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Causes of WWII (Paris Settlement (Sonderweg: (The way Germany developed…

- - - - The Treaty of Versailles, was once again disregarded on March of 1938, as Germany completed the annexation of Austria. Germany's wish to annex the country stemmed from Hitler's excessively expansionist ideology, and his wish to unite all German-speaking countries under one nation. After the murder of the previous Austrian chancellor in 1934 (Dolfuss), after trying to overthrow the Austrian nazis, the new chancellor (Schuschnigg) did not want to take this risk, and thus signed the German-Austrian Pact in 1936. This treaty maintained Austrian independence, but compromised their foreign policy into following HItler's. This once again shows appeasement on Austria's part, as Schuschnigg's actions were made in order to appease Hitler, yet had the opposite effect. #
        
        On March of 1938, upon meeting Hitler close to the Austrian border, Schuschnigg was ordered to give Austrian Nazis positions of power in the Austrian government, and thus one was made Minister of Interior. The Austrian chancellor attempted calling a referendum in order to let the population itself decide whereas it wanted to be part of Germany or not, but Hitler did not accept this, and knowing Austria would have no backup help from states such as Britain and France (part of the appeasement policy), Schuschnigg resigned, and days later Germany came in Austria unobstructed.
    - - For Chamberlain the Munich Conference made him feel secure that the threat of Germany was solved. No one understood Hitler's true ambitions: he didn't want colonial expansion, or appeasement from Britain and France - he wanted to provoke them as much as possible to enter war. (Hossbach Meeting)
      - For Germany acquiring Sudetenland would mean a large growth in resources and materials - essentially building up resources for total war. The economic strength would also be a deterrence to other countries to declare war on Germany.
      - Due to the effects of the First World War, Britain wanted to avoid another war and thus, it felt that appeasing Germany would allow them to prevent a war. Britain felt that if Germany grew stronger and was satisfied, it could be used as a weapon against Soviet Union.
        
        Also, there was fear of revolution as well as weak domestic conditions due to the Great Depression. Hence, Britain and France felt that paying attention to internal affairs was a necessity and hence they felt that the only way to do that was to avoid Hitler from declaring war by keeping Germany happy.
    - - The remilitarisation and the fortification of the Maginot Line meant that, France would be on the defensive. If the Western border was no longer a threat to Germany, it encouraged Hitler to expand Eastward without facing a 'war on two fronts'. Also, Hitler got to test the extent to which Britain and France would appease his demands.
- - - - 1936 - Rearmement was booming due to reduction in unemployment
      - Schacht worried that too much money was spent on the military and proposed to focus more on exports
      - His worry rose from growing budget deficits and balance of payments gap
      - Hitler’s rejection of this proposal led to the 4 Year Plan - with the aim of making sure German was ready for war in the next 4 years
      - It had two main aims:
      - Build a strong military
      - Make Germany self-sufficient in food and industry (autarky) due to the naval blockade posed by the allies that cut off resources to Germany - wishing to limit the impact of future such blockades
      - The 4 Year Plan Department had influence over various government sections and set targets that private businesses were expected to meet
      - Increased production in oil, steel and coal and increased food production in 1939, although this still fell short
      - The plan resulted in an increase in national income and military spending
      - Germany’s opinion was divided between ‘Guns and Butter’, where some favoured focus on the military and some on consumer goods
      - Hitler was wary of the heavy expenditure on guns and believed not enough spending on the consumer goods would cause a revolt
      - Investing heavily into the military, undermined the economic and interfered military growth
      - Therefore, the Nazi’s needed to start a war to meet their economic demands
  - - - “Flight into war theory” - Timothy Mason Thesis
      - Overheating German economy
      - German workers could force employers to grant higher wages by leaving the company and join another firm
      - It was a political resistance, which ultimately forced Hitler into war
      - Rearmament program was overwhelming the German economy at this time
- - - - War would be inevitable when the Nazi's came to power