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New Order (political system)
Encyclopedia
The New Order or the New Order of Europe (German: Neuordnung Europas) was the political order which the Nazis wanted to impose on Europe
, and eventually the rest of the world, during their reign over Germany
from 1933 to 1945. The establishment of the New Order was already begun long before the start of World War II
, but was publicly proclaimed by Adolf Hitler
in 1941:
Among other things, it entailed the creation of a pan-German
racial state
structured according to National Socialist ideology to ensure the supremacy of an Aryan-Nordic master race
, massive territorial expansion into Eastern Europe
through its colonization
with German settlers, the physical annihilation of the Jews
and others considered to be "unworthy of life
", and the extermination
, expulsion, and enslavement
of most of the Slavic peoples
and others regarded as "racially inferior
". Nazi Germany
’s desire for aggressive territorial expansionism
was one of the key triggers that led to the outbreak of World War II
.
Historians are still divided as to its ultimate goals, some believing that it was to be limited to Nazi German domination of Europe, while others maintain that it was a springboard for eventual world conquest and the establishment of a world government
under German control.
, thereby changing the then-existing geopolitical structures. In the same sense it has also been used now and in the past to denote similar re-orderings of the international political order such as the Peace of Westphalia
in 1648, the Vienna Congress in 1815, and the Allied
victory in 1945. The complete phrase which was used by the Nazi establishment was actually die Neuordnung Europas (the New Order of Europe), for which Neuordnung was merely a shorthand.
According to the Nazi government this goal was pursued by Germany to secure a fair rearrangement of territory for the "common benefit" of a new, economically integrated Europe
, which in Nazi terminology meant the continent of Europe with the exclusion of the "Asiatic
" Soviet Union
. Nazi racist views regarded the "Judeo-Bolshevist" Soviet state both as a criminal institution which needed to be destroyed as well as a barbarian place as yet lacking any actual culture that would give it a "European" character. Neuordnung was therefore hardly ever used in reference to Soviet Russia since theoretically there weren't even any actual structures that could be re-organized along National Socialist designs.
The actual objective was however to ensure a state of total post-war continental hegemony
for Nazi Germany
. This was to be achieved by the expansion
of the territorial base of the German state itself, combined with the political and economic subjugation of the rest of Europe to Germany. Eventual extensions of the project to areas beyond Europe as well as on an ultimately global scale were anticipated for the future period in which Germany would have secured unchallenged control over her own continent first, but Neuordnung did not carry this extra-European meaning at the time.
Through its wide use in Nazi propaganda
it quickly gained coinage in Western media. In English-language academic circles especially it eventually carried a much more inclusive definition, and became increasingly known as a term used to refer to all the foreign and domestic politics and war aims of the Nazi German state as well as its dictator
ial leader Adolf Hitler
. It therefore holds approximately the same connotations as the term co-prosperity sphere
did in Japanese
circles in reference to their planned imperial domain. Nowadays it is most commonly used to refer to all the post-war planning and policies both in and outside of Europe that the Nazi government expected to implement after an anticipated victory for Germany and the other Axis powers
in World War II
.
") than the Germans
. He realized however that this extremely ambitious goal could never be achieved without an enormous amount of fighting. Hitler had alluded to future German world dominance even earlier in during his political career. In a letter written by Rudolf Hess
to Walter Hewel in 1927, Hess paraphrases Hitler's vision: "World peace
is certainly an ideal worth striving for; in Hitler's opinion it will be realizable only when one power
, the racially best one, has attained complete and uncontested supremacy. That [power] can then provide a sort of world police, seeing to it at the same time that the most valuable race is guaranteed the necessary living space. And if no other way is open to them, the lower races will have to restrict themselves accordingly."
Heinrich Himmler
discussed the territorial aspirations of Germany during his first Posen speech
in 1943. He commented on the goals of the warring nations involved in the conflict, and stated that Germany was fighting for new territories and a global power status:
The first two phases of the initial plan were successful, but Hitler was unable to implement the third phase since the United Kingdom won the Battle of Britain.
Had Britain succumbed to Germany, the political re-ordering of Western Europe would have been accomplished. There was to be no post-war general peace conference
in the manner of the one held in Paris
after the First World War, merely bilateral negotiation
s between Germany and her defeated enemies. All still existing international organization
s such as the International Labour Organization
were to be dismantled or replaced by German-controlled equivalents.
By annexing vast territories in northeastern France, Hitler hoped to marginalize the country to prevent any further continental challenges to Germany's hegemony. Likewise, the Latin nations
of Western and Southern Europe (Portugal, Spain
and Italy) were to be eventually brought into a state of total German dependency and control.
), whose inhabitants
the Nazis believed to be "Aryan" in nature. The consolidation of these countries as mere provinces of the Third Reich, in the same manner in which Austria
was reduced to the "Ostmark
", was to be carried out through a rapidly enforced process of Gleichschaltung
. The ultimate intent of this was to eradicate all traces of national
rather than racial
consciousness, although their native languages
were to remain in existence.
, Romania
, Bulgaria
and Serbia (including the German-dominated autonomous area of Banat) were already satellites of Nazi Germany. Montenegro and Greece were satellites of Italy
while Albania
had been annexed by Italy. Although technically in the Italian sphere of influence, Croatia
was in reality a condominium
puppet state of the two Axis powers, with Italy controlling the southwestern half, and Germany the northeastern half. Hitler observed that permanent German bases might be established in Belgrade
(possibly to be renamed to Prinz-Eugen
-Stadt) and Salonika.
- the invasion of Russia
. The goal of the campaign was not merely the destruction of the Soviet regime - which the Nazis considered illegitimate and criminal
- but also the racial reorganization of European Russia
, outlined for the Nazi elite in the Generalplan Ost
("General Plan for the East"). Furthermore, Hitler hoped to turn Germany into a total blockade
-proof autarky
by exploiting the vast resources laying in Soviet territories: the Ukraine was to provide grain
, vegetable oil, feeding-stuffs
, iron ore, nickel
, manganese
, coal
, molybdenum
; the Crimea natural rubber, citrus fruit and cotton
; the Black Sea fish
and the Caucasus crude oil.
Nazi party philosopher Alfred Rosenberg
(who, incidentally, protested against the inhumane policy shown toward the Slavs
) was the Minister for the Eastern Territories
, the person nominally in charge of the project, and Heinrich Himmler
, head of the SS, was assigned to implement the enslavement
, expulsion, and extermination
of the non-Aryan (i.e. Slavic
) population. The long-term objective as detailed by Hitler in Mein Kampf
was the incorporation
of large territories in Eastern Europe for German settlement, eventually expanding the territory of the Third Reich all the way to the Ural Mountains
. Acquisition of settlement colonies
in Eastern Europe would therefore solve the question of lebensraum
. http://www.obersalzberg.de/utopie-grossgermanisches-reich.98.html?&L=1
By 1942 the quasi-colonial
regimes called the General Gouvernment in Poland
, the Reichskommissariat Ostland
in the Baltic states
and Belarus
, and the Reichskommissariat Ukraine
in the Ukraine
had been established. Two more administrative divisions were envisaged: a Reichskommissariat Moskowien that would include the Moscow
metropolitan area and vast tracts of European Russia
, and a Reichskommissariat Kaukasus
in the Caucasus
. This policy was accompanied by the annihilation of the entire Jewish population (the Final Solution
) as well as the enslavement of their Slavic inhabitants, who it was planned would be made slave laborers on the estates to be granted to SS soldiers after the conquest of European Russia
. Each of these SS "soldier peasants"
were expected to father at least seven children.
German women were encouraged to have as many children as possible to populate the newly acquired Eastern territories. To encourage this fertility
policy, the lebensborn program was expanded and the state decoration
known as the Gold Honor Cross of the German Mother
was instituted, which was awarded to German women who bore at least eight children for the Third Reich. There was also an effort by Martin Bormann
and Himmler to introduce new marriage legislation to facilitate population growth, which would have allowed decorated war heroes to marry an additional wife
. Himmler envisaged a German population of 300,000,000 by 2000.
By 1942, Hitler's empire encompassed much of Europe, but the territories annexed lacked population desired by the Nazis. After Germany had acquired her Lebensraum, she now needed to populate these lands according to Nazi ideology and racial principles. This was to be accomplished before the end of the war by a "reordering of ethnographical relations". The initial step of this project was taken by Hitler already on 7 October 1939, when Himmler was named the Reich Commissar for the Consolidation of Germandom (Reichskommissar
für die Festigung deutschen Volkstums) (RKFDV) (see also Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle
, VoMi) This position authorized Himmler to repatriate ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) living abroad to occupied Poland. Himmler's jurisdiction as the guardian of the Volksdeutsche re-settlement efforts was increased to other occupied territories to be Germanized as the war continued. To make room for the German settlers, hundreds of thousands of Poles, French and Slovenes living in these lands were transferred across borders. The great majority of Himmler's Volksdeutsche were acquired from the Soviet sphere of interest under the German-Soviet "population exchange" treaty
.
At the end of 1942 a total of 629,000 Volksdeutsche had been re-settled, and preparations for the transfer of 393,000 others were underway. Long-term goal of the VoMi was the resettlement of a further 5,4 million Volksdeutsche, mainly from Transylvania, Banat, France, Hungary and Romania. The immigrants were classified either as racially or politically unreliable (settled in Altreich
), of high quality (settled in the annexed eastern territories
) or suitable for transit camps. Himmler encountered considerable difficulties with the Volksdeutsche of France and Luxembourg, who often wished retain their former status as citizens of their respective countries.
always occupied a secondary position to his expansionist aims in Europe itself: "A colonial
policy only makes sense if you first control the continent". His public announcements prior to outbreak of the war that Germany's former colonies
be returned to it served primarily as bargaining chips to further territorial goals in Europe itself. This area was nevertheless intended to also fall under German control in some way or another after it had first achieved supremacy over its own continent.
Hitler's overall intentions for the future organization of Africa divided it in three basic portions. The northern third was to be assigned to its Italian ally
, while the central part would fall under German rule. The remaining southern sector would be controlled by a pro-Nazi Afrikaner
state built on racial grounds. In early 1940 Foreign Minister Ribbentrop had communicated with South African leaders thought to be sympathetic to the Nazi cause, informing them that Germany was to reclaim its former colony of German South-West Africa
, then a mandate of the Union of South Africa
. South Africa was to be compensated by the territorial acquisitions of the British protectorates of Swaziland
, Basutoland
and Bechuanaland and the colony of Southern Rhodesia
. On the division of French African colonies between the Spanish and Italian governments Hitler refused to provide any official promises during the war however, fearful of losing the support of Vichy France
.
In 1940, the general staff
of the German Navy
produced a much more detailed plan accompanied by a map showing a proposed German colonial empire
delineated in blue (the traditional color used in German cartography to indicate the German sphere of influence as opposed to the red or pink that represented the British Empire
) in sub-Saharan Africa
, extending from the Atlantic Ocean
to the Indian Ocean
. The proposed domain was supposed to fulfill the long-sought territorial German goal of Mittelafrika
, and even further beyond. It was to provide a base from which Germany was to achieve a pre-eminent position on the African continent just as the conquest of Eastern Europe was to achieve a similar status over the continent of Europe.
In contrast to territories that were to be acquired in Europe itself (specifically European Russia
), these areas were however not envisaged as targets for extensive German population settlement. The establishment of a vast colonial empire was to serve primarily economic purposes, for it would provide Germany with most natural resources that it would not be able to find in its continental possessions, as well as an additional nearly unlimited supply of labor. Racialist policies
would nevertheless be strictly enforced on all inhabitants (meaning segregation of whites and blacks and punishing of interracial relationships) to maintain "Aryan" purity.
The area included all pre-WWI German colonial territories in Africa, as well as additional parts of the French, Belgian and British colonial holdings in Africa. These were the French
and Belgian Congo
, Northern
and Southern Rhodesia
(the latter going perhaps to South Africa), Nyasaland
, southern Kenya
with Nairobi
(northern Kenya was to be given to Italy), Uganda
, Gabon
, Ubangui-Chari, Nigeria
, Dahomey
, the Gold Coast
, Zanzibar
, nearly all of Niger
and Chad, as well as the naval bases of Dakar
and Bathurst
.
A second part of the plan entailed the construction of a huge string of fortified naval and air bases for future operations against the Western hemisphere spanning much of the Atlantic coastline of Europe and Africa from Trondheim
in Norway all the way up to the Belgian Congo, as well as many off-lying islands such as Cape Verde
and the Azores
. A less extensive but similar initiative was intended for the east coast of Africa.
