How did Hitler achieve his foreign policy aims? Flashcards
From 1933-35, Hitler was c…… his p…..
consolidating his power
When did Germany leave the Disarmament Conference & the League of Nations
October 1933
When was the Non-aggression Pact with Poland
- January 1934
When was the Saar Plebiscite
- January 1935
When did Germany announce rearmament
March 1935
What was in June 1935
Anglo-Naval Treaty
Explain what happened for Germany to leave the Disaramament Conference & the League of Nations
- disarmament conference held to discuss revision of ToV - impossible to reach agreement + Germany walked out in 1932
- Germany came back in 1933, they put on a fascade of being interested in disarmament + secrety rearming
Explain what happened in the Non-Aggression Pact with Poland
- defensive pact, whcih meant Poland could not join USSR in an attack on Germany
- Germany & Poland will NOT fight eachother
Explain what happened in the Saar plebiscite
- ToV said French were allowed to have coal mining rights in the Saar for 15 years, but that it was actually to be run by league of nations
- then there would be a plebiscite (referendum), to allow a democratic decision
What was announced in rearmament in March 1935
- Hitler announced Luftwaffe
- Introduces conscription
- peacetime army of 55,000 men
What is signed once Rearmament is announced
- Great Britain, France, and Italy signed the Stresa Front in response to German remilitarisation
- The agreement aimed to resist future attempts by Nazi Germany to alter the terms of the Treaty of Versailles
What was the Anglo-Naval Treaty of June 1935
- signed with Britain
- allowed Germany to have 35% strength of British fleet
- allowed submarines & battleships
When did the stresa front fall
When Great Britain signed the Anglo-Naval treaty, which was anti-appeasement of Hitler
When did the re-occupation of the Rhineland happen
March 1936
When was the the Rome-Berlin Axis & the Anti-comintern Pact
October 1936
When was the Hossbach conference
5th November 1937
When was Anschluss
March 1938
When was the Czechoslovakian Crisis
August 1938
What period can Hitler’s actions be classified under 1936-39
- anexations & the road to war
What happened in the remilitarisation of the Rhineland
- Britain & France saw no reason to risk war & did nothing, saying that Hitler was marching into his own backyard
What was the Anti-Comintern Pact
- This was a coalition between Germany and Italy which served to informally link the two countries
- It was formalised by the pact of Steel in 1939
- A Pact was also signed with Japan to stop the spread of communism although it was primarily directed against the USSR
What was the Hossbach conference
- Hitler felt he possess full control over Germany’s foreign poilcy
- Autarky was impossible - so needed lebensraum
- he outlined aims of Anschluss & the destruction of Cezechoslovakia
What was the Anschluss
Germanys invasion of Austria in March 1938
What happened in the Czechoslovakian crisis 1938-39
Hitler wanted to take the…
Sudetenland - an area of Czechoslovakia containing 3 million ethnic Germans.
What happened in the Czechoslovakian crisis 1938-39
What was the foreign policy agreements cocnerning Hitler & Czechoslovakia
- Chamberlain, the British PM, met Hitler in September 1938 and agreed to give Hitler the Sudetenland if it was done so peacefully
- Hitler said if he could not have this area by 1 October 1938, then he would invade the rest of Czechoslovakia
What happened in the Czechoslovakian crisis 1938-39
What happened at the Munich Conference
- On 29th September the Munich Conference was held and it was agreed that Hitler could have the Sudetenland
- Chamberlain returned to Britain saying that he had secured ‘peace for our time’
What happened in the Czechoslovakian crisis 1938-39
How did Hitler go against the Munich Conference
- However by March 1939 Hitler ordered his armies to occupy Bohemia and Moravia and then further land in Czechoslovakia
- Czechoslovakia had ceased to exist
How did Germany leaving the Disarmament Conference & the League of Nations help Hitler to achieve his aims
- good excuse for Germany to leave the league of nations, due to inability to get deal over equality + leave conference
How did signing a non-agression pact with Poland help Hitler to achieve his aims
- Helps Hitler create an alliance with a potentially dangerous country
- Poland as a buffer zone between USSR
- convenient for rearmamnet
How did the Saar plebisite help Hitler to achieve his aims
- overturning ToV
- propaganda success for Hitler - increases international status + popularity in Germany
- acheiving pan-germanism
- over 90% of the population voted to reunite with Germany
How did announcing rearmament help Hitler achieve his aims
- overturning ToV
- Building up war plans
How did the Anglo-Naval treaty help Hitler to achieve his aims
- overturning ToV
- building up army war plans
- strategic alliances - Britain=racially pure
How did the re-occupation of the Rhineland help Hitler to achieve his aims
- Hitler gains confidence
- Safe from western attack so can pursue east
- Lebensraum
How did the Rome-Berlin axis help Hitler to achieve his aims
- anti-communist
- support against USSR
How did The Hossbach Conference help Hitler to achieve his aims
- make the racial community secure & preserved
- Hitler still wanted to unite more Germans
How did Anschluss help Hitler to achieve his aims
- Fuhrerprinzip
- Pan-germanism
- Lebensraum
- give Hitler confidence
How did the Czechoslovakian Crisis help Hitler to achieve his aims
- expansionist beyond pre-1914 borders
- Inbvasion into the east
- Lebensraum
What was the single most important short term cause of WW2
- The Nazi-Soviet Pact on the 23rd August 1939
Why was the Nazi-Soviet Pact on the 23rd August 1939 the single most important short term cause of WW2
it explains why WW2 broke out when it did
What was Hitler’s thought process following the Nazi-Soviet Pact on the 23rd August 1939
- It meant that Hitler was ready to invade Poland within days of the agreement
- He knew that the USSR would not stop him, & he did not believe that Britain or France would either
How did Britain react to the Nazi-soviet pact
- On August 25th, Britain turned Chamberlain’s promise to Poland into a formal Anglo-Polish alliance
- If Hitler did invade Poland, Britain would NOT backdown
- This would destroy her reputation as a world power & would be a humiliating acceptance of German domination
What was the most signficant idealogical divide in Europe after WW1
- Communist Russia & the Capitalist West
Why did the West percieve the Soviet Union as a threat
- Russia set up a Cominterm, an organisation to spread the ideas of communism worldwide
What impact did Russia seeting up a cominterm have on international relations
- Rather than making an liiance with Russia, the western powers helped the ‘whites’ to fight the communist ‘reds’, in the Russian Civil War
What was the new idealogical divide from the 1930s
- 3 countries became dictatorships:
- Germany under Hitler
- Italy under Mussolini
- Japan under military leadership
What united the dictatorships in the 1930s
- anti-communist idealogies,
- resentment of ToV,
- rejection of democracy,
- & belief in the importance of a strong military
How did these idealogical divisions shape Hitler’s fp & cause WW2
At first, an ………….. appealed to Britain & France
anti-communist
How did these idealogical divisions shape Hitler’s fp & cause WW2
As the dictatorships became more aggressive, Western democracies began to see them as…………….
aggressive
Describe the USSR’s leadership in the 1930s
The USSR now had a leader, Stalin, who ruled increasingly as a dictator building up a signficant Red Army
Could Britain have allied with the USSR
USSR later seen as a good ally against Germany, but the British Politician Lloyd George summed up the problem with an alliance in 1939, saying that Britain needed the USSR, but did not want it
Initially the USSR were …… of a threat than Nazi Germany
more
Why would Hitler be inclined to ally with the USSR
- USSR suspicious of the West + Germany exploits this situation
- Hitler more inclinded to invade Poland as he knew USSr would support
