Hitler's Foreign Policy

Question 1

How did Hitler destroy the Treaty of Versailles?

Answer 1

The people of the Saar voted to return to Germany. Britain helped Hitler destroy the Treaty by sighing an agreement which allowed Germany to have a navy which was 1/3 of the same size of Britain

Question 2

How did Hitler create the Return of the Saar?

Answer 2

The Saar had been put under the control of the League of Nations. A plebiscite was held in January, 1935, to decide whether the Saar could be returned to Germany.The results of the plebiscite showed that over 90% of the population of the Saar wanted to reunite with Germany. Hitler regarded this as a great triumph because it was the first of the injustices of the Treaty of Versailles to be reversed.

Question 3

How did the rearmament of Germany begin?

Answer 3

One of the first things that Hitler chose to do when he came to power was to begin to increase the German Armed Forces. He did have to do this secretly at first due to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

Question 4

What happened in the Disarmament Conference?

Answer 4

The first conference met on in February of 1932.The main problem that they were discussing was what to do with Germany. Should everyone disarm to the level that Germany had been forced to or should the Germans be allowed to rearm to the level of other countries? The Germans walked out of the conference in July 1932 when the other counties refused to disarm to the level that Germany had had to.

Question 5

Why did Hitler withdraw from the conference?

Answer 5

In May 1933, Hitler returned to the conference and promised that he wouldn’t rearm if ‘in five years all other nations destroyed their arms’. They refused and Hitler withdrew from the conference in October and not much later, the League of Nations

Question 6

Why did Hitler sign the Non- Aggression pact with Poland in January, 1934?

Answer 6

• He hoped to weaken the alliance that already existed between Poland and France.
• He hoped to reduce the Polish fears of German aggression.
• He wanted to show that he didn’t have a quarrel with Poland, merely the USSR.

Question 7

What was the Anglo- German Naval Agreement, 1935?

Answer 7

.Britain did believe that the terms of the treaty had been too harsh on Germany and that a strong Germany would be a buffer against Communism. In 1935, Britain signed a naval agreement with Germany. This allowed the Germans to have navy fleet up to 35% of the size of the British fleet and have the same number of submarines. The British were accepting Hitler’s breach of the Treaty.

Question 8

What happened with the remilitarisation of the Rhineland, 1936?

Answer 8

On the 7th March 1936, Hitler placed German troops into the Rhineland. This was a risk because it was against the Treaty of Versailles and the German Army only consisted of 22,000 men. So if France had decided to reacts then there would be no chance of the remilitarisation. Luckily, neither France of Britain had reacted and so Saar had returned to Germany.

Question 9

What happened in the Anschluss with Austria?

Answer 9

Schuschnigg, was the Austrian Chancellor and he ordered for a plebiscite to take place in order to find out if the Austrians really wanted to unite with Germany. Hitler worried that the people would vote against the unification. He moved German troops to the Austrian border and threatened to invade if Schuschnigg didn’t resign. On the 12th of March 1938, the Germany army entered Vienna. They were welcomed with cheers and salutes. The Anschluss was complete.

Question 10

What were the reasons for appeasement?

Answer 10

• Everybody wanted to avoid another war at all costs.
• A lot of people believed that Germany had been unfairly treated by the Treaty of Versailles.
• To some people, Communism was seen as the biggest threat. They believed that Germany could act as a buffer because Hitler was anti-communist.
• Britain wasn’t ready to go to war. Rearmament had only started slowly in 1936 and the British forces were no match of the Germans.
• Britain was also preoccupied with problems that had been caused by the Depression e.g Unemployment and they wanted to stay out of foreign involvement.
• The Spanish Civil War had shown how powerful Germany was. The events showed how horrific another war might be.

Question 11

Reasons against Appeasement

Answer 11

• Hitler was given an advantage. He was growing stronger. If war came it would be against a strong Germany.
• It wasn’t right that Britain and France were allowing Germany to break the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
• Chamberlain misjudged Hitler. He had believed that he was simply a normal leader. Appeasement encouraged Hitler that he could do anything he wanted.
• They missed opportunities to stop Hitler e.g the reoccupation of the Rhineland in 1936.
• It didn’t prevent a war.

Question 12

Why did Hitler want the Sudetenland?

Answer 12

There was a large army present and it contained military defences.

