hitler
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
Nazi foreign policy
Nazi Germany's highly aggressive foreign policy was clearly an important cause of the Second World War but to suggest that it was always as aggressive would not be correct. Up until 1937 and the infamous 'Hossbach Memorandum' Hitler and his Nazis had a foreign policy based around peaceful 'revisionism' (revising the terms of the ToV), which was simply a continuation from their predecessor, the Weimar Republic. Hitler's policies up until 1937 were mostly non-aggressive and in some cases very just. For example his plebiscite of the Saar, which was a massive success and his capture of the Rhineland. Both were peaceful and successful in partly achieving one of Hitler's four main aims.
Hitler's main aims were to:-
Defy and revise the Treaty of Versailles.
Unite all German speaking people in central Europe
Extend nazism (either politically or forcefully.)
Obtain 'Lebensraum' (living space) and be self sufficient.
Clearly, the 'expansionist' ambition of Nazi foreign policy after 1937 was mainly to achieve those of Hitler's aims that couldn't be achieved peacefully. Perhaps the most significant long-term cause of an aggressive German foreign policy was the Treaty of Versailles but even though it was very harsh it was only probably required to have called for German 'revisionist' policies, no matter who ruled the country...