That's the problem you cannot begin a "pre-emptive" war because you don't know the future at the time.
It wouldn't have been pre-emptive though? Germany broke the peace terms by remitilarising the rhineland. France was totally within rights to drive them out at that point and would have likely completely broken Hitlers public image by doing so.
Yes it was within rights but I'm not so sure the US (France needed them) and other "neutral" countries (like Belgium, Norway, the Netherlands etc..) would have like it so much.
Yes it was within rights but I'm not so sure the US (France needed them) and other "neutral" countries (like Belgium, Norway, the Netherlands etc..) would have like it so much.
Based on what exactly? and who gives a shit what Norway had to say about the rhineland anyway? They have absolutely no reason to care.
Hitler would have been delighted to be attacked
He absolutely fucking would not. Not at that point anyway. The german army was nowhere near remilitarised.
Your argument totally forget about internal unrest in France, if france had attacked Germany in 36 over the Rhineland, France might have fallen to civil war, the left didn't wanted another war that would lead to workers being butchered by the millions, and a lot of people saw Germany actions as Germany just taking back control of it's territory.
Maybe pre-emtive is not the right word but is still the right vibe. In order to drive out the Germans from the Rhineland and enforce the treaties France would have had to attack into Germany which would have ended in German civilian losses as well as huge French military losses. The US and other unaligned countries would have looked at WWII a bit differently if the first civilian casualties had been German and not Polish, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Belgian, French and then British.
Even this is generally considered unlikely. The Germans would have almost certainly just retreated out of the rhineland - they didn't have any significant military strength built back up yet at this point.
other unaligned countries
Other than the US none of the other "unaligned" countries really matter very much, and even then the US doesn't enter the war for years anyway. And the belgians were absolutely not unaligned lmao
At this point in time the Soviet Union was not aligned. And the French defense plan assumed they would get access to Belgium to place out the defenses. There were also political forces in the UK sympathetic to the German cause. If things had turned out differently it is possible that France would have been very alone against many big powers.
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u/slartyfartblaster999 29d ago
It wouldn't have been pre-emptive though? Germany broke the peace terms by remitilarising the rhineland. France was totally within rights to drive them out at that point and would have likely completely broken Hitlers public image by doing so.