Download Regional and Global Impact of Authoritarian Regimes

Foreign Policies of
Hitler: Regional and
Global Impact
Hitler’s Foreign Policy
• Once in power, Hitler implemented his
mission of reviving German strength and
establishing a foundation of a pure racial
state
• Acquiring territory or Lebensraum was
closely tied to domestic policies
• In order to achieve his goals, Hitler needed
to create a sense of national community
unified in mind, will, and spirit
• This could only be achieved through total
state control; every facet of cultural and
social life had to be controlled
Hitler’s Foreign Policy
• War was obviously a real possibility and the
domestic policies were aimed at creating a
nation ready and willing for war:
– Reverse the Treaty of Versailles
– Created a “Greater Germany” by uniting all
German speaking people
– Lebensraum (living space) for all German
people
Hitler’s Foreign Policy –
“Greater Germany”
• Hitler wanted a single homeland for all German
speaking people
• After Versailles, millions of Germans were living
in foreign countries
• Versailles had also forbidden the union of
Germany and Austria
Hitler’s Foreign Policy - Lebensraum
• Hitler’s “Greater Germany” would have a
population of over 85 million people
which could not be fed inside her existing
borders
• Hitler intended to expand eastward
towards Poland and Russia which
contained “inferior” people
• Social Darwinism dictated that Germany
was entitled to take their land
Operation Barbarosa
Hitler’s Foreign Policy – Reversing
Versailles
• From 1933-1938:
– (1933) Germany withdrew from the League of
Nations to reduce possible foreign control over
Germany
– She began rapid rearmament
– (1935) Announced that they had established an air
force
– (1936) Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland in
violation of various treaties with no foreign
opposition
Hitler’s Foreign Policy –
Reversing Versailles
– (1936) Hitler informed his top
officials that Germany must be
ready for war by 1940
– (1936-9) Germany fostered
closer relations with fascist
Italy and the two nations
assisted General Franco in
overthrowing Spain’s
Republican government during
the Spanish Civil War
Hitler’s Foreign Policy –
Reversing Versailles
• From 1938-1945:
– Germany strengthened its ties to Fascist Italy
and Japan by signing the Anti-Comintern Pact
in which the nations pledged to defend each
other against the Soviet Union and
international communism
– The Pact of Steel was signed with Italy
– (1938) Hitler carried out the Anschluss, the
annexation of Austria
Hitler’s Foreign Policy –
Reversing Versailles
– (1938) The Munich Agreement was
signed which ceded the Sudetenland to
Germany
– Germany occupied the remainder of
Czechoslovakia
– Hitler made it seem like his demands
could be met
– (August 1939) The German-Soviet
Nonaggression Pact was signed and
Hitler could now attack Poland
Hitler’s Foreign Policy –
Reversing Versailles
– (Sept 1939) Hitler invaded Poland. Britain
and France declared war on Germany two
days later
Hitler During the War
• Invades:
– Poland – Sept. 1, 1939
– Denmark and Norway – Apr. 9, 1939
– Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemberg, France – May
10, 1939
– Greece and Yugosloavia – Apr. 6, 1941
– USSR – Jun. 22, 1941
Hitler During the War
• Wasn’t ready for war – with the invasion of Poland, he
expected appeasement from Britain and France
• Blitzkrieg was successful at first, but didn’t end up
having enough tanks, trucks, planes, etc.
• The economy wouldn’t be unified and converted to a
wartime economy until 1942
• Wasted war materials on death/concentration camps
• No central war planning by the military services –
everything had to go through Hitler individually
Hitler During the War
• Hitler didn’t stop the Dunkirk evacuation
– Wanted to consolidate his position
– As a result, 330,000 French and British troops were
evacuated
• Hitler stops the Battle of Britain
– The intent was to destroy the British airforce so that a land
invasion could take place
– Also wanted to lower the morale of the British
– He stops the Battle to divert attention to the invasion of
the Soviet Union
Hitler During the War
• Invasion of the USSR
– Would make Britain desperate to surrender
– Would destroy “Jewish-Bolshevism”
– Would provide oil
– Germany was overstretched and it ends in a disaster
• D-Day Invasion
– Thought that it was a diversionary attack, so he
waited to send reinforcements
Hitler at the End
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By early 1945, Hitler ordered that all military,
transport, communication, industrial, and supply
facilities are to be destroyed. The order included
bridges, dams, and utilities
Speer (head of the economy) protested to Hitler
that the resources to be destroyed would be needed
for survival in the postwar period
Hitler believed that if the war is to be lost, the
nation also will perish
Hitler at the End
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He always laid fault to either his
military generals, the troops, or
Jews, but never himself
He established a Flying Special
Tribunal to go immediately to
places where German armies were
defeated, to try soldiers of all
ranks, and to carry out its
judgments on the spot
Defeated German
soldiers in the USSR
Hitler at the End
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Hitler wouldn’t surrender
The army came down to
drafting 14-year old boys and
even some 12-year olds
The militia came down to
drafting 8-year olds as well as
old men
They used anything they could
find to fight