Hitler's Foreign Policy

Many saw Hitler as a defense to the threat of spreading Communism which was one of their main worries so by this Britain and France thought appeasement was a great option because the leaders were short of alternatives. The British weren’t very confident, they feared another war since they weren’t strong enough after all of the consequences (The Great Depression) they suffered from the first one and would be even harder for them without USA’s support for it. Many people thought the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh on Germany so they believed that if Germany recovered all its lost territories, it had a chance in becoming a peaceful nation again. Britain and France thought that through the policy of Appeasement, they could maintain Hitler in control, therefore he would have everything he wanted thus not causing a second world war. This policy encouraged Hitler to take more chances and more gambles and through his gambles he became stronger. By this time, in 1936 Hitler began his policy of reclaiming lost German territory. Hitler thought that Germany lost a lot of territory after the war, mainly because of the Treaty of Versailles and in 1936 he was determined to recover all of it, no matter what. At first he said he would take over Germany’s lost ground but little by little he managed to take over more than what Germany had before. So, the appeasement depended on what Hitler could not be counted on, his trust.  This therefore allowed Germany to grow too strong by not only recovering its lost land but rearming and becoming a powerful country. The policy hence gave Hitler the confidence and courage he needed for another war.

In 1939 Hitler made an agreement with Stalin (USSR) called the Nazi-Soviet Pact. They agreed in the Pact that they couldn’t be aggressive against each other. Due to their passion for conquering Poland they also made a private arrangement to divide it. Stalin never liked or trusted Hitler at first place, but through it was the only way of having time to build up his forces against future attacks and wars he was sure that were going to happen. He was also very concerned that Britain and France had no suitable power at all to go against Hitler. By what Stalin knew about Hitler, he would soon want to take over not only Europe but the USSR also. This threatened Stalin a lot. So this pact would bring for at least some time, peace and safety into his country. A major stroke was what this pact represented for Hitler. He promised that Finland, Poland, Estonia and Latvia were the territories the Russians (Stalin) would keep after they took over it. But he wasn’t intending in maintaining his promise of allowing them to keep it.  Although the Nazi-Soviet Pact is rather suspicious because of the mistrust among Hitler and Stalin, the Pact managed to bring advantages for both leaders. Stalin managed to make the military preparations he wanted to and the Pact also gave led him to the path of power.  

When Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, his army was very strong and agile during the invasion therefore making the invasion very successful.  Through the Nazi-Soviet Pact, Hitler gained confidence and the Pact cleared his way for the invasion, and so it was the peak of his triumphs. With all the confidence and courage, he planned everything very secretly with Stalin. The strong Nazi’s army managed to attack Poland as quick as lightening (as Britzkrieg, they call) the West Poland.  Hitler used his special way of attacking by sending first at night the troop by airplane throwing silently bombs all over the place and then during the day the army took over by land. The Soviet forces attacked the East. As a result, the whole Poland was under the pressure and taken over by Stalin and Hitler. After taking over Poland, Hitler was sure Britain and France wouldn’t go against him in war over Poland’s territory. He was already engaged in planning his next gamble which was to invade his new ally’s, the USSR, territory. But this plan wasn’t accomplished because right after the invasion that happened in September 1st, Hitler received a strange and nasty surprise. He was mistaken for the first time about Britain and France, they were ready and settled for the next war. By this, they declared war on Germany on 2nd September. Hitler was expecting a war but not like this, he wasn’t expecting that his enemies would be Britain and France.

Although it was Hitler’s actions which led to war, many other factors were important in making war happen. There were too many agreements and pacts going on between various different countries, there was to much dishonesty happening. All of this would someday led to war, but Hitler just made it happen faster. The failure of the League of Nations was definitely a major donor for the war. The League had the power of putting an end in Hitler’s path to power when they saw that he was starting to rearm. They should have since the beginning took action against Hitler instead of appeasing him. Appeasing him just made him more confident and stronger. Hitler went out of control and wanted revenge no matter what. The punishments set by the Treaty of Versailles were definitely what he wanted to abolish and the League should have taken notice of this since the beginning. Furthermore, during the invasions of Chinese and African territory, the League should have taken an immediate action, instead they failed twice making them weak and decline. The founder members of the League went blind about all these happenings and instead gave more importance to their own interest than to the world’s peace which was first of all one of the main aims of the League.