And, if you remember, that was also another forbidden term of the Treaty of Versailles. Austria is, fundamentally, a German-speaking nation. There had been popular sentiment for many years, amongst many Austrians, to possibly be unified with the Germans. And there was already popular support for the Nazis in Austria. So, you have the Germans come into Austria - really a bloodless takeover. In March of 1938, you have a coup d'état, orchestrated by the Nazis in Austria, that really overthrows the Austrian government and allows the Germans to unify the two countries. Then, we get into 1938, and German aggression really goes into full gear. So they really don't push back on Germany. But they decided this is not reason to potentially start another war over. The UK, in particular, once again, not super happy about this. But once again the allies - The French are not so happy about this. But by 1936, Hitler decides to ignore all of those, and occupies the Rhineland. And then that was actually reaffirmed in 1925 by the Treaties of Locarno, where Germany, itself, agreed to not occupy the Rhineland. 1936, you might remember - another term of the Treaty of Versailles was that Germany was not allowed to occupy the Rhineland - this area in yellow right over here. But now, they felt confident enough to publicly state their intention - which is another way of publicly stating that they care less about the Treaty of Versailles, which had said that Germany was limited to a 100,000-soldier military.
They, in fact, were doing this as soon as they had taken power, in 1933. The reason why this is significant is not that they were all of a sudden building their military. In 1935, they publicly announce their intent to rearm their military.
As we get into the second half of the 1930s, we see an increasingly aggressive Nazi Germany.
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