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The risk of war
One of the major terms of the Versailles Treaty was that the Rhineland area would remain demilitarized. Hitler took the that chance that the allies would not respond.If France send troops to resist the german forces this mean war althougt the german army was not ready for war.Eventually this happened and he refused to retreat, making the allies take a big mistake by letting himget away withit -
Hitler the peacemaker?
Hitler tried to show the world that the action in the Rhineland was reasonable. The ambassadors of Britain, Italy and France were told that Hitler had important new plans for long-term peace in Europe. He proposed a 25-year agreement between Germany, France and Belgium: Germany promised not to attack its western neighbors.this made Hitler seem reasonable. -
The Reaction of the french and the british
French ministers and generals met in emergency session on the day of the occupation. They thought about sending the French army to fight.in the end french decided to protest but not to fight.British didi not care "tho hoots" about the river -
The Referendum
Austria was a estate of crisis .Hitler called a referendum in which the majority of German voters expressed their approval of the remilitarization.During his campaign stops to ask for a yes vote, Hitler was greeted with huge crowds roaring their approval of his defiance of Versailles.The Führer had reached new heights of popularity. -
the German take-over of Austria
In early 1938 Austria was in a state of crisis. Hitler did not have complete control over these Austrian Nazis.In January 1938 it was discovered by the Austrian authorities that there was a plot by Austrian Nazis to create chaos in Austria by killing the German ambassador. -
The Anschluss
The Austrian leader, Schuschnigg, visited Hitler for crisis talks in Germany in February 1938.He demanded that Nazis be allowed to join the Austrian government and be given control of law and order. Schuschnigg felt that he had no option and agreed to Hitler's terms. -
The plesbiscite
Schuschnigg made one last desperate attempt to keep austria independent.announced that there would be a plebiscite, or referendum, in Austria to decide whether Austrians wanted their country to remain independent. He fixed the lowest age of voting at twenty-four, so that young Nazis would not be able to vote. -
The invasion
The German army invaded Austria. Arrests began immediately of enemies of the Nazis. In the city of Vienna alone 76.000 people were arrested in the aftermath of the invasion. -
The Sudeten germans
There were about 3 million German speakers in Czech. and they were a large minority in a country dominated by Czechs and Slovaks, they were concentrated in the borders areas. Heinlein claimed the sudeten were not treated fairly.On the 28 March 1938 Hitler met Heinlein to give him instructions. He told the leader to keep making demands that the Czechoslovak government could not possibly accept. Hitler hoped to create a crisis over Czechoslovakia. -
Support from Britain and France?
Czechoslovakia looked to Britain and France for help. British leaders had no treaty with Czechoslovakia.Chamberlain was saying in private that Czechoslovakia could not be saved. However, Franced had once signed a treaty that said that she would give Czechoslovakia military help if it was attacked by Germany. But on Aril 1938, there was a change of government in France and the Prime Minister was not keen on the idea of going into war with Germany over Czechoslovakia. -
Hitler prepares to act
Hitler was sure that neither Britain nor France would intervene if he attacked Czechoslovakia. he visited rome and Italy would support Germany.Hitler let his generals know that he decided to smash Czechoslovakia by military action in the near future. -
The Munich crisis
Hitler was ready to go to war against czechoslovakia, he was sure that British and France would do nothing. in september Heinlein orederes local Nazis toattack Czech. as a result of his violence,he left Czechoslocvakia on 15 September. -
Chumberlain flies to Germany
Chamberlain met Hitler at Berchtesgaden on 15 September.At this meeting Hitler demanded that the Sudetenland should be handed over to Germany. Without consulting the Czechs, -
Chumberlain flies to Germany
French leaders agreed to support the partition of Czechoslovakia in return for a British promise to defend what was left to Czechoslovaki -
War?
Britain and Germany seemed a real possibility.The British goverment prepared to issue 38 million gas mask and aircraft guns.Chamberlain tried once to find a peaceful solution. -
An Invitation to Munich
conference at Munich with representatives of Britain, France and Italy the conference would try to explore a peceful solution to the crisis over czechoslovakia althought it was not represented at the conference.Britain and France agree to give Hitler what he wanted. -
The Munich agreement
that Germany could have the Sudetenland. In return, Hitler promised not to make any further territorial demands in Europe. -
Hitler a untrusted man
The German Army seized the rest of Czechoslovakia.Adolf Hitler had broken the Munich Agreement. The British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, now realized that Hitler could not be trusted -
The soviets
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin fired Foreign Minister Maksim Litvinov, who was Jewish and an advocate of collective security, and replaced him with Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov, who soon began negotiations with the Nazi foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop. -
The Germans Soviet pact
which stated that Poland was to be partitioned between the two powers, enabled Germany to attack Poland without the fear of Soviet intervention, which divided the whole of eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. -
Germany invades Poland
On this day in 1939, German forces bombard Poland on land and from the air, as Adolf Hitler seeks to regain lost territory and ultimately rule Poland. World War II had begun. The German invasion of Poland was a primer on how Hitler intended to wage war--what would become the "blitzkrieg" strategy. This was characterized by extensive bombing early on to destroy the enemy's air capacity, railroads, communication lines, and munitions dumps, followed by a massive land invasion.
