Attempts at a Franco-German economic rapprochement during the second half of the 1930s

Abstract

Hitler’s seizure of power in 1933 was not welcomed in France, but Paris believed that it had the means to contain Nazi Germany. The Third Republic was counting on the diplomatic policy developed since 1919. It was based on an "alliance de revers" with Poland and the Little Entente (Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Rumania). Two great conferences, the economic and financial conference in London and the disarmament conference in Geneva, collapsed in 1933, which was to Berlin’s advantage. It led France to build the Gold Bloc, which soon proved a failure, and encouraged Germany to withdraw from the League of Nations. Furthermore, the French position in Eastern Europe worsened when Poland signed an agreement with Germany in January of 1934. The "alliance de revers" was dying. Paris and Berlin nonetheless tried to come to an agreement on disarmament, but Louis Barthou, the French foreign minister, explained in April 1934 that France would decide alone what was in its national interests. The disarmament talks were over.