KQ3 Flashcards
why had international peace collapsed by 1939
treaties of ww1
failures of LON
economic depression
appeasement
nazi soviet pact
hitlers actions and foreign policies
HITLER
as early as 1925 he wrote a book explaining what he would do if nazis siezed power
1) reverse TOV (when he came to power reparations and others alr reversed)
HE HATED
- limit on army
- tov
- demilitarised rhine
- austria forbbiden to unite
- sudethenland in czechslovakia
- polish corridor
2= expand german territory
- territory from TOV
- unite w austria
- carve out empore in eastern eurpoe for lebensraum
3) defeat cominism
- empire carved out of USSR
HITLERS ACTIONS
1933 - left LON and began rearming
1934 tried anchluss but Italy stopped him
1935 - rearmement rally
1936 - reintrodiced conscription
- sent german troops to rhine
- made antiicomunist alliance w japan
1937 - tried out his weapons in spanish civil war
- anticomunist aliance with italy join
1938 - join austria
- take sudethenland
1939 - invaded rest of czechslovakia
- invaded poland
- nazi societ pact
REarmaMent
1933 Hitler came into power and increased armed forces
- helped reduce unemployment
- made germany strong again
- reversedTOV
Began in secret, made a public display of not wanting to rearm but doing so because others refused to disarm (disarmament conference 1934)
then left lon
1935 rearmament rally
1936 reintrouduce conscription/ rhine
rearmament popular in Germany and boosted nazi support
B helped G so G could be strong against communism
- naval agreement 1935 B allowed G to increase navy up to 35% of G navy, didnt consult anyone
Saar Pleb 1935
saar run by LON since 1919
in 1935 LON held pleb on whether to return saar to German rule
Hitler wary because opponents fled then but LON made him
vote was an overwhelming success for H
propaganda minister (Joseph Gobbels) persuaded w campaign and 90% voted to return w G
Legal and withing terms of TOV
boosted Hitlers morale
rhine remilitarise 1936
-hitler troops into rhine
- this defied TOV and Locrano treaties of 1925
- if he had been forced to withdraw he would have faced humiliation and loss of support from army
- france and USSR signed treaty to protect each other against Germany and G used to claim he was under attack and should be allowed to place troops on his own border
- G army had orders to pull out if French reactedas they army was weak
- LON attention was on Abyssinia so LON condemed Hitlers actions but no power to do anything else
- Frecnh ab to take election and no one wanted to be responsible for throwing French into war
- in the end french refused to act w/o B and they didnt respond (F did not realise how weak G was)
Spanish Civil War 1936
war broke out
ussr supported republicans in the form of weapons aircraft and pilots, and thousands of volunteers from around 50 countries joined war to support Republicans
Hit and Muss declared support for Franco
B&F refused to interfere directly but F supported in the form of weapons
G&I agreed not to intervene but then blantly did so. I sent thousands of troops and G sent aircraft and pilots who took part in bombing raids of civilian populations
Conflict strenghtehened bonds between MUSS AND HITLER and encouraged Hitler to believe B and F would not intervene against further actions
Allowed G to test out its weapons
B increased spending on armed forces
Militarism and Axis 1936/37
japonese wanted to expand empire across asia
1936 G + J signed anti comintern pact to oppose comunism
1937 italy joined and it was now called the axis alliance
Anchluss w Austria 1938
-hitler turned to his homeland, many in austria supported union
-he had alr tried in 1934 but Muss had stopped him, in 38 they were allies
-hitler encouraged nazi party to stir up demonstrations demanding union. He then convinced austrian chancellor that anchluss was the only solution
- chancellor appealed to B&F with no results
- called a pleb to see what austrians wanted
- hiter sent troops and under their watchfull eye, 99.75% voted in his favour
-b&f did not intervene
- austrias recources and armaments added to germanies
- hitler reversed TOV term and made it clear that B&F were not ready to go to war to defend it
B increased army on armaments
APPEASEMENT
(MISSING INFO)
the policy of giving hitler whatever he wanted in hope he would be satisfied and his demands would end
FOR
- hitler unimportant, comunism more urgent
- no more death - wanted to avoid war at any cost
- british army needed time to catch up with Hitler
- couldnt count on USA support
- B needed approval from commonwealth
- H was threat to USSR
- economic problems meant they couldnt afford war
most believed in hitlers owrd and trusted him
- TOV was unfair and demands were reasonable
AGAINST:
- germany was rearming and becoming a major threat
- sooner or later they owuld have to face Hitler
- Hitlers allies
Sudethenland 1938
- Hitler promised he had plans for czech, czech asked for b&f support and they reluctantly agreed
- may 1938 hiter made it clear he intended to fight for sud if necessary. Henlein (leader of nazis in sud) wanted to be part of germany
- G army wasnt ready for war
tension rose over summer, ussr, b, f had all promised to defend czech and were ready to fight - sep 15 chamberlain flew to Hitler who moderated demands only some parts of sud and if pleb showed they wanted
- a week later Hitler increased demands - he wanted the whole sud
- chamberlain told Hit his demands were unreasonable and mobilised army
- sep 29 B G F and I had a meeting. decided to give hitler what he wanted without consulting czech or ussr (munish agreement)
- peace for our time joint declaration
munich agreemet consequeces
Beneŝ resiged and czech decended into chaos
chamberlain recieved as hero
opinion poles hsowed british believed appeasemennt would not stop hitler, it owuld just delay a war
opinion poll 1938 showed 93% didnt believe hitler had no more territorial claims
march 1939 they took over rest of country withot B&F resistance
clear hitler could not be trusted
warned hitler that if he invaded poland hey would declare war but H didnt believe
nazi soviet pact background
hitler was sure b&f wouldnt war but not so much ab ussr
stalin worried ab germany since H got to power but had been unable to reach agreements w b&f
uussr joined LON in 1934 but saw LON failure over Spanish Civil War, Abyss and rearmament (german)
stalin scared that they were encourgaing german growth to fight comunism
f&ussr treaty 1935 but ussr didnt trust
munich agreement increased concerns in 1938, ussr not consulted
stalin concluded they were either powerless to stop G or happy to let G invade USSR
nazi soviet pact
Stalin tried to reach agreement w B&F, met in march 1939 but chamberlain sus and reluctant B&F also made things worse by proisng to protect Poland, an enemy of the ussr
23 august 1939 Hitler and Stalin signed nazi-soviet pact and agreed not to attack each other, privatelly they agreed to divide poland between them
Hitler gained Poland (didnt intend to keep promise) and avoided war on two fronts
Stalin got ex-russian territory and time ( never expected H to keep promise ) to build up his forces for the inevitable attack that would come
sep 1 1939 germany invaded poland. B&F demanded withdraral or wae but G didnt believe them
he was wrong: sep 1939 war declared
