Hitler's Foreign Policy Summary

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Hitler’s Foreign Policy This document was written by Stephen Tonge. I am most grateful to have his kind permission to include it on the web site. Brief Summary 1933 Germany left the League of Nations. 1934 Attempted Nazi coup in Austria crushed. Poland and Germany sign alliance. 1935 Germany broke the military clauses of the Treaty of Versailles 1936 German troops reoccupied the Rhineland. Rome-Berlin Axis signed 1938 Anschluss with Austria. Sudetenland handed to Germany as a result of the Munich conference. 1939 Rest of the Czech lands occupied by the Germans. Germany invaded Poland. WWII began. Hitler’s Foreign Policy Aims When Hitler came to power he was determined to make Germany a great power again and to dominate Europe. He had set out his ideas in a book called Mein Kampf (My Struggle) that he had written in prison in 1924. His main aims were To destroy the Treaty of Versailles imposed on Germany after her defeat in World War One. Hitler felt the Treaty was unfair and most Germans supported this view. To unite all German speakers together in one country. After World War One there were Germans living in many countries in Europe e.g. Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland. Hitler hoped that by uniting them together in one country he would create a powerful Germany or Grossdeutschland. To expand eastwards into the East (Poland, Russia) to gain land for Germany (Lebensraum- living space). His tactics involved using the threat of violence to achieve his aims. He realised that his potential foes, France and Britain, were reluctant to go to war and were prepared to compromise to avoid a repeat of World War One. He was also an opportunist who often took advantage of events for his own benefit. His foreign policy successes in the 1930s were to make him a very popular figure in Germany. As one German political opponent described: “Everybody

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