• There was a large German speaking population- he wanted to fulfil when of his aims
• Large amounts of coal
• Skoda Armaments factory
• Czechoslovakia had defence agreements with France and USSR, Hitler wanted Czechoslovakia
• For lebensraum
• He hated democracy

Question 13

What happened in the Sudetenland crisis?

Answer 13

Part of Sudetenland had German speakers and Hitler wanted to reunite these people.

• German newspapers printed allegations of crimes which had apparently been committed by the -Czechs towards the Sudeten Germans.
• Hitler threatened to go to war if a solution wasn’t reached.
• Chamberlain, the British Prime-Minister, believed that a peaceful solution could be reached. He attempted to convince the Czech President to accept self-government for the Sudetenland. Beneš did agree but Hitler then produced new demands and claimed that the Sudetenland should become part of the German Reich.

Question 14

What was the Munich Agreement?

Answer 14

• Chamberlain met with Daladier (the French leader), Hitler and Mussolini at Munich in a bid to resolve the Sudeten Crisis.
• The Czech representatives weren’t actually invited to this meeting.
• The Czechs were made to hand over the Sudetenland to Germany. A commission was set up to decide precisely which territory would be lost.

Question 15

What were Hitler’s 3 key aims in his policy?

Answer 15

• Destroy the Treaty if Versailles
• Create a greater Germany
• He wanted more living space (Lebansraum)

Question 16

What were the effects of the Munich Agreement on Czechoslovakia?

Answer 16

• The Czech Government had been completely humiliated.
• The vital area of the Sudetenland was lost and, later on, in October and November, both Poland and Hungary occupied further areas of Czech territory.
• Once again, Britain and France had given in to the demands of Hitler

Question 17

What happened which led to the collapse of Czechoslovakia?

Answer 17

Hitler invaded and occupied the remains of Czechoslovakia in the March of 1939. Bohemia and Moravia were now controlled by Germany. Slovakia was independent in theory; however it was largely dominated by Germany. Ruthenia was given to Hungary.

Question 18

Why did the Appeasement come to an end?

Answer 18

• When Hitler occupied the remainder of Czechoslovakia it suggested that war was eventually going to come.
• The occupation of Czechoslovakia proved that the promises that Hitler had made at the Munich Agreement were not going to be upheld.
• Britain and France were also now rapidly rearming and they accepted that the Policy of Appeasement had obviously failed.

Question 19

What was the Pact of Steel?

Answer 19

The Pact of Steel was signed between Hitler and Mussolini in May 1939. They promised to act together regarding future events that may take place. It was clear that Europe was now divided into two sections. Britain and Germany both began looking to the USSR as a possible source of support.

Question 20

What was the Nazi soviet pact?

Answer 20

The German Foreign Minister, Ribbentrop, and the Soviet Foreign Minister, Molotov, signed the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact on the 23rd of August 1939.
In this pact the Soviets and Germans agreed not to fight each other if a war in Europe took place.
The powers secretly agreed to divide up Polish territory between them.
Hitler also let Stalin occupy part of Romania as well as the Baltic states; Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

Question 21

Why did Stalin and Hitler sign the Nazi-soviet pact?

Answer 21

• The Pact removed the possibility of war on two fronts for Hitler. He was given the opportunity to deal with Poland as well, regardless of the threats given by France and Britain.
• Stalin had already been suspicious about the motives of the British and French who had not shown much friendship to the USSR before Hitler rose to power. Hitler had more to offer to Stalin e.g territory in the East of Europe.

Question 22

Why did Hitler invade Poland?

Answer 22

Hitler decided to invade Poland soon after Germany had signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact.
He did this because…
- Of the pact he didn’t have to worry about the possibility of a Soviet reaction.
-The guarantees that Britain and France had made with Poland in the April of 1939 were made too late for Hitler to believe that they would really go to war.
- The Policy of Appeasement, Hitler believed that he could get away with almost anything. He thought that the British and French would do almost anything to avoid a war.
-He knew that Poland was too far away for the British and French to provide support and decided that even if war came then it would be over very quickly.

Question 23

How did Hitler invade Poland and what were the consequences?

Answer 23

On the 1st of September 1939, Hitler sent German troops into Poland. War was declared soon after this by both Britain and France. The USSR also invaded Poland on the 15th of September and took the territory which had been agreed in the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Poland was defeated in 6 weeks.