Timeline of major events in Nazi foreign policy

Question 1

Germany leaves the League of Nations and Disarmament Conference in Geneva

Answer 1

October 14th 1933

Question 2

Germany and Poland sign the Non-Aggression Pact -
the pact (an agreement not an alliance) meant that Poland could not join the USSR in an attack on Germany (Poland stood between Germany and the USSR, and was therefore a useful ally)

Answer 2

January 26th 1934

Question 3

Failed Nazi putsch and political coup in Austria.
Mussolini responded by moving 40,000 Italian troops to the Austrian-Italian frontier

Answer 3

July 25th 1934

Question 4

Saar plebiscite - people voted to join Germany. The Saarland, for the previous 15 years, had been under the control of the League of Nations. Represented a great propaganda success for the Nazis

Answer 4

January 13th 1935

Question 5

Rearmament - Germany announced the existence of Luftwaffe (the German Air Force), introduced conscription and announced it was rearming. This included a peacetime army of 550,000

Answer 5

March 16th 1935

Question 6

Britain and Germany signed the Naval Agreement. This ignored the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and allowed Germany to have a navy 35% of the strength of the British fleet

Answer 6

June 18th 1935

Question 7

Hitler’s “Four Year Plan” - focused on the creation of a war economy

Answer 7

1936

Question 8

Remilitarisation of the Rhineland - German troops re-occupied the Rhineland, going against both the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact (1925)

Answer 8

March 7th 1936

Question 9

Hitler sent Joachim von Ribbentrop to London - was committed to the idea of a British alliance as a way of securing his long-term aim of crushing the USSR

Answer 9

1936

Question 10

Rome-Berlin Axis - following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Germany and Italy announced the Rome-Berlin Axis, which promised mutual support short of war and political, economic and ideological cooperation.

Answer 10

November 1st 1936

Question 11

Anti-Comintern Pact - Germany and Japan established the Anti-Comintern (anti-communist) Pact, which outlined the amount of aid to give if an attack by the USSR seemed likely. The Comintern was an international communist organisation set up by the USSR to spread communist ideas worldwide. Italy also signed the pact in 1937. Relations between Japan and Russia had broken down (e.g following Japan’s defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese war) and it was useful for Germany to have an ally geographically on the east of the USSR.

Answer 11

November 25th 1936

Question 12

A treaty for German-Polish minorities guaranteed the rights of Germans in Poland and Poles in Germany. Hitler trying to unite German speaking minorities. Lebensraum.

Answer 12

November 5th 1937

Question 13

A treaty for German-Polish minorities guaranteed the rights of Germans in Poland and Poles in Germany. Hitler trying to unite German speaking minorities. Lebensraum.

Answer 13

November 5th 1937

Question 14

Hossbach Conference - Hitler addressed the chiefs of armed services and Foreign Minister Neurath. He outlined three war scenarios. The conference revealed how Hitler’s policy was changing from one centred on diplomacy to one where military force could play a greater part.

Answer 14

November 1937

Question 15

The Anschluss (“Union”): Following a rushed and poorly executed invasion of Austria, the country was absorbed into Germany. The Germans quickly extended anti-jewish legislation to Austria.

Answer 15

March 11th-13th 1938

Question 16

The Munich Agreement - a conference attended by Germany, Italy, Britain and France. Here, the Sudetenland (territory on the south-eastern borders of Germany) was ceded to Germany.

Answer 16

September 29th-30th 1938

Question 17

The Czechoslovakian crisis - Germany took the Sudetenland. There were 3.5 million Sudeten Germans in the border region of Czechoslovakia.

Answer 17

October 1st 1938

Question 18

Invasion of Czechoslovakia - Germany invaded and occupied further regions of Czechoslovakia - Bohemia and Moravia

Answer 18

March 1939

Question 19

Pact of Steel - Germany and Italy signed the Pact of Steel, which committed both sides to close economic ties and promised mutual military aid/support in the event of war

Answer 19

May 22nd 1939

Question 20

Extent of German rearmament - Hitler had 103 infantry divisions of 15,000 to 18,000 men. This included 3,000 tanks. The navy was small but powerful. Air force had grown from a few civilian planes and pilots in 1933 to around 2,000 fighter and bomber planes and crew.

Answer 20

Summer 1939

Question 21

Nazi-Soviet Pact - Germany and the USSR signed a non-aggression pact. They agreed to refrain from going to war with each other, to invade Poland and divide Eastern Europe between the spheres of influence of both powers.

Answer 21

August 23rd 1939

Question 22

Germany invade Poland

Answer 22

September 1st 1939

Question 23

Britain and France declare war on Germany

Answer 23

September 3rd 1939

Question 24

Germany invade Denmark and Norway

Answer 24

April 9th 1940

Question 25

Germany invade Belgium and the Netherlands

Answer 25

April 10th 1940

Question 26

Aims of Nazi foreign policy

Answer 26

• The establishment of Lebensraum (“living space”) for German speaking people
• Expansion of German territory
• Germanisation (spreading racial ideas in German controlled lands and uniting German speaking people)
• Overturn the terms of the Treaty of Versailles
• Strategic alliances/pacts to stop anti-German power blocs building up, and prevent a war on two fronts