Hitler's Foreign Policy & The Origins of the Second World War

Hitler's Aims in Foreign Policy
1. Destroy ToV, by rearming Germany & recovering lands lost in the Treaty
  1. Hitler called the German leaders who signed it the 'November Criminals'. Treaty was constant reminder of their defeat in WW1 & their humiliation by the Allies. Hitler said if he became leader, he would reverse it
2. Bring all German speaking people everywhere under German control. Reuniting with Austria
  1. ToV taken away territory from Germany. Hitler wanted to get it back. Wanted Germany to unite with Austria. Wanted German minorities in other countries (Czechoslovakia) to re-join with Germany
3. Expand East to gain Lebensraum (living space) for German people. This means Poland & USSR
  1. Hitler said they were in need of more land if they were going to do well. He admired Britain's empire, believed Germany needed an empire too in Eastern Europe. Germany would need to rule all of Eastern Europe & take huge bits of the USSR
4. Destroy communist USSR
  1. Hitler was anti-communist. Believed they helped bring out defeat of Germany in WW1. Also believed they wanted to take over Germany. Thought it was poison to make Germany weak. Greatest ambition was to destroy communist USSR. Dream was a war that would: Unite German people behind Hitler, make Germany a leading world power & destroy threat of communism
The Return of the Saar,1935
1. After 15 years of control by the LoN, the time came for a plebiscite
2. Nazi campaigned for it to reunite with Germany & beat up opposition from socialists and communists
3. Nazi army gathered on the border, but disbanded when France & Britain threatened to send an army
4. Plebiscite held January 1935, 90% Saarlanders voted in favour of reuniting with Germany
The Beginning of Rearmament in Germany
1. Withdrawal from the Disarmament Conference 1933
  1. First met Feb 1932. Didn't know what to do with Germany as been in League for 6 years. Didn't know if everyone else should disarm to the level that Germany had been forced to, or the Germans should be allowed to rearm to the level of the other people
  2. Germans walked out of the conference in July 1932 when the other powers failed to disarm down to the level of Germany. May 1933 Hitler returned to the conference & promised not to rearm if "In 5 years all other nations destroyed their arms". They refused, so Hitler withdrew from the conference in October 1933 & then the LoN too
2. Non-Aggression Pact with Poland 1934
  1. January 1934 Germany signed a non-aggression agreement with Poland
  2. Hitler hoped to weaken the existing alliance between France & Poland
  3. He hoped to reduce Polish fears of German aggression
  4. Wanted to show he had no quarrel with Poland, only with the USSR
3. Reintroduction to Conscription 1935
  1. 1935, Hitler re-introduced conscription & announced a peacetime army of 550,000. A new Air Ministry was to train pilots & build 1,000 aircrafts. He was breaking the rules of the ToV, but got away with it
  2. France, Italy & Britain met in Stresa where they agreed to work together to preserve the peace in Europe. Condemned German rearmament. Became known as the Stresa Front against German aggression, but didn't last long (due to Abyssinian Crisis)
4. Anglo-German Naval Agreement (Treaty), 1935
  1. 1935, Britain signed a naval agreement with Germany that allowed the Germans to build up their navy up to 35% of the size of the British navy & have the same number of submarines
The Remilitarisation of the Rhineland 1939
1. Under the ToV, the Rhineland was a de-militarised zone. Germans were allowed to keep troops or weapons in the Rhineland
2. Hitler challenged this by ordering 32,000 troops & armed police to march into the Rhineland. Feared Britain & France would try to stop him - they didn't
3. This encouraged Hitler to continue pursuing his policies
4. British government believed the ToV had been unfair. British thought that by allowing Hitler to right the wrongs of Versailles, future peace with Germany would be secured
5. Hitler offered to make a treaty that would last for 25 years
The Anschluss with Austria 1938
1. Hitler bullied the Austrian Chancellor, Schuschnugg, into excepting a Nazi, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, as Austrian Minister of the Interior
2. Schuschnigg ordered a plebiscite to find out if the Austrian people really wanted union with Germany
3. Hitler feared a 'no' vote, so he moved German troops to the Austrian border & threatened to invade if Schuschnigg did not resign in favour of Seyss-Inquart
4. Seyss-Inquart became Chancellor of Austria & invited German troops into the country. March 12th 1938, German army entered Vienna. Anschluss was complete
5. Nazis organised their own vote about union with Germany and of those who voted, 99% voted in favour. Austria immediately became a province of the new German Reich
Reasons For and Against Appeasment
1. FOR
  1. Hitler was a man who could be relied upon when he had given his word - trustworthy
  2. There were German speaking people in several countries, so seemed fair to let them join Germany. If Germany couldn't defend itself, then rearmament was fair. If Hitler could be reasoned with them, then there was little to fear for Britain
  3. Hitler always said that he wanted all German-speaking people with Germany. He needed land in the east to feed his people
2. AGAINST
  1. Czechoslovakia will be swallowed up by the Nazis
  2. People had to get along with people like Hitler. Try to remove any grievance that Germany had
  3. Trust
  4. Beginning of more actions

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Hitler's Foreign Policy & The Origins of the Second World War

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