Then in 1934 he signed a ten year non-aggression pact with Poland, this was to lull them into a false sense of security and to show to the world that Hitler was a man of peace, a veteran from the trenches. Also in 1934 the Austrian chancellor Dollfus was murdered. So Hitler tried a Nazi coup but Mussolini worried about Hitler’s intentions stationed troops on the Austrian boarder and so Hitler called it off.
In 1935 Hitler could no longer keep the rearmament of Germany a secret and so he announced German conscription which was totally against the Treaty of Versailles. This worried the British, French and Italians who in turn formed the Stresa Front, which was an anti-Germany alliance. Hitler saw that the only way to get around this was to break or weaken the Stresa Front. So in secret Hitler and England negotiated the Anglo-German navel agreement which allowed Germany to have a navy 35% the size of Britain’s, but it was not navy Hitler was after it was an Air force and a great army to conquer lebensraum in the east. The Stresa Front was finally delt its last blow when Mussolini invaded Abyssinia.
This put Hitler to the back of peoples minds, and while Britain and France worried over what to do about Abyssinia, Hitler Ordered the remilitarization of the Rhineland. This was the biggest gamble of his career because if France or Britain had shown any resistance Hitler had told his Generals to pull out immediately. But Britain and France did nothing, France was to preoccupied with it internal problems and Britain said he was marching in his own back yard also it was clear by now that neither of these two countries wanted war and where increasingly following a policy of appeasement. This success of the remilitarization of the Rhineland gave Hitler confidence and increased the risks he would take to get what he wanted i.e. made his foreign policy more aggressive.
In 1936 the Spanish Civil war began. In this war Hitler and Mussolini backed the side of Franco, this was the begging to the alliance between Germany and Italy. Germany also used this war to test out there new air force. By the ed 0f 1936 the Rome-Berlin axis was formed. Then in 1938 Hitler makes an Anschluss with Austria Britain and France again let this happen under there noses not wanting to oppose or stand up to Germany and cause another war.
The Sudetenland was the next target of Hitler’s aggressive foreign policy aims, with three million ethnic Germans in the Sudetenland Hitler had no trouble getting his Nazi supporters there to stir up trouble and accused the Czech Government of terrible atrocities towards the Sudeten Germans. Hitler then placed his troops along the Czech border causing a war scare among the allies. This was the beginning of an end, with Britain following a policy of appeasement and Germany rapidly growing in size and power with increasing demands, the two countries could not reach terms of appeasement. This looked like the end.
Then Mussolini stepped in and proposed a conference in Munich, Here an agreement was reached and Hitler was allowed to take the Sudetenland and also a piece of paper was signed to say that never would Britain and Germany go to war with each other again. Then in 1939 Hitler ordered the invasion of the rest of Czechoslovakia this marked the end of Britain’s appeasement and Britain began rapid rearmament and promised that Britain and France would protect Poland as this was Hitler’s obvious next target. This was it war!
But could this have been avoided? The answer is yes. Although Hitler was aggressive with his foreign policy aims if England or France had stood up to him a lot earlier e.g. over the Rhineland it is most likely the Second World War could have been delayed and even possibly prevented. Appeasement was the key to Hitler’s success, by giving in to his small demands made him slowly more ambitious which in turn led to difficult circumstances and then war. Another argument is if the Treaty of Versailles had been less harsh then the Weimar Republic would have been stronger and stayed in power this stopping Hitler from coming to power.