In 1942, a secret diplomatic conference was held between Nazi Germany
and the Japanese Empire in which they agreed to divide Asia
along a line that followed the Yenisei River
to the border of China
, and then along the border of China and the Soviet Union
, the northern and western borders of Afghanistan
, and the border between Iran
and India
(what is now Pakistan
was then part of India). This treaty, of which a draft was presented to the Germans by ambassador Ōshima
, was initially rejected by the German Foreign Office and the Navy, as it allocated India to Japan and limited German naval operations in the Indian Ocean
. Hitler, however, found the treaty acceptable, leading to its signing on January 18, 1942.
The treaty proved to be detrimental for Axis strategic cooperation in the Indian Ocean, as crossing the boundary line required tedious prior consultation. This made any joint German-Japanese offensive against British positions in the Middle East impossible. Japanese operations against Allied shipping lines during the Indian Ocean raid had been highly successful along with the attack against Ceylon
, but these were not followed due to the non-existent German-Japanese strategic cooperation. The Germans vigorously maintained watch on the demarcation line, and objected to any Japanese incursion to the "German sphere" of the Axis-divided world. Thus the Japanese were forced to cancel a planned massive attack against Madagascar, as the island had been delegated to Germany in the treaty.
in the Pacific (German New Guinea
and German Samoa
), which had had been allocated to Japan after World War I
as C-Class Mandates according to the Treaty of Versailles
, were to be sold to Japan (both Weimar
and Nazi-era Germany never officially relinquished claims to their pre-war colonial territories) at least temporarily in the interest of its alliance
with that country. Australia
and New Zealand
were designated as future Japanese territories
, although Hitler lamented his belief that the white race
would disappear from those regions. He nevertheless made it clear to his officials that "the descendants of the convicts in Australia
" were not Germany's concern and that their lands would be colonized by Japanese
settlers in the immediate future, an opinion also shared by Joseph Goebbels
, who expressed his conviction in his diary
that the Japanese had always desired "the fifth continent
" for emigration purposes. A eurocentric at heart, Hitler's knowledge on New Zealand was even more limited. In his only recorded lengthy discussion on the subject he argued that its people
still lived in trees
and had not yet learned to walk upright. Historian Norman Rich stated that it can be assumed that Hitler would have attempted to recruit the Anglo-Saxon
s of these two countries as colonists for the conquered east; some of the English
were to share the same fate.
After the projected fall of the USSR, Hitler planned to intensify the war in the Mediterranean. The OKW produced studies concerning an attack against the Suez Canal
through Turkey
, an offensive towards Baghdad-Basra from the Caucasus
(most of which was already under German occupation as a result of Fall Blau) in support of revolting Arab nationalists, and operations in Afghanistan
and Iran
directed against British India. Hitler did not envision German colonization of the region, and was most likely to allow Italian dominance at least over the Levant
. The Jews of the Middle East
were to be murdered, as Hitler had promised to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem
in November 1941 (see Einsatzgruppe Egypt
).
Turkey was favoured as a potential ally by Hitler because of its important strategic location
on the boundaries of Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as its extensive history as a state hostile against the Russian Empire
as well as the later Soviet Union
. To assure that Germany wanted to work with them on a long-range basis, the Turks were guaranteed an equal status in the German-dominated order, and were promised a number of territories which they might desire for reasons of security
. These encompassed Edirne
(Adrianople) and a rectification of Turkish frontiers at the expense of Greece
, the creation of buffer states in the Caucasus
under Turkish influence
, a rectification of the Turkish-Syrian frontier (the Baghdad Railway
and the State of Aleppo
) and the Turkish-Iraq frontier (the Mosul region
), as well as a settlement of "the Aegean
question" to provide Turkey with suitable protection against encroachments from Italy
. The Black Sea
(which Hitler derided as "a mere frog
-pond
") was also to be conceded to Turkey as part of its sphere of influence, for this would negate the need of stationing a German navy in the region to replace the Soviet Black Sea Fleet. The Crimea
(tentatively dubbed Gotenland by the Nazis) was nevertheless to be fortified
to ensure permanent German possession of the peninsula, and the Black Sea exploited as an "unlimited" resource of seafood
.
Allied-occupied Iran
was also to be drawn into the Axis camp, possibly by the means of an uprising. The possibility of Iran as an anti-Soviet
bastion was already considered in the 1930s, and coincided with Hitler's declaration of Iran as an "Aryan state" (the name Iran literally means "homeland of the Aryans" in Persian
). On the eve of WWII Germany was already Iran's single-biggest trading partner
, followed by the USSR, Britain
, and the US
.
During pre-war diplomatic maneuvers, the NSDAP Foreign Affairs Office took special interest in Afghanistan, believing that the Kaiserreich
had failed to exploit the country diplomatically during the First World War despite the Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition
. The objective was to ensure that the country would remain neutral during a possible German-British conflict, and even use it militarily against British India or Soviet Russia. Despite the NSDAP Foreign Office's good relations with the Afghan government, the Foreign Ministry under Ribbentrop favored overthrowing the current government and restoration of the rule of Amānullāh Khān
, who had been living in exile since 1929. Hitler eventually came to support Rosenberg's office on this issue. After the German-French armistice of 1940, the Kabul government tried to question Berlin on German plans concerning the future of Afghanistan. Of special interest were the post-war borders of the country - the Afghan government hoped to see the "liberation" of 15 million ethnic Afghans living in British India, and the securing of the northern Afghan border so that an expansion towards the Indian Ocean became possible (See Pashtunistan
). As the German–Soviet Axis talks
of October–November were then underway (and the possible expansion of the Soviet sphere of influence in south-central Asia and India was on the table), Berlin was reluctant to give any binding offers to Kabul.
The Third Saudi State under Ibn Saud was seen as a natural ally, and was to be given territorial concessions in south-west Arabia and Transjordan
. Also, a post-war satellite Greater Arab Union
was discussed.
Although initially intending to concede Italy control of the region, after that country had defected to the Allied camp
in 1943 Hitler came to regard the Islamic countries
and the Pan-Arab movement increasingly more as the natural ally of National Socialist Germany, as opposed to the "treacherous" Italians. On February 17, 1945 in particular he explained to his entourage his regrets that Germany's prior alliance
with its southern neighbour had prevented her from pursuing a more revolutionary policy towards the Arab world
, which would have also allowed its exit from the British
and French
spheres of influence in the area:
as an exemplary one and intended the German rule in the occupied East to resemble it in ruthlessness. Hitler thought little of the Indian independence movement
, declaring the freedom fighters of being racially inferior "Asiatic jugglers". As early as 1930 he spoke of the Indian freedom movement as the rebellion of the "lower Indian race against the superior English
Nordic race", and that the British were free to deal with any subversive Indian activists as they liked. In 1937 he told the British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax that the British should "shoot Gandhi, and if this doesn't suffice to reduce them to submission, shoot a dozen leading members of the Congress
, and if that doesn't suffice shoot 200, and so on, as you make it clear that you mean business." Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg
stated that although the Vedic culture was Aryan in origin, any Nordic blood had long since been lost due to racial mixing. Like Hitler, he viewed the British rule in India as being desirable.
During the first years of the war in Europe, as Hitler sought out to reach an arrangement with Britain, he held the notion that India should remain under British control after the war, as in his mind the only alternative was a Soviet occupation of the subcontinent. As Britain had rejected German peace offers, Hitler ordered on 17 February 1941 to prepare a military study for a post-Barbarossa operation in Afghanistan against India. The goal of this operation was not so much to conquer the subcontinent, but to threaten British military positions there to force Britain to come to terms. A week later the Afghanistan operation was the subject of a discussion between head of the Army General Staff
Franz Halder
, Oberbefehlshaber des Heeres Walter von Brauchitsch and chief of the Operationsabteilung OKH Adolf Heusinger
. In an assessment produced on 7 April 1941, Halder estimated that the operation would require 17 divisions and one separate regiment.
Indian revolutionary Subhas Chandra Bose escaped from India on 17 January 1941 and arrived in Berlin via Moscow. There he proposed organizing an Indian national government in exile
and urged the Axis to declare their support for the Indian cause. He eventually managed to extract such promises from Japan after the Fall of Singapore and later on from Italy as well, but the Germans refused. Bose was granted an audience with Mussolini
, but Hitler refused to see him, although he did acquire access to Joachim von Ribbentrop
after much difficulty. The German Foreign Ministry was sceptical of any such endeavours, as the German goal was to use Bose for propaganda and subversive activity, especially following the model of the 1941 pro-Axis coup in Iraq. These propaganda measures included anti-Raj radio broadcasts and the recruitment of Indian prisoners of war for the "Free India Legion". Bose eventually met with Hitler on 29 May 1942. During the discussion, which mostly consisted of Hitler monologuing
to Bose, Hitler expressed his scepticism for India's readiness for a rebellion against the Raj, and his fears of a Soviet takeover of India. He stated that if Germany had to do anything about India it would first have to conquer Russia, for the road to India could only be accomplished through that country, although he did promise to financially support Bose and help relocate him to the Far East. Bose later described the encounter by stating that it was impossible to get Hitler involved in any serious political discussion.
On 18 January 1942, it was decided that the Indian subcontinent was to be divided between the Axis powers. Germany was to take the part of British India which is today approximately Pakistan, while the rest was marked for Japan.
. In an interview conducted by John Cudahy
for Life Magazine in the spring of 1941, Hitler stated that a German invasion of the Western Hemisphere
was as fantastic
as an invasion of the Moon
, and was a lie promoted by American big business
hoping to gain from war profiteering
.
American pro-Nazi movements such as the Friends of the New Germany and the German-American Bund
played no role in Hitler's plans for the country, and received no financial or verbal support from Germany after 1935. They, along with certain Native Americans
advocate groups such as the fascist-leaning American Indian Federation, were to be however used to undermine the Roosevelt administration from within by the means of propaganda. Nazi propagandists went as far as declaring that Germany would return expropriated land to the Indians, while Goebbels predicted they possessed little loyalty to America and would rather rebel than to fight against Germany. The Nazis considered the Sioux
, and by extension all Native Americans to be Aryans, a theory echoed in the sympathetic portrayal of the Natives in German westerns
of the 1930s such as Der Kaiser von Kalifornien
.
Approximately nine months before the United States joined the Allies, Franklin D. Roosevelt
made a reference to the New Order in a speech he gave on March 15, 1941:
Hitler actually held the American society in contempt, stating that the United States
(which he consistently referred to as the "American Union
") was "half Judaized
, and the other half Negrified
" and that "in so far as there are any decent people in America, they are all of German origin
". Already in 1928 he had maintained that National Socialist Germany must prepare for the ultimate struggle against the USA for hegemony. In mid-late 1941, as Axis victory against the USSR and Britain seemed certain, Hitler entered planning an enormous extension of the Kriegsmarine
, projected to include 25 battleships, 8 aircraft carriers, 50 cruisers, 400 submarines and 150 destroyers, far exceeding the naval expansion that had already been decided on in 1939's Plan Z
. Historian Gerhard L. Weinberg stated that this super-fleet was intended against the Western Hemisphere. Hitler also considered the occupation of the Portuguese Azores
, Cape Verde
and Madeira
and the Spanish Canary islands
to deny the British a staging ground for military actions against Nazi-controlled Europe, and also to gain Atlantic naval bases for operations against North America. Hitler desired to use the islands to "deploy long-range bombers
against American cities from the Azores". In July 1941, Hitler approached Japanese ambassador Oshima with an offer to wage a joint struggle against the USA.
In this final battle for world domination, Hitler expected a defeated Britain to eventually support the Axis forces with its powerful navy
. He stated that "England and America will one day have a war with one another, which will be waged with the greatest hatred imaginable. One of the two countries will have to disappear." and "I shall no longer be there to see it, but I rejoice on behalf of the German people at the idea that one day we will see England and Germany marching together against America".
The actual physical conquest
of the United States was unlikely however, and the future disposition of American territories remained cloudy in Hitler's mind. He perceived the anticipated battle with that country, at least under his own rule, to be a sort of "battle of the continents" with a Nazi-dominated Old World
fighting for global dominance
against the New World
, in which Germany would attain leadership of the world rather than establish direct control over it. Further decisions down the line were left up to future generations of German rulers.
Canada
featured fairly little in Nazi conceptions of the post-war world. Because Hitler's political objectives were primarily focused on Eastern Europe
before and during the war he considered the United States a negligible political factor in the world, while Canada interested him even less. He politically grouped the country together with the United States in an American-dominated North America
, and considered it equally as "materialistic, racially bastardized, and decadent" as its southern neighbour. In 1942, when expressing his fear of an imminent collapse of the British Empire
which he preferred to remain intact, Hitler believed that the United States would seize and annex Canada at the first opportunity, and that the Canadians would be quick to welcome such a move.
