The Diplomacy of Hitler



The Diplomacy of Hitler

In 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. While the world could never anticipate the amount of upheaval and destruction he would bring, Hitler did leave subtle hints in his book Mein Kampf. It made reference to:

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In his first year of power, Hitler did very little because the German military was weak. The only thing Hitler did do was to pull Germany out of the League of Nations. He did this to challenge the peace agreement and because he hated the Treaty of Versailles.

The following year (1934), Hitler still remained relatively quite. He only made two notable changes. They were:

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2. In July, Hitler ordered the Austrian Nazi Party to rise up and overthrow the Austrian government. Engelbert Dollfuss, who was the dictator of Austria, constantly arrested the Nazi Party members. Hitler wanted to eventually merge Austria with Germany (called Anschluss). Dollfuss was killed in the uprising and was succeeded by Kurt Schuschnigg who eventually crushed the Austrian Nazi Party.

|Mussolini was very nervous about Hitler’s attempt to overthrow the Austrian government. He was afraid that Hitler would then |

|attempt to claim Trieste and Tyrol. Thus, Mussolini looked for help from England and France. |

The Saar, a German state, was given to France as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. However, after fifteen years (1935), the people of the region were to vote whether they officially wanted to join France or return to Germany. In the vote, 95% of the people desired to return to Germany. This lopsided vote had two major results. They were:

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The Treaty of Versailles is Broken

|Mussolini responded to the March Surprise by forming an air alliance (Stresa Front) with England and France in April of 1935. |

|These countries vowed that if Hitler did anything else to break the Treaty of Versailles, they would intervene. |

England was afraid of Mussolini so they signed the treaty just to please him. At this point, they had no intentions of challenging Hitler.

In May 1935, Stalin (USSR) agreed to two foreign alliances. They were:

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In June 1935, England signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement with Germany. England gave Germany permission to build up the German navy to one-third the size of the British fleet. This agreement convinced Hitler and his officials that is was now acceptable to continue to break the Treaty of Versailles.

Mussolini’s War with Ethiopia

In October 1935, Mussolini declared war to please his own people. He invaded Ethiopia because:

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Mussolini was hoping that England would allow him to use the Suez Canal. Ethiopia was in the League of Nations which is based on collective security. The war lasted six months. Italy won but only after it used poison gas. For the first five months, Italy was losing the war.

The leader of Ethiopia went to the League of Nations and begged for help. Under the control of England and France, the League drew up a list called “Economic Sanctions” which was a list of things other countries could not trade with Italy. They put things on the list that Italy did not need. The results were:

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|In March 1936, Hitler issued another “March Surprise.” This surprise was that Germany would begin to remilitarize the Rhineland. |

|This would be the last time the French could have stopped Hitler with relative ease. However, they did not challenge Hitler on |

|this. |

In July 1936, a civil war broke out in Spain. It lasted until 1939 and over one million men died. The main cause of the war was that the king was overthrown. The Republic now in power had been passing socialist ideas.

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The supporters of each side during the civil war were:

|Loyalists (Republicans) |Nationalists (supported Franco) |

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As soon as Franco failed, he turned to outsiders. He turned to Italy for help and the Italians quickly responded by sending 80,000 troops. Mussolini agreed to assist Franco because:

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Franco continued to seek assistance. He proceeded to contact Hitler for help. Hitler agreed to help Franco, but not with men. Germany would send planes over to Spain. Hitler agreed to this because:

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The Spanish government turned to England and France for help. They both said that they wanted “non-intervention.” However, when Spain contacted the Soviet Union, Stalin agreed to help because:

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In 1937, there was no “March Surprise.” The German military wasn’t strong enough to expand its borders anymore.

|In July 1937, Japan invaded China. Japan already had Korea and Manchuria. They were now moving down the coast of China. Japan |

|contacted Germany and signed the Anti-Comintern Pact. It was a defensive alliance against the Soviet Union. Stalin now |

|potentially had a two-front war. |

After being relatively quiet for a year, Hitler decided to become more aggressive in 1938. There are two main theories as to the sudden change in Hitler’s mentality. They are:

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In 1938, Hitler fired Generals Werner von Fritsch and Werner von Blomberg because they were trying to slow him down. Hitler justified their firings by claiming that Blomberg’s wife was a former prostitute and that Fritsch was a homosexual. Hitler then proceeded to put himself in charge of the army. He also fired Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath and replaced him with Joachim von Ribbentrop. Ribbentrop would do whatever he was told.

Hitler’s next target was the Sudetenland, the northwest section of Czechoslovakia. The Fuhrer claimed to be protecting the three million “oppressed” Germans living there.

|In April, Hitler made speeches that he was going to take the Sudetenland. The Czech’s had three assets on their side: |

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A month later, a crisis emerged over the Sudetenland. A rumor spread throughout Europe that Hitler sent his troops down to the Czechoslovakian border at night. In response, the Czechs mobilized their military to stop the German troops. This was known as the “May Crisis.”

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• Hitler decided that October 1, 1938 would be the day the German army begins to invade Czechoslovakia. It appeared that war was inevitable. However, in the last week of September, Mussolini told Hitler not to invade. Mussolini wanted to fight on Hitler’s side, but his forces would not be ready to fight until 1943. The Italian army was light-years behind Hitler’s forces.

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|Hitler no longer wanted the Sudetenland. Thus, he hosted the “Munich Conference.” The purpose was to see who should control the |

|Sudetenland. Hitler invited Italy (Benito Mussolini), France (Edouard Daladier) and England (Neville Chamberlain). Czechoslovakia|

|and the Soviet Union were not invited. |

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|During the second day of the conference, Chamberlain met with Hitler. Chamberlain asked Hitler to sign the “Gentleman’s |

|Agreement.” |

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Stalin was hoping that the French would assist him in fighting Hitler. After the Munich Conference, Stalin was now convinced that neither France nor England would help the Soviets fight against the Nazis. Thus, to buy himself some time, Stalin signed a peace agreement with Germany.

|In 1939, the “March Surprise” was not what world leaders expected. Many thought that Hitler was going to invade the Polish |

|Corridor. However, he decided not to invade because a conflict might develop with the Soviet Union as a result of this. |

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|Thus, Hitler decided to invade the rest of Czechoslovakia and Memel (part of Lithuania). This put pressure on Stalin because |

|Germany was now closer to the Soviet Union. More importantly, Hitler violated the Gentlemen’s Agreement. |

Chamberlain assured every country in Europe that if Germany attacked their nation, England would come to their assistance. Poland was included on this list.

In April 1939, Mussolini invaded Albania. It was the poorest country in Europe. Soon afterwards, Hitler and Mussolini sign the Pact of Steel treaty. This established an offensive alliance. If either country went to war, the other country would enter too. This was a mistake by Hitler.

In May 1939, Stalin fired his Foreign Minister, Maxim Litvinov and replaced him with Vyacheslav Molotov. Litvinov was fired for two main reasons. They were:

• He was Jewish. Because of this, Hitler refused to negotiate with him.

• Litvinov advised Stalin to be patient. He believed that England would come to their aid.

Once Molotov was in office, he began to meet with von Ribbentrop (Germany) to come to some mutual agreements. In August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed off on three agreements, officially known as the Ribbentrop-Molotov Agreements. It stated that:

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3. They agreed to the “SAP (Secret Additional Protocol) Agreement.” Stalin promised to give Hitler permission to take the western half of Poland. In return, Stalin would be allowed to take:

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By agreeing to this, Hitler helped Stalin create a buffer zone to protect the Soviet Union from an attack by Germany. Hitler didn’t mind because he knew that the German army could go through the buffer zone in less than two days.

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