Following the defeat of Germany, the allied powers of Europe and America wanted to punish the country and help recoup some of the costs of the war. Germany was saddled with enormous debts, causing no small amount of hardship and misery at home. The Versailles treaty was one of the reasons a firebrand orator named Adolf Hitler was able to ascend the ranks of political power in Germany.

On this day, March 16, in 1935, after a retreat in his cabin in the Alps, Hitler returned to the capitol and announced to his cabinet he decided Germany will knowingly and intentionally stop following the Versailles treaty.

Soon after Germany began re-militarization, which alarmed only none of its neighbors. The French could see what was going on, but preferred to deal with it by continuing construction of the series of fortifications on the German-French border, known as the Maginot Line. Britain, suffering from an economic depression, meanwhile signed a naval pact with Germany – the only thing they felt they had the power to do. Hitler had a free hand in bringing his country to war strength, in full view of his neighbors.