uhhhCollapse of International Peace

In 1925 Hitler laid out his plans in his book the Mein Kampf what he would do if the Nazis achieved
power in Germany. He laid out his objectives as follows;

- Abolish the treaty of Versailles. Like many Germans, Hitler believed that the treaty of Versailles
was unjust. He branded the German leaders who had signed the treaty of Versailles as the
November Criminals. The terms of the treaty were a constant reminder of the defeat of the
Germans and their humiliation by the Allies. He promised to reverse the treaty of Versailles if he
got into power.
- Expand German territory. The treaty of Versailles had taken away territory from Germany
which Hitler promised to get back. He wanted Germany to unite with Austria and German
minorities in other countries such as Czechoslovakia to rejoin Germany. But he also wanted to
carve out an empire in Eastern Europe to give extra lebensraum or living space for the Germans.
- Defeat Communism
Hitler believed that he would be able to accomplish the defeat of communism. Hitler was
anticommunist and he believed that Bolsheviks wanted to take over Germany.

Factors that allowed Hitler to carry out his foreign policy

- The worldwide economic depression.

Rearmament

Hitler came to power in Germany 1933 and one of his first steps was to increase the armed forces which
absorbed a huge pool of unemployed people. It enabled him to deal with unemployment and deliver on
his promises to break the treaty of Versailles. Rearmament was done in secret at first. In 1935, Hitler
openly staged a massive rearmament rally in which he celebrated the German armed forces. In 1936 he
even reintroduced conscription. Rearmament was a very popular move which boosted Nazi support.
Hitler also exploited British sympathy with Germany on this move. Britain believed that Germany had
been treate4d harshly during the treaty of Versailles by excessive reparations and disarmament. Britain
also thought that a strong Germany would be a buffer against communism. In 1935 Britain and Germany
signed the Anglo-German agreement in which Germany agreed to keep its navy at 35 percent of the
British navy.

The Saar plebiscite

The Saar region had been run by the League of Nations since 1919. In 1935, the League of Nations held
a plebiscite for people to vote on whether this region should return to German rule. The German
propaganda minister, Dr Goebbels launched a massive campaign to persuade the people of the Saar to
return to Germany. Around 90 percent of the population voted to return to German rule.
Remilitarization of the Rhineland

In March 1936, Hitler took his first big gamble by moving troops into the Rhineland area. It was a large
area on either side of the Rhineland which had been created as a buffer state between France, Germany
and Belgium. It had been designed to protect France from invasion by Germany. It had been accepted by
Germany in the Locarno treaties in 1925. Hitler took the gamble and he had taken risks but It was
calculated risk. He considered the following factors;

- France and the USSR had just signed a treaty to protect each other against attack from
Germany. Hitler used the agreement to claim that Germany was under threat of attack.
- Hitler knew that many people in Britain believed that he had a right to station his troops in the
Rhineland and he was fairly confident that Britain would not intervene.

The German army took the gamble and moved into the Rhineland when most of the international
powers were preoccupied with the Italian invasion of Abyssinia. The League condemned Hitler but did
not carry out any action.

The Spanish Civil war

In 1936, a civil war broke out between supporters of the Republican government and right wing rebels
under General Franco. Stalin’s USSR supported the Republican government (in the form of weapons,
aircraft and pilots). Hitler and Mussolini declared their support for General Franco. German sent aircraft
and pilots who took part in the major campaigns of the war that included bombing campaigns. The
conflict had consequences for peace. It strengthened the bonds between Mussolini and Hitler. It
encouraged Hitler to believe that Britain and France would not intervene if he took further actions
against the treaty of Versailles.

Militarism and the Axis

IN 1936, Japan signed an Anti Comintern pact to oppose communism. Comintern was the USSR’s
organization for spreading communism. In 1937, Italy also signed it. The new alliance was called the Axis
alliance.

Anschluss with Austria.

In 1938, Hitler turned his attention to Austria. Hitler had tried that in 1934, but on that occasion he was
overruled by Mussolini. IN 1938 it was different in that they were now allies. There was a strong Nazi
party which caused some problems for the Austrian government and hold demonstrations demanding
union with Germany. A plebiscite was held in which 99.75 of the people voted for the Anschluss. It was
completed without any military confrontation with France and Britain. Chamberlain felt that Germany
and Austria had a right to be united. Hitler yielded a rich reward of Austrian soldiers, weapons and its
rich reserves of gold and iron ore were added to Germany’s increasingly strong army and industry. Hitler
was breaking yet another condition of the treaty of Versailles. Hitler had taken advantage of the
reluctance of Britain and France to go to war against Germany. However, Britain and France increased
their budget on military spending to rearm.
Appeasement; For and against

Britain’s policy at this time is known as the appeasement policy. It was based upon the following
reasons;

- Trusting Hitler- The British thought that Hitler was trustworthy

- Fear of communism – Hitler was seen as a buffer to communism.

