplanes to be used by the Royal Air Force and this was quite different from that which was being used in the First World War. Other weaponry obtained by the rearmament program included hawker hurricane, battleships, aircraft carriers and super marine spitfire. This came to be useful to them during the Second World War. 2 The end of the First World War was marked by the signing of the accord termed as the treaty of Versailles in the year 1919. The treaty was assented to by France, Italy, the Great Britain and not the US since it was later to draft its own accord with Germany in 1921. Many historians view the signing of the Versailles treaty as the major driving force that lead to the Second World War. On the outward level, extreme penalties and fines that were imposed by the allied powers on Germany was enough cause of war. Rearmament in the Rest of the World It's quite obvious that the most war oriented nations are those that spend a lot on rearmament obtaining more dangerous weaponry and military personnel. Germany has been criticized a lot for stimulating or rather initiating the Second World War. This is because by the time other nations were disarming and concentrating on development to recover what had been lost in the war, the Germans did the contrary and started building new weapons. In reaction to that, other countries like the UK begun to build weapons in fear that the Germans would attack them as the memories of the First World War were still fresh in their minds. 3 Hitler decided to violate the Versailles treaty claiming it was imposed to the German people. He called on all Germans to reunite and rearm and he stated clearly that the German would be the centre of the Europe and use the land to produce the food that the nation needed. For him to achieve this, Adolph Hitler realized that he needed a stronger army, than what he had inherited from his predecessor. He ordered the then army general to prepare an army of about 300,000 men, the ministry in charge of military was ordered to build 1,000 war planes and more military barracks were built as well. When the French refused his proposal to rearm, Hitler led the Nazi Germany out of the Geneva conference and was seen by many leaders as not being a supporter of external democracy and foreign policy. This led to reaction from other nations to follow suit. Japan was one of the nations to initiate a rearmament program. In 1936, its expenditure on national defense was estimated to be about 307 million dollars. France spent 716 million, the United Kingdom spent about 846 million, the Italians expenditure was 870 million, and the Soviet Union spent 2,963 million and the united stated spent 964 million. That year the total spending of the world on rearmament was estimated to be about 10,730 million dollars and most of this was spent by the Britons and other nationalities of the European continent estimated at about 8, 8 79 million dollars hence making the Europeans the number one public enemies of peace though most of the nations insisted that the rearmament was singly for preserving peace. 4 The massive scope of Bolshevik preparation for peace was shown by the fact that though the budgetary allocation of the Soviet Union carried the weight of the entire Russia economy, and was stacked with all types of 5-year plans for economic expenses which private capital would take into other nations, J, Stalin was spending over a fifth of the whole red budget in preparation for war. By 1936, Germany was spending over double the money it was spending in 1934. Russia on the other hand had tripled her expenditure over the same period. The Nazis and the Bolsheviks together spent more that what the rest of the world had spent on preparation of war. In Manhattan, the estimates on war expenditure were about 1,000 million dollars on manufacture of one fighting aircraft which is estimated to be about one tenth of the total expenditure of the world on rearmament bill. Vice president of the Bendix aviation noted that of the 62,349 planes that existed in 1937, over one third of them were planes for war and that even more were being built (about 28,500 planes of which 4/5 were aircrafts for fighting). 5 In the United Kingdom, the then Chancellor of Exchequer explained to the House of Commons that the that a five million dollars would be spent per day for five years to rearm the UK it could not be taken to be the conclusive determinant of the amount to be spent as the figure could be higher . Canada is no exception of the rearmament problem. The Canadian MP's demanded to know the support the government was giving to the UK since they were suspecting that the prime minister was going to issue a blank check. However the premier did not did not address question with seriousness it deserved claiming that there were commitment to the government of the UK or other nations. Considering the fact that the rearmament programs were offering jobs to young people with high salaries, the labor M.Ps did not oppose the rearmament debate. The stock markets indicated a notable increase in the number and prices British armament and allied companies shares by about 20%. Reaction of Europe to Germans Violation of Versailles. 6 In essence the French and the Britons did nothing in response to the activities of Hitler. Britain was still concentrating on the efforts to come out of the economic depression it had suffered to stabilize the economy. By that time, the Britons could not afford a disagreement. The French on the other hand resort to defend themselves from the possible attack by the Germans and most of its resources were used to build the Maginot Line. The British, Italian and French governments resort to forming an accord called the Stresa Front which was aimed at protesting against the activities of Hitler and his policy to rearm Germany. 7 At some point it was seen as if the British were supporting Germany to break the terms of the accord in the Versailles treaty. The accord had clearly stated that the Germany's navy would not have submarines and that it could only have six war ships that exceeded 10,000 tons. However the signing of the Anglo German Naval accord in June of 1935, the Germans were allowed to have a third of the tonnage of the UK's navy and the tonnage of submarines were similarly increased. The big question is a how could France allow Germany to go against the Versailles This was the beginning of what was to de referred to as appeasement. There was a strong believe that the Nazi Germany would establish her navy despite efforts to block it. However, the official accord with Britain would greatly improve their relationship. There was also a feeling that the Versailles accord was too harsh to the Germans and that it was the most appropriate moment to loosen the terms set and that European nations had to co exist. It was agreed that this strategy would satisfy the then leader of Germany (Adolph Hitler) and the entire Europe would benefit from this action so that the Germans would not have a reason to feel pressured by the terms of the old accord. This approach was believed to be the best in achieving the stability that was greatly needed in Europe and to satisfy the angered Germans. The purpose that this accord served was to fool the ignorant people as earlier on in less than two months, the British government had just accented to the Stresa Front condemning the German army and it also proved that Hitler could push the Britons and challenge some parts of the Versailles. 