Hitler's Foreign Policy

especially noted when he earned the First Class Iron Cross, the highest military honor a German

It was around the end of the first world war in which the main “compromise” would occur. The first world war ended on November 11,1918 and less than a year later the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919 and around this time frame is in which the main compromise that seemed to attain peace would put tension in the hearts of many. Germany was in a state of chaos, anarchy and economic devastation. Germany had to pay trillions in today’s money as debs of war. The United States of America was trying to cope with the loss of many of it’s soldiers and keep Germany and it’s people under control, great britain was doing a very similar action. Around, may of 1920 there was a rise in totalitarianism one of the mains will be Italy, The Soviet Union and Germany.On November 8–9, 1923, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party led a coalition group in an attempted coup d'état which came to be known as the Beer Hall Putsch. They attempted to create a new government based on race. By Oct. 29, 1922 Mussolini officially takes over Italy.

A third promise of Hitlers was that he would provide more living space. Hitler believed that Germany required more living space, or "Lebensraum", in order to survive. Instead of adding colonies to make Germany bigger, Hitler wanted to enlarge Germany within Europe. Hitler stated that the Soviet Union was run by the Jews, thus Germany had a right to take Russian land. With more living space, it was believed that this would make Germany stronger: stronger military, and built high hopes that Germany would become economically self-sufficient with the newfound wealth of food and raw material sources.

The Treaty of Versailles formed after World War I forced Germany to pay great amounts in reparation payments, which was severely damaging to their economy and to their collective national ego. In addition, they were forced to greatly weaken their army by demobilizing, abolishing universal compulsory military service, and by having their army be comprised by no more than seven divisions of infantry and three divisions of cavalry. Furthermore, the country was also forced to return lands which they had viewed as 'Germanic' and had laid claim to, as well as overseas colonies, back to various other countries.

Eubank also stated the French “feared a repetition of the bloody sacrifices of 1914-1918.” and the British wanted to appease Hitler. Not many countries had agreed with the Munich Agreement.

However, British and French military intervention in the Rhineland incident, 1936 could have been an alternative to appeasement. Their reluctance to take action permitted Germany to increase her power (within 18 months Germany’s rate of rearmament surpassed that of Britain and France), whilst also contributing to the burgeoning belief that the League of Nations was ineffective. Hitler himself stated that "If France had then marched into the Rhineland; we would have had to withdraw with our tails between our legs." Indeed, many historians concur as invading the

The Treaty of Versailles imposed strict limitations on the German Army. In fact, in Germany’s armed forces were limited to: only 100,000 men, conscription was banned, they were only allowed to have six battleships, the Rhineland became a demilitarised area and they were not allowed to have submarines and aircrafts.This was significant as Germans were not happy about this and Hitler managed to use this as an argument to fuel German’s hatred towards the Treaty of Versailles and consequently gained more followers and rise to power.

From the time of ‘Mein Kampf’ Hitler had outwardly expressed his desire to move toward Russia in his quest for ‘Lebensraum,’ however in 1939, it was beneficial for him

Hitler was openly accepting that his actions could have caused war with Britain and France, but they remained proactive in their dealings with Hitler, instead trying to reason with the German leader and make compromises in return for peace. France and Germany avoided any military action at this point in time as The Great Depression had hindered their military rearming production and war would be costly and in particular France, public opinion opposed any conflict with Hitler’s German forces.[7]

The Treaty of Versailles was penned during the Paris Peace Conference, mainly to decide upon Germany’s consequences for beginning World War One. When Germany signed the treaty, it lost a tenth of its land to surrounding countries. Not only did they lose part of their country, but they also lost their overseas territories, including Chinese ports, Pacific Islands, and African colonies. One of the actual causes of the war was that Germany wanted ‘a place in the sun’, and requested

that Hitler was a “sincere man who had no intention to provoke a war.” He too,

When Britain and France refused to allow immediate military equality for Germany during the Geneva Disarmament Conference, Germany ceased the negotiations and left the League of Nations. This step led to international isolation, but clever propaganda and reassurance of peace in form of different bilateral treaties managed to reduce it.

According to Kagan, “Hitler’s long-range plans included germinating in lands inhabited by people racially akin to the Germans.” (Kagan, 2001) He wanted to turn these lands in colonies/empires. He also intended to recapture territory that was lost to Poland in World War One.

France, Italy, Britain and the U.S. met at the Capitol to talk about the terms of peace for the post war. Germany thought this was unfair due to the fact they were not able to attend this talk. The Allied powers told Germany to just sign the treaty and they did not need to know what it was about. Germans refused to sign this treaty and some talked about going back to war.

Rearmament was a popular move in Germany. It boosted Nazi support. Hitler also knew that Britain had some sympathy for Germany on this issue, as Britain believed that the limits put on Germany’s armed forces by the Treaty of Versailles were too strict. It was clear that the permitted forces were not enough to defend Germany from attack. Also, Britain thought that Germany would be a good buffer against Communism.