SAAR PLEBISCITE

The Background
The events in the Saar were not an example of Hitler breaking the Treaty of
Versailles, or even of him confronting the international community, but they were
a major step in his build up to World War Two.

The Treaty of Versailles had put the Saar under the control of the League of
Nations for 15 years. During these years, the region was administered by the
League – run, first, by a Frenchman, then by a Canadian and thirdly by a
Briton. In 1935, as preparations began to hold the plebiscite (vote) then the
inhabitants would decide whether they returned to Germany, or retained their
separate identity, it was being administered by a second Briton, Sir Geoffrey
Knox.

The vote was by no means a certainty. Many anti-Nazis had fled to the Saar
after 1933. Seeing what Hitler was doing in Germany, Communists and Social
Democrats formed a 'united front' campaign to try to retain League of Nations
status.
On the other hand, Saar Nazis were equally determined that the Saar should
return to Germany. They formed a 'German Front' with the Catholics. Helped
by the Saar police and the German Gestapo, they boycotted and beat up their
opponents. The League knew what was going on, but it was afraid to stop the
plebiscite for fear of causing Nazi riots.

The Nazis turned up the pressure. Led by a Nazi called Spaniol, 17,000 Nazi
Saarlanders (who had gone to Germany to join the SA) threatened to invade the
Saar and impose Nazi rule (although this was nipped in the bud in December
1935 when Britain's Anthony Eden offered to send soldiers to keep the peace).

The Plebiscite
On 13 January 1935, the plebiscite was held, overseen by two judges from Italy
and Holland, and a US History Professor, Sarah Wambaugh – they declared that
the election had been fair, and that the result was genuine. The result was
overwhelming: 90.3% of the voters voted to return to Germany.

The Effects
Although the Saar returned to Germany entirely in accordance with the terms of
the Treaty of Versailles, many historians regard it as an essential ‘first step’ on
Hitler’s Road to War:

1. The result validated the Nazi regime. The result was, says one historian, 'the
greatest triumph of the Nazis in a free election'. It demonstrated that
Germans were NOT just being browbeaten into supporting the terror by Nazi
Brownshirts – Germans who lived outside Germany had shown the world that
 they hated the Treaty of Versailles and loved Germany more than they feared
Hitler's regime. It made it very hard for Hitler’s opponents to argue that the
German people were not wholly behind him.
2. The result gave a massive boost to Hitler's prestige, and were in the future to
provide him with the moral authority to advance his demands for unity with
Austrian and the Sudeten Germans. The Saar plebiscite confirmed Hitler’s
expansionist agenda for the rest of the 1930s and made it ve difficult for
democratic regimes to oppose his claims to Austria and the Sudentenland.
3. Events had also, as early as 1935, showed the League was scared to
confront violence. And even more importantly, appeasers such as Daladier
and Chamberlain failed to notice that the Nazis had immediately backed down
when Eden had threatened to send soldiers.

Anti-Comintern Pact, agreement concluded first

between Germany and Japan (Nov. 25, 1936) and then between Italy, Germany,
and Japan (Nov. 6, 1937), ostensibly directed against the Communist
International (Comintern) but, by implication, specifically against the Soviet Union.
The treaties were sought by Adolf Hitler, who at the time was publicly inveighing
against Bolshevism and who was interested in Japan’s successes in the opening
war against China. The Japanese were angered by a Soviet-Chinese
nonaggression treaty of August 1936 and by the subsequent sale of Soviet military
aircraft and munitions to China. For propaganda purposes, Hitler and Benito
Mussolini were able to present themselves as defenders of Western values against
the threat of Soviet Communism.
On Aug. 23, 1939, Japan, outraged by the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact,
renounced the Anti-Comintern Pact but later acceded to the Tripartite Pact (Sept.
27, 1940), which pledged Germany, Italy, and Japan “to assist one another with all
political, economic and military means” when any one of them was attacked by “a
Power at present not involved in the European War or in the Sino-Japanese
Conflict” (i.e., the Soviet Union or the United States).
Germany and Italy had worked well during the Spanish Civil War and had brought
about a fascist victory over communism. Hitler and Mussolini recognized that each
had much in common with the other and that working together would be in their
interest. This interest also expanded to Imperial Japan which was run as a military
dictatorship. In 1936, Japan and Germany signed the Anti-Comintern pact,
followed by the addition of Italy in 1937. The agreement would become known as
the Axis Alliance or Axis Powers.

When did the Spanish Civil War start? Who won the Spanish Civil War? Read
on to get your Spanish Civil War facts straight.

The Spanish Civil War took place in Spain between 1936 and 1939. How did it all
start? In 1936, Manuel Azaña, a democratically elected Republican, was serving as
the president of Spain when a group of the most influential generals from the part
of the Spanish army based in Morocco carried out a coup d'etat led by General
Francisco Franco. Spain quickly erupted into civil war.
The left side, known as the Republicans, was formed by the Spanish government
together with unions, communists, anarchists, workers, and peasants. On the other
side were the Nationalists, the rebel part of the army, the bourgeoisie, the
landlords, and, generally, the upper classes. Although it was a civil war, several
foreign entities also joined the conflict. For different reasons closely linked to the
European context of the time, the Republican side was supported by the Soviet
Union and the European democracies, while the Nationalist side had the support of
fascist Germany and Italy, which meant that the latter was better armed.

The war was one of the hardest Spain has ever faced. After the Nationalist victory,
a dictatorship ruled the country for almost 40 years, from 1939 to 1975, when the
Spanish dictator Francisco Franco died. Although Franco's side had received
German aid during the Spanish Civil War, he decided not to get directly involved in
World War II because Spain was in terrible conditions after suffering the civil war.
The only support Spain sent to Germany was a small group of volunteers.

Spain suffered continuous international isolation during the entire Franco

dictatorship, but it weakened over the years. The Spanish dictator wanted the
country to be recognized by the international community, and little by little the
people began to see certain improvements in their social life. In the 1950s, Spain
was accepted as a member of the United Nations. Then in 1970, Franco appointed
Prince Juan Carlos as his successor.

Francisco Franco’s idea was for Juan Carlos to continue as the head of the
dictatorship that had ruled Spain for so many years, but when he was finally
crowned after the death of the dictator in 1975, instead of continuing the
dictatorship King Juan Carlos I helped Spain return to democracy. The country has
been a constitutional monarchy ever since.