After gaining power, Hitler aggressively built up the German military and in 1936, occupied the Rhineland, a formerly German area designated as a buffer zone to protect France. Britain and France were preoccupied with Italy's invasion of Ethiopia and made little protest. By 1938, Germany had the most powerful military force in the world. In that same year, Hitler demanded and was given the Sudetanland in Czechoslovakia. It was highly populated with Germans and Hitler claimed to be liberating them.
In 1939, through military intimidation, Hitler took all of Czechoslovakia and part of Lithuania (the Memel Territory). He next demanded the return of Danzig, a highly German populated free state. Poland refused; Britain and France pledged to support Poland. Fearing a war on two fronts, which would eventually lead to his downfall, Hitler signed a nonagression pact with USSR leader, Joseph Stalin.
The German army then invaded Poland and began World War II. After crushing the Poles,......
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