Hitler's foreign policy and the road to war
Hitler's Foreign Policy Aims
Hitler’s foreign policy goals were clearly stated in Mein Kampf (1925) and never fundamentally changed. He wanted to: destroy the Treaty of Versailles and restore German greatness; unite all German-speaking peoples in a greater German state; and conquer Lebensraum (living space) in eastern Europe by defeating the Soviet Union and enslaving or expelling its Slavic population. The foreign policy of 1933 to 1939 represented a step-by-step movement towards these goals, exploiting the weakness and reluctance of Britain and France to risk another war.
Key dates: rearmament publicly announced 1935; conscription reintroduced 1935; Rhineland reoccupied March 1936; Anschluss (union with Austria) March 1938; Sudetenland ceded (Munich Agreement) September 1938; Nazi-Soviet Pact signed August 1939.
Rearmament and Conscription, 1935
From the moment he came to power, Hitler began secretly rearming Germany in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. In March 1935, he publicly announced German rearmament and the reintroduction of conscription. He now planned to build an army of 550,000 men — far above the 100,000 limit set by Versailles. Britain, France and Italy condemned this at the Stresa Conference, but took no action. Britain actually signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement in June 1935, limiting Germany’s fleet to 35% of Britain’s but in effect accepting German rearmament. Hitler correctly concluded that the Western powers would not stop him by force.
In March 1936, Hitler ordered German troops to march into the Rhineland, which had been demilitarised under Versailles and the Locarno Pact. This was Hitler’s biggest gamble up to that point: his generals were deeply nervous, and the troops had orders to withdraw if France resisted. France and Britain protested but did not act militarily. Hitler later said that the 48 hours after the march were the most nerve-wracking of his life, and that a French advance would have forced a German retreat.
The lack of Allied response enormously boosted Hitler’s confidence and domestic prestige. The German public was jubilant: troops had marched into German territory without a single shot being fired. The Rhineland success confirmed Hitler’s belief that the Western powers could be faced down. It also secured Germany’s western frontier and freed him to plan expansion eastward.
The Anschluss, March 1938
In March 1938, Hitler achieved the union of Germany and Austria. The Anschluss had been banned by the Treaty of Versailles, but Hitler exploited the Nazi movement within Austria, pressured Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg into resignation, and sent German troops across the border on 12 March 1938. Schuschnigg had attempted to hold a plebiscite on Austrian independence, but Hitler forced him to cancel it. German troops were greeted with genuine enthusiasm by many Austrians. A subsequent plebiscite reportedly showed 99% support for union — though conducted under Nazi conditions that made a free vote impossible. Britain and France issued protests but did not act.
At the Munich Conference (29–30 September 1938), Britain, France and Italy agreed to give Hitler the Sudetenland — the German-speaking border region of Czechoslovakia — without consulting the Czech government. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned claiming to have secured 'peace for our time'.
The Sudetenland crisis of summer 1938 arose from Hitler’s demands that the three million German-speakers in western Czechoslovakia be incorporated into Germany. Britain and France, desperate to avoid war, agreed at Munich to hand the region over without Czech participation. Hitler had promised this would be his last territorial demand. Within six months, in March 1939, he broke this promise and invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia — the first acquisition of non-German-speaking territory and the moment that convinced Britain and France that appeasement had failed.
In August 1939, Hitler neutralised the Soviet threat to his eastern flank by signing the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Stalin on 23 August 1939. The pact shocked the world — ideological enemies had made a deal. A secret protocol divided eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. Hitler now had a free hand in the west. On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany.
A key theme in evaluating Hitler’s foreign policy is the relationship between his long-term goals and the opportunities created by Western appeasement. Historians debate whether Hitler followed a fixed programme laid out in Mein Kampf, moving methodically from Versailles revision to Lebensraum, or whether he was an opportunist who improvised within a broad ideological framework. What is clear is that the Western powers’ consistent reluctance to use force — driven by memories of the catastrophic losses of 1914–1918 and the genuine belief that some German grievances over Versailles were legitimate — gave Hitler the room to escalate with each unchallenged success. The Rhineland, Anschluss and Sudetenland all followed the same pattern: a demand, a crisis, a concession, and Hitler’s confidence growing with every capitulation. It was only when he invaded the non-German-speaking rump of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 that this pattern broke and Britain and France concluded that no further concessions were possible.