8 The economy After sometime following the end of world war 1, there was a major fallout between the US and Germany partly because the US were too powerful not to get involved in war activities and on the other hand because Germany wanted revenge . The ramification treaty that was signed after the First World War saw Germany's economy fall into depression and this resulted in the feeling of revenge and uprising against the world in the strongest way possible. The estimated cost for the war for allied power skyrocketed to between 10 and 100 billion dollars. Eventually, the allied powers came to settle to 33billion dollars, which was supposed to be paid by the Germans and still they didn't have the financial capability to do so. Other than the mandate imposed to pay the reparations, the Germans were to also reduce the spending on the military by a substantial amount, give up the property especially the land gained during the war period and was also stopped from operating any air force at all. 9 There is still concern about the rearmament even after the second and cold war periods. This is true especially with the NATO's campaign over the fights that were taking place in Kosovo. This revived the issues about rearmament in Germany. In 1999, there were a lot of protest against the NATO's air attacks on Yugoslavian nationals, according to the then president of America; Bill Clinton suggested that, the support by the Germans was very critical. Though the rearmament was so evident during the time Hitler ruled, it had begun earlier in Germany as the German chancellor had seen passing of cabinet laws that allowed illegal re-armament and secret dealings. When the Nazis took over power, rearmament became the top priority. Even though the available information does not include the women, and the non citizens, it's evident that the rearmament program nearly led to full employment in period around 1930's. Real salaries in the country, however declined by 25% during the period from 1933 to 1939. The serious industries that were operating in Germany saw an opportunity for advancement when the rearmament policy was clear that Germany was not backing down. There was a sudden wave of revolutionized fortune for several firms in Germany. Many firms were taken out of the economic depression that was affecting the country (the great depression). This is because the local firms which had specialized in production of certain domestic products set up to diversify their products, become more creative and introduce innovations. For instance, the shipyards established other branches to make design of planes and to build airplanes. The field of aeronautics was the major benefactor of the rearmament policy as there was development that was technological and revolutionary. 10 The civil war that sparked in Spain between 1936 and 1939 provided a perfect ground to try out the proficiency of the weaponry tat was being manufactured by the firms in Germany during the period of rearmament. Many of the bombing being tested were the aeronautical bombs and bombing techniques by the condor legion. Hitler insisted that the designs were peaceful. Achieving Economic Aims Hitler's Way When Hitler ascended to power, Germany was experiencing an economic hardship and still suffering from the effects of the accord that was signed in 1919 to mark the end of the First World War and the impact of the Wall Street crash. As a leader, Hitler realized that economic recovery was necessary for the survival of the Nazi German and in order for him to achieve his future ideology for Germany. He even recognized that the requirements of states change with time and was very important. Hitler believed that Germany was a great nation which was capable of achieving great things in Europe. The first thing Hitler wished to do was to create employment opportunity for the youths in an effort to try and work out the economic depression. The unemployment rate was very high with about six billion unemployed people in 1930. One advantage of this policy was that once unemployment would have been reduced, the government would be able to consolidate its powers again. Another objective was to establish Wehrwietschaft as a defense economy so as to accomplish the wish for territorial expansion. In order for this to be achieved, Hitler thought that war resources had to be prepared, to create job opportunities, to provide substitutes for imports so that the country could gain self dependence referred to as autarky. Though Hitler was very positive in his ambition to achieve these goals, this had to be carried out in terms laid down. 11 The strategy that was employed by Hitler to accomplish his objectives was to create jobs, which would result in reduced state benefits, higher public expenditure and venture and initiate demand from consumers. Public schemes were initiated to construct homes and autobahns hence creating a lot of jobs. Tax relives and grants were also provided to the citizens to motivate investing and demand. Even more jobs were created from this. More young men were recruited in the military making the number of personnel in the armed forces to grow to 1.400.000 from 100.00 in 1933 to accomplish the objective of Wehrwirschaft. 12 Another great development that was noted was the appointment of Schacht as the Minister in charge of economics. Schacht had good connections with the rich and the elite meaning that his appointment pleased the rich and his experience would enable him to do a great job. He introduced deficit financing policy where the government was spending more than what it was earning in order to improve the financial system. Several methods helped to build the economy of Germany for instance in 1932, Brunning was able to negotiate the end of reparations imbursement and suspended reimbursement of debt and this encouraged the development of the Wehrwirtscaft. More bilateral trades were established enabling Germany to access raw materials for its rearmament program. In order to obtain the Auturky, bartering was introduced in Germany to exchange products without the use of the legal tender or cash money and that the amount of imports could be regulated. Germany was doing fine economically though there were some elements of failure. The ambition to create employment was very successful and only 200 million people were unemployed by the year 1938 and the number of employed individuals had increased by 0.8 million between 1928 and 1938. The wage rate fell as a matter of state income. Achieving independent Wehrwirtschaft was also done successfully and the autarky was almost achieved as well. 13 Due to deficit financing, Germany's expenses exceeded the income by double the amount and it was still dependent on foreign imports. The success of the economic strategy used by Hitler was very varied in terms of demographics. The financial policies put in places did not really benefit the middle class and as such, many of them went bankrupt. People had to work for long hours and lesser pay and poor working conditions as well. Actually the Hitler economic strategy could not be said to have been successful or to have failed totally but rather a little bit of both. 14 Conclusion Rearmament was a critical period in the political, economic and development of the European nations as it served as an initiative for the nations to work had bearing in mind that the world as in an economic depression after the first world war that had just ended. However scholars have affirmed that it was due to the events of rearmamation that the world slipped into the Second World War Reference Hallgarten G (1952), "Adolf Hitler and German Heavy Industry". Journal of Economic History, Summer 1952, p. 224. Haperin S. (2004). War and Social Change in Modern Europe The Great Transformation Revisited. 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