HITLER’S GOALSRearm

Take back Saar Basin and Upper Silesia

Absorb and remilitarize Rhineland

Control Polish Corridor

Expand German Territory through military conquest

LEBENSTRAUM(LIVING SPACE)

• Based on Hitler’s racial theory that the Aryan “race” was superior to all others and therefore had the right and obligation to assert its will on the “inferior” Slavic people of the East

• Planned to conquer Eastern Europe and use it for German settlements and agriculture. Slavic people of region would serve German master race as slaves

LIAR

• Hitler was quiet about his foreign policy goals at first– Because Germany was militarily

weak and vulnerable• He did quit the Geneva

Disarmament Conference in October 1933 and the League of Nations later– But still claimed he only wanted

peace

DEAL WITH POLAND• Signed Non-Aggression Agreement with

Poland

– January 1924

– Had no intention of respecting this agreement

– Had signed this treaty to screw up France’s diplomatic strategy of surrounding Germany with potential enemies

• Stalin reacts badly to treaty

– Joined League of Nations in September 1934, signed defense treaty with France in May 1935, and signed defense treaty with Czechoslovakia

Joseph Pilsudski

BENITO MUSSOLINI• Hitler and Mussolini had much in

common

• One possible source of contention was Austria– Hitler wanted to annex it– Mussolini wanted to take over the

Tyrol region– Both men therefore viewed each

other with suspicion at first

• Mutual suspicion was overcome by the fact that Italy and Germany were natural allies since they both shared France as an enemy

MUSSOLINI’S ACTIONS

• Attacked and conquered Albania

• Attempted to turn Somalia into gigantic Italian army base

• Routinely used poison gas and public executions to solidify Italian rule in Lybia

• Worked to increase international tensions

AUSTRIA 1934• Hitler orchestrated the murder of Englebert

Dolfuss in 1934– Right-wing dictator of Austria– Wanted to maintain Austrian independence

from Germany– Had banned the Nazi Party in Austria

• Austrian Nazis killed Dolfuss and tried to seize control of country

• Coup failed and Kurt Schuschnigg emerged as leader of country– Right-wing Catholic politician– Committed to maintaining Austria

independence

DANGEROUS LESSON

• The lesson that Hitler drew from the Austrian crisis was that Great Britain, France, and Italy would not mount any sort of effective, concerted response to blatant German moves against Austria

REARMAMENT

• Hitler announce he was going to increase size of German army to 500,000 men, institute the draft, and that the airforce was being rebuilt

– March 1935

– In defiance of Versailles Treaty

– To head off action by England and France, he also offered to sign individual treaties of peace and friendship, promised to uphold Treaty of Locarno, and to respect the independence of Austria

INVASION OF ETHIOPIA

• Ethiopia invaded in October 1935 by Italian army– To avenge defeat of

1896

• Used modern weapons against Ethiopian forced who still primarily used spears and bows and arrows

• Invasion was encouraged by Hitler

RAMIFICATIONS• Haile Selassie appealed to the

League of Nations• League imposed economic

sanctions against Italy– But left sanctions weak by

excluding oil from list of embargo products

– Did not close Suez Canal to Italian ships heading for Ethiopia

• Over 500,000 Ethiopians killed in fighting (only 5000 Italian casualties). Country falls in May 1936.

• Mussolini had blatantly defied the League of Nations and had gotten away with it

RHINELAND• Hitler moved troops into the region

in March 1936– In violation of Versailles Treaty

• Claimed he would have withdrawn if the French had responded– But the French did not respond

• Hitler claimed that this move was needed to help Germany defend itself from possible aggression from France and Soviet Union