This lack of policy direction from the top meant that Nazi politicians concerned with representing Germany's interests and relations with Canada had to resort to an improvised line of policy which they believed to be in accordance with Hitler's wishes. The country was noted for its abundance of natural resources, and because of its great geographic size coupled with a low population density
was characterized as "a country without people", in contrast to Germany which was considered "a people without space
". In his 1934 travelogue account of Canada, Zwischen USA und dem Pol (Between the USA and the North Pole
), German journalist Colin Ross described Canadian society as artificial because it was composed of many different parts that weren't tied together by either blood or long-standing traditions (highlighting the differences between the French and English Canadians in particular), and that for this reason one could not speak of either a Canadian nation or Volk. As a result the country's political system was also considered mechanic and non-organic, and that Ottawa
did not constitute "the heart of the nation". Because of both these factors the Canadians were deemed incapable of comprehending "true culture", and German immigration in Canada was considered a mistake because they would be forced to live in an "empty civilization".
, except as a warning example of "racial mixing". However, the NSDAP/AO
was active in various Latin American countries (notably among German Brazilian
s), and trade relations between Germany and the Latin American countries were seen as of great importance. During 1933-1941, the Nazi aim in South America was to achieve economic hegemony by expanding trade on the expense of the Western Powers. Hitler also believed that German-dominated Europe would displace the United States as the principal trading partner of the subcontinent. Long-term Nazi hopes for political penetration of the region were placed on the local Fascist movements, such as the Integralists
in Brazil and Peronists in Argentina, combined with the political activation of the German immigrant communities. Hitler also had hopes of seeing German immigrants "returning" from the Western Hemisphere to colonize the conquered East. Despite being occasionally suspicious of the South American Germans of adopting a "Latin attitude towards life", top Nazis believed that their experience working in underdeveloped areas would make them ideal settlers for the annexed eastern territories.
plan for Berlin, to hold a great World's Fair
in the Third Reich's capital by 1950. He would ultimately retire to his hometown of Linz
. Hitler had hoped that upon his death he would be buried in a simple tomb in Munich.
with Imperial Japan
in the battle against the "Western Plutocracies
" and Soviet Bolshevism, the Nazi leadership ultimately considered this cooperation only temporary in nature. The racial ideology of Nazism
predicted that the fate of human civilization depended on the ultimate triumph of the Germanic-Nordic peoples, and in fact the populous Asian continent was seen as the greatest threat to hegemony of the white race
. The Japanese people
were characterized as 'culture-bearers', meaning they could make use of the technological and civilizational achievements of the Aryan race and by so doing maintain an advanced society, but could not truly create 'culture' themselves. Gerhard Weinberg asserts that the historical evidence points to the conclusion that Hitler, like he had done with the Soviets in the 1939-1941 period
, employed a tactic of conceding to the Japanese whatever they desired until they in turn could be defeated in a subsequent war.
In July 1941, as plans were being laid out for post-Barbarossa military operations, the German Navy
command was not ready to exclude the possibility of a war
between Germany and Japan. In 1942, NSDAP official Erhard Wetzel (Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories
) predicted that "the self-determination of the numerically strong Asian peoples after this war" would challenge German-controlled Europe with Japanese instigation, and stated that "a Greater Asia and an independent India are formations that dispose over hundreds of millions of inhabitants. A German world power with 80 or 85 million Germans by contrast is numerically too weak". Wetzel further pondered on Germany's choices on the population policies in occupied Russia: if the Russians were restricted to having as few children as possible in the interest of German colonization, this would further "weaken the white race in view of the dangers of Asia".
As the Japanese were conquering one European colonial territory after another in Asia and Oceania, and seemingly poised to take over Australia
and New Zealand
as well, Hitler further believed that the white race would disappear altogether from these regions, which he viewed as a turning point in history. He was relieved that Japan had entered the war on Germany's side however as he had long hoped to use that country as a strategic counterweight against the United States, but also because Japanese hegemony in East Asia and the Pacific would guarantee both countries' security against other powers. Looking into the future, he remarked that "There's one thing Japan and Germany have in common; both of us need fifty to a hundred years for purposes of digestion: we for Russia
, they for the Far East".
During his speech at the meeting of SS major-Generals at Posen on October 4th, 1943, Heinrich Himmler commented on the future conflicts between Nazi-controlled Europe and Asia:
Himmler addressed this apocalyptic vision in an earlier speech given to SS generals at the University of Kharkiv, Ukraine in April 1943. He first spoke on the necessity of the war against the USSR and Jewry:
After the decisive German defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad
on February 2, 1943, Germany was forced onto the defensive and was no longer able to actively pursue implementation of the New Order in the Soviet Union, although the genocide against Jews, Gypsies, and other minorities continued. Following the subsequent failure of the 1943 summer offensive
to regain the territories lost to the Soviets earlier that year the Wehrmacht
was no longer able to mount an effective large-scale counter-attack on the Eastern Front. In a discussion with Joseph Goebbels
on October 26, 1943 Hitler expressed that Germany should conclude a temporary armistice with the Soviet Union and return to its 1941 border
in the east. This would then give Germany the opportunity to defeat the British forces in the west first (no mention was made of America's part in the Allied alliance
) before resuming a new war for Lebensraum
against the Soviet Union at a later point in time. Hitler thought that his future successor might have to carry out this later war, as he believed himself to be too old by then.
By this late point in the war, after the failure of the final Ardennes offensive and the Allied crossing of the Rhine into Germany itself, Hitler hoped that a decisive victory on the Eastern Front might still preserve the Nazi regime, resulting in Operation Spring Awakening. He believed that with the conclusion of a separate peace-treaty with the Soviet Union a division of Poland might still be realized and leave Hungary
and Croatia
(both still under German occupation at the time) under German control. Hitler only acknowledged Germany's imminent defeat mere days prior to his suicide
.
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and eventually the rest of the world, during their reign over Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
from 1933 to 1945. The establishment of the New Order was already begun long before the start of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, but was publicly proclaimed by Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
in 1941:
Among other things, it entailed the creation of a pan-German
Pan-Germanism
Pan-Germanism is a pan-nationalist political idea. Pan-Germanists originally sought to unify the German-speaking populations of Europe in a single nation-state known as Großdeutschland , where "German-speaking" was taken to include the Low German, Frisian and Dutch-speaking populations of the Low...
racial state
Racialism
Racialism is an emphasis on race or racial considerations. Currently, racialism entails a belief in the existence and significance of racial categories, but not necessarily that any absolute hierarchy between the races has been demonstrated by a rigorous and comprehensive scientific process...
structured according to National Socialist ideology to ensure the supremacy of an Aryan-Nordic master race
Master race
Master race was a phrase and concept originating in the slave-holding Southern US. The later phrase Herrenvolk , interpreted as 'master race', was a concept in Nazi ideology in which the Nordic peoples, one of the branches of what in the late-19th and early-20th century was called the Aryan race,...
, massive territorial expansion into Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
through its colonization
Settler colonialism
Settler colonialism is a specific colonial formation whereby foreign family units move into a region and reproduce. Land is thus the key resource in settler colonies, whereas natural and human resources are the main motivation behind other forms of colonialism...
with German settlers, the physical annihilation of the Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
and others considered to be "unworthy of life
Life unworthy of life
The phrase "life unworthy of life" was a Nazi designation for the segments of populace which had no right to live and thus were to be "euthanized". The term included people with serious medical problems and those considered grossly inferior according to racial policy of the Third Reich...
", and the extermination
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
, expulsion, and enslavement
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
of most of the Slavic peoples
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
and others regarded as "racially inferior
Untermensch
Untermensch is a term that became infamous when the Nazi racial ideology used it to describe "inferior people", especially "the masses from the East," that is Jews, Gypsies, Poles along with other Slavic people like the Russians, Serbs, Belarussians and Ukrainians...
". Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
’s desire for aggressive territorial expansionism
Expansionism
In general, expansionism consists of expansionist policies of governments and states. While some have linked the term to promoting economic growth , more commonly expansionism refers to the doctrine of a state expanding its territorial base usually, though not necessarily, by means of military...
was one of the key triggers that led to the outbreak of World War II
Causes of World War II
The main causes of World War II were nationalistic tensions, unresolved issues, and resentments resulting from the World War I and the interwar period in Europe, plus the effects of the Great Depression in the 1930s....
.
Historians are still divided as to its ultimate goals, some believing that it was to be limited to Nazi German domination of Europe, while others maintain that it was a springboard for eventual world conquest and the establishment of a world government
World government
World government is the notion of a single common political authority for all of humanity. Its modern conception is rooted in European history, particularly in the philosophy of ancient Greece, in the political formation of the Roman Empire, and in the subsequent struggle between secular authority,...
under German control.
Origin of the term
The term Neuordnung originally had a different and more limited meaning than in its present usage. It is typically translated as New Order, but a more correct translation would actually be more akin to re-structurization. When it was used in Germany during the Third Reich-era it referred specifically to the Nazis' desire to essentially redraw the contemporary state borders within EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, thereby changing the then-existing geopolitical structures. In the same sense it has also been used now and in the past to denote similar re-orderings of the international political order such as the Peace of Westphalia
Peace of Westphalia
The Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October of 1648 in Osnabrück and Münster. These treaties ended the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the...
in 1648, the Vienna Congress in 1815, and the Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
victory in 1945. The complete phrase which was used by the Nazi establishment was actually die Neuordnung Europas (the New Order of Europe), for which Neuordnung was merely a shorthand.
According to the Nazi government this goal was pursued by Germany to secure a fair rearrangement of territory for the "common benefit" of a new, economically integrated Europe
Pre-1945 ideas on European unity
The idea of European unity is a historically recent idea.The word 'Europe' originally referred to the south-eastern part of Europe, in the same way that 'Asia' originally referred to western Anatolia, and 'Africa' referred to northern Africa, and it was the ancient Greeks who used the words to...
, which in Nazi terminology meant the continent of Europe with the exclusion of the "Asiatic
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
" Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Nazi racist views regarded the "Judeo-Bolshevist" Soviet state both as a criminal institution which needed to be destroyed as well as a barbarian place as yet lacking any actual culture that would give it a "European" character. Neuordnung was therefore hardly ever used in reference to Soviet Russia since theoretically there weren't even any actual structures that could be re-organized along National Socialist designs.
The actual objective was however to ensure a state of total post-war continental hegemony
Hegemony
Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...
for Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. This was to be achieved by the expansion
Expansionism
In general, expansionism consists of expansionist policies of governments and states. While some have linked the term to promoting economic growth , more commonly expansionism refers to the doctrine of a state expanding its territorial base usually, though not necessarily, by means of military...
of the territorial base of the German state itself, combined with the political and economic subjugation of the rest of Europe to Germany. Eventual extensions of the project to areas beyond Europe as well as on an ultimately global scale were anticipated for the future period in which Germany would have secured unchallenged control over her own continent first, but Neuordnung did not carry this extra-European meaning at the time.
Through its wide use in Nazi propaganda
Nazi propaganda
Propaganda, the coordinated attempt to influence public opinion through the use of media, was skillfully used by the NSDAP in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's leadership of Germany...
it quickly gained coinage in Western media. In English-language academic circles especially it eventually carried a much more inclusive definition, and became increasingly known as a term used to refer to all the foreign and domestic politics and war aims of the Nazi German state as well as its dictator
Dictator
A dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
ial leader Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. It therefore holds approximately the same connotations as the term co-prosperity sphere
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was a concept created and promulgated during the Shōwa era by the government and military of the Empire of Japan. It represented the desire to create a self-sufficient "bloc of Asian nations led by the Japanese and free of Western powers"...
did in Japanese
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
circles in reference to their planned imperial domain. Nowadays it is most commonly used to refer to all the post-war planning and policies both in and outside of Europe that the Nazi government expected to implement after an anticipated victory for Germany and the other Axis powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Geopolitical influence
Anticipated territorial extent of Nazi imperialism
In a subsequently published speech given at Erlangen University in November 1930 Hitler explained to his audience that no other people had more of a right to fight for and attain "control" of the globe (Weltherrschaft, i.e. "world leadership", "world ruleWorld domination
World Domination or Global Domination may refer to:* World Domination , 2001* World Domination , 2005* World Domination Enterprises, a UK independent rock band* World Domination Recordings, a US record label...
") than the Germans
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
. He realized however that this extremely ambitious goal could never be achieved without an enormous amount of fighting. Hitler had alluded to future German world dominance even earlier in during his political career. In a letter written by Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess was a prominent Nazi politician who was Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party during the 1930s and early 1940s...
to Walter Hewel in 1927, Hess paraphrases Hitler's vision: "World peace
World peace
World Peace is an ideal of freedom, peace, and happiness among and within all nations and/or people. World peace is an idea of planetary non-violence by which nations willingly cooperate, either voluntarily or by virtue of a system of governance that prevents warfare. The term is sometimes used to...
is certainly an ideal worth striving for; in Hitler's opinion it will be realizable only when one power
Hyperpower
A hyperpower is a state that dominates all other states in every sphere of activity. A hyperpower is traditionally considered to be one step higher than a superpower. The definition and use of the term varies....
