inter-war years

Hitler’s foreign policy aims:

1.   To abolish the treaty of Versailles.(Germany thought I unfair)

2.   Expand Germanys territories , take over Poland and Czechoslovakia e.c.t. lebensraum-living space

3.   Defeat communism- Hitler was anti-communist and believed it had helped to bring about the defeat of Germany in the First World War.

Hitler’s actions 1933-1938

event

Decription

Reasons hitler gave

Reaction of the league

rearmament

Germany started to build up their army again slowly to begin with the quickly after they left the league

He tried to hid his rearmament from the league until they left and he ended up not caring and just carried on.

They didn’t do anything to stop them

The Saar

Was taken of Germany in 1919 for 15 years so in 1935 the league held a vote for the people of Saar to decide whether they returned to Germany or not. They rejoined Germany.

He didn’t give any

Didn’t do anything because they believed the vote was legitimate

The Rhineland

In march 1936, Hitler took his first big risk by moving troops into the Rhineland area in Germany. Hitler stated that if anyone tried to stop them they would retreat

Russia and France had made an agreement to protect each other against attack from Germany, Hitler wanted to protect himself

The league condemned Hitlers actions, but had no power to do anything else France rejected act without British support.

The Spanish civil war

In 1936 a war broke out between the republican party and the right wing party

To kick out communism

No record

Anschluss with Austria

In 1938, Hitler wanted to take back Austria and conjoin it with Germany. Hitler was born in Austria. Austrian people were mainly German. Strong NAZI party in Austria. They started rioting Hitler pressuring Austrian PM (Schuschnigg)that he would sort it out. The PM asked for help but they refused. He called for a plebiscite where Nazi troops watched the vote and 99.7% voted for the anschluss

It was his birthplace, one of his foreign aims, the people are mainly German and he wanted Austria’s raw materials and armed forces 

Britain thought it was reasonable that he brought his people back together and France would not react without Britain.

Appeasement

Appeasement means giving somebody what they want to make them happy. In this case peace.

Reasons for appeasement

1)    Britain wasn’t ready for war so the British government believed that the armed forces were not ready for a war against Hitler.

2)   A strong Germany was not such a bad idea. Many countries were more concerned about the threat from communism. They saw Hitler as the buffer to this threat.

3)   Peace was very precious. The leagues of France and Britain remembered the horrors of world war one and wanted to avoid another one.

4)…