Greetings to all. As we know, Germany lost World
War II. Many different factors influenced the outcome of the war, but the most important in
my opinion is that Hitler bit off more than he could chew. Overestimating his own strength
played a cruel joke on the Führer. But what would have happened if Hitler had reduced the
radicality of his ideology, been more cautious, and more successful in exploiting Europe's
reluctance to fight? In this video I will tell you how Hitler did not start any war,
but still managed to conquer a large part of Europe. And the Road to 56 mod will help
me in this. How will this affect Europe? Will there be a World War II? You are about to
find out. Peaceful Hitler in Hearts of Iron IV. Adolf Hitler, who came to power in 1933, quickly
set out to destroy the Versailles system of international relations. In the same year Germany
demonstratively left the Geneva Disarmament Convention and the League of Nations. Already
in 1936 Hitler officially refused to fulfill the terms of the Versailles Treaty and in March he
deployed troops into the demilitarized Rhineland. There was virtually no Western reaction to these
actions. At this point the Führer realized that he had received carte blanche for aggressive action
in Europe. Public opinion in France and Great Britain was definitely against an escalation of
the possible conflict, and the consequences of the Great Depression further limited the possibilities
of their governments. The Third Reich also had economic problems. However, thanks to the infusion
of funds into infrastructure development under the Reinhardt Plan and the large reserve of recovery
growth, Germany was better able to cope with the economic crisis. Initially, the ideas of autarky
- a completely independent economy with a large share of military industry - prevailed in the
government and party leadership of the NSDAP, but then it became clear that Germany was not able to
fully provide itself with resources. Emphasis was placed on a corporate technocratic economy with
integration into the world one and an increase in civilian industry. The military industry
by then was already larger than the combined British and French industries. The construction
of autobahns, the pride of the German nation, continued. By 1937, the Reinhardt program had been
fully implemented, and unemployment had fallen significantly. The funds freed up in the budget
went to pay off MEFO bills - government bonds disguised as private ones that had previously been
used to secretly rearm Germany. However, now there was no point in them. Firstly - Hitler was no
longer interested in secrecy, he had to intimidate France and Britain. Secondly - the emphasis in
construction had shifted to civilian production. The last major contract for the construction of
military plants was completed in March. It marked a shift from military interests to the interests
of the people. At least that is what Hitler had declared. In May, the Volksgemeinschaft, a popular
community, was created to unite the German nation of all social classes around the world. That is,
the idea was to improve the lives of ordinary people. In practice, however, the organization
pursued goals of propaganda and increasing German influence in countries with a German population.
Through it, the financing of pro-German parties and lobbying laws in the U.S. was carried out.
Although it cannot be said that nothing was done for the people. In September, with the help of the
government, the production of the people's cars, the "Volkswagen", began in a newly built factory.
These were cheap cars at a price of 1,000 reichsmarks per unit - by comparison, the average
monthly wage in Germany was about 200 marks. By 1938, the unemployment rate had fallen
dramatically, and the economy was growing at a rate of 10 percent a year. On the wave
of these successes the decision was made to invade Austria and Czechia. In April, German
troops, pre-concentrated on the border, entered Austria. Three days later, Hitler announced to an
enthusiastic crowd in Vienna that his homeland had become part of the German Reich. In a referendum
held a month later, the official figures showed that 99 percent of the votes in Austria and
Germany were in favor of the Anschluss. By annexing Austria, Hitler obtained a strategic
springboard for the takeover of Czechoslovakia. He held a series of secret meetings in Berlin
with Konrad Henlein of the Sudeten Germans, the largest ethnic German party in the
Sudetenland. The interlocutors agreed that Henlein would demand greater autonomy for
Sudeten Germans from the Czechoslovak government, thereby creating a pretext for German
military action against Czechoslovakia. In June, Hitler demanded that Czechoslovakia cede
the Sudetenland to Germany, otherwise threatening invasion. At the Munich Conference he assured
the leaders of France and Great Britain that the rest of Czechoslovakia would not be occupied.
In exchange, they allowed him to annex the Sudetes in order to avert the threat of war. However,
Hitler was not going to stop there. Already in August he violated the treaty and moved troops
into Czechoslovakia. France and Great Britain, as well as Mussolini, who had signed the treaty, were
disgraced. Germany occupied Bohemia, and a puppet government headed by Joseph Tiso was established
in Slovakia. Southern Slovakia with a Hungarian population passed to a friendly Hungarian regime.
