German Foreign Policy Flashcards
Long Term aim of German Fo Po
Hitler’s obsession with race = sought racial purity
Lebensraum= living space.
Hitler’s master race population of 250 million would live here served by the local Slav populations who would become their servants
Social Darwinism: The idea that the Aryan race was superior and Jews were ‘subhuman’
Autarky: The idea that Germany should be economically self-sufficient
Short Term aim of German Fo Po
Cancellation of reparation payments; this had effectively been achieved at the Lausanne Conference in 1932
Germany’s right to military equality with its neighbors;
- REJECT Germany’s army to 100 000, conscription, and air force, submarines
Recovery of territory lost in 1919
e.g. Land lost to Poland in the east, remilitarization of the Rhineland and Anschluss (union) with Austria.
RESTORE Germany’s national pride
Unifying all Germans
GROSSDEUTSCHLAND: Bringing together of all German speaking people into the Reich.
1919
- German speaking Austria was not allowed to join with Germany
Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia had a population of 3 million Germans
Hitler Realms = SEEKING EQUALITY
1933: Germany withdrew from the World Disarmament Conference on the grounds; no other country was disarming. In this year also he withdrew from the League of Nations (gave Ger. More freedom of action).
1934: Hitler ordered the German armed forces to rearm and prepare for war.
Britain, France and the League of Nations did nothing to stop German rearmament even though it was breaking of the T of V. British PM MacDonald believed the French posed more of a threat to peace than the Germans.
GERMAN- POLISH TEN YEAR NON-AGGRESSION PACT
The moment of …
JANUARY 26, 1934
International treaty between Poland and Germany
- Either country could not launch an attack on the other for the next 10 years.
Poland’s leaders were anxious over rising tension between the Nazis and the Soviets = Poland sits in between both nations
“A new era in Polish-German political relations.”
On April 28, 1938 the Nazis removed Germany from it, and on September 1, 1939 they invaded Poland.
Nazi-Soviet Non-Agression Pact
August 23, 1939
Either country could not launch an attack on the other for the next 10 years.
Broken after 2 years
THE SAAR PLEBISCITE (VOTE)
JANUARY 1935
The Treaty of Versailles gave the Saar-land to the League of Nations in 1919, for 15 years during which time France was to control all of its coalfields.
90% of the people from Saar voted to return the Saar to Germany.
Rearmament
German army was already 240 000
The Stresa Front (a planned alliance between France, Britain and Italy) condemned this violation of Versailles, no action was taken, the League was helpless, and the Front collapsed anyway as a result of Hitler’s next success.
ANGLO-GERMAN NAVAL TREATY
JUNE 1935
Hitler targeted Britain (Stresa Front member) by offering to limit the German navy to 35% of the strength of the British navy.
Britain eagerly accepted
- Anglo-German Naval Agreement (June 1935)
By the end of 1938, the army stood at 51 divisions (about 800,000 men) plus 21 large naval vessels and 47 U-boats (submarines).
A large air force of over 2000 aircraft (Luftwaffe) had been built up also.
THE REOCCUPATION/ REMILITARISATION OF THE RHINELAND
7 MARCH 1936
Hitler saw how the L of N failed to stop the invasions of Manchuria and Abyssinia and failed to stop Germany from rearming.
Hitler ordered German troops (3 infantry battalions made up of 22 000 men) to enter the Rhineland to remilitarise it even though it was breaking the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaty of 1925 .
