Lesson 3 - Hitler's foreign policy
The important long-term structural problems caused by the First World War and the failure of the international system of peacekeeping embodied by the League of Nations, can only partly explain the outbreak of war in 1939. As always in history the actions of human participants (human agency) must always be considered a part of the explanation. In the case of the Second World War, the actions of one man in particular were very important, Adolf Hitler.
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Begin by watching this overview film above. Next you need your textbook 258-72. Copy the table below 'Hitler's Foreign Policy and Europe's Response'. Complete the table as you work your way through your textbook and text/films below.
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John D Clare has an alternative eight steps to war - https://www.johndclare.net/RoadtoWWII3.htm
1. German armed forces to be limited - pp.258-9
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2. Demilitarized Rhineland - pp.260-1
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3. Anschluss Forbidden - p.263
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(Above) A gallery of pro-Anschluss Nazi propaganda. (Right) An English cartoonist has a rather different perspective.
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4. The Sudetenland - p.266-7
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5. The Polish Corridor - p.271-2
The precipitant cause of the Second World War was the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (Nazi-Soviet Pact) in which they agreed not to attack each other and to the division of Poland between them.
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