Nazi Foreign Policy

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Nazi Foreign Policy

• Redressing
• Versailles
• and beyond

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(No Transcript)
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1933 / 1934Initial Foreign Policy Aims

• Priority 1) Avoid war until Germany is fully
  prepared
• Priority 2) Stress continuity
• Von Neurath - Nationalist Foreign Minister
• Priority 3) Avoid Multilateral Pacts or
  Agreements
• Lessons from outbreak of World War One
• Priority 4) Avoid being isolated
• Unilateral pacts
• Cultivate relations with Britain and Italy
• Priority 5) Seek to redress Treaty of Versailles
  injustices
• France, Russia and new buffer countries

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1933 / 1934 Which direction is Nazi Germany
Travelling?

• Withdraws from League of Nations and Disarmament
  Conference
• Fulfilling election pledges
• Manchuria lessons - ineffectiveness towards
  non-members
• Dislikes Multilateral nature of League
• Blames France for leaving (not Britain or Italy)
• Sign a ten year non-aggression pact with Poland
• Suggested reasonable Nazi Foreign Policy aims
• Placated Poles
• Secures Eastern Border
• Breached French Eastern Alliance System (Locarno)
• Unilateral - no complicating ties if pact is
  revoked

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1934 A Step too Far

• Foiled Anschluss
• Austrian Nazis assassinate Chancellor Dolfuss
• Invite Nazi Germany to liberate Austria
• Mussolini sends troops to Brenner Pass
• Italian claims on Tyrol region
• Hitler backs down and disclaims any
  responsibility

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1935 Challenging VersaillesUnilaterally

• Saar Plebiscite
• 90 vote to join Germany
• Domestic and International Triumph for Hitler
• Luftwaffe announced
• Conscription announced for 750,000 army
• Britain, France and Italy denounce Germany and
  threaten action the next time Germany threatens
  Status Quo (Stresa Front)
• Germany claims rearmament is necessary to protect
  Europe from the threat of Bolshevism
• Rejects war in speech to Reichstag

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1935 Challenging VersaillesBilaterally

• Naval Agreement with Britain
• German High Fleet will only be 35 of British
  High Fleet
• 45 Submarine ration (becomes 100 in 1938)
• Eases British strategic concerns
• Cultivating relations with Britain
• France Furious
• Strains Stresa Front

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1935 Breaking the Stresa FrontMussolinis
Abyssinian Adventure

• Italian Colonial Ambitions
• Britains demand for Sanctions against Mussolini
• Infuriates Mussolini
• Ineffectively applied
• Destroys credibility of League of nations
• Lack of Collective responsibility for their
  application
• Deflects attention from German actions in Europe
• Mussolini driven to Hitler

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1936 Pushing at an Open Door

• Rhineland Remilitarisation
• Over rules German High Command
• 14,000 troops
• Orders
• No French challenge
• Emboldens Hitler
• Page 384
• Plebiscite result
• 99

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1936 The Anti-Bolshevik CrusadeThe Spanish Civil
War

• Luftwaffes Role
• Franco
• Condor Legion
• Experimental bombing
• Cements relationship with Mussolini
• Britain and France Neutral
• World War spark?

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1936/37Speeding up Preparations for War

• Four Year Plan
• Axis and Anti-Comintern Pact
• Italy, Germany and Japan
• Ribbentrop to London
• To secure alliance with Britain
• Hossbach Conference
• Prepare for war in 1940s

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1938Anschluss

• Economic arguments of Anschluss
• Role of Austrian Nazis
• Intimidation of Chancellor Schuschnig
• Plebiscite called
• Forced resignation of Schusching
• Goering chooses new government
• Hitler invades anyway
• Combined Plebiscite (Germany and Austria)
• 99
• British recognition of enlarged Germany
• P 386

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1938 Czechoslovakia - The Hors Doeuvres

• Emboldened by Austrian Triumph
• It is my unalterable decision to smash
  Czechoslovakia by military action in the near
  future Hitler
• Intense dislike for Slavic Versailles nation
• Nazi Sudeten Party
• Munich conferences
• Italy, France and Britain (No USSR or Cz)
• Negotiated Settlement?
• Hitler had to be content with just Sudeten areas
• Rich in coal and copper, strong manufacturing
  base
• Frontier Defences
• German Generals cancel arrest plans
• USSR cannot rely on West for security
• (Nazi Soviet Pact)

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1939 Czechoslovakia - The Main Course

• Offers slices of Czechoslovakia to Poles,
  Hungarians and Romanians
• Slovaks offered autonomy
• Czech forces enter Slovakia to crush Nazi
  inspired unrest
• Slovakia told to declare independence or be
  invaded by Hungary
• Czechs agree to split with Slovakia
• Bohemia/Moravia annexed by Germans - Slovakian
  nominal independence ended next day
• Hungarians take Ruthenia (Poles - take a slice
  too)
• Huge Skoda plant under German control
• Non-Germans conquered for the first time
• The Wests patience is exhausted
• Anglo-French guarantee for Polands Independence
  two weeks later.
• p390