IGCSE CH3- How far was Hitler's foreign policy to blame for the outbreak of war?

Mein Kampf (what is it, dates, and aims)

Hitler’s book which laid out his intentions for his foreign policy and his extremist ideals. Written in 1925.
Aims:

• Abolish the TOV (hated the ‘November Criminals’)

• Expand German territory: Lebensraum unite with Austria (Anschluss), German minorities (such as in Czechoslovakia) to rejoin Germany

• Defeat communism; he believed that the Bolsheviks had helped to bring the defeat of Germany in the First World War

Rearmament

• Thousands of unemployed workers drafted into the army

• Begins in secret at first

• Makes a public display about not wanting to; only cause everyone else isn’t disarming

• Withdrew from LON (Oct 1933)

• Massive military rally and reintroducing conscription (1935)

Anglo-German Naval Agreement (1935)

• Britain feels TOV too tight on armed forces

• Strong Germany would be good buffer against communism

• German navy up to 35% of Britain’s

Saar Plebiscite (1935)

• Goebbels mounts a massive campaign to persuade the people of the Saar

• 90% of the population voted to return to German rule

• Hitler declares he has ‘no further territorial demands to make of France’

The Rhineland (March 1936)

• France and the USSR had just signed a treaty to protect each other from Germany; Hitler uses it to claim Germany under threat

• It went against the Locarno Treaties of 1925 and the TOV

• Hitler ordered 20 000 troops into the Rhineland

• LON attention on Abyssinian crisis

• French about to hold election

• British sympathetic towards Germany; thought TOV too harsh

Spanish Civil War (1936)

• Between Republicans and Nationalists (Franco)

• USSR supports Republicans (weapons, aircraft, pilots)

• Hitler + Mussolini then declared their support for Franco

• Mussolini sent thousands of Italian troops

• Germany sent aircraft and pilots; try out the Luftwaffe and develop Blitzkrieg tactics

• Strengthens bond between Mussolini and Hitler

• Encouraged Hitler that Br and Fr would not intervene

Axis Alliance (1936)

• 1936: Japan and Germany sign the Anti-Comintern Pact to oppose communism

• 1937: Italy also signs- Rome Berlin Axis Alliance

Anschluss (1938)

• Hitler believed that the two belonged together

• In 1934, Mussolini opposed him, but now they were friends

• Hitler encourages Austria Nazi Party to stir up trouble for Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg, and told Schuschnigg that only Anschluss could prevent these problems

• Britain and France ignored Schuschnigg

• Schuschnigg feels he has no choice but to call a plebiscite

• March 1938: Hitler sends his troops to guarantee a trouble free plebiscite, so 99.75% vote for Anschluss

Appeasement: For

• Br and Fr felt that Hitler could be a buffer against communism spreading

• They wanted to avoid another world war as the first one wasn’t long ago

• British intelligence suggested that the British were some way behind Germany in terms of armaments, as they only began rearming in 1935

• The USA were following a policy of isolationism

• Br could not guarantee the support of its empire or Commonwealth

• Many felt the TOV was too harsh, and once Hitler had made it a bit fairer Germany would become peaceful again

• Br and Fr still had large debts from WW1, and mass unemployment as a result of the Depression

Appeasement: Against

• Hitler was never trustworthy so agreements made with him meant nothing

• Germany was rearming publicly and quickly, and were better armed than Britain and France (although Hitler claimed he was just trying to catch up)

• Hitler took increasing risks, so Br and Fr needed to stand up to him to prevent a more dangerous move later on

• Appeasement sent the message to Stalin that Br and Fr would not stand in Hitler’s way if he invaded Russia

Sudetenland (1938)

• Benes (leader of Czechoslovakia) was horrified about Anschluss

• He sought guarantees from Br and Fr that they would support Czechoslovakia if Hitler invaded

• Hitler promised Chamberlain that Czechoslovakia was safe (it wasn’t)

• Konrad Henlein, leader of Nazi Party in Sudetenland, demanded the area should be part of Germany- Hitler made it clear that he intended to fight Czechoslovakia

• Without the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia would be defenceless

• 15 Sep: Chamberlain + Hitler meet, Hitler moderates his demands to only parts of Sudetenland, only if plebiscite

• 19 Sep: Fr and Br put the plan to the Czechs

• 22 Sep: Hitler says he wants all of the Sudetenland

• 29 Sep: MUNICH CONFERENCE; they decide to give Hitler the Sudetenland, without consulting Czechs, USSR. Br, Fr, Ger, It. ‘Peace for our time’- Chamberlain

Czechoslovakia, 1939

• 15th March; Hitler invades the rest of Czechslovakia

• Br and Fr told Hitler that if he invaded Poland, they would declare war

Nazi-Soviet Pact, 1939

• Stalin believed there was little diff between democracy and fascism

• Concerned over whether capitalist countries would ‘gang up’ on him- he wanted to be on the winning side of any war

• In 1934 Stalin made a speech that Soviet foreign policy was pragmatic rather than dependent on the ideology of the government concerned

• Jan 1934: Stalin makes it clear he is willing to do business with Hitler

• Sep 1934: USSR joins LON

• 1935: Communist parties ordered to stop trying to organise revolution

• Soviet Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov; 1934-38 tried to deal with BR and Fr

• USSR didn’t like appeasement

• Stalin suspected Br and Fr wanted Nazi Germany and Soviet Union to go to war in the hope they would destroy each other

• 17 April 1939: Litvinov outlines a treaty with Br and Fr, but Britain take 6 weeks to reply

• May 1939: Litvinov dismissed, Molotov starts secretly talking with the Nazis

• 12 Aug 1939: Failure in Leningrad between Soviets and West

• 23 Aug 1939: Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact; Germany and USSR to carve up territory between their two countries- USSR offered control of vast areas of territory under Polish rule.