Section C

Question 1

what is an intentionalist arguement

Answer 1

• what hitler and the nazia wanted drove whether war broke out
• hitler always intended on going to war
• hitler had a master plan outlined in mein kamf where he either wanted to take over just western europe or the whole world
• hitler knew what he wanted and took advantage of events

Question 2

what is a functionalist agruement

Answer 2

• outside influences were as significant, if not more so, than nazi foreign policy in the outbreak of war
• hitler always intended on going to war
• other pressures in germany affected Hitlers foreign policies: 1.) pressure from insie the party 2.) pressures from social groups eg/industrialists 3.) external factors eg/ global economy
• events in the rest of the world and intentions and actions of world leaders had significant effect on the starting of the war
• german rulers historically followed policies of expansionism
• hitler knew what he wanted but took advantage of events

Question 3

what were the three historic strands hitler believed in

Answer 3

• racial theory
• nostalgia for earlier empires
• effects of WW1 and the TOV

Question 4

what is racial theory

Answer 4

hitler saw the aryan race a superior race to all other races - by which he meant ethnic groups such as black, asaian, aswell as slavs in russia and eastern europe and especially jews.

Question 5

how did the aryan race theory affect Nazi foreign polocy

Answer 5

hitler used the idea of pan-germanism to try to create an aryan empire: uniting all German speeching peoples in one country would mean capturing other countries and clear them of inferior people to give ‘pure germans’ enough land to live on. This made them favour expanding to the east taking land from the racially impure

Question 6

what is pan-germanism

Answer 6

the idea that all german speaching peoples should unite and live in ine country

Question 7

how did germanys history of empires inspire the foregin policies

Answer 7

Hitlers third reich was meant to be a Germany returned to its rightful power and place in europe. The nazis wanted to over turn the TOV, but then go further, securing far more land in the east. 2 earlier empires inpired this.

• 1st reich - the holy roman empire of charlagme (800 - 1806)
• the 2nd reich - German empire founded in 1871 by otto von bismark after prussia defeated france. when ww1 broke out the empire fell apart

Question 8

how could this be argued

Answer 8

while nazi propaganda focused on the might of these empires, they both worked heavily on diplomatic relations. This also inspired Hitler, as in his earlier forign polocies he stressed the importance of peace