France and the Remilitarization of the Rhineland, 1936

Hitler's remilitarization of the Rhineland on 7 March 1936 figures in conventional historiography as one of the turning points in interwar diplomacy. At a stroke the Nazi leader rid his country of the last remaining symbol of inequality visited upon Germany by the Versailles treaty and transformed the strategic balance on the European continent. Once his army had secured and fortified the western frontiers, Hitler could turn his attention to the east and southeastto Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland-with his trepidation about interference substantially diminished. In the last generation the dramatic aspects of this crisis have drawn the attention of numerous historians.1 Few, however, have challenged the notion derived from