Hitler's Foreign Policy and the Origins of WWII

Hitler's aims in Foreign Policy
1. Make Germany into Great Power
2. Unite all German Speaking people under his rule
3. Gain Lebensraum in East for German people
4. Achieving Aims
  1. Necessary to destroy TOV
    1. Change Territorial Settlement by regaining lands inhabited by German people that had been taken e.g Saar and Danzig
    2. Bring the 7 million German speaking in Austria and the 4 million in Czechoslovakia and Poland into his empire
      1. Involved destroying the peace settlement of 1919
    3. Build up German army so he was supported by force
    4. Expand in the east, probably against communist USSR
      1. Hitler hated Communism
      2. Aim for the future when TOV had been overturned and German was in great power in Europe
5. 1st stage was the strengthen lands in Europe
  1. Could not be done alone so Hitler felt that the main enemies of Germany- France and USSR- had to be enemies of Britain and Italy who they were already allied with
German Rearmament
1. Germany allowed to join League of Nations in 1926
  1. One aim was to maintain peace by reducing arms of all countries
    1. Little success by 1932 when the Disarmament Conference began
      1. German allowed to attend
        Hitler withdrew from the Conference and LEN
        He insisted that Germany wanted peace and would disarm if other countries did
        1935- Germany began to rearm
        1935 Conscription in Germany
        Hitler's excuse was that France had increased its term of conscription from 12 to 18 months meaning the number of trained soldiers would increase
        Against TOV
        Why didn't France and Britain react?
        Only opposition was the short- lived Stresa Front to protest against conscription in German
        Soviet Russia joined the LON- afraid of Germany
        Many in Britain felt the TOV was unfair and unjust
        Differences between France and Britain
        Hitler took advantage to further his aims in foreign policy
        He often threatened to use force to achieve his aims
        But whenever he went against the TOV he followed it with peaceful promises
        Britain payed more attention to the peaceful acts than the reversal of TOV
        France felt TOV needed to be strengthened
        Could they invade Germany?
        Tried in 1923 when they occupied the Ruhr because Germany had fallen behind on reparation payments
        Failed
      2. France wouldn't disarm because of fears that German would invade again
10 year non aggression pact
1. 1934
  1. Hitler signed with Poland
    1. Guaranteed the boundaries of Poland
      1. Satisfied the Poles that Hitler would not try to take the Polish Corridor
      2. Pleased Britain who saw it as further proof that Hitler's aims were peaceful
        Germany had accepted the frontier with Poland set up in TOV
Failed Anschluss
1. 1934
  1. Hitler suffered knockback to his aims
    1. He encouraged the Austrian Nazi Party to rebel
      1. Resulted in murder of Austrian Chancellor, Dollfuss
        Looked as if Anschluss would be achieved
        But prevented by Mussolini moving his army to the frontier of Austria and guaranteeing Austrian independance
        Hitler realised his army was not strong enough so he backed down and denied involvement with the Austrian Nazi Party!
Anglo- German Naval Agreement
1. More successful for Hitler
  1. 1935
    1. Hitler's willingness to sign was further proof to Britain of his peaceful intentions
      1. TOV limited the Germany navy to 35% of British fleet excluding submarines
        By signing, Britain were agreeing to Germany rearming
        Britain now felt it was important to limit the size of the German navy
        Success for Hitler because the agreement weakened the Stresa Front as Britain had not consulted France and Italy
        Led to Germany proceeding with rearmament without opposition
        1938
        German Army had 800,000
        Navy- 47 Submarines and 2,000 aircrafts
Return of the Saar
1. January 1935
  1. Plebiscite was held in the Saar to decide whether
    1. Remained under control of LON
      1. 8%
    2. Returned to German control
      1. 90%
        Nazi propaganda took advantage
        Published as being a removal of an injustice of the TOV
        Hitler announced to the world that all cause of grievance between France and Germany had now been removed
        Return of the Saar was legal
        TOV said after 15 years a plebiscite was to be held
    3. Join France
      1. 2%
Remilitarisation of the Rhineland
1. Events
  1. 7th March 1936
    1. German soldiers marched into the Rhineland
      1. Against TOV and Locarno Pact
        The German Government had willingly signed in 1925
      2. Followed with promising that Germany would sign a 25 year non aggression pact and had no further territorial ambitions in Europe
        France, Britain and LON should have acted against this
        All that happened was that German action was condemned by the League
        When the vote was held, only Soviet Russia voted in favour of imposing sanctions on Germany
        Hitler had chosen the right moment
        Britain and France were more concerned about Mussolini
        He had invaded Abyssinia
        French government were divided and didn't want to react without the help of Britain
        Britain didn't think Hitler was doing anything wrong
        The TOV was unjust and so Hitler had a right to take back his own territory
        Unlike Mussolini who was invading another country
        No-one wanted war
        Took more notice of the promise that followed
        End of March 1936, Hitler held a vote in Germany on his policies
        99% in favour of them
        Hitler could have been stopped!
