Anglo-German Naval Agreement
The Anglo-German Naval Agreement was an naval arms regulation treaty.
Contents
History
Germany's right to build a military navy was restricted by the Treaty of Versailles.
Negotiations began between the governments of Hitler and MacDonald; the Royal Navy was being actively rearmed, and the British delegation sought to update restrictions for the German Navy in a proportional manner. There were several motivations from the British perspective:
- There was a sentiment that reparations and restrictions were too harsh, and driving militarization rather than containing it.
- Militarists sought to justify further military naval investment.
Pragmatically, the Foreign Office saw appeasement as preferable to outright dissolution of the treaty-negotiated peace in Europe.
This agreement effectively amended the Treaty of Versailles unilaterally, as British defection from the negotiated position made it untenable.