The foreign policy and the road to war

Throughout his political career, Hitlers foreign policy objectives remained constant and clear. They were clearly expressed in Mein Kampf and numerous article and speeches. Hitler believed in the following: Versailles. Hitler despised the Treaty of Versailles and saw it as a national humiliation. He promised that if he came to power, he would tear up the treaty, end Germanys reparation payments to the allies and restore Germanys borders to how they had been in 1914. Lebensraum. In Mein Kampf and elsewhere he argued that the Aryan race demanded lebensraum (living space) in the east. This living space would be in what is now Poland and Russia. Nationalism. Hitler was a nationalist who believed that Germany should be respected diplomatically. He also believed strongly in the union of German-speaking people. This would include a union between Germany and Austria, the country of his birth. Anti communism. He hated communism and promised the destruction of that ideology worldwide, if he came to power. Economic expansion. Hitlers economic policy of rearmament meant that Germany needed raw materials such as coal, iron ore and oil. It also needed to increase its industrial capacity. Therefore, Hitlers foreign policy aims were geared to ensuring a guaranteed supply of materials. Within a year of his appointment as Chancellor, Hitler had withdrawn Germany from the disarmament conference and the league of nations. For the start, the regime took very little note of international conventions all agreement. The league of nations had been weakened by the actions of Japan in Manchuria in 1931-1932. By leaving the league, Hitler made it clear that Germany would have to be dealt with by individual members of the world community. However Hitler needed to avoid any foreign conflict until the regime was secure at home. In 1934 he signed a ten year Non-Aggression Pact with Poland which ensured the security of Germanys eastern borders. Of particular importance was the fact that this treaty broke the French system of alliances in eastern Europe.

Appeasement

The crisis which directly led to the world war took place in Europe. The key moment was in 1933,when Hitler rose to power in Germany. From the very beginning of his dictatorship, Hitler hoped to put an end to the political order created by the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler acted quickly;Germany left the League of nations in 1933, established compulsory military service in 1935, remilitarised the Rhineland and, along with Italy's Mussolini,intervened in the Spainish Civil War on the side of Franco's rebel faction in 1936. The British Prime Minister at this time was Chamberlain. His foreign policy was a prime example of the policy of appeasement. The attempts to please Hitler did not guarantee peace in Europe. On the contrary, the policy of giving in to their demands only allowed the facist powers to be more aggressive. The following record of events demonstrates how the democratic powers did not come up with a firm response to counter German aggression.
In March 1938 Germany invaded Austria. Hitler, an Austrian himself,accomplished one of his nationalist goals:the annexation of Austria by Germany,otherwise known as the Anschluss.The democratic powers did not take a hard stance in this situation. During the Munich conference of September 1938,France and Great Britain gave in to Hitler's demands and agreed to Germany's annexation of the Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia.

France and Great Britain had been devastated by the First World War and hoped to avoid conflict by appeasing Hitler. So,when the German Chancellor demanded the annexation of the German-speaking Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia , arguing that the Czech government had discriminated against the Sudeten people, the democratic powers accepted Hitler's demands.The Munich Pact, signed by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain

for Great Britain,Premier Edouard Daladier for France,Adolf Hitler for Germany, and Benito Mussolini for Italy, as appeasement purposes, annexed Sudetenland to Germany. In it ,Hitler agreed not to claim any other European territory. More than any other action, the destruction of Czechoslovakia proved to the outside world that Hitler's ambition lay in achieving Lebensraum. And Hitler did not stop there. In the same month, he put pressure on Lithuania to give up Memel and made demands concerning Polish Corridor. In response to such aggression,Britain and France promised help to Poland in March 1939 if it was invaded by Hitler.