, the racially best one, has attained complete and uncontested supremacy. That [power] can then provide a sort of world police, seeing to it at the same time that the most valuable race is guaranteed the necessary living space. And if no other way is open to them, the lower races will have to restrict themselves accordingly."
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
discussed the territorial aspirations of Germany during his first Posen speech
Posen speech
The Posen speeches were two secret speeches made by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler on October 4 and 6, 1943 in the town hall of Posen , in Nazi occupied Poland. The recordings are the first known documents in which a high-ranking member of the Nazi government spoke of the on-going extermination...
in 1943. He commented on the goals of the warring nations involved in the conflict, and stated that Germany was fighting for new territories and a global power status:
Implementation in Europe
Military campaigns in Poland and Western Europe
The initial phase of the establishment of the New Order was:- First, the signing of the German-Soviet PactMolotov-Ribbentrop PactThe Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
on 23 August 1939 prior to the invasion of PolandInvasion of Poland (1939)The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
to secure the new eastern border with the Soviet UnionSoviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, prevent the emergence of a two-front warTwo-front warIn military terminology, a two-front war is one in which fighting takes place on two geographically separate fronts. It is usually executed by two or more separate forces simultaneously or nearly simultaneously, in the hope that their opponent will be forced to split their fighting force to deal...
, and to circumvent a shortage of raw materials due to an expected British naval blockade.
- Second, the BlitzkriegBlitzkriegFor other uses of the word, see: Blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg is an anglicized word describing all-motorised force concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery, combat engineers and air power, concentrating overwhelming force at high speed to break through enemy lines, and, once the lines are broken,...
attacks in northern and western Europe (Operation WeserübungOperation WeserübungOperation Weserübung was the code name for Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign...
and the Battle of FranceBattle of FranceIn the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
respectively) to neutralize opposition from the west. This resulted in the conquest of DenmarkDenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, LuxembourgLuxembourgLuxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, BelgiumBelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, the NetherlandsNetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, and FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, all of which were under German rule by the early summer of 1940.
- Third, the neutralization or the conquest of the United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. Initially, Hitler wanted to make a deal with Great Britain in which the British EmpireBritish EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
would be given a free hand over the oceans of the worldCommand of the seaA naval force has command of the sea when it is so strong that its rivals cannot attack it directly. Also called sea control, this dominance may apply to its surrounding waters or may extend far into the oceans, meaning the country has a blue-water navy...
and GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
would be given a free hand in EuropeEuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. However, when Britain refused this proposal, Hitler planned Operation Sea Lion, the conquest of Great Britain, which was to be implemented after the anticipated German victory in the Battle of BritainBattle of BritainThe Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
. Plans were made for sending out an EinsatzkommandoEinsatzkommandoDuring World War II, the Nazi German Einsatzkommandos were a sub-group of five Einsatzgruppen mobile killing squads—up to 3,000 men each—usually composed of 500-1,000 functionaries of the SS and Gestapo, whose mission was to kill Jews, Romani, communists and the NKVD collaborators in the captured...
Gross-Britannien under the command of SS-General Franz Alfred SixFranz SixDr. Franz Alfred Six was a Nazi official who rose to the rank of SS-Brigadeführer. He was appointed by Reinhard Heydrich to head department Amt VII, Written Records of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt...
, the mobile killing squads formed and assigned specifically to Britain.
The first two phases of the initial plan were successful, but Hitler was unable to implement the third phase since the United Kingdom won the Battle of Britain.
Had Britain succumbed to Germany, the political re-ordering of Western Europe would have been accomplished. There was to be no post-war general peace conference
Peace conference
A peace conference is a diplomatic meeting where representatives of certain states, armies, or other warring parties converge to end hostilities and sign a peace treaty....
in the manner of the one held in Paris
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...
after the First World War, merely bilateral negotiation
Bilateralism
Bilateralism consists of the political, economic, or cultural relations between two sovereign states. For example, free trade agreements signed by two states are examples of bilateral treaties. It is in contrast to unilateralism or multilateralism, which refers to the conduct of diplomacy by a...
s between Germany and her defeated enemies. All still existing international organization
International organization
An intergovernmental organization, sometimes rendered as an international governmental organization and both abbreviated as IGO, is an organization composed primarily of sovereign states , or of other intergovernmental organizations...
s such as the International Labour Organization
International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with labour issues pertaining to international labour standards. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. Its secretariat — the people who are employed by it throughout the world — is known as the...
were to be dismantled or replaced by German-controlled equivalents.
By annexing vast territories in northeastern France, Hitler hoped to marginalize the country to prevent any further continental challenges to Germany's hegemony. Likewise, the Latin nations
Latin Europe
Latin Europe is a loose term for the region of Europe with an especially strong Latin cultural heritage inherited from the Roman Empire.-Application:...
of Western and Southern Europe (Portugal, Spain
Spanish State
Francoist Spain refers to a period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975 when Spain was under the authoritarian dictatorship of Francisco Franco....
and Italy) were to be eventually brought into a state of total German dependency and control.
Establishment of a Greater Germanic Reich
One of the most elaborate Nazi projects initiated in the newly conquered territories during this period of the war was the planned establishment of a "Greater Germanic Reich of the German Nation" (Grossgermanisches Reich Deutscher Nation). This future empire was to consist of, in addition to Greater Germany, virtually all of historically Germanic Europe (excepting Great BritainGreat Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
), whose inhabitants
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
the Nazis believed to be "Aryan" in nature. The consolidation of these countries as mere provinces of the Third Reich, in the same manner in which Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
was reduced to the "Ostmark
Ostmark (Austria)
Ostmark was the name used by Nazi propaganda to replace that of the formerly independent Austria after the Anschluss annexation of that country by Nazi Germany in 1938....
", was to be carried out through a rapidly enforced process of Gleichschaltung
Gleichschaltung
Gleichschaltung , meaning "coordination", "making the same", "bringing into line", is a Nazi term for the process by which the Nazi regime successively established a system of totalitarian control and tight coordination over all aspects of society. The historian Richard J...
. The ultimate intent of this was to eradicate all traces of national
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
rather than racial
Racialism
Racialism is an emphasis on race or racial considerations. Currently, racialism entails a belief in the existence and significance of racial categories, but not necessarily that any absolute hierarchy between the races has been demonstrated by a rigorous and comprehensive scientific process...
consciousness, although their native languages
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
were to remain in existence.
Establishment of German domination in Southeastern Europe
Immediately prior to Germany's invasion of Soviet Russia, Slovakia, HungaryHungary during World War II
Hungary during World War II was a member of the Axis powers. In the 1930s, the Kingdom of Hungary relied on increased trade with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany to pull itself out of the Great Depression. By 1938, Hungarian politics and foreign policy had become increasingly pro-Fascist Italian and...
, Romania
Romania during World War II
Following the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, the Kingdom of Romania officially adopted a position of neutrality. However, the rapidly changing situation in Europe during 1940, as well as domestic political upheaval, undermined this stance. Fascist political forces such as the Iron...
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
and Serbia (including the German-dominated autonomous area of Banat) were already satellites of Nazi Germany. Montenegro and Greece were satellites of Italy
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...
while Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
had been annexed by Italy. Although technically in the Italian sphere of influence, Croatia
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...
was in reality a condominium
Condominium (international law)
In international law, a condominium is a political territory in or over which two or more sovereign powers formally agree to share equally dominium and exercise their rights jointly, without dividing it up into 'national' zones.Although a condominium has always been...
puppet state of the two Axis powers, with Italy controlling the southwestern half, and Germany the northeastern half. Hitler observed that permanent German bases might be established in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
(possibly to be renamed to Prinz-Eugen
Prince Eugene of Savoy
Prince Eugene of Savoy , was one of the most successful military commanders in modern European history, rising to the highest offices of state at the Imperial court in Vienna. Born in Paris to aristocratic Italian parents, Eugene grew up around the French court of King Louis XIV...
-Stadt) and Salonika.
Conquest of Lebensraum in Eastern Europe
Implementation of the long term plan for the New Order was begun on June 22, 1941 with Operation BarbarossaOperation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
- the invasion of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. The goal of the campaign was not merely the destruction of the Soviet regime - which the Nazis considered illegitimate and criminal
Anti-Sovietism
Anti-Sovietism and Anti-Soviet refer to persons and activities actually or allegedly aimed against the Soviet Union or government power within the Soviet Union.Three different flavors of the usage of the term may be distinguished....
- but also the racial reorganization of European Russia
European Russia
European Russia refers to the western areas of Russia that lie within Europe, comprising roughly 3,960,000 square kilometres , larger in area than India, and spanning across 40% of Europe. Its eastern border is defined by the Ural Mountains and in the south it is defined by the border with...
, outlined for the Nazi elite in the Generalplan Ost
Generalplan Ost
Generalplan Ost was a secret Nazi German plan for the colonization of Eastern Europe. Implementing it would have necessitated genocide and ethnic cleansing to be undertaken in the Eastern European territories occupied by Germany during World War II...
("General Plan for the East"). Furthermore, Hitler hoped to turn Germany into a total blockade
Blockade
A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade, and is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually...
-proof autarky
Autarky
Autarky is the quality of being self-sufficient. Usually the term is applied to political states or their economic policies. Autarky exists whenever an entity can survive or continue its activities without external assistance. Autarky is not necessarily economic. For example, a military autarky...
by exploiting the vast resources laying in Soviet territories: the Ukraine was to provide grain
GRAIN
GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...
, vegetable oil, feeding-stuffs
Fodder
Fodder or animal feed is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. Most animal feed is from plants but some is of animal origin...
, iron ore, nickel
Nickel
Nickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile...
, manganese
Manganese
Manganese is a chemical element, designated by the symbol Mn. It has the atomic number 25. It is found as a free element in nature , and in many minerals...
, coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
, molybdenum
Molybdenum
Molybdenum , is a Group 6 chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42. The name is from Neo-Latin Molybdaenum, from Ancient Greek , meaning lead, itself proposed as a loanword from Anatolian Luvian and Lydian languages, since its ores were confused with lead ores...
; the Crimea natural rubber, citrus fruit and cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
; the Black Sea fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
and the Caucasus crude oil.
Nazi party philosopher Alfred Rosenberg
Alfred Rosenberg
' was an early and intellectually influential member of the Nazi Party. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart; he later held several important posts in the Nazi government...
(who, incidentally, protested against the inhumane policy shown toward the Slavs
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
) was the Minister for the Eastern Territories
Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories
The Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories was created by Adolf Hitler on July 1941 and headed by the Nazi theoretical expert and Baltic German, Alfred Rosenberg. Alfred Meyer was Rosenberg's deputy. This ministry was created to control the vast areas captured by the Germans in...
, the person nominally in charge of the project, and Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
, head of the SS, was assigned to implement the enslavement
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
, expulsion, and extermination
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
of the non-Aryan (i.e. Slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
) population. The long-term objective as detailed by Hitler in Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf is a book written by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926...
was the incorporation
Annexation
Annexation is the de jure incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities, barring physical size...
of large territories in Eastern Europe for German settlement, eventually expanding the territory of the Third Reich all the way to the Ural Mountains
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...
. Acquisition of settlement colonies
Settler colonialism
Settler colonialism is a specific colonial formation whereby foreign family units move into a region and reproduce. Land is thus the key resource in settler colonies, whereas natural and human resources are the main motivation behind other forms of colonialism...
in Eastern Europe would therefore solve the question of lebensraum
Lebensraum
was one of the major political ideas of Adolf Hitler, and an important component of Nazi ideology. It served as the motivation for the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany, aiming to provide extra space for the growth of the German population, for a Greater Germany...
. http://www.obersalzberg.de/utopie-grossgermanisches-reich.98.html?&L=1
By 1942 the quasi-colonial
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
regimes called the General Gouvernment in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, the Reichskommissariat Ostland
Reichskommissariat Ostland
Reichskommissariat Ostland, literally "Reich Commissariat Eastland", was the civilian occupation regime established by Nazi Germany in the Baltic states and much of Belarus during World War II. It was also known as Reichskommissariat Baltenland initially...
in the Baltic states
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
and Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, and the Reichskommissariat Ukraine
Reichskommissariat Ukraine
Reichskommissariat Ukraine , literally "Reich Commissariat of Ukraine", was the civilian occupation regime of much of German-occupied Ukraine during World War II. Between September 1941 and March 1944, the Reichskommissariat was administered by Reichskommissar Erich Koch as a colony...
in the Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
had been established. Two more administrative divisions were envisaged: a Reichskommissariat Moskowien that would include the Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
metropolitan area and vast tracts of European Russia
European Russia
European Russia refers to the western areas of Russia that lie within Europe, comprising roughly 3,960,000 square kilometres , larger in area than India, and spanning across 40% of Europe. Its eastern border is defined by the Ural Mountains and in the south it is defined by the border with...
