Transcript HITLER`S GOALS

HITLER’S GOALS
Rearm
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 goosestep
– 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