Abstract
By December 1931, the German economy was at tipping point. This chapter illustrates the lengths to which European governments were willing to go in order to halt the rise of the Nazi party. Despite the best efforts of the Lausanne Conference, very little could be done to stem the flow; the Nazis took control in 1933. Having withdrawn from the Geneva Disarmaments Conference and League of Nations, Germany sought to strengthen its beleaguered armed forces. Perhaps naively, the British government maintained diplomatic relations with the Nazis until the Munich Agreement of 1938. Less than a year later, Europe would, once again, be at war. It is interesting to ponder whether, if certain events had not occurred, the “Versailles system” could have evolved into a mechanism for securing the peace of Europe and the world, in an ideal world, perhaps.
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Elcock, H. (2018). Götterdämmerung: Hitler and the End of the Versailles System. In: Could the Versailles System have Worked?. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94734-1_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94734-1_8
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