, and a Reichskommissariat Kaukasus
Reichskommissariat Kaukasus
Reichskommissariat Kaukasus , literally "Reich Commissariat of the Caucasus ", was the theoretical political division and planned civilian occupation regime of Nazi Germany in the conquered territories of the Caucasus during World War II...
in the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
. This policy was accompanied by the annihilation of the entire Jewish population (the Final Solution
Final Solution
The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
) as well as the enslavement of their Slavic inhabitants, who it was planned would be made slave laborers on the estates to be granted to SS soldiers after the conquest of European Russia
European Russia
European Russia refers to the western areas of Russia that lie within Europe, comprising roughly 3,960,000 square kilometres , larger in area than India, and spanning across 40% of Europe. Its eastern border is defined by the Ural Mountains and in the south it is defined by the border with...
. Each of these SS "soldier peasants"
Wehrbauer
Wehrbauer was a concept used by the Schutzstaffel of the Nazi Party to refer to soldiers designated as setters for the lands conquered during the German invasions of the the Soviet Union and Poland....
were expected to father at least seven children.
German women were encouraged to have as many children as possible to populate the newly acquired Eastern territories. To encourage this fertility
Fertility
Fertility is the natural capability of producing offsprings. As a measure, "fertility rate" is the number of children born per couple, person or population. Fertility differs from fecundity, which is defined as the potential for reproduction...
policy, the lebensborn program was expanded and the state decoration
State decoration
State decorations are orders, medals and other decorations granted by a state. International decorations are similar, but are not granted by a specific nation but rather an international organization....
known as the Gold Honor Cross of the German Mother
Cross of Honor of the German Mother
The Ehrenkreuz der Deutschen Mutter , referred to colloquially as the Mutterehrenkreuz or simply Mutterkreuz , was a state decoration and civil order of merit conferred by the government of the Deutsches Reich to honour a “Reichsdeutsche” mother for...
was instituted, which was awarded to German women who bore at least eight children for the Third Reich. There was also an effort by Martin Bormann
Martin Bormann
Martin Ludwig Bormann was a prominent Nazi official. He became head of the Party Chancellery and private secretary to Adolf Hitler...
and Himmler to introduce new marriage legislation to facilitate population growth, which would have allowed decorated war heroes to marry an additional wife
Polygamy
Polygamy is a marriage which includes more than two partners...
. Himmler envisaged a German population of 300,000,000 by 2000.
Re-settlement efforts
Reichskommissar
Reichskommissar , in German history, was an official gubernatorial title used for various public offices during the period of the German Empire and the Nazi Third Reich....
für die Festigung deutschen Volkstums) (RKFDV) (see also Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle
Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle
The Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle was an NSDAP agency founded to manage the interests of the Volksdeutsche who lived outside the borders of Nazi Germany....
, VoMi) This position authorized Himmler to repatriate ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) living abroad to occupied Poland. Himmler's jurisdiction as the guardian of the Volksdeutsche re-settlement efforts was increased to other occupied territories to be Germanized as the war continued. To make room for the German settlers, hundreds of thousands of Poles, French and Slovenes living in these lands were transferred across borders. The great majority of Himmler's Volksdeutsche were acquired from the Soviet sphere of interest under the German-Soviet "population exchange" treaty
Nazi-Soviet population transfers
The Nazi–Soviet population transfers were a series of population transfers between 1939 and 1941 of tens of thousands of ethnic Germans and ethnic Russians in an agreement according to the German–Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.-...
.
At the end of 1942 a total of 629,000 Volksdeutsche had been re-settled, and preparations for the transfer of 393,000 others were underway. Long-term goal of the VoMi was the resettlement of a further 5,4 million Volksdeutsche, mainly from Transylvania, Banat, France, Hungary and Romania. The immigrants were classified either as racially or politically unreliable (settled in Altreich
Altreich
Altreich or Altes Reich is a German term that may refer to:* A synonym for the medieval Kingdom of Germany in prior German historiography, i.e. the territory of the German stem duchies excluding the Saxon and Bavarian eastern marches....
), of high quality (settled in the annexed eastern territories
Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany
At the beginning of World War II, nearly a quarter of the pre-war Polish areas were annexed by Nazi Germany and placed directly under German civil administration, while the rest of Nazi occupied Poland was named as General Government...
) or suitable for transit camps. Himmler encountered considerable difficulties with the Volksdeutsche of France and Luxembourg, who often wished retain their former status as citizens of their respective countries.
| Territory of origin | Total | Re-settled in annexed eastern territories |
|---|---|---|
| Estonia and Latvia | 76,895 | 57,249 |
| Lithuania | 51,076 | 30,315 |
| Volhynia, Galicia, Narew | 136,958 | 109,482 |
| Eastern Government-General | 32,960 | 25,956 |
| Bessarabia Bessarabia Germans ----The Bessarabia Germans are an ethnic group who lived in Bessarabia between 1814 and 1940. Between 1814 and 1842, 9000 of them immigrated from the German areas Baden, Württemberg, Alsace, Bavaria and some Prussian areas of modern-day Poland, to the Russian government of Bessarabia at the Black... |
93,342 | 89,201 |
| Northern Bukovina Bukovina Germans The Bukovina Germans were a German ethnic group that mainly lived from about 1780 to the 1940s in Bukovina, part of present-day western Ukraine and northern Romania... |
43,670 | 24,203 |
| Southern Bukovina | 52,149 | 40,804 |
| Dobruja Dobrujan Germans The Dobrujan Germans were an ethnic German group, within the larger category of Black Sea Germans, for over one hundred years. German-speaking colonists entered the approximately 23,000 km² area of Dobruja around 1840 and left during the relocation of 1940... |
15,454 | 11,812 |
| Romania, Regat Regat Germans Regat Germans or Old Kingdom Germans are an ethnic German group of the eastern and southern parts of Romania. The Regat is land that was part of Romania before the First World War... |
10,115 | 1,129 |
| Gottschee Gottschee County Gottschee County refers to the former German speaking region in the Duchy of Carniola , a crownland of the Habsburg Empire, located in modern day Slovenia... and Ljubljana Province of Ljubljana The Province of Ljubljana was a province of the Kingdom of Italy and of the Nazi German Adriatic Littoral during World War II. It was created on May 3, 1941 from territory occupied and annexed to Italy after the Axis invasion and dissolution of Yugoslavia, and it was abolished on May 9, 1945, when... |
15,008 | 13,143 |
| Bulgaria Germans in Bulgaria Germans are a minority ethnic group in Bulgaria . Although according to the 2001 census they only numbered 436, the settlement of Germans in Bulgaria has a long and eventful history and comprises several waves, the earliest in the Middle Ages.... |
1,945 | 226 |
| Residual Serbia Nedic's Serbia Serbia under German occupation refers to an administrative area in occupied Yugoslavia established by Nazi Germany following the invasion and dismantling of Yugoslavia in April of 1941... |
2,900 | 350 |
| Russia History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union The German minority in Russia and the Soviet Union was created from several sources and in several waves. The 1914 census puts the number of Germans living in Russian Empire at 2,416,290. In 1989, the German population of the Soviet Union was roughly 2 million. In the 2002 Russian census, 597,212... |
350,000 | 177,146 |
| Greece | 250 | |
| Bosnia | 18,437 | 3,698 |
| Slovakia Carpathian Germans Carpathian Germans , sometimes simply called Slovak Germans , are a group of German language speakers on the territory of present-day Slovakia... |
98 | |
| South Tyrol South Tyrol South Tyrol , also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province has an area of and a total population of more than 500,000 inhabitants... |
88,630 | Reich, Protectorate, Luxembourg: 68,162 |
| France | 19,226 | Alsace, Lorraine, Luxembourg, Reich, Protectorate: 9,572 |
| Total | 1,009,113 | 662,448 |
Plans for an African colonial domain
Hitler's geopolitical thoughts about AfricaAfrica
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
always occupied a secondary position to his expansionist aims in Europe itself: "A colonial
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
policy only makes sense if you first control the continent". His public announcements prior to outbreak of the war that Germany's former colonies
German colonial empire
The German colonial empire was an overseas domain formed in the late 19th century as part of the German Empire. Short-lived colonial efforts by individual German states had occurred in preceding centuries, but Imperial Germany's colonial efforts began in 1884...
be returned to it served primarily as bargaining chips to further territorial goals in Europe itself. This area was nevertheless intended to also fall under German control in some way or another after it had first achieved supremacy over its own continent.
Hitler's overall intentions for the future organization of Africa divided it in three basic portions. The northern third was to be assigned to its Italian ally
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...
, while the central part would fall under German rule. The remaining southern sector would be controlled by a pro-Nazi Afrikaner
Afrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
state built on racial grounds. In early 1940 Foreign Minister Ribbentrop had communicated with South African leaders thought to be sympathetic to the Nazi cause, informing them that Germany was to reclaim its former colony of German South-West Africa
German South-West Africa
German South West Africa was a colony of Germany from 1884 until 1915, when it was taken over by South Africa and administered as South West Africa, finally becoming Namibia in 1990...
, then a mandate of the Union of South Africa
Union of South Africa
The Union of South Africa is the historic predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into being on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the previously separate colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State...
. South Africa was to be compensated by the territorial acquisitions of the British protectorates of Swaziland
Swaziland
Swaziland, officially the Kingdom of Swaziland , and sometimes called Ngwane or Swatini, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique...
, Basutoland
Basutoland
Basutoland or officially the Territory of Basutoland, was a British Crown colony established in 1884 after the Cape Colony's inability to control the territory...
and Bechuanaland and the colony of Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia was the name of the British colony situated north of the Limpopo River and the Union of South Africa. From its independence in 1965 until its extinction in 1980, it was known as Rhodesia...
. On the division of French African colonies between the Spanish and Italian governments Hitler refused to provide any official promises during the war however, fearful of losing the support of Vichy France
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
.
In 1940, the general staff
General Staff
A military staff, often referred to as General Staff, Army Staff, Navy Staff or Air Staff within the individual services, is a group of officers and enlisted personnel that provides a bi-directional flow of information between a commanding officer and subordinate military units...
of the German Navy
Kriegsmarine
The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...
produced a much more detailed plan accompanied by a map showing a proposed German colonial empire
Colonial empire
The Colonial empires were a product of the European Age of Exploration that began with a race of exploration between the then most advanced maritime powers, Portugal and Spain, in the 15th century...
delineated in blue (the traditional color used in German cartography to indicate the German sphere of influence as opposed to the red or pink that represented the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
) in sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
, extending from the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
to the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
. The proposed domain was supposed to fulfill the long-sought territorial German goal of Mittelafrika
Mittelafrika
Mittelafrika is the name created for a geostrategic region in central and east Africa. Much like Mitteleuropa, it articulated Germany's foreign policy aim, prior to World War I, of bringing the region under German domination...
, and even further beyond. It was to provide a base from which Germany was to achieve a pre-eminent position on the African continent just as the conquest of Eastern Europe was to achieve a similar status over the continent of Europe.
In contrast to territories that were to be acquired in Europe itself (specifically European Russia
European Russia
European Russia refers to the western areas of Russia that lie within Europe, comprising roughly 3,960,000 square kilometres , larger in area than India, and spanning across 40% of Europe. Its eastern border is defined by the Ural Mountains and in the south it is defined by the border with...
), these areas were however not envisaged as targets for extensive German population settlement. The establishment of a vast colonial empire was to serve primarily economic purposes, for it would provide Germany with most natural resources that it would not be able to find in its continental possessions, as well as an additional nearly unlimited supply of labor. Racialist policies
Racial policy of Nazi Germany
The racial policy of Nazi Germany was a set of policies and laws implemented by Nazi Germany, asserting the superiority of the "Aryan race", and based on a specific racist doctrine which claimed scientific legitimacy...
would nevertheless be strictly enforced on all inhabitants (meaning segregation of whites and blacks and punishing of interracial relationships) to maintain "Aryan" purity.
The area included all pre-WWI German colonial territories in Africa, as well as additional parts of the French, Belgian and British colonial holdings in Africa. These were the French
French Congo
The French Congo was a French colony which at one time comprised the present-day area of the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and the Central African Republic...
and Belgian Congo
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...
, Northern
Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa, formed in 1911. It became independent in 1964 as Zambia.It was initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by amalgamating North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia...
and Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia was the name of the British colony situated north of the Limpopo River and the Union of South Africa. From its independence in 1965 until its extinction in 1980, it was known as Rhodesia...
(the latter going perhaps to South Africa), Nyasaland
Nyasaland
Nyasaland or the Nyasaland Protectorate, was a British protectorate located in Africa, which was established in 1907 when the former British Central Africa Protectorate changed its name. Since 1964, it has been known as Malawi....
, southern Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
with Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
(northern Kenya was to be given to Italy), Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
, Gabon
Gabon
Gabon , officially the Gabonese Republic is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west...