INCREASED TENSION

• By 1938, German armaments production absorbed 52% of all state expenditures and 17% of the GNP– Provoked arms

buildup in Great Britain and France• Situation

resembled arms race that occurred before World War I

SPANISH CIVIL WAR: BACKGROUND• Miguel Primo de Rivera becomes dictator in

1923– Forced to resign in 1930

• Coalition of republicans and socialists set up Spanish Republic in 1931– Prime minister Manuel Azana

antagonized conservatives and army– Azana falls from power in September

1933• Left-wing government set up in 1935

– Undermined by the Falange• Paramilitary fascist group headed by

General Francisco Franco• Government declares Falange illegal

– Sparked military insurrection against the Republic and start of civil war

WEAKNESSES

• Fragility of governing coalition hindered an effective response– Anarchist peasants in Catalonia

and Aldalusia launch social revolution• Moderate socialists and

even communists feared this act would compromise their efforts–Withheld supplies and

ammunition from them and bickered among themselves

SPANISH CIVIL WAR I• Savage conflict

– At least 600,000 people killed• Mostly civilians• At least 200,000 republicans

executed by fascists– “fiestas of death”

• Foreign volunteers helped republicans– Abraham Lincoln Brigade– Not especially effective

• Western Democracies provided no official help to republicans– With the exception of the Soviet

Union

SPANISH CIVIL WAR II

• Mussolini helped Franco– Sent 100,000 soldiers– Italian planes destroy republican supply lines

• Hitler used Spain as a military training ground– Sent planes, guns, munitions, and other supplies– German advisors trained fascist pilots– German pilots ran bombing runs

• Destroyed Basque town of Guernica• Inspired famous Picasso painting of same name

• Franco won in January 1939

FORMATION OF “AXIS”

• Italy and Germany sign pact in October 1936– Agreed that Germany’s

interests lay in the east while Italy could have the Mediterranean region

• Mussolini now copied Hitler– Ordered soldiers to goose-

step– Adopted Nazi salute– Began campaign against

Italian Jews

JAPAN• Japanese army had million men (and

two million reserves) and 2000 fighter planes by 1930

• Began conquest of Manchuria in 1931

• Feared Soviet Union might block military expansion in Asia– Signed friendship treaty with

Germany in 1936– Called “Anti-Comintern” Pact– Began full-scale war against China

shortly thereafter• Angered by Japanese aggression,

the U.S., GB, and France impose embargo on oil and other raw materials on Japan in 1940

ANSCHLUSS• Schuschnigg announces a

referendum on the question of Austrian independence from Germany– In response to Hitler’s

pressure to legalize Austrian Nazi Party

• Hitler responds by ordering German troops into Austria (March 12, 1938)– Greeted by cheering crowds– Nazis then arrest 70,000

people and begin harassing Jews

– Austria is unified with Nazi Germany

MUNICH: BACKGROUND• Eduard Benes tries to get support from

Soviet Union and France to resist Hitler’s demand for the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia– USSR would not help unless France did

first– France would not help without British

support– GB did not intend to provide support

• Neville Chamberlain flies to Germany on September 5, 1938– Agrees to convince the French and

Czechs to accept Nazi annexation of Sudetenland

– Hitler promises to make no more territorial demands

APPEASEMENT AT MUNICH

• On September 19, GB and France virtually force Czech government to agree to give up Sudetenland to Hitler

• Chamberlain returns to Germany on September 22– Informs Hitler that remainder to

Czechoslovakia be protected by joint agreement

– Hitler refuses and threatens war• Chamberlain and French president Eduard

Daladier meet again with Hitler at Munich in late September– Agree to German annexation of

Sudetenland in exchange for Hitler’s “promise” to leave rest of Czechoslovakia alone

POST-MUNICH

• Hitler invades Czechoslovakia on March 16, 1939

• Hitler demands that Lithuania give him port city of Memel

• Hitler demands that Poland give him Danzig and control of the Polish Corridor

ROAD TO WAR• GB signs pact with Poland,

guaranteeing Polish independence in the event of German attack (April 16, 1939)

• Draft reinstituted in GB (April 26)

• France already committed to defend Poland

• Hitler thought they were bluffing but was willing to fight a general war if necessary

WAR• Hitler orders army to prepare for

invasion of Poland on April 3, 1939• Hitler signs formal military alliance

with Mussolini (May 1939)– Pact of Steel

• Germany and Soviet Union sign “Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact” on August 23, 1939– Stalin got free hand to deal with

eastern Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland as he saw fit

– Stalin promised not to interfere with German invasion of Poland

• German invasion of Poland begins on September 1, 1939