The twentieth-century world, Year 10: Hitler's aims, the Rhineland and the Anschluss (Inter-war years option)

Lebensraum

HintHe set it out in 'Mein Kampf' in the 1920s.

The whyThe word means 'living space'. His other stated aims were to overturn the Treaty of Versailles and to unite all German speakers in one country.

Mussolini moved Italian troops to the Austrian border

HintAt this point Italy saw Germany as a rival, not a friend.

The whyHitler backed down and denied any part in the murder. Four years later, with Mussolini on his side, he would try again and succeed.

About 90 per cent voted to return to Germany

HintThe region had been run by the League of Nations for fifteen years.

The whyThe vote was held under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and was entirely legal. Nazi propaganda presented it as a triumph for Hitler.

Conscription

HintThe army was to grow far beyond 100,000 men.

The whyHe announced that the army would grow to more than 500,000 men, and revealed that Germany already had an air force. Rearmament had been going on in secret since 1933.

Britain, France and Italy

HintThey met in a town on Lake Maggiore.

The whyThey condemned German rearmament and promised to stand together, but agreed on no action. The front fell apart within months, over the naval agreement and then Abyssinia.

Build a navy up to 35 per cent of the size of Britain's

HintIt was signed in London without consulting France or Italy.

The whyBritain hoped to limit German naval growth by agreement. In doing so it accepted that Germany could break the naval terms of the Treaty of Versailles, two months after condemning German rearmament at Stresa.

March 1936

HintWhile Britain and France were distracted by the Abyssinian crisis.

The whyFrance would not act without Britain, and many people in Britain felt that Germany was only moving troops within its own country.

The Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno treaties

HintOne was imposed on Germany in 1919; the other Germany had signed freely in 1925.

The whyIt was a gamble: the German army was still much smaller and weaker than the French. Britain and France condemned the move, but neither acted. Hitler concluded that they would not fight.

The Rome-Berlin Axis

HintHe pictured a line between the two capitals around which Europe would turn.

The whyThe two dictators had been pushed together by the Abyssinian crisis and by fighting on the same side in the Spanish Civil War. In 1939 the link became a full military alliance, the Pact of Steel.

The Anti-Comintern Pact

HintAimed, in effect, at the Soviet Union.

The whyIt was named for its opposition to the Communist International, the Soviet-led body known as the Comintern. It linked the three powers that had each defied the League of Nations: in Manchuria, in Abyssinia and in the Rhineland.

Anschluss

HintThe Treaty of Versailles had forbidden it.

The whyGerman troops crossed the border on 12 March without a shot being fired. A vote held by the Nazis a month later, with no free campaign, reported over 99 per cent in favour. Britain and France protested and did nothing.

Kurt Schuschnigg

HintHe was replaced by the Austrian Nazi Seyss-Inquart.

The whyHitler feared that Austrians would vote to stay independent. He threatened invasion, and Schuschnigg gave way to avoid bloodshed. The new Nazi chancellor then invited German troops in.