Editing History of Germany (section)

===Foreign policy===
{{Main|Foreign relations of Nazi Germany}}
{{See also|Relations between Nazi Germany and the Arab world}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L09218, Berlin, Japanische Botschaft.jpg|thumb|Flags of [[Nazi Germany|Germany]], [[Empire of Japan|Japan]], and [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]] draping the facade of the Embassy of Japan on the [[Tiergartenstraße]] in Berlin (September 1940)]]

Hitler's diplomatic strategy in the 1930s was to make seemingly reasonable demands, threatening war if they were not met. When opponents tried to appease him, he accepted the gains that were offered, then went to the next target. That aggressive strategy worked as Germany pulled out of the [[League of Nations]], rejected the [[Versailles Treaty]] and began to re-arm, won back the Saar, remilitarized the Rhineland, formed an alliance with Mussolini's Italy, sent massive military aid to Franco in the Spanish Civil War, annexed Austria, took over Czechoslovakia after the British and French ''appeasement'' of the Munich Agreement, formed a peace pact with [[Joseph Stalin]]'s Soviet Union, and finally invaded Poland. Britain and France declared war on Germany and [[World War II]] in Europe began.{{Sfn|Evans|2005|pp=618, 623, 632–637, 641, 646–652, 671–674, 683}}{{Sfn|Beevor|2012|pp=22, 27–28}}

Having established a "Rome-Berlin axis" with [[Benito Mussolini]], and signing the [[Anti-Comintern Pact]] with Japan&nbsp;– which was joined by Italy a year later in 1937&nbsp;– Hitler felt able to take the offensive in foreign policy. On 12 March 1938, German troops marched into Austria, where an attempted Nazi coup had been unsuccessful in 1934. When Austrian-born Hitler entered [[Vienna]], he was greeted by loud cheers and Austrians voted in favour of the annexation of their country. After Austria, Hitler turned to [[Czechoslovakia]], where the [[Sudeten German]] minority was demanding equal rights and self-government. At the [[Munich Agreement|Munich Conference]] of September 1938, Hitler, Mussolini, British Prime Minister [[Neville Chamberlain]] and French Prime Minister [[Édouard Daladier]] agreed upon the cession of Sudeten territory to the German Reich by [[Czechoslovakia]]. Hitler thereupon declared that all of German Reich's territorial claims had been fulfilled. However, hardly six months after the Munich Agreement Hitler used the smoldering quarrel between [[Slovak people|Slovaks]] and [[Czechs]] as a pretext for taking over the rest of Czechoslovakia. He then secured the return of [[Klaipėda Region|Memel]] from [[Lithuania]] to Germany. Chamberlain was forced to acknowledge that his policy of [[appeasement]] towards Hitler had failed.