, Ubangui-Chari, Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, Dahomey
Dahomey
Dahomey was a country in west Africa in what is now the Republic of Benin. The Kingdom of Dahomey was a powerful west African state that was founded in the seventeenth century and survived until 1894. From 1894 until 1960 Dahomey was a part of French West Africa. The independent Republic of Dahomey...
, the Gold Coast
Gold Coast (British colony)
The Gold Coast was a British colony on the Gulf of Guinea in west Africa that became the independent nation of Ghana in 1957.-Overview:The first Europeans to arrive at the coast were the Portuguese in 1471. They encountered a variety of African kingdoms, some of which controlled substantial...
, Zanzibar
Zanzibar
Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...
, nearly all of Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
and Chad, as well as the naval bases of Dakar
Dakar
Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...
and Bathurst
Banjul
-Transport:Ferries sail from Banjul to Barra. The city is served by the Banjul International Airport. Banjul is on the Trans–West African Coastal Highway connecting it to Dakar and Bissau, and will eventually provide a paved highway link to 11 other nations of ECOWAS.Banjul International Airport...
.
A second part of the plan entailed the construction of a huge string of fortified naval and air bases for future operations against the Western hemisphere spanning much of the Atlantic coastline of Europe and Africa from Trondheim
Trondheim
Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...
in Norway all the way up to the Belgian Congo, as well as many off-lying islands such as Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
and the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
. A less extensive but similar initiative was intended for the east coast of Africa.
Division of Asia between the Axis powers
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and the Japanese Empire in which they agreed to divide Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
along a line that followed the Yenisei River
Yenisei River
Yenisei , also written as Yenisey, is the largest river system flowing to the Arctic Ocean. It is the central of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean...
to the border of China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, and then along the border of China and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, the northern and western borders of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, and the border between Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and India
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
(what is now Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
was then part of India). This treaty, of which a draft was presented to the Germans by ambassador Ōshima
Hiroshi Ōshima
Baron was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, Japanese ambassador to Nazi Germany before and during World War II — and unknowingly a major source of communications intelligence for the Allies. His role was perhaps best summed up by General George C...
, was initially rejected by the German Foreign Office and the Navy, as it allocated India to Japan and limited German naval operations in the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
. Hitler, however, found the treaty acceptable, leading to its signing on January 18, 1942.
The treaty proved to be detrimental for Axis strategic cooperation in the Indian Ocean, as crossing the boundary line required tedious prior consultation. This made any joint German-Japanese offensive against British positions in the Middle East impossible. Japanese operations against Allied shipping lines during the Indian Ocean raid had been highly successful along with the attack against Ceylon
Easter Sunday Raid
The Easter Sunday Raid was an air attack by carrier-based aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy against Colombo, Ceylon , on Easter Sunday, 5 April 1942, during World War II. This attack was part of the Indian Ocean Raid, and was followed a few days later by a similar attack on Trincomalee...
, but these were not followed due to the non-existent German-Japanese strategic cooperation. The Germans vigorously maintained watch on the demarcation line, and objected to any Japanese incursion to the "German sphere" of the Axis-divided world. Thus the Japanese were forced to cancel a planned massive attack against Madagascar, as the island had been delegated to Germany in the treaty.
Concession of Oceania to Japan
Germany's former colonial possessionsGerman colonial empire
The German colonial empire was an overseas domain formed in the late 19th century as part of the German Empire. Short-lived colonial efforts by individual German states had occurred in preceding centuries, but Imperial Germany's colonial efforts began in 1884...
in the Pacific (German New Guinea
German New Guinea
German New Guinea was the first part of the German colonial empire. It was a protectorate from 1884 until 1914 when it fell to Australia following the outbreak of the First World War. It consisted of the northeastern part of New Guinea and several nearby island groups...
and German Samoa
German Samoa
German Samoa was a German protectorate from 1900 to 1914, consisting of the islands of Upolu, Savai'i, Apolima and Manono, now wholly within the independent state Samoa, formerly Western Samoa...
), which had had been allocated to Japan after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
as C-Class Mandates according to the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
, were to be sold to Japan (both Weimar
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
and Nazi-era Germany never officially relinquished claims to their pre-war colonial territories) at least temporarily in the interest of its alliance
Tripartite Pact
The Tripartite Pact, also the Three-Power Pact, Axis Pact, Three-way Pact or Tripartite Treaty was a pact signed in Berlin, Germany on September 27, 1940, which established the Axis Powers of World War II...
with that country. Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
were designated as future Japanese territories
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was a concept created and promulgated during the Shōwa era by the government and military of the Empire of Japan. It represented the desire to create a self-sufficient "bloc of Asian nations led by the Japanese and free of Western powers"...
, although Hitler lamented his belief that the white race
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
would disappear from those regions. He nevertheless made it clear to his officials that "the descendants of the convicts in Australia
Convicts in Australia
During the late 18th and 19th centuries, large numbers of convicts were transported to the various Australian penal colonies by the British government. One of the primary reasons for the British settlement of Australia was the establishment of a penal colony to alleviate pressure on their...
" were not Germany's concern and that their lands would be colonized by Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
settlers in the immediate future, an opinion also shared by Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
, who expressed his conviction in his diary
Goebbels Diaries
Joseph Goebbels, a leading member of the German National Socialist Party and Propaganda Minister in Adolf Hitler's government from 1933 to 1945, kept a diary from 1923, when he was an unemployed ex-student with no interest in politics, until shortly before his death by suicide in Berlin on 1 May 1945...
that the Japanese had always desired "the fifth continent
Four continents
Europeans in the 16th century divided the world into four continents: Africa, America, Asia and Europe. Each of the four continents was seen to represent its quadrant of the world—Europe in the north, Asia in the east, Africa in the south, and America in the west...
" for emigration purposes. A eurocentric at heart, Hitler's knowledge on New Zealand was even more limited. In his only recorded lengthy discussion on the subject he argued that its people
New Zealanders
New Zealanders, colloquially known as Kiwis, are citizens of New Zealand. New Zealand is a multiethnic society, and home to people of many different national origins...
still lived in trees
Arboreal locomotion
Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In every habitat in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may only scale trees occasionally, while others are exclusively arboreal. These habitats pose numerous mechanical challenges to animals...
and had not yet learned to walk upright. Historian Norman Rich stated that it can be assumed that Hitler would have attempted to recruit the Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
s of these two countries as colonists for the conquered east; some of the English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
were to share the same fate.
Middle East and Central Asia
After the projected fall of the USSR, Hitler planned to intensify the war in the Mediterranean. The OKW produced studies concerning an attack against the Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...
through Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, an offensive towards Baghdad-Basra from the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
(most of which was already under German occupation as a result of Fall Blau) in support of revolting Arab nationalists, and operations in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
and Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
directed against British India. Hitler did not envision German colonization of the region, and was most likely to allow Italian dominance at least over the Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
. The Jews of the Middle East
Mizrahi Jews
Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahiyim, , also referred to as Adot HaMizrach are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus...
were to be murdered, as Hitler had promised to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem
Mohammad Amin al-Husayni
Haj Mohammed Effendi Amin el-Husseini was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim leader in the British Mandate of Palestine. From as early as 1920, in order to secure the independence of Palestine as an Arab state he actively opposed Zionism, and was implicated as a leader of a violent riot...
in November 1941 (see Einsatzgruppe Egypt
Einsatzgruppe Egypt
Einsatzgruppe Egypt was a special mobile SS death squad, which was to carry out a mass killing of Jews in British mandate of Palestine similar to the way they operated in eastern Europe...
).
Turkey was favoured as a potential ally by Hitler because of its important strategic location
Turkish Straits
The term Turkish Straits refers to the two narrow straits in northwestern Turkey, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, that connect the Sea of Marmara with the Black Sea on one side and the Aegean arm of the Mediterranean Sea on the other. They are conventionally considered the boundary between the...
on the boundaries of Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as its extensive history as a state hostile against the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
as well as the later Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. To assure that Germany wanted to work with them on a long-range basis, the Turks were guaranteed an equal status in the German-dominated order, and were promised a number of territories which they might desire for reasons of security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
. These encompassed Edirne
Edirne
Edirne is a city in Eastern Thrace, the northwestern part of Turkey, close to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Edirne served as the capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1365 to 1453, before Constantinople became the empire's new capital. At present, Edirne is the capital of the Edirne...
(Adrianople) and a rectification of Turkish frontiers at the expense of Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, the creation of buffer states in the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
under Turkish influence
Sphere of influence
In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence is a spatial region or conceptual division over which a state or organization has significant cultural, economic, military or political influence....
, a rectification of the Turkish-Syrian frontier (the Baghdad Railway
Baghdad Railway
The Baghdad Railway , was built from 1903 to 1940 to connect Berlin with the Ottoman Empire city of Baghdad with a line through modern-day Turkey, Syria, and Iraq....
and the State of Aleppo
State of Aleppo
The State of Aleppo was one of the five states that were established by the French High Commissioner in Syria and Lebanon General Henri Gouraud in the French Mandate of Syria which followed the San Remo conference and the collapse of King Faisal I's short-lived monarchy in Syria.The other states...
) and the Turkish-Iraq frontier (the Mosul region
Mosul Province, Ottoman Empire
The Vilayet of Mosul was a vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. It was created from the northern sanjaks of the Vilayet of Baghdad in 1878.At the beginning of the 20th century it reportedly had an area of , while the preliminary results of the first Ottoman census of 1885 gave the population as 300,280...
), as well as a settlement of "the Aegean
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
question" to provide Turkey with suitable protection against encroachments from Italy
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...
. The Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
(which Hitler derided as "a mere frog
Frog
Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . Most frogs are characterized by a short body, webbed digits , protruding eyes and the absence of a tail...
-pond
Pond
A pond is a body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is usually smaller than a lake. A wide variety of man-made bodies of water are classified as ponds, including water gardens, water features and koi ponds; all designed for aesthetic ornamentation as landscape or architectural...
") was also to be conceded to Turkey as part of its sphere of influence, for this would negate the need of stationing a German navy in the region to replace the Soviet Black Sea Fleet. The Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
(tentatively dubbed Gotenland by the Nazis) was nevertheless to be fortified
Fortification
Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...
to ensure permanent German possession of the peninsula, and the Black Sea exploited as an "unlimited" resource of seafood
Seafood
Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...
.
Allied-occupied Iran
Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran
The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran was the Allied invasion of the Imperial State of Iran during World War II, by British, Commonwealth, and Soviet armed forces. The invasion from August 25 to September 17, 1941, was codenamed Operation Countenance...
was also to be drawn into the Axis camp, possibly by the means of an uprising. The possibility of Iran as an anti-Soviet
Anti-Sovietism
Anti-Sovietism and Anti-Soviet refer to persons and activities actually or allegedly aimed against the Soviet Union or government power within the Soviet Union.Three different flavors of the usage of the term may be distinguished....
bastion was already considered in the 1930s, and coincided with Hitler's declaration of Iran as an "Aryan state" (the name Iran literally means "homeland of the Aryans" in Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
). On the eve of WWII Germany was already Iran's single-biggest trading partner
International trade
International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories. In most countries, such trade represents a significant share of gross domestic product...
, followed by the USSR, Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
During pre-war diplomatic maneuvers, the NSDAP Foreign Affairs Office took special interest in Afghanistan, believing that the Kaiserreich
Kaiserreich
Kaiserreich is the German term for a monarchical empire. Literally a Kaiser's Reich, an emperor's domain or realm. When the proper term is used without disambiguation, it is assumed in Germany to refer to the German Empire of 1871-1918, during which the large majority of historically-independent...
had failed to exploit the country diplomatically during the First World War despite the Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition
Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition
The Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition was a diplomatic mission sent by the Central Powers to Afghanistan in 1915-1916. The purpose was to encourage Afghanistan to declare full independence from the United Kingdom, enter World War I on the side of the Central Powers, and attack India. The expedition was...
. The objective was to ensure that the country would remain neutral during a possible German-British conflict, and even use it militarily against British India or Soviet Russia. Despite the NSDAP Foreign Office's good relations with the Afghan government, the Foreign Ministry under Ribbentrop favored overthrowing the current government and restoration of the rule of Amānullāh Khān
Amanullah Khan
Amanullah Khan was the King of the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1919 to 1929, first as Amir and after 1926 as Shah. He led Afghanistan to independence over its foreign affairs from the United Kingdom, and his rule was marked by dramatic political and social change...
, who had been living in exile since 1929. Hitler eventually came to support Rosenberg's office on this issue. After the German-French armistice of 1940, the Kabul government tried to question Berlin on German plans concerning the future of Afghanistan. Of special interest were the post-war borders of the country - the Afghan government hoped to see the "liberation" of 15 million ethnic Afghans living in British India, and the securing of the northern Afghan border so that an expansion towards the Indian Ocean became possible (See Pashtunistan
Pashtunistan
Pakhtunistan or Pashtunistan, meaning the "land of Pakhtuns" or "land of Pashtuns", is a modern term used for the historical region inhabited by the native Afghans or Pashtun since at least the 1st millennium BC...
