Hitler's forigen policy

Tear up the treaty - Hitler saw the treaty as a major cause of Germany’s problems. He promised the German people that he would reverse the treaty.
Expand Germany – Hitler thought it was unfair that Germany had lost so much land because of the treaty  ad said he would take it back
Destroy communism – Hitler hated communism and wanted to overtake it.

How did he do the aims?
-Convinced leaders every time he took over a place, it would be the last time and no further demands would be made.
-Devolved close relations with Mussolini
-Used influence from the Manchurian and Abyssinian crisis

Takes place in 1935

The Saar was put under control of the League of Nations in the treaty of Versailles for 15 years
A plebiscite was held in January 1935 to decided who the land would belong to.
 Over 90% of the population voted for the Saar to be returned to Germany
Hitler saw this as a great triumph and the first step to reversing the treaty

Disarmament conference

First met in 1932
they mainly wanted to focus on what to with Germany and sort out more equal terms of the treaty.
Germany first walked out of the conference  in July 1932, but hitler returned in May 1933 and said if said if all nations destroyed their arms within 5 years so would he.
When they refused, Hitler left again in October 1933 and left the league of nations soon afters

Non-aggression pact

Hitler signed an non-aggression pact with Poland in January 1934
Hitler wanted to weaken France and Poland alliance
He wanted to reduce fears of German aggression in Poland
Show he had no problem with Poland just the USSR

Rearmament

Hitler had started building up his army in secret in around 1933
In 1935 Hitler openly staged a massive military rally and in the same year he re-introduced conscription and said his army was now at 550,000 men.
He was training pilots and building 1,000 new aircrafts.
This worried Britain and France but there was nothing they could do as Germany was no longer in the league and the Abyssinia crisis was already occupying them.  
 

Anglo-German Naval Treaty
Britain and France wanted to appease Hitler as they saw Germany as a buffer against communism
They signed the treaty in 1935 saying Germany could have an army 35% of Britain’s and the same number of submarines  
Hitler saw this as him getting away with breaking the treaty

Remilitarisation
Hitler moved his troops into the Rhineland in March 1936
This was a risk as this was a physical breech of the Versailles Treaty
Germany’s army were still no size to fight if France reacted, they were under strict order to retreat if France fought back He got away with this a Britain and France did not want war and though Hitler was only stepping into his own back yard.
Anschluss
Hitler was Austrian an wanted unite Germany and Austria as one country
Bullied Austrian Chancellor, Schuschnigg into accepting a Nazi Austrian Minister and Schuschnigg ordered a plebiscite to find out if Austria wanted a union, The plebiscite was 99% in favour of union and Austria become a province in the new German Empire, The vote was suspiciously high and possibly was rigged.
Hitler was scared of no vote so he moved German troops into the bored and told in Schuschnigg to resign.Nazi Seyss-Inquart become Chancellor and invited German troops into the country. On 12 March 1938 the Anschluss was complete

Sudeten Crisis
Hitler set his sights on Czechoslovakia which was a new state set up after WW1 and had German speaking people in its Sudetenland , so Hitler caused trouble in the Sudetenland and threatened war if a solution wasn’t found.
 Chamberlain persuade the Czech President Benes to accept but Hitler demanded that the Sudetenland should be part of the German Reich
Benes refused to accept demands and so Chamberlain appealed to Hitler to give more time to find a settlement

Munich Agreement
On 29^th September Chamberlain tried to make an attempt of peace. He met with Hitler, Mussolini and Daladier of France; no representatives of Czechoslovakia were at the meeting so the Czechs were forced to hand over the Sudetenland to Germany. Chamberlain met with Hitler again and agreed not to go to war and Hitler promised he didn’t want the rest of Czechoslovakia.
But the Czechoslovakia was humiliated and Britain and France had given into Hitler again.  

Collapse of Czechoslovakia
In March 1939, Hitler invaded and occupied he rest of Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became independent but was ruled by Germany. Land was also given to Hungry. This showed Hitler’s Munich promises were worthless and as Britain and France were rapidly rearming this marked the end of appeasement

Pact of Steel
In March 1939, Hitler forced Lithuanians to hand of land and in April he help General Franco’s forces in the Spanish civil war and used this as an excuse to test his new weapons. In May Mussolini followed Hitler’s exampled and invaded Albania.
 In May 1939, Hitler and Mussolini signed the pact of steel which promised they’d act side by side in future. This divided Europe and both sides set their sights on the USSR.

Poland
following his success in Czechoslovakia Hitler demanded Danzig and the Polish Corridor. This time France and Britain acted. They increased arms and equipment and promised support if Germany was aggressive to Poland, Greece and Romania.

Both sides want the USSR. Britain wouldn’t be able to defend Poland quickly, so they held talks with the USSR in the hope they would help. However the USSR felt Britain had been trying to direct Hitler towards the east and they were annoyed Britain hand left them out of the Munich conference. So in August 1939 Hitler and Stalin signed a pact called the Nazi-Soviet pact. They agreed:
-Not to fight
-Help Hitler to occupy Romania, Latvia , Estonia and Lithuania
-Secretly to divide up Poland if the war should start
This pact was a shock as Nazi and Communism didn’t go well , however many people knew this was Hitler’s plan and it wouldn’t last too long as it removed the threat of war from two sides and because Stalin was so suspicious of Britain and France and knew Hitler had more land to offer.

Hitler decided to invade Poland because:
The Nazi soviet pact made him not have to worry about soviet attack
He wasn’t convinced Britain and France would actually defend Poland
Appeasement had gave him the impression that Britain and France would do anything not to have another war. And If War was declared Hitler thought it would be over quickly as Poland was far away from Britain and France
On 1^st September 1939 German troops invaded Poland. Britain and France declared war. On the 15^th of September the USSR also invaded Poland which within six week was defeated and disappeared from the map of Europe

Responsibly
Germany–Hitler made impossible demands and invaded Poland
USSR- Made a deal with Hitler and cleared the way for invasion
Poland- Signed alliance with Britain and France and told to resist Germany
Britain and France- Appeasement made Hitler think he could do anything and encouraged Poland to refuse Hitler

Strengths
-Saw Hitler as a communism buffer
- WW1 still in people’s minds and no one wanted another war
-Britain was not ready for another war so this bought them time to build up arms
-Britain was preoccupied with problems like unemployment and wanted to stay out of foreign problems
-Spanish Civil war showed Germany’s power which worried people and showed the dangers of another war
Weaknesses
-Gave Hitler the advantage to become stronger
-Chamberlain misjudged Hitler and believed he would be able to reason with him
-Was morally wrong just to let Hitler take over other countries
-Missed opportunities to stop Hitler
-Built Hitler’s ego
-Did not stop war in 1939