Hitler Foreign Policy
Hitler's FP key events
Causes of Expansion
Main Causes ● Desire to overturn Treaty of Versailles
● Destruction of Communism
● Lebensraum, Volksdeutsch
Impact of Nazism on Hitler’s FP ● Impact of WWI on Germany
○ Blame on government (November Criminals,
Dolchstosslegende)
● Strengthening Aryan Race & German Volk
○ Lebensraum, uniting Volksdeutsche
○ Destruction of Communism
○ Elimination of ToV
Economic Goals ● Reverse reparations of ToV & impact of GD
● Achieve autarky to gear economy towards war
○ New Plan
○ Four Year Plan
Hitler’s Foreign Policy Key Events
Hitler's FP key events
World Disarmament ● Hitler initially cautious, appeals to LoN to allow Germany to rearm to
Conference 1933
level of other nations
● Britain & Italy sympathetic (guilt due to ToV, potential ally)
● France wary of potential German invasion, object to appeal
○ Hitler exploits this perceived injustice to gain further sympathy
○ justifies leaving League of Nations & World Disarmament
Conference 1933
Further events ● Non-aggression pact with Poland, January 1934
● Attempted Anschluss with Austria 1934
● Anglo-German Naval Agreement 1935
The Saarland ● Removed from Germany under ToV
○ valuable industrial area
○ Agreed under treaty that plebiscite would determine its fate
● Plebiscite used as propaganda opportunity
○ Overwhelmed Pro-French campaign
, ● 90% of people chose to reunite with Germany
○ Profound success for Hitler
Remilitarization of the ● Demilitarized under ToV, buffer zone for France
Rhineland, 1936
● Gamble as military unprepared for conflict & German military
command advised against action
● Success as Britain & France solely condemned remilitarization, did
not take any action due to domestic issues (GD)
● Immense contribution to popularity
● Initiated future opportunism
Anti-Comintern Pact, 1936 ● Mussolini & Hitler not always allies, yet Mussolini became
disenchanted w/ British & French weak/hypocritical foreign policy
● Shared common interests (eg: destruction of Communism)
● Pact signed, joined one year later (1937) by Japan
● Aim: combat spread of global Communism
● Foundation of military allilance (Pact of Steel 1939)
Anschluss with Austria, 1938 ● Explicitly forbidden in ToV (contributes to considerable popularity as
treaty is widely resented in Germany)
● Incorporation of Austria into Third Reich 12 March 1938
○ Result of long campaign employing Austrian Nazi party to
demand plebiscite in Austria to unite with Germany
● Austrian gov. received no external assistance
● German soldiers accumulated on border, gov. resigned & replaced by
Nazi politicians
● Hitler’s army marched into Austria
○ Overwhelmingly pro-Anschluss token referendum to confirm
event held
Sudetenland, 1938 ● ToV took area away from Germany to create Czechoslovakia
● Hitler aggressively campaigned for this area to rejoin Germany
○ insistence led to international meetings in Munich
● Munich Conference October 1938
○ Britain, France, Italy (covertly aiding Germany) accepted
Hitler’s demands to reunite Sudetenland with Germany
● Following this, Hitler’s seized further areas of the country
○ Bohemia & Moravia
, ● Britain & France disregarded collective security, “sacrificed” and
abandoned Czechoslovakia to Hitler
Nazi-Soviet Pact ● Hitler & Stalin agree to treaty of non-aggression
(Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact)
● Considerable shock to international diploamcy due to clashing
August 1939
ideology, fear of spreading Communism
● Hitler employed realpolitik
● Treaty guaranteed Russia would not interfere with German plans to
invade Poland
○ Secret aspect of pact: division of Poland between Germany
and Russia
● Hitler betrayed pact in 1941
○ Invasion of Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa
Polish Crisis, September ● Considerable step in Hitler’s FP
1939
○ Numerous Germans living in Poland separated due to ToV
○ However, mainly Poles outnumbered Germans
■ No pretense that invasion was legitimate
● Britain & France guaranteed aid to Poland
○ Hitler based decisions on previous Anglo-French inaction &
Policy of Appeasement
○ Deduced they would not intervene
● FP miscalculation - invasion of Poland culminated in WWII outbreak
● First truly unpopular action in Germany due to its consequences
Second World War, ● First year of war in Germany’s favor, aside from failed Battle of Britain
1939-1945
1940
● By start of 1943, war effort increasingly negative for Germany
○ Battle of Stalingrad 1942-1943 pivotal moment resulting in
German retreat
● Italy became burden for German resources, had entered war
unprepared after Abyssinia 1935 & Spanish Civil War
● Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941 forced Germany to
also declare war on USA
● German morale impacted by bombing
○ Cologne 12 March 1940 - 20,000 casualties
○ Dresden 13 February 1945 - 25,000 casualties
● However, never any considerable revolt against Führer
, Responses
League of Nations 1920s ● 1920s characterized by Internationalism
● League created a peace-keeping body to uphold ToV & provide
forum for international diplomacy
● Heavily reliant on Britain & France due to absence of USSR (until
1934) and USA
● Locarno Pact 1925
○ Uphold western borders established in ToV
○ No mention of eastern borders, kept prospect of German
expansionism towards east open
● Kellogg-Briand Pact 1928
○ Nations agreed to renounce war & use of force as
instrument of foreign policy
○ Symbolic gesture
● After impact of Great Depression, nations focused on domestic
politics, self-interest & own survival instead of upholding LoN
● Britain & France as de facto LoN leaders
● Failure of League prompted smaller pacts between nations to
guarantee security
Italy ● Mussolini initially sceptical of Hitler, concerned of expansionism
● Prevented first Anschluss attempt 1934, moved Italian troops to
Austrian border
● Italy joined Stresa Front with Britain & France in 1935
● After Abyssinian Crisis 1935, moved closer to Germany
● Rome-Berlin Axis 1936
● Sudeten Crisis 1938 worried Mussolini, Italy unprepared for war
○ Wanted to use chance to act as mediator, increase
presence on world stage
● Pact of Steel May 1939: Formalized military alliance with
Germany
○ AJP Taylor: Germany did this only to apply additional
pressure to Britain & France
● By Polish Crisis, Mussolini communicated Italy’s unpreparedness
for war to Hitler
● Attempted to create conference of world powers after invasion of
Poland → unsuccessful
