Nazi Germany - Hitler's foreign policy

Hitler’s three foreign policy aims

• dismantle the treaty of versaille

• unify all the german speaking countries

• lebensraum

What is lebensraum

• Living space

• Nazi plans to claim large areas of eastern europe to cater for the german population

• Hitler thought it was his right to govern over the “inferior slavs”

• also wanted econokmic bits in russia (grain/oil)

Headings of Hitler’s FP and dates?

• 1933 - left the league of nations

• 1934 (january)- ten year non aggression pact with poland

• 1934 (july) - dolfuss affair

• 1935 - rearming

• (explain appeasement)

• 1936 - 1939 - spanish civil war

• 1936 - rhineland

• 1936 Rome berlin axis

• 1937 Anti communist pact

• 1939 Pact of steel

• 1938 - Anschluss

• 1938 September - Munich conference

• 1938 - (late) - czechoslovakia

• 1939, august - Nazi soviet pact

• 1939 - WW2 begins (polish invasion)

How and when did Hitler leave the league of nations

• 1933

• France and britain rejected his rearmament programme

Non aggression pact w poland, explain ?

• 1934 January

• lulled poland into false sense of security

• poland thought stalin was a greater threat than hitler was

What was the dolfuss affair

• July 1934

• mussolini sent 40,000 italian troops to the italy/austrian border to prevent a coup d’etat after nazi supporters assissinated the austrian prime minister dolfuss

What happened when germany rearmed ?

• 1935

• Hitler openly declared his plan to increase the german army from 100,000 to 550,000

• Britain, instead of taking action, signed the anglo-german naval agreement, limiting the size of the german navy to 35% the size of the royal navy

anglo german naval agreement

• 1935

• Britain, instead of taking action, signed the anglo-german naval agreement, limiting the size of the german navy to 35% the size of the royal navy

  • useless, ww2 was a plane war,

  • hitler could still have subarines and what not

h

how did hitler take the rhineland

• While the european powers were concerned with mussolinis invasion of abyssinia

• took the demilitarized rhineland

• the army thought this was a massive risk but hitler made htem do it anyway

What was appeasement ? Why did they adopt it

• Neville chamberlain

• main aim was to keep germany happy in order to avoid another european war

They adopted it because

• many in britain thought germany had suffered enough w the treaty

• many of the british politicians thought the idea of unifying german speakers made sense

• britain saw the nazis as a buffer against communism

• britain was unprepared for war - psychologically and militarily

What happened w the spanish civil war

• 1936 - hitler intervened in the bitter spanish civil war

• sent aid to general franco for two reasons

  • test new methods for warfare (them testing blitzkreig made britain realized they are fucked)

  • test willingness of britain and france to come to the aid of democratic spain

• Drew germany and italy closer together, signed a series of agreements

Wahat agreements did germany and italy sign post spanish civil war

• Rome/berlin axis 1936 - friendly agreement

• anti communist pact 1937 - stop the spread of communism

• pact of steel 1939 - military agreement, commited both of them to come to the aid of the other in future wars

what was hitlers greatest achievement

anschluss

What happened w the anschluss

• 1938

• austrian chancellor became aware of plot to overthrow the austrian government

• he thought hed stop this by saying hed put a vote on for the people

• hitler said no, and threatened to bomb austria

• gave hitler’s puppet power - seyess inquart

• lad invites nazis in to “restore law and order”

• march 1938, nazis march right into vienna and received with cheers

austrian chancellors name pre anschluss

von schuschnigg

pro nazi austrian politicians name

seyss inquart

weaknesses of czechoslovakia

• German speaking

• 2 distinct identities, and hitler used this by collabing with the slavic part of the government to take over the czech part

• mutual assistance fell apart here.

What happened in the munich conference

• september 1938

• conference in munich

• britain, france, italy and germany - no stalin or the czech government

• britain and france gave into hitlers want of the sudetenland, but said that he wasnt allowed to take any more land

• winston churchill said not to do this

  • hitler took the rest of czechoslovakia 6 months later

how did france and britain change their policy post czechoslovakia takeover

• promised help to countries most at risk

• poland, greece, romania and turkey

What was the nazi soviet pact

august 1939 - 10 year non agression pact

common interests of both states brought them together, soviets needed time, hitler wanted poland without having to fight two wars

secretly agreed to split poland

When and why did ww2 outbreak

• september first, germany invaded poland

• 3rd september, he ignores requests to withdraw, gets declared war on

Nazi state at war headings

• Invasion of poland

• phoney war

• western war

• fall off of france

• operation dynamo

• battle of britain

• war in africa

• operation barbarossa

• battle of stalingrad

• america enters war

• operation torch

• dday invasion

• battle of the bulge

What happened in the invasion of poland

• new type of warfare

  • blitzkreig

  • sheer speed and shock of blitzkreig + soviet invasion from east sent the polish army into disarray

  • surrendered after two weeks

What was the phoney war

winter 1939 / 40

war declared but nothing happened

biritsh used this time to move troops into france

suddenly came to halt in april 1940

war in the west post phoney war?

