Germany Remilitarizes the Rhineland

Hitler ordered German troops to march into the Rhineland — a demilitarized zone under the Treaty of Versailles — in a direct challenge to France and Britain. Neither power responded with force. Hitler later admitted it was his most dangerous gamble: had France mobilized, Germany would have been forced to retreat in humiliation. The unopposed move emboldened Hitler to pursue increasingly aggressive foreign policy and convinced him that the Western democracies would not fight.