Student Question
Why did Germany pursue an aggressive foreign policy in the 1930s?
Quick answer:
Germany pursued an aggressive foreign policy in the 1930s primarily because Adolf Hitler sought to restore the nation's power and prestige lost after World War I. The Treaty of Versailles had severely punished Germany, damaging national morale and economic stability. Hitler aimed to rectify these issues by rebuilding the military and expanding Germany's influence in Europe through assertive and aggressive strategies.
Germany did this because it wanted to (or at least Hitler wanted to) regain the kind of power that it had had before World War I.
The Treaty of Versailles after WWI had punished Germany harshly. This had lowered the morale of the German people and had hurt the country in tangible ways. One of Hitler's major aims was to fix these problems and to return Germany to a position of great power. In order to do that, Hitler was very aggressive in rearming the German military and then in trying to make Germany back into a European power through aggressive foreign policy.
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