> this quote pretty handedly puts to rest the old "he just wanted to restore territory lost in the treaty of versailles!" talking point you see a lot, and it is just the beginning unfortunately it's a very valid concern. i don't think i'd be very pleased if an enemy country gobbled up a couple of the counties of the uk, but i'll bear with you. > i think it goes without saying what obtaining territory "by the power of a triumphant sword" means he alleges to war being necessary, without expressing a desire for it. also, i'll again reiterate, in practice, he took every single measure possible to avoid war when he rose to power. he offered a mutual disarmament, pushed for terroristic war-methods (gas, firebombing, bombing civilians etc) to be banned and went so far as to offer an alliance to the british in which german troops would be sent to defend british territories. he was also willing to let danzig (ethnically german) remain under the thumb of the poles in exchange for the poles allowing for rail networks and roads to link germany to danzig.  i'll give you this, war was likely inevitable. whether it would've been that the soviets attacked first, or he got the alliance with britain (and possibly america after that) and got a little bolder, german armies would've ended up in the east. communism and national socialism can't co-exist in the world. > hitlers economy and rearmament was largely built on accumulating debt to fund the construction of the new german war machine he was fortifying the military because the allies were refusing to, themselves, disarm. also, they still had accumulated debt from ww1, which they've only just paid off in 2010. the ridiculous inflation of the weimar republic also contributed to the size of their debt, since the purchasing power of the mark went down. debt was accumulating itself, and he was making the sensible decision to shore up defences first while they worked out the ruins of their economy.
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