Nazi foreign policy (historiographic debate)

The foreign policy and war aims of the Nazis have been the subject of debate among historians. The Nazis governed Germany between 1933 and 1945. There has been disagreement over whether Adolf Hitler aimed solely at European expansion and domination, or whether he planned for a long-term global empire.

The argument for what these aims meant in literal terms originates from the 1960s by historians Gunter Moltman and Andreas Hillgruber who, in their respective works, claim that it was Hitler’s dream to create ‘Eutopia’ and eventually challenge the United States. This thesis puts these two historians in the ‘Globalists’ category, with opposition labelled ‘Continentalists’. Evidence for these claims comes from Germany’s preparation for war in the years 1933–39 with increased interest in naval building, and Hitler’s decision to declare war on the USA after the attack on Pearl Harbor, which shows Hitler’s determination. The Globalists use this as an argument for how Hitler’s ideology was shaped; i.e., the USA could only be defeated if Germany conquered Europe and allied with Britain. It is said with general agreement that this viewpoint expressed by Hitler were written with the mindset that the USA was of little interest to Germany, and did not pose a threat to her existence. However, noted through speeches and recorded conversations, after 1930, Hitler viewed the United States as a "mongrel state", incapable of unleashing war and competing economically with Germany due the extreme effects of the Great Depression. Even in the late 1930s, as Continentalists argue against world conquest, Hitler seems to still disregard the USA’s power in the world, and believes that only through German-American citizens can the USA revive and prosper. This may shed light as to why Hitler made the decision to declare war on the United States after Pearl Harbor, and continued to focus on European expansion in the late 1930s.

However, while Hildebrand believes Hitler had a carefully premeditated Stufenplan (step-by-step) for Lebensraum, Hillgruber claims he intended intercontinental conquest afterwards. Likewise, Noakes and Pridham believe that taking Mein Kampf and the Zweites Buch together, Hitler had a five-stage plan; rearmament and Rhineland re-militarisation, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland to become German satellites, defeat France or neutralise her through a British alliance, Lebensraum in Russia and finally world domination. Goda agrees, believing that his ultimate aim was the defeat and overthrow of the United States, against whose threat he would guarantee the British Empire in return for a free hand to pursue Lebensraum in the East. Hitler had long term plans for French North Africa and in 1941 begun to prepare a base for a transatlantic attack on the United States. David Cameron Watt, who in 1990 believed that Hitler had no long terms plans, now agrees with Goda and believes that Hitler refused to make concessions to Spanish and Italian leaders Francisco Franco and Benito Mussolini in order to conciliate a defeated France so that such preparations could proceed.

...
Wikipedia