). As the German–Soviet Axis talks
German–Soviet Axis talks
In October and November 1940, German–Soviet Axis talks occurred concerning the Soviet Union's potential entry as a fourth Axis Power. The negotiations included a two day Berlin conference between Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, Adolf Hitler and German Foreign Minister Joachim von...
of October–November were then underway (and the possible expansion of the Soviet sphere of influence in south-central Asia and India was on the table), Berlin was reluctant to give any binding offers to Kabul.
The Third Saudi State under Ibn Saud was seen as a natural ally, and was to be given territorial concessions in south-west Arabia and Transjordan
Transjordan
The Emirate of Transjordan was a former Ottoman territory in the Southern Levant that was part of the British Mandate of Palestine...
. Also, a post-war satellite Greater Arab Union
Pan-Arabism
Pan-Arabism is an ideology espousing the unification--or, sometimes, close cooperation and solidarity against perceived enemies of the Arabs--of the countries of the Arab world, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea. It is closely connected to Arab nationalism, which asserts that the Arabs...
was discussed.
Although initially intending to concede Italy control of the region, after that country had defected to the Allied camp
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
in 1943 Hitler came to regard the Islamic countries
Muslim world
The term Muslim world has several meanings. In a religious sense, it refers to those who adhere to the teachings of Islam, referred to as Muslims. In a cultural sense, it refers to Islamic civilization, inclusive of non-Muslims living in that civilization...
and the Pan-Arab movement increasingly more as the natural ally of National Socialist Germany, as opposed to the "treacherous" Italians. On February 17, 1945 in particular he explained to his entourage his regrets that Germany's prior alliance
Pact of Steel
The Pact of Steel , known formally as the Pact of Friendship and Alliance between Germany and Italy, was an agreement between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany signed on May 22, 1939, by the foreign ministers of each country and witnessed by Count Galeazzo Ciano for Italy and Joachim von Ribbentrop...
with its southern neighbour had prevented her from pursuing a more revolutionary policy towards the Arab world
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
, which would have also allowed its exit from the British
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
and French
French colonial empire
The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...
spheres of influence in the area:
In the nature of things, this territory was becoming an Italian preserve and it was as such that the DuceBenito MussoliniBenito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
laid claim to it. Had we been on our own, we could have emancipated the Moslem countries dominated by France; and that would have had enormous repercussions in the Near East, dominated by Britain, and in Egypt. But with our fortunes linked to those of the Italians, the pursuit of such a policy was not possible. All Islam vibrated at the news of our victories. The Egyptians, the Iraqis and the whole of the Near East were all ready to rise in revolt. Just think what we could have done to help them, even to incite them, as would have been both our duty and in our own interest! But the presence of the Italians at our side paralyzed us; it created a feeling of malaise among our Islamic friends, who inevitably saw in us accomplices, willing or unwilling, of their oppressors.
Hitler's plans for India
Hitler's views on India were disparaging. He considered the British colonial rule of the subcontinentBritish Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
as an exemplary one and intended the German rule in the occupied East to resemble it in ruthlessness. Hitler thought little of the Indian independence movement
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...
, declaring the freedom fighters of being racially inferior "Asiatic jugglers". As early as 1930 he spoke of the Indian freedom movement as the rebellion of the "lower Indian race against the superior English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
Nordic race", and that the British were free to deal with any subversive Indian activists as they liked. In 1937 he told the British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax that the British should "shoot Gandhi, and if this doesn't suffice to reduce them to submission, shoot a dozen leading members of the Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
, and if that doesn't suffice shoot 200, and so on, as you make it clear that you mean business." Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg
Alfred Rosenberg
' was an early and intellectually influential member of the Nazi Party. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart; he later held several important posts in the Nazi government...
stated that although the Vedic culture was Aryan in origin, any Nordic blood had long since been lost due to racial mixing. Like Hitler, he viewed the British rule in India as being desirable.
During the first years of the war in Europe, as Hitler sought out to reach an arrangement with Britain, he held the notion that India should remain under British control after the war, as in his mind the only alternative was a Soviet occupation of the subcontinent. As Britain had rejected German peace offers, Hitler ordered on 17 February 1941 to prepare a military study for a post-Barbarossa operation in Afghanistan against India. The goal of this operation was not so much to conquer the subcontinent, but to threaten British military positions there to force Britain to come to terms. A week later the Afghanistan operation was the subject of a discussion between head of the Army General Staff
Oberkommando des Heeres
The Oberkommando des Heeres was Nazi Germany's High Command of the Army from 1936 to 1945. The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht commanded OKH only in theory...
Franz Halder
Franz Halder
Franz Halder was a German General and the head of the Army General Staff from 1938 until September, 1942, when he was dismissed after frequent disagreements with Adolf Hitler.-Early life:...
, Oberbefehlshaber des Heeres Walter von Brauchitsch and chief of the Operationsabteilung OKH Adolf Heusinger
Adolf Heusinger
Adolf Heusinger was a German General. He briefly served as Chief of the General Staff of the Army during World War II and served as the first Inspector General of the Bundeswehr, the West German armed forces, from 1957 to 1961...
. In an assessment produced on 7 April 1941, Halder estimated that the operation would require 17 divisions and one separate regiment.
Indian revolutionary Subhas Chandra Bose escaped from India on 17 January 1941 and arrived in Berlin via Moscow. There he proposed organizing an Indian national government in exile
Government in exile
A government in exile is a political group that claims to be a country's legitimate government, but for various reasons is unable to exercise its legal power, and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile usually operate under the assumption that they will one day return to their...
and urged the Axis to declare their support for the Indian cause. He eventually managed to extract such promises from Japan after the Fall of Singapore and later on from Italy as well, but the Germans refused. Bose was granted an audience with Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
, but Hitler refused to see him, although he did acquire access to Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...
after much difficulty. The German Foreign Ministry was sceptical of any such endeavours, as the German goal was to use Bose for propaganda and subversive activity, especially following the model of the 1941 pro-Axis coup in Iraq. These propaganda measures included anti-Raj radio broadcasts and the recruitment of Indian prisoners of war for the "Free India Legion". Bose eventually met with Hitler on 29 May 1942. During the discussion, which mostly consisted of Hitler monologuing
Monologue
In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...
to Bose, Hitler expressed his scepticism for India's readiness for a rebellion against the Raj, and his fears of a Soviet takeover of India. He stated that if Germany had to do anything about India it would first have to conquer Russia, for the road to India could only be accomplished through that country, although he did promise to financially support Bose and help relocate him to the Far East. Bose later described the encounter by stating that it was impossible to get Hitler involved in any serious political discussion.
On 18 January 1942, it was decided that the Indian subcontinent was to be divided between the Axis powers. Germany was to take the part of British India which is today approximately Pakistan, while the rest was marked for Japan.
Hitler's plans for North America
Before completing the expected German conquest of the Europe continent, the Nazi leadership hoped to keep the United States out of the military conflict which was then escalating in EuropeEuropean Theatre of World War II
The European Theatre of World War II was a huge area of heavy fighting across Europe from Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 until the end of the war with the German unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945...
. In an interview conducted by John Cudahy
John Cudahy
John Clarence Cudahy was a real estate broker and American ambassador to Poland, Ireland, Belgium and Luxembourg. He was a Democrat.-Early life:...
for Life Magazine in the spring of 1941, Hitler stated that a German invasion of the Western Hemisphere
Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere or western hemisphere is mainly used as a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian and east of the Antimeridian , the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere.In this sense, the western hemisphere consists of the western portions...
was as fantastic
Absurdity
An absurdity is a thing that is extremely unreasonable, so as to be foolish or not taken seriously, or the state of being so. "Absurd" is an adjective used to describe an absurdity, e.g., “this encyclopedia article is absurd”. It derives from the Latin absurdusm meaning "out of tune", hence...
as an invasion of the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
, and was a lie promoted by American big business
Big Business
Big business is a term used to describe large corporations, in either an individual or collective sense. The term first came into use in a symbolic sense subsequent to the American Civil War, particularly after 1880, in connection with the combination movement that began in American business at...
hoping to gain from war profiteering
War profiteering
A war profiteer is any person or organization that profits from warfare or by selling weapons and other goods to parties at war. The term has strong negative connotations. General profiteering may also occur in peace time.-International arms dealers:...
.
American pro-Nazi movements such as the Friends of the New Germany and the German-American Bund
German-American Bund
The German American Bund or German American Federation was an American Nazi organization established in the 1930s...
played no role in Hitler's plans for the country, and received no financial or verbal support from Germany after 1935. They, along with certain Native Americans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
advocate groups such as the fascist-leaning American Indian Federation, were to be however used to undermine the Roosevelt administration from within by the means of propaganda. Nazi propagandists went as far as declaring that Germany would return expropriated land to the Indians, while Goebbels predicted they possessed little loyalty to America and would rather rebel than to fight against Germany. The Nazis considered the Sioux
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
, and by extension all Native Americans to be Aryans, a theory echoed in the sympathetic portrayal of the Natives in German westerns
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
of the 1930s such as Der Kaiser von Kalifornien
The Kaiser of California
The Kaiser of California, better known as "The Emperor of California" , is a 1936 film that has the unique distinction of being the first western film made in Nazi Germany...
.
Approximately nine months before the United States joined the Allies, Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
made a reference to the New Order in a speech he gave on March 15, 1941:
... Nazi forces are not seeking mere modifications in colonial maps or in minor European boundaries. They openly seek the destruction of all elective systems of governmentDemocracyDemocracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
on every continent, including our own. They seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful of individual rulers who seize power by force.
Yes, these men and their hypnotized followers call this a "New Order." It is not new, and it is not order. For order among nations presupposes something enduring, some system of justice under which individuals over a long period of time are willing to live. Humanity will never permanently accept a system imposed by conquest, and based on slavery. These modern tyrants find it necessary to their plans to eliminate all democracies — eliminate them one by one. The nations of Europe, and indeed we, ourselves, did not appreciate that purpose. We do now.
Hitler actually held the American society in contempt, stating that the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(which he consistently referred to as the "American Union
American Union
American Union may refer to:* The United States of America* North American Union* Union of South American Nations* American Union Against Militarism* Central American Common Market...
") was "half Judaized
Judaization
Judaization is a process of cultural assimilation in which a person or a demographic group acquires Jewish cultural and religious beliefs and values....
, and the other half Negrified
Nigger
Nigger is a noun in the English language, most notable for its usage in a pejorative context to refer to black people , and also as an informal slang term, among other contexts. It is a common ethnic slur...
" and that "in so far as there are any decent people in America, they are all of German origin
German American
German Americans are citizens of the United States of German ancestry and comprise about 51 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population, the country's largest self-reported ancestral group...
". Already in 1928 he had maintained that National Socialist Germany must prepare for the ultimate struggle against the USA for hegemony. In mid-late 1941, as Axis victory against the USSR and Britain seemed certain, Hitler entered planning an enormous extension of the Kriegsmarine
Kriegsmarine
The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...
, projected to include 25 battleships, 8 aircraft carriers, 50 cruisers, 400 submarines and 150 destroyers, far exceeding the naval expansion that had already been decided on in 1939's Plan Z
Plan Z
Plan Z was the name given to the planned re-equipment and expansion of the Nazi German Navy ordered by Adolf Hitler on January 27, 1939...
. Historian Gerhard L. Weinberg stated that this super-fleet was intended against the Western Hemisphere. Hitler also considered the occupation of the Portuguese Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
, Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
and Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
and the Spanish Canary islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
to deny the British a staging ground for military actions against Nazi-controlled Europe, and also to gain Atlantic naval bases for operations against North America. Hitler desired to use the islands to "deploy long-range bombers
Amerika Bomber
The Amerika-Bomber project was an initiative of the Reichsluftfahrtministerium, the Nazi Germany Air Ministry, to obtain a long-range strategic bomber for the Luftwaffe that would be capable of striking the continental United States from Germany, a range of about 5,800 km...
against American cities from the Azores". In July 1941, Hitler approached Japanese ambassador Oshima with an offer to wage a joint struggle against the USA.
In this final battle for world domination, Hitler expected a defeated Britain to eventually support the Axis forces with its powerful navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
. He stated that "England and America will one day have a war with one another, which will be waged with the greatest hatred imaginable. One of the two countries will have to disappear." and "I shall no longer be there to see it, but I rejoice on behalf of the German people at the idea that one day we will see England and Germany marching together against America".
