Participation in the Spanish Civil War

Hopes vs. Achievements from Spanish Civil War

Hitler’s hopes	Actual Achievement
Spain becoming Germany’s ally to threaten France’s southwestern borders and perhaps even allow Germany’s navy to use their naval bases	Spain opted for neutrality in WW2 Franco wanted to focus on domestic affairs
Test Germany’s forces, most importantly, the Luftwaffe (airforce)	Luftwaffe tested out dive-bombing on Guernica in Spanish Civil War Good results and skills mastered
Detach Mussolini from Allies	Mussolini left Britain and France Italy announced Rome-Berlin Axis, an informal alliance in a speech The Rome-Berlin Axis was very important in forming the official alliance between Germany and Italy
Distract European powers with Spanish Civil War and mask Hitler’s actions in central Europe	Hitler was able to act upon Austria and Czechoslovakia during 3 years of Spanish Civil War

Anti-Comintern Pact

Signed by Japan and Germany in 1936
Italy joined in the pact in 1937
Aim was to oppose Comintern, the agency in the USSR that spread communism to other countries
True purpose was to guarantee that in the case one country was attacked, the others would not side with the USSR

Anschluss

Country with most German speaking people except for Germany was Austria
Treaty of Versailles prohibited Anschluss
In 1934, Mussolini had opposed Anschluss as Italy had viewed Austria as within Italy’s sphere of influence
From 1934 up until 1938, the diplomatic position of Germany and Italy had improved a lot and Hitler was also more recognised
In a meeting with Austrian Chancellor Schusnigg, Hitler bullied him into designate Seyss-Inquart, an Austrian Nazi as the new Minister of the Interior
Schuschnigg attempted to hold a plebiscite after realising that Hitler was aiming for the Anschluss
Hitler found out and forced Schushnigg to step down and made Seyss-Inquart the new Chancellor
After Hitler guaranteed Mussolini’s support, the German army marched into Austria and performed the union
Britain and France did nothing but merely protest

Sudetenland and Munich Agreement

Germans were complaining about discrimination by the Czech government
Hitler encouraged protests at first
Considered invading Czechoslovakia on May 1938
Did not want to as Germany wanted to avoid war with Czechoslovakia, the USSR, and France (with Britain at its side)
Diplomats came up with a plan to deal with Hitler before he would invade Czechoslovakia in the future (which was very likely)
Hitler met with Chamberlain to negotiate about the Sudetenland in two meetings. Here is the following information about the meetings

Meeting Summaries

Date	Location	Decisions and Discussions
September 14th, 1938	Berchtesgaden, Bavaria	Sudetenland areas with mostly German speaking people to be given to Germany. Needed approval of British, French, and Czech governments
September 21st, 1938	Bad Godesberg, Rhineland	Chamberlain told Hitler that British, French, and Czech governments approved. Hitler now said that he wanted the entire Sudetenland immediately. Threatened Czechs to leave Sudetenland by October 1 to avoid combat

Chamberlain was angered at Hitler’s change of intentions and told Britain (along with France) to prepare for war
Hitler wanted to avoid war, and decided to agree with Chamberlain’s decision to transfer mainly German Sudetenland areas to Germany
Munich Conference was held to resolve issue
- Attended by Mussolini (of Italy), Hitler (of Germany), Chamberlain (of Britain), Deladier (of France)
- Decided that Sudetenland would be transferred over 10 days
- Decided that Plebiscites held for areas with uncertain dominant nationalities
- The agreement would guarantee the rest of Czechoslovakia after Hungary and Poland’s claims were addressed
Czech government were forced to give away the territories, as it did not want to face Germany’s military force
Hitler and Chamberlain decided on these terms known as the Munich Agreement

Pros and Cons of hte Munich Agreement

Pros	Cons
Chamberlain did not feel like army was prepared to fight in 1938	Czechoslovakia was left helpless
British air force incomplete, could be defeated by Germany’s Luftwaffe (air force)	The Munich Agreement was case of extreme appeasement
Many British self-governing territories did not want war in 1938	Britain and France had the support of 36 divisions of Czech army with appropriate defences to oppose Germany if war had broken out
Hitler’s actions were based on self-determination of Sudetenland areas. Starting a war would be seen to oppose this	Could have had neutrality or alliance with USSR

Opinion on Appeasement

Some saw it as weak and cowardly

Others find that this policy was acceptable at the time, despite not being successful

Found Hitler’s demands to secure borders and defend itself reasonable
Opposition before March 1939 would have been seen as a war against self determination

As Japan and Italy were also recently aggressive, Britain and France were afraid of war against Germany, Japan, and Italy at the same time, and did not think they had great chances of winning
Britain could not threaten Germany without enough military power to fend off these countries and had to rely on methods such as appeasement

The public wanted peace, and appeasement was popular
Meanwhile, the public was mainly against rearmament and war
The countries using appeasement were democracies, and could not ignore this popularity
Britain could not threaten Germany without enough military power to fend off these countries and had to rely on methods such as appeasement

At the same time of Hitler’s actions to expand Germany, communism was spreading from USSR
Some politicians were more afraid of communism than the Nazis and viewed it as a bigger threat
Politicians wanted a strong anti-communist state to fight the spread of communism, which a Germany after appeasement could be