Only war could stop the Nazis, but no one dared to resist them. In September, Lithuania ceded
Memel. The Scandinavian countries were put under pressure. It can be said that Germany was forcing
them to be friends with it. 1939. On April 23rd, the London Conference took place. The German
delegation succeeded in having the annexation of Austria recognized as a union. There Yugoslavia,
which received no support from the West, was also forced to cede Slovenia, formerly owned
by the Austrian Empire, and which had a large proportion of the German population. The region
was renamed back to Carniola and integrated into the Reich. In May, the first Ljubljana arbitration
took place, in which Yugoslavia ceded territories with Hungarian and Bulgarian populations,
respectively, to Hungary and Bulgaria. The unviability and inability of Yugoslavia to
resist became apparent. In July, German troops invaded Yugoslavia. The government was dissolved,
and two Reich protectorates, Croatia and Serbia, were created in Yugoslavia's place. In
August, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which secret protocol
included a redistribution of spheres of influence in Europe, particularly Poland. Already in early
1940, Stalin took advantage of the incompetence of the West and demanded territories on the border
with Leningrad from Finland. The Finns agreed to the ultimatum. In February Germany received a
military alliance proposal from Italy. Mussolini, after a protracted war in Ethiopia that did not
end until 1938, was faced with a political crisis that he decided to remedy with a foreign policy
success. The alliance was to be that success. But since such an unreliable ally could drag Germany
into unnecessary wars, Hitler refused. Mussolini held a grudge. In April, Hungary joined the
Axis. By attaching itself to Germany, it had already increased its territory by a factor of one
and a half. And by June, the point of no return had been passed - the Soviet Union declared war
on Poland. The concept of the League of Nations proved to be a failure. Poland's allies, angered
by constant concessions to the Third Reich, apparently decided to take out all the anger on
Stalin, and sent a huge force to Poland. I think that if Hitler had wanted to, at this point he
could have rolled over France and pinched the Allied forces in the Danzig Corridor. He did not,
however. Although it is impossible to say that the Reich did not take this chance. On the sly, there
was a pro-German coup in Greece, and Greece became a satellite of Germany. In November, an offer of
an alliance came from Japan. Hitler again refused. Japan was stuck in a war with China, and Germany
did not want to get involved with belligerent countries. Winning a hundred victories in a
hundred battles is not the pinnacle of military art. Overthrowing the enemy without a battle is
the pinnacle. So Sun Tzu said, and Hitler seems to have followed this idea completely. Mussolini
apparently did not like this idea. Offended that Hitler did not share the lands of Greece with
him, he announced an ultimatum - Greece or war. The Greeks were shocked by this. So was Hitler.
On January 30, 1941, the Italian-German war began. Germany was three times stronger than Italy, even
without the satellites, but its military doctrine was not designed for a war in the mountains,
where mechanized assault units lose their strength. The front line was just through the
Alps, and its length was rather short. In fact, it was Italy's only hope, though I don't know for
what. For prolonging the war, I guess. However, the Italian generals clearly underestimated the
German tanks. The front line was broken in only three days of fighting. Nevertheless, the Italians
were able to establish the defense of Trieste, and heavy fighting began for the city, which
ended with the success of the Germans only a month later. It took another month to cross the Piave
River. After this battle, the Italian troops on the border were disorganized and surrounded. And
after the occupation of Verona and the crossing of the Po River nothing hindered the German army. In
June the Italian group of forces in northern Italy was cut off from the rest of the country. In July,
a pro-German government was formed of Fascists opposed to the insane policy of Mussolini. The
front fell apart. And literally within a month, Italy was occupied. The "half-year war" came
to an end. As a result of the peace treaty, all the colonies of Italy, as well as its
northeastern territories were placed under German control. Greece received the territories in
Albania and the island of Rhodes. The Soviet Union at this time had seized the Baltic states without
a fight, but was still at war in Poland. Forces from around the world came to its aid, Colombia,
for example, sent as many as 16 divisions. It was not until October that Soviet troops were able
to occupy Warsaw, and it was not until August 1943 that Poland was fully occupied. By this
time, the war had spilled over to the east - the Soviet Union attacked Iran - and the combined
losses of the parties had already exceeded ten million people. By comparison, Germany's
losses in the "half year war" were 120,000, which is still kind of a lot, but not critical.
The accession of Turkey to the anti-Stalin coalition enabled the Allied ships to sail into
the Black Sea, which in turn made it possible to open another front. In December the British
took Sevastopol, the main fleet base of the Soviet Union. At the same time, Stalin, according
to the treaty, fearing a stab in the back, gave the Reich the western territories of Poland. Thus
Hitler got without a fight the territories, for which millions of Soviet soldiers paid with their
lives. The Axis remained a bastion of stability, peace and economic prosperity in Europe.
Germany remained at the forefront of scientific development. Already in February 1945 the first
atomic bomb was produced, and the world's first jet-powered strategic bombers, the Focke-Wulf Ta
400, were already coming off the production line. The war between the Allies and the Soviet
Union would have gone on for years if not for Romania. The fact is that at the beginning
of the war, Romania received an ultimatum from the Soviet Union and ceded Bessarabia to
the latter. Hitler then advised Romania to comply with Stalin's demands, since the Union
had not yet conquered Poland, and Germany had no bridgehead to help. And in general the Union
was still strong. Now nothing prevented Romania from attacking the weakened soviets. Hitler
was forced to help the ally and on April 10, 1946, Germany entered the war. Three days
later a nuclear bomb was dropped on Moscow. The Kremlin was wiped off the face of the earth.
Germany showed the world its capabilities. German troops began their offensive. Already
in July, they took Leningrad and Moscow, or rather what was left of it. And on July 23
the Soviet Union capitulated. The world knew no fairer borders. Germany received all the lands
of Poland and created Reichskommisariats in the occupied territories. The gradual Germanization
of the population began in them. Leningrad was renamed St. Petersburg and was controlled directly
by the Reich. Other countries also got their share of the land. Russia and Mongolia retained most of
their territories and remained independent states. In Tuva and Western Mongolia, British occupation
zones were created as air bases for bombing Japan. Stalin was not deprived - he continued to build
socialism in one country on the lands left to him. The war was still going on in Asia, but the
U.S. entry would quickly put an end to it. Europe, without direct damage, remained the dominant power
in the world, although unrest broke out in the colonies, which were dissatisfied with the high
casualties of the war. Germany, on the other hand, continued to live peacefully without fear for
its security - now backed by nuclear weapons and a powerful army. Adolf Hitler led his country
through the maelstrom with dignity, greatly expanding its territory and
sphere of influence, at the cost of the lives of a relatively small number of soldiers. More and
more countries were looking with interest at the Reich's model of development, in particular the
countries of South America and the Middle East, which would lead them to establish similar regimes
in the future. At this point, I would like to end this story. See you in the next video. Jacob
was with you, and with that, I say goodbye.