Hitler’s War or

Chamberlain’s Blunder

Fiscal Period Million Marks1933-34 750

1934-35 4,093

1935-36 5,492

1936-37 10,271

1937-38 10,963

1938-39 17,247

German Military Expenditures

German Armed Forces1932 1939

Warships 30 95

Aircraft 36 8,250

Soldiers 100,000 950,000

Revising the Treaty of Versailles

1933• Announced Germany was suspending

reparations payments • Withdrew from the Disarmament

Conference

• Withdrew from the League of Nations

Signs 10 year non-aggression pact with Poland

to secure eastern border

January 1934

1935• Saar Plebiscite returns region to

Germany

• Hitler announces German rearmament program

• Signs Anglo-German Naval agreement allows larger German navy than

stipulated by Treaty of Versailles

• Italy invades Abyssinia (October)

1936• March Rhineland Remilitarized

Hitler sends in 10,000 troops

• July Nazi planes airlifted Franco’s troops from Morocco to Spain

• October Rome-Berlin Axis signed

• November Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan signed

1937-38Countdown to War

• Nov. 1937 Hossbach MemorandumHitler reveals foreign policy

• March 1938 Anschlusstroops sent into Austriabecomes part of the German Reich

• May 1938 Sudeten CrisisHitler demands Czechoslovakian Sudetenland for German lebensraum

1939• March 15 Germany occupies

Czechoslovakia

• March 31 Anglo-French guarantee Poland

• April 28 Hitler terminates Anglo-German Naval agreementand Non-aggression Pact with Poland

• August 23 Nazi-Soviet Pact

• Sept.1- Germany Invades Poland

• Sept. 3- Britain and France declare war on Germany

September 1939