- Memories of the Great War - The British and the French wanted to avoid another war.

- German rearming publicly and quickly year and year.

- The British and the French believed that their armed forces were not ready for war.

- The British were not sure of support from the Americans who wanted to avoid being dragged
into another war.

- Britain was not assured of support from its empire or the Commonwealth countries.

- Most people believed that the treaty of Versailles was unfair to Germans and they believed
that once these wrongs were put right then Germany would become a peaceful nation again.

- Hitler kept taking risks to see if there would be any country which would stand up to him.
Therefore he kept making more and more daring moves.

- The Soviet Union. Hitler made no secret of his plans to expand eastwards. Appeasement sent a
message to Stalin that Britain would not stand in Hitler’s way if he invaded the Soviet Union

- Hitler had also observed how his allies, particularly the rightwing dictatorships in Japan and
Italy and managed to get away with it.

- Britain and France had large debts and huge unemployment, (many of which were left from the
First World War). Therefore they could not avoid a war.

The Sudetenland

After the Austrian Anshluss, Hitler was now confident enough to carry out more daring moves. The
leader of Czechoslovakia, Edward Benes was horrified by the Anschluss. Benes sought guarantees from
the British and French. Hitler assured Britain and France that he did not have any designs on
Czechoslovakia. However, he demanded the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. There were 3, 5 million
Sudeten Germans in Sudetenland. In the atmosphere of increasing tension, Chamberlain flew to meet
Hitler on 15 September 1938. On 29 September 1938, there was an agreement which would be
commonly called the Munich Agreement. It was between the leaders of Britain, Germany, France and
Italy. Hitler claimed that the Czech government was mistreating the Germans in the Sudetenland and
Conrad Henlein the leader of the Nazi party in Germany demanded that the Sudetenland should be
made a part of Germany. There was an agreement to hand over the Sudetenland to Hitler. Chamberlain
promised that the agreement would bring ‘peace for our time’.

Consequences of the Munich agreement

Hitler had gambled that the British would not risk open warfare. The prize of the Sudetenland was given
to Hitler without firing a single shot. On 1 October, German troops marched into the Sudetenland. There
has been a lot of controversy over the motives and the consequences of the Munich Agreement. In
March 1939, German troops took over the rest of the country. Appeasement had ended.

Nazi- Soviet pact, 1939

Stalin had been very worried about the German threat to the Soviet Union ever since Hitler came to
power in 1933. In 1934 he had made the USSR a member of the League of Nations hoping that the
League of Nations would guarantee his security against the League of Nations. However, he was
disheartened over the inaction of the League of Nations inaction over the Italian invasion of Abyssinia
and the Spanish civil war. Politicians in Germany and Britain had not resisted German rearmament and
most people seemed to welcome a stronger Germany as a way to fight communism

His suspicions fears and suspicions grew in the 1930s.

- He signed a treaty with France in 1935 that stated that France would help the USSR if Germany
invaded the Soviet Union. But Stalin did not trust the French, particularly when they failed even
failed even to stop Hitler from moving his troops back into the Rhineland.
- The Munich Agreement in 1938 increased Stalin’s concerns as he was not consulted about it.
Stalin concluded from the agreement that France and Britain were powerless to stop Hitler or
that they were happy for Hitler to take over eastern Europe and then the USSR. Stalin believed
that France and Britain made things worse by giving Poland a guarantee that they would defend
Poland if it was attacked. To Stalin this was support for one of the USSR’s potential enemies.
- On 23 August 1939, Hitler and Stalin the two arch enemies signed the NAZI-SOVIET PACT.

Terms of the Nazi-Soviet pact

- They agreed not to attack each other.

Why did Stalin sign the pact?

Stalin regarded it as his greatest achievement which gave him half of Poland and ensured that he would
not face a war on two fronts if he invaded Poland. Stalin managed to gain some territory that had once
been part of Russia. It also gave him time to prepare his forces to protect the USSR from the attack he
anticipated from Germany. On 1 September 1939 the German army invaded Poland from the west with
little resistance. Britain and France kept their pledge and on 3 September 1939 he declared war on
Germany.