In March 1939 Hitler seized the Czech capital, Prague.
World War One Aftermath: Hitler's Foreign Policy, 1936-1939
In GCSE History, the aftermath of World War One is one of the topics looked at. One aspect of it studied is Nazi Germany and her relations with other countries during the 1930s. This is the second of four quizzes on that subject. It is also the second of two quizzes looking specifically at Hitler's foreign policy.
Towards the end of the 1930s Hitler's foreign policy became bolder. He was more confident that he could get away with blatant infringements of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1935, after all, he had succeeded in re-arming Germany, and now he felt that he could press on with territorial expansion.
See how much you know about Hitler's foreign policy in the late 1930s, by playing this quiz.
1.
In the spring of 1936 Hitler sent his troops into the demilitarised Rhineland - a flagrant breach of Versailles. The Western Allies failed to resist this move, as Hitler had predicted. Some of his generals had cold feet, but Hitler argued simply that he was merely moving troops from one part of the country to another. But in order to appease his general staff, Hitler gave certain orders to his army if it encountered resistance as it moved into the demilitarised zone. What did these orders say?
To halt at once and to dig trenches to confront the opposition
To avoid opening fire, and to retreat to the right bank of the River Rhine
To continue to advance and to engage the enemy vigorously
To retreat, and to hold the position on the left bank of the River Rhine
France was weak and divided, while its close ally Belgium would only follow a clear French lead. Britain was most reluctant to become involved, and believed that Hitler had the right to station his armed forces in all parts of German territory
2.
In August 1939 Hitler sent his foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, to Moscow to sign a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. Which of the following names is sometimes used to describe this deal?
The Hitler-Stalin Accords
The Litvinov-Hitler Agreement
The Nazi-Soviet Pact
The Molotov-Hitler Treaty
Hitler ultimately intended to take over the USSR, but he preferred to take one step at a time. He would like to invade Poland, but this operation would be easier if Russia refrained from supporting its western neighbour
3.
By 1939 Hitler was in a formal alliance with Italy, and with one other power. Which state was this?
Japan
Hungary
Spain
Portugal
All of these states had authoritarian regimes, and could be useful in the event of the outbreak of world war. However, Hitler only added one of these to his formal alliance with Mussolini's Italy
4.
In March 1939 Hitler seized a major European capital city and its hinterland, in breach of undertakings he had freely entered into the year before. What city was this?
Prague
Bratislava
Warsaw
Budapest
Hitler never intended to observe international agreements to which he had been a party. His determination to press towards the east was paramount
5.
In the spring of 1938 Hitler's forces marched into a neighbouring state, having bullied its ruler at Berchtesgaden a short while before. Which state was this?
Poland
Austria
Czechoslovakia
Luxembourg
This move breached no less than two of the treaties which Germany had been compelled to sign in 1919-20
6.
German aeroplanes carried out frequent air raids in Spain, hoping to destroy civilian morale in areas controlled by the elected government. The capital, Madrid, was regularly bombed. Which other major Spanish city was especially targeted on a regular basis?
Barcelona
Valencia
Seville
Burgos
Spanish civilians in the Republican zone were the first Europeans to experience the kind of bombing that Hitler unleashed against Rotterdam in 1940, and against London and other British cities from 1940 to the end of the Second World War. Raids were regular, and citizens became used to diving into air raid shelters when the sirens wailed
7.
In 1936 civil war broke out in Spain. Hitler decided to support the rebels under General Franco, and sent a military unit to Spain consisting of bombers and fighter 'planes, tanks and artillery, and a contingent of troops under General Sperrle. What name was given to this military force?
The German Expeditionary Force
The German Intervention Force
The Condor Legion
The Eagle Division
Hitler was keen that Franco should win this war, and - in any event - supplying military assets to the Nationalists was an excellent way of testing weapons in actual warfare - and in mainly good weather with little risk to German lives, as mostly Spanish service personnel were involved
8.
In September 1939 Hitler did indeed invade Poland from the west, while a few days later Stalin's forces attacked Poland from the east. The two dictators' forces met roughly along the line delineated between Poland and Russia back in the 1920s by a British diplomat and statesman. What name had been given to this line?
The Chamberlain Line
The Halifax Line
The Curzon Line
The Irwin Line
In 1920 Poland, a newly restored power, moved beyond this line to take advantage of a temporary Russian weakness. In 1939 Germany and Russia agreed that the original 1919-20 line would now mark the border between Germany and the USSR
9.
What argument did Hitler use in public to justify the annexation of Austria?
It was the country of his birth
It would be useful to control this state, as it bordered on his next victim, Czechoslovakia
It had a significant armaments industry, which Hitler would utilise in future conquests
It was almost entirely inhabited by ethnic Germans, whom Hitler wanted to incorporate in the greater German Reich
Hitler was prepared to use any argument to justify his moves, but he was unlikely to be deflected from his plans for eastward expansion
10.
In 1937 Hitler held a meeting of his senior officials to discuss the next moves in foreign policy. A Wehrmacht colonel took a written, shorthand record of the proceedings. This document was used at the Nuremberg Trials to incriminate several of the defendants, including Hess, Goering and von Ribbentrop. What was the colonel's name?
Jodl
Keitel
Hosspach
Rommel
1937 was a kind of "year off" in Nazi foreign policy. Hitler wanted to absorb the gains from 1933-6, and to discuss with his closest aides a programme of further aggression for 1938, 1939 and beyond
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