He promised that if he
became leader he would
reverse it
Expand German territory
Hitler wanted to
recover the territories
taken away by the
Treaty
He also wanted to
build an empire in
estern Europe to give
germans extra living
space
Defeat communism
Hitler was anti communist
He believed
Bolsheviks had
caused Germany's
defeat in WWI
Rearmamnet
It was the 1st step of Hitler in
power and the 1st term of the
Treaty of Versailles to be broken.
At the beggining he kept it secret, but
then announced that he was only
rearming because other countries
refused to disarm. After that he withdrew
from the League of Nations
Many unemployed were drafted to the
army, therefore it boosted Nazi support.
Moreover, many countries started
rearmament to fight unemployement,
while other nations refused to disarm
even more
Germany was allowed to increase the
size of its armed forces
Reasons
Hitler´s reasons
were logical
That army was not enough to protect
such a big country
In1935 Britain and Germany signed a naval
agreement that allowed hitler to increase
his navy (30% the size of Britain´s)
This is a picture of a rearmament rally Hitler organized in 1935
The Saar
Plebiscite
The Saar region of Germany was ruled by
a Lueague´s mandate since 1919
In 1935 a plebiscite was held for people to
decide who they wanted to rulled by
Unification with Germany 90.73%
Unification with France 0.40%
Stay the same 8.87%
This results boosted Hitler´s confidence
Remilitarisation of the Rhineland
March 1936
Hitler moved his
troops into the
Rhineland
Breaking a term of
the Treaty of
Versailles
The French
didn't act as
they didn't want
to take
responsibility
from dragging
France into a
war
The League condemned Hitler's
actions but did not do anything
else
Spanish Civil War
Hitler saw an opportunity to fight communism in the
Spanish Civil War
Supported General Franco that lead the Right Wing
Rebbels who opposed to the Republican Goverment
Hitler tested his new aircraft by making
bombing raids
Here is a photo of the ruins the
bombing left in the spanish city of
Guernica
Anschluss
Hitler felt that
Austria and
Germany belonged
together
The Austrian Chancellor called
a plebiscite to see if Austrian
people wanted Anschluss
Hitler sent his troops to guarantee a "trouble free
plebiscite" (he would not risk Austrain people voting
against Anschluss)
99.75% voted for
Anschluss
The
Sudetenland
After the anschluss the Czech
leader knew that the next state
to fall under german control
was Czechoslovakia
Hitler announced he wanted control
of the Suddeteland area
Czechoslovakia would fight for it
They had British, French and Russian support
They had a modern army
They knew that without the Suddeteland
resources their country would be very
weakened economically
Chamberlain talked to Hitler and he said that he only
wanted a small part of the Suddeteland and only if the
people living there didn´t oppose
Two days after he said he wanted all
the area despite if czechs were for or against.
Mussolini organized a meeting in Munich, whith France,
Britain, Germany, the USSR and Italy representatives were
the Munich agreement was signed that allowed Hitler to
take all the area of the Suddeteland, whitout consulting Czechoslovakia
German forces invaded the Suddeteland and
Hungary and Poland took advantage of the
situation to take some territory too
The Czechs Chancellor felt betrayed and abdicated
Czechoslovakia
1939
Hitler invaded the rest of
Czechoslovakia
France and Britain did not do
anything
France and Britain declared that if
Hitler invaded Poland they would
declare war
Nazi Soviet Pact
Stalin was worried about the threat
Germany was to the USSR
He signed a pact with Hitler in which they agreed
to not attack each other, and to divide Poland in
half between them
This allowed Hitler to invade Poland as he
would not face a two front war