world war 2 home front and foreign policy Flashcards
Why did German resent the Treaty of Versailles?
The Treaty concerned terms which led to Germany losing its status in Europe, it lost its ability to defend itself and resulted in an all around feeling of humiliation among the German people.
Define self-determination
The policy by which the newly created states of Eastern Europe were supposed to peacefully agree their borders and government.
What was the ideology behind Hitler’s foreign policy?
The Treaty of Versailles
The Nazi Third Reich should be a large and powerful world power
The Third Reich needed lebenstraum
Define Lebenstraum
The term means ‘living space’ and denotes to Germany’s need for expansion not only to become a great nation, but also to meet the needs of its people.
What were the main features of Nazi foreign policy?
Overturning Versailles
Strategic alliances
Expansion
Germanisation
Strategic alliances:
Stopping anti-German power blocs building up and making sure that when it came to war Germany did not have to fight a war on two fronts.
Describe Nazi foreign policy
Nazi foreign policy was ruthless in its pursuit in what it saw as Germany’s ‘rights’.
What were some of the terms of the Treaty?
Germany was told to disarm. It could have no submarines, no heavy warships, no tanks and no air force.
Germany had to pay heavy reparations - set at 132 million gold marks in 1921
Germany could have no say in the terms of the treaty - it was referred to as a dictated peace.
How had Nazi foreign policy been influenced by history?
Documented in Hitlers book Mein Kampf , a largely fictional racial history had strongly influenced Nazi foreign policy.
Nostalgia for earlier empires and a sense that power and land were Germany’s right.
The First world war and the effects of the treaty of Versailles.