• hitler unleashed a second wave of blitzkreig in western europe

• overran denmark and norway

• chamberlains failure to prevent an invasion of western europe led him to resign and give churchhill the role of prime minister

How did hitler take france

• 10 may

• bypassed the maginot line by attacking france through the hilly ardennes region

• took people by surprise and trapped the british between the coast and the advancing german army

• operation dynamo - evacuated brtiish soldiers

• 338,000 soldiers rescued in 6 days

• churchhill described this as a win

• german troops got to paris on the 13 of june, and france surrendered 10 days later

Battle of britain

• britain stood alone in europe against nazis atp

• before hitler could launch operation sea lion

• he tried beating the british RAF first

• battle of britain began - an air war

• britain had major advantage here

  • had radar

  • had fighter planes that matched the german planes

  • hitler decided to start attacking cities instead, giving the raf time to recover

• hitler gave up mid 1941 and instead concentrated on war on the soviet union

War of africa

• mussolini attacked north africa

• went terrible, hitelr sent general rommel to help the italians in 1941

• eventually defeated by the british in el alamein, victory gave hte british forces a great boost

when was operation barbarossa

• 22nd june 1941

• hitler broke terms of nazi soviet pact, operation barbarossa on the soviet union

• hitelr needed the soviet union for a few reasons

  • needed oil

  • needed lebensraum

  • hated communism

• at first successful, but soviet military was smart and withdrew, allowing the germans to march on through the severe winter weather

• as they retreated, adopted scorched earth polciy and burnt anything of use

What happened in the battle of stalingrad

• winter came, red army launched counter attack

• hitler wanted stalingrad as it had oil, and would humiliate stalin

• luftwaffe bombed the city to a pulp, but when the germans entered under von paulus, red army emerged from ruins

• german tanks couldnt manoeuvre in narrow streets

• tanks destroyed by the use of molotov cocktails

• during the severe winter of 42/43 they were trapped in the city

  • red army used a million soldiers to surround the city, and they had to surrender

how was the battle of stalingrad a key battle

• major turning point

• nazi advance had been stopped

• red army continued to push the germans back, soiet forces won a battle at kursk, then got leningrad back after 900 days

how and why did america join the war

december 1941

japan bombs pearl harbour, roosevelt immediately declares war on japan

1943 - america launched successful attack on italy from nort africa, swept up from southern italy and overthrew mussolini in 1943

what happened on DDAY

• 6 june 1944

• Germans built a fat wall down the north of holland to the spanish border

• lots of tech made for the invasion

  • ambphibious tanks designed for landing beaches

  • pipe line under the ocean laid so theyd have oil

  • artifcial harbours towed towards the channel so vehicles could be brought ashore

• normandy chosen for invassion

• done to fool germans who thought theyd land at calais - shortest sea route

• eisenhower led the british, american and canadian forces onto 5 beaches

• germans put up a strong resistance

• omaha beach - 3000 american soldiers killed in attack

• evening of june 6th, 155,000 allied soldiers and 1000 tanks had landed in normandy

What happened in the battle of the bulge

• pushed germans back

• 1944 august, paris liberated

• germans had lost too many soldiers and tanks and couldnt resist much when the allies too back the rhine in march 45

• germans were squeezed from the west and the east

end of the war in europe

• 30th of april, red army entered berlin, and hitler shot himself

• handed all power to admiral donitz

• 7th of may, donitz surrendered unconditionally to the allies

Why did germany lose the war?

• failed to win the battle of the britain (changed tactics)

• invaded soviet union too close to the winter

• fought on too many fronts

• russia and america were too strong

• lost the battle of hearts and minds - should have moved into russia with a freeing people of communism and stalin mindset

  • eg stalin pretended he wasnt a (c u next tuesday) the entirety of the war

longterm impact of the war

• mass destruction of europe

• holocaust

• cold war

• bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki

• israel in 1948

• eu was formed