        He sent his soldiers against the advice of his generals who said the army were not strong enough
        He also went against the advice of his financial ministers who feared the effect that economic sanctions could have on Germany
        Hitler dismissed all of this advice
        He judged foreign reactions perfectly
        Germany could have been stopped but there was no support for opposition
        Sanctions would have crippled Germany
        When the soldiers were sent the generals ordered that if there was any opposition against them from the french they were to immediately withdraw
        French army were much stronger than that of Germany in 1936
Anschluss with Austria
1. Union of Germany and Austria
  1. Forbidden by TOV
2. Hitler was born in the boundaries of Austria and said in his book, "Mein Kampf" that he felt the rightful place of Austria was in union with Germany.
3. In 1934 the Austrian Nazis, encouraged by Hitler, had tried to seize power after the murder of Dollfuss
  1. This had been prevented by Mussolini who had previously been prepared to give support to Austria
    1. 1938
      1. Situation had changed
        Mussolini was not allied with Germany and occupied in the Spanish Civil War
        He was unlikely to give help to Austria
        Hitler wanted to unite all German speaking people
        Austrians were German speaking
4. Nazi Party remained strong in Austria in 1938
  1. There were rumours of another Nazi plot to overthrow the Austrian government
    1. Schuschnigg, the Austrian Chancellor, appealed to Hitler for help to end the plotting
      1. Hitler refused
        Instead of helping he put pressure on Schuschnigg and forced him to appoint Seyss- Inquart
        Leader of the Nazi Party in Austria
        This was followed by riots and demonstrations by the Nazis in Austria
        In spite of his position, Seyss Inquart supported the demonstrations and did nothing to stop them
        Schuschnigg, however, made a bold move the end them and save the independence of Austria
        He called a plebiscite on whether the Austrian people wanted to remain independent or not
        Alarmed Hitler
        Hitler wasn't prepared to take the risk!
        It was clear that Schuschnigg had defied Hitler by calling the plebiscite without asking his permission
        He could not afford anything other than an overwhelming vote in favour of unification with Germany
        To make this certain Hitler moved German troops to the border
        He forced Schuschnigg to call off the plebiscite and resign from the office
        Schuschnigg was probably expecting Britain and France to give assistance to Austria
        When it was clear this wouldn't happen, Schuschnigg resigned to avoid blood shed
        Seyss- Inquart replaced
        He invited the Germans into Austria to restore order
        German army entered on 12th March
        1st- Opponents of Hitler were removed
        Around 80,000 were rounded up and put in concentration camps
        Power was handed to Hitler and Anschluss was proclaimed
        14th March
        Hitler processed in triumph through Vienna
        Followed by plebiscite in April
        99.75% of voters agreed with Anschluss
        Hitler could now claim he was only fulfilling the idea of self determination expressed in Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points
        Britain and France protested
        LON was not consulted
        Anschluss was against the TOV but Britain had sympathy for Germany because the Austrians were German speaking and traditionally German
        British government feared communism in the USSR more than it did Nazism
        Britain welcomed a strong Germany because it saw it a a barrier to the USSR and communism
        Hitler's anti communist views strengthened this
        Many Austrians favoured Anschluss because they felt that the Austrian economy was too weak to remain independent

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