HITLER

1
HITLERS GOALS
Rearm Take back Saar Basin and Upper
Silesia Absorb and remilitarize Rhineland Control
Polish Corridor
Expand German Territory through military conquest
2
LEBENSTRAUM(LIVING SPACE)

• Based on Hitlers 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

3
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

4
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 Frances
  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
5
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

6
MUSSOLINIS 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

7
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

8
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

9
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

10
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

11
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

12
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

13
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

14
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

15
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

16
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

17
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

18
FORMATION OF AXIS

• Italy and Germany sign pact in October 1936
• Agreed that Germanys interests lay in the east
  while Italy could have the Mediterranean region
• Mussolini now copied Hitler
• Ordered soldiers to goose-step
• Adopted Nazi salute
• Began campaign against Italian Jews

19
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

20
ANSCHLUSS

• Schuschnigg announces a referendum on the
  question of Austrian independence from Germany
• In response to Hitlers 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

21
MUNICH BACKGROUND

• Eduard Benes tries to get support from Soviet
  Union and France to resist Hitlers 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

22
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 Hitlers promise to leave rest of
  Czechoslovakia alone

23
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

24
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

25
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