The actual physical conquest
Conquest (military)
Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms. One example is the Norman conquest of England, which provided the subjugation of the Kingdom of England and the acquisition of the English crown by William the Conqueror in 1066...
of the United States was unlikely however, and the future disposition of American territories remained cloudy in Hitler's mind. He perceived the anticipated battle with that country, at least under his own rule, to be a sort of "battle of the continents" with a Nazi-dominated Old World
Old World
The Old World consists of those parts of the world known to classical antiquity and the European Middle Ages. It is used in the context of, and contrast with, the "New World" ....
fighting for global dominance
Hyperpower
A hyperpower is a state that dominates all other states in every sphere of activity. A hyperpower is traditionally considered to be one step higher than a superpower. The definition and use of the term varies....
against the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
, in which Germany would attain leadership of the world rather than establish direct control over it. Further decisions down the line were left up to future generations of German rulers.
Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
featured fairly little in Nazi conceptions of the post-war world. Because Hitler's political objectives were primarily focused on Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
before and during the war he considered the United States a negligible political factor in the world, while Canada interested him even less. He politically grouped the country together with the United States in an American-dominated North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, and considered it equally as "materialistic, racially bastardized, and decadent" as its southern neighbour. In 1942, when expressing his fear of an imminent collapse of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
which he preferred to remain intact, Hitler believed that the United States would seize and annex Canada at the first opportunity, and that the Canadians would be quick to welcome such a move.
This lack of policy direction from the top meant that Nazi politicians concerned with representing Germany's interests and relations with Canada had to resort to an improvised line of policy which they believed to be in accordance with Hitler's wishes. The country was noted for its abundance of natural resources, and because of its great geographic size coupled with a low population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was characterized as "a country without people", in contrast to Germany which was considered "a people without space
Volk ohne Raum
"Volk ohne Raum" was a political slogan used in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. The term was coined by the nationalist writer Hans Grimm with his novel Volk ohne Raum...
". In his 1934 travelogue account of Canada, Zwischen USA und dem Pol (Between the USA and the North Pole
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface...
), German journalist Colin Ross described Canadian society as artificial because it was composed of many different parts that weren't tied together by either blood or long-standing traditions (highlighting the differences between the French and English Canadians in particular), and that for this reason one could not speak of either a Canadian nation or Volk. As a result the country's political system was also considered mechanic and non-organic, and that Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
did not constitute "the heart of the nation". Because of both these factors the Canadians were deemed incapable of comprehending "true culture", and German immigration in Canada was considered a mistake because they would be forced to live in an "empty civilization".
Plans for economic domination in South America
Neither Hitler nor any other major Nazi leader showed much interest towards Latin AmericaLatin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, except as a warning example of "racial mixing". However, the NSDAP/AO
NSDAP/AO
The NSDAP/AO was the Foreign Organization branch of the National Socialist German Workers Party . AO is the abbreviation of the German compound word Auslands-Organisation...
was active in various Latin American countries (notably among German Brazilian
German Brazilian
A German Brazilian is a Brazilian person of ethnic German ancestry or origin...
s), and trade relations between Germany and the Latin American countries were seen as of great importance. During 1933-1941, the Nazi aim in South America was to achieve economic hegemony by expanding trade on the expense of the Western Powers. Hitler also believed that German-dominated Europe would displace the United States as the principal trading partner of the subcontinent. Long-term Nazi hopes for political penetration of the region were placed on the local Fascist movements, such as the Integralists
Brazilian Integralism
Brazilian Integralism was a fascist political movement in Brazil, created on October 1932. Founded and led by Plínio Salgado, a literary figure who was somewhat famous for his participation in the 1922 Modern Art Week, the movement had adopted some characteristics of European mass movements of...
in Brazil and Peronists in Argentina, combined with the political activation of the German immigrant communities. Hitler also had hopes of seeing German immigrants "returning" from the Western Hemisphere to colonize the conquered East. Despite being occasionally suspicious of the South American Germans of adopting a "Latin attitude towards life", top Nazis believed that their experience working in underdeveloped areas would make them ideal settlers for the annexed eastern territories.
Hitler's plans for retirement
When Operation Barbarossa was launched on June 22, 1941, Hitler had expected to win victory in World War II by 1945. After achieving victory, he planned, after completing the urban renewalWelthauptstadt Germania
Welthauptstadt Germania refers to the projected renewal of the German capital Berlin during the Nazi period, part of Adolf Hitler's vision for the future of Germany after the planned victory in World War II...
plan for Berlin, to hold a great World's Fair
World's Fair
World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...
in the Third Reich's capital by 1950. He would ultimately retire to his hometown of Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
. Hitler had hoped that upon his death he would be buried in a simple tomb in Munich.
Future wars against Asia
Although pursuing an alliance based on RealpolitikRealpolitik
Realpolitik refers to politics or diplomacy based primarily on power and on practical and material factors and considerations, rather than ideological notions or moralistic or ethical premises...
with Imperial Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
in the battle against the "Western Plutocracies
Plutocracy
Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. The combination of both plutocracy and oligarchy is called plutarchy. The word plutocracy is derived from the Ancient Greek root ploutos, meaning wealth and kratos, meaning to rule or to govern.-Usage:The term plutocracy is generally...
" and Soviet Bolshevism, the Nazi leadership ultimately considered this cooperation only temporary in nature. The racial ideology of Nazism
Nazism and race
Nazism developed several theories concerning races. The Nazis claimed to scientifically measure a strict hierarchy of human race; at the top was the master race, the "Aryan race", narrowly defined by the Nazis as being identical with the Nordic race, followed by lesser races.At the bottom of this...
predicted that the fate of human civilization depended on the ultimate triumph of the Germanic-Nordic peoples, and in fact the populous Asian continent was seen as the greatest threat to hegemony of the white race
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
. The Japanese people
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
were characterized as 'culture-bearers', meaning they could make use of the technological and civilizational achievements of the Aryan race and by so doing maintain an advanced society, but could not truly create 'culture' themselves. Gerhard Weinberg asserts that the historical evidence points to the conclusion that Hitler, like he had done with the Soviets in the 1939-1941 period
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
, employed a tactic of conceding to the Japanese whatever they desired until they in turn could be defeated in a subsequent war.
In July 1941, as plans were being laid out for post-Barbarossa military operations, the German Navy
Kriegsmarine
The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...
command was not ready to exclude the possibility of a war
Contingency plan
A contingency plan is a plan devised for an exceptional risk which is impractical or impossible to avoid. Contingency plans are often devised by governments or businesses who want to be prepared for events which, while highly unlikely, may have catastrophic effects. For example, suppose many...
between Germany and Japan. In 1942, NSDAP official Erhard Wetzel (Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories
Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories
The Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories was created by Adolf Hitler on July 1941 and headed by the Nazi theoretical expert and Baltic German, Alfred Rosenberg. Alfred Meyer was Rosenberg's deputy. This ministry was created to control the vast areas captured by the Germans in...
) predicted that "the self-determination of the numerically strong Asian peoples after this war" would challenge German-controlled Europe with Japanese instigation, and stated that "a Greater Asia and an independent India are formations that dispose over hundreds of millions of inhabitants. A German world power with 80 or 85 million Germans by contrast is numerically too weak". Wetzel further pondered on Germany's choices on the population policies in occupied Russia: if the Russians were restricted to having as few children as possible in the interest of German colonization, this would further "weaken the white race in view of the dangers of Asia".
As the Japanese were conquering one European colonial territory after another in Asia and Oceania, and seemingly poised to take over Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
as well, Hitler further believed that the white race would disappear altogether from these regions, which he viewed as a turning point in history. He was relieved that Japan had entered the war on Germany's side however as he had long hoped to use that country as a strategic counterweight against the United States, but also because Japanese hegemony in East Asia and the Pacific would guarantee both countries' security against other powers. Looking into the future, he remarked that "There's one thing Japan and Germany have in common; both of us need fifty to a hundred years for purposes of digestion: we for Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, they for the Far East".
During his speech at the meeting of SS major-Generals at Posen on October 4th, 1943, Heinrich Himmler commented on the future conflicts between Nazi-controlled Europe and Asia:
Himmler addressed this apocalyptic vision in an earlier speech given to SS generals at the University of Kharkiv, Ukraine in April 1943. He first spoke on the necessity of the war against the USSR and Jewry:
End of the New Order project
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...
on February 2, 1943, Germany was forced onto the defensive and was no longer able to actively pursue implementation of the New Order in the Soviet Union, although the genocide against Jews, Gypsies, and other minorities continued. Following the subsequent failure of the 1943 summer offensive
Battle of Kursk
The Battle of Kursk took place when German and Soviet forces confronted each other on the Eastern Front during World War II in the vicinity of the city of Kursk, in the Soviet Union in July and August 1943. It remains both the largest series of armored clashes, including the Battle of Prokhorovka,...
to regain the territories lost to the Soviets earlier that year the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
was no longer able to mount an effective large-scale counter-attack on the Eastern Front. In a discussion with Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
on October 26, 1943 Hitler expressed that Germany should conclude a temporary armistice with the Soviet Union and return to its 1941 border
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
in the east. This would then give Germany the opportunity to defeat the British forces in the west first (no mention was made of America's part in the Allied alliance
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
) before resuming a new war for Lebensraum
Lebensraum
was one of the major political ideas of Adolf Hitler, and an important component of Nazi ideology. It served as the motivation for the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany, aiming to provide extra space for the growth of the German population, for a Greater Germany...
against the Soviet Union at a later point in time. Hitler thought that his future successor might have to carry out this later war, as he believed himself to be too old by then.
By this late point in the war, after the failure of the final Ardennes offensive and the Allied crossing of the Rhine into Germany itself, Hitler hoped that a decisive victory on the Eastern Front might still preserve the Nazi regime, resulting in Operation Spring Awakening. He believed that with the conclusion of a separate peace-treaty with the Soviet Union a division of Poland might still be realized and leave Hungary
Hungarian State
The Government of National Unity was the name used by the government of the Kingdom of Hungary between October 1944 and May 1945. This government, formed by the Arrow Cross Party, was established on 17 October 1944 after Regent Miklós Horthy was removed from power during Operation Panzerfaust...
and Croatia
NDH
The letters NDH can mean:* The Independent State of Croatia * New German Hardness, or Neue Deutsche Härte * National Dairy Holdings L.P.* In ads for used vehicles, particularly aircraft: No damage history...
(both still under German occupation at the time) under German control. Hitler only acknowledged Germany's imminent defeat mere days prior to his suicide
Death of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler committed suicide by gunshot on Monday, 30 April 1945 in his Führerbunker in Berlin. His wife Eva , committed suicide with him by ingesting cyanide...
.
See also
- Greater Germanic ReichGreater Germanic ReichThe Greater Germanic Reich , fully styled the Greater Germanic Reich of the German Nation is the official state name of the political entity that Nazi Germany tried to establish in Europe during World War II...
, the domain which the Nazis tried to create by merging all the Germanic-populated countries in Europe into one state. - Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity SphereGreater East Asia Co-Prosperity SphereThe Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was a concept created and promulgated during the Shōwa era by the government and military of the Empire of Japan. It represented the desire to create a self-sufficient "bloc of Asian nations led by the Japanese and free of Western powers"...
, the envisioned Japanese economic equivalent to the New Order and the Greater Germanic Reich. - Greater ItalyGreater ItalyGreater Italy , or Imperial Italy , was an ambitious project envisioned by fascist Italy in which the objective was to create an Italian empire which would expand, in addition to the irredentist claimed territories , to additional Mediterranean basin territories...
, the Fascist Italian project for securing dominion over the Mediterranean area. - Grossdeutschland
- Drang nach OstenDrang nach OstenDrang nach Osten was a term coined in the 19th century to designate German expansion into Slavic lands. The term became a motto of the German nationalist movement in the late nineteenth century...
("The Drive Eastward") - LebensraumLebensraumwas one of the major political ideas of Adolf Hitler, and an important component of Nazi ideology. It served as the motivation for the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany, aiming to provide extra space for the growth of the German population, for a Greater Germany...
- Generalplan OstGeneralplan OstGeneralplan Ost was a secret Nazi German plan for the colonization of Eastern Europe. Implementing it would have necessitated genocide and ethnic cleansing to be undertaken in the Eastern European territories occupied by Germany during World War II...
- LebensbornLebensbornLebensborn was a Nazi programme set up by SS leader Heinrich Himmler that provided maternity homes and financial assistance to the wives of SS members and to unmarried mothers, and also ran orphanages and relocation programmes for children.Initially set up in Germany in 1935, Lebensborn expanded...
- Final solutionFinal SolutionThe Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
- Holocaust
- European theatre of World War IIEuropean Theatre of World War IIThe European Theatre of World War II was a huge area of heavy fighting across Europe from Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 until the end of the war with the German unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945...
- German-occupied Europe
- New world order (international relations theory)
- Posen speeches - In two notable speeches given in October 1943, Himmler details the tasks of the SS in implementing the New Order.
- HegemonyHegemonyHegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...
- Axis victory in World War IIAxis victory in World War IIAn Axis victory in World War II is a common concept in alternate history. World War II alternate histories are one of the two most popular points of divergence in the English language...