origins and outbreak of ww2 Flashcards
what did hitler want?
hitller said in mein kampft which was his book talking about his life struggles that he wanted to eradicate certain religions such as judaism and communism from germany
he also wanted the idea of lebensraum- which suggested that the people needed more territory and space to be able to develop naturally.
1000 year reich- which suggested that hitler wanted to build an army of young aryan men for the future generation of nazis…did this by making hitler schools and making it necessary to do sports like boxing all of the time.
he also wanted revenge on the countries which had treated germany badly.
what were the main 3 forieghn policies?
revise the treaty of versailles
unite all german speaking countries into the reich
expand eastwards to achieve lebensraum.
reactions to hitlers forieghn policies.
britain: little britain could do to germany because they had to deal with italys invasion of abysinnia..therefore british forces had to be moved to the meditteranian
the policy of appeasement in 1930 meant that they had to negotiate in order to prevent the cause of another war…no physical action could be put in place to stop hitler.
“germany were just walking into their back garden” because the rhineland was already theirs.
france: france could not act to stop the germans because the hoare laval fiasco had made the french government extremely unpopular and they were in their own inner crisis .
french forces moved from rhine to alps.
the french would only act on germany if britain supported them however they couldnt.
rearmourment and road to war
over the next two years-because the major countries could not stop hitler- germany had started rearmouring- which made them more powerful with every second which passes.
the lack of french action showed almost that france were weak and suggested a weakpoint to hitler..meaning he was confident the rhine would not be reclaimed. 1 element of success.
this would lead to war because it is jeoprodising the treaty of versailles/league of nations
and hitler was becoming more powerful- nobody knew what he would do because he wanted to take revenge however also wanted to be a good/persuasive leader.
reoccuppation of the rhineland.
hitler violates the rules of the treaty of versailles and lacarno pact by sending german troops to the rhineland, which was a demilitarized zone along the rhine river in germany.
after all it was germanys land.
this happened on the 7th march 1936
germany now had thieer coal,steel and iron recourses…becuase the rhineland was taken back.
which countries supported hitler?
the main alliances from 1939-1945 were italy and japan.
russia were initially allies.. however germany ordered operation barbossa and attacked the soviet union in persuit of the ideology of lebensruam.
anchluss with austria- how it happened and reactions to it ?
hitler ordered the austrian nazis to cause up a fuss in the government- and as a result the chancellor dolfuss was killed.. but the coup failed because the austrian military had supported the goverment. the new chancellor wanted to cooperate with hitler as much as possible but but he did not want to give him full control…therefore he let the nazis have official posts in austria….this would appease hitler. a plebicite was allowed which meant the austrian people could decide for themsleves wether they wanted to be a part of hitlers germany….majority votes were for being with hitler.
hitler marched into austria unapposed.
what was the sudeten crisis?
the sudentenland was rich in recourses
provoked by the pan germanist demands of germany that the sudetenland was to be annexed to germany.
it was so significant because.. the loss of the sudetenland crippled czechslavakia as a fighting force, with most of thier armourments, fortifications and raw materials sighned off to germany without them having a say in the matter.
neville chamberlin had persuaded czeckslovakia to let it happen because they did not want to start war- which lead to nothing.
britain and appeasement under neville chamberlain.
in 1938 neville chamberlain hoped to avoid a war over czechslovakia therefore he conceded to hitlers demands which playes a huge part in appeasement to hitler.
chamberlain declared war on germany two days after…and led britain through the war for at least 8 moths before he resighned from being prime minster.
the nazi soviet pact
was an agreement between the two countires (hitler and stalin) that germany and the soviet union would not be invloved in any time of war against eachother for the next ten years. the nazis had agreed with the soviets that they would invade poland and split it up between eachother.
however hitler later scrappes the pact with stalin and invades the soviet union to fufill lebensraum. (breaks any type of alliance between them.
the invasion of poland and declaration of war.
german troops invaded poland on september 1 1938… as a result ww11 was declared by britain and france on nazi germany….hitler had also broken the munich agreement- which was said that the countries would not solve conflict with war instead they would just talk and negotiate.
this appeased hitler and was a main cause of the second ww.
what was the hossback memorendum?
summary of a meeting that happened in berlin in 1937 attended by german dictator adolf hitler and his leadership and forieghn policy leadership in which hitler outlined his expansionist policies….talking about war in 1942.
