hist2125 hitler’s germany lecture 12: revisionist and high-risk foreign politics, 1933-36 12...
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HIST2125Hitler’s Germany
Lecture 12:
Revisionist and high-risk foreign politics, 1933-36
12 November 2012
Foreign policy 4-phase-model
• Revisionist and high-risk foreign politics, 1933-36
• Expansionist foreign politics, 1938/39
• Blitz Wars and ideological warfare, 1939-42
• Total War and downfall, 1943-45
Hitler’s foreign policy goals
Mein Kampf (My Struggle):
• Reversal of Versailles Treaty
• Creation of Greater Reich of all German-speaking people
• Conquest of ‘Lebensraum’ (living space) in Eastern Europe
• Establishment of new European political order dominated by ‘Germanic race’
League of Nations ☻
Germany’s withdrawal, 14 Oct 1933:
• Hitler as chief initiator and in full agreement with leading German diplomats, army leadership, industrialists, conservative-revisionist forces
• Popular move to end Weimar Republic’s peaceful revisionist policy
• Necessary step after launching Germany’s rearmament program
Poland ☺Rapprochement, 1933/34:
• Hitler’s surprising move vs. foreign-policy makers & his dominant role
→ Consequence of G’s withdrawal from League of Nations
→ PL (Marshall Pilsudski) isolated after France’s non-interest in joint preventive war vs. G
► German-Polish Non-Aggression Treaty, 26 Jan 1934
= Undermined F’s containment policy with CEE states vs. G
= Ended German-Polish trading war
► Great sympathies of PL for Hitler► Pilsudski underestimation of Hitler
Soviet Union ☻
Negative ‘mirror image’ to Poland:
• NS anti-Communist propaganda
• ‘Natural antagonism’ between National-Socialist Germany and Communist-Bolshevist SU
• Hitler’s dominant role having long-term options in mind
Great Britain ☺
Bilateral Naval Treaty, 1935:
• Hitler’s dominant interest & influence → Conservative Foreign Minister von Neurath not involved
• German navy 35% + U-boat 45% of GB’s tonnage
= Hitler: Step towards full alliance with GB
= GB: Mainly concerned with Asia & acting without consultation with her French ally
German Rhineland ☺☻
Germany’s occupation of demilitarised zone:
• Hitler inspired by Mussolini’s Ethiopian campaign (1935/6)
• Popular foreign policy success
• No intervention by GB + F: Self-blockade = F only read to act with GB – GB positive to occupation & sceptical vs. F
= Versailles (1919) & Locarno Treaties (1925) violated
= Hitler emboldened
Italy ☺
Germany’s most important alliance partner:
• Close ideological ties shaken following Mussolini’s support for independent Austria, 1934
• Improved relations following after Germany’s support for Italy’s Ethiopian campaign, 1936
• Joint support for & cooperation with Fascist Franco during Spanish civil war, 1936
→ Berlin-Rome Axis, Oct 1936 …
Berlin-Rome Axis, Oct 1936
German-Italian agreement on:
Germany’s support for Italy’s occupations in Africa
Joint support & official recognition of Franco’s Fascist counter-government in Spain
Mutual promise of fight against ‘Bolshevism’ (SU)
Japan ☺
Germany’s second most important alliance partner:
• Japan’s initiative for joint Anti-SU + Anti-Comintern (Communist International) front
• ► Anti-Comintern Pact, 25 Nov 1936 (+ I, 1937)
• Hitler’s initiative for secret supplementary agreement on joint anti-SU policy
= But: Factual break of ACP by ‘Hitler-Stalin Pact’ (1939)
Foreign views on Hitler’s Germany, 1933-36
• Poland: Positive: underestimation
• Czechoslovakia: Negative
• GB: Positive & disinterested
• USA: Hitler compared with Roosevelt: disinterest + NS seen as European factor only
• F: Hitler seen as strong politician: defensive attitude
• NL / B / CH: Positive & disinterested
Western powers’ main reasons
• East Asian crisis (Japan) + Indian independence movement (Ghandi)
• SU ideological confrontation (Comintern)
• Domestic economic & social challenges
• Feeling-of-guilt (Versailles Treaty)
Conclusion
• Germany’s foreign policy restrictions abolished
• Much improved foreign political standing
• Good precondition for strongly expansionist policy
• Western democracies without counter-actions & in defence