The Second World War: Hitler's foreign policy

On Friday we learned of Hitler's foreign policy. When Hitler became chancellor of Germany, he had many goals. First he wanted to destroy the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler believed that this treaty was degrading to the Germans and I agree with him. He also wanted to gain living space in the east, to expand German territory. He wanted to bring Germans into one Reich and also to make Germany strong again since it was weakened by the first world war and the Treaty of Versailles. Since the this treaty was the main source of Germany's weakness, to destroy it would be to enhance Germany's strength.

In order to fully understand Hitler's policy, we, students, were given the job to achieve each of Hitler's goals by making political decisions during times of crisis. We had to chose whether it was a good idea to invade Austria in 1934, invade the Rhineland in 1936 and take over Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1938 and 1939. For me it was hard for me to chose to take over any countries because it was not right, but I had to think back to the goals. After we found out how our decisions affected Germany, we then found out what Hitler did in the same situations and if he actually achieved all of his goals. Since Hitler was a ruthless ruler, it was second nature to him to disobey the Treaty of Versailles and take over any country. During the Austrian crisis, Hitler took over Austria and many other countries by political pressure and military force. He never chose to do nothing when he had the chance.

I think the reason that Hitler kept on disobeying the treaty was because he had no opposition. The allies did nothing to stop Hitler because they feared another war. They did not understand that if a person can get away with something, that person will keep doing the same things. If no one stood in my way, I would do anything I wanted. This is another reason why the treaty of Versailles was a failure, it was not enforced.