10 - Asia-Pacific

Summary

Hitler launched policies independently of his partners, who followed their own aims in the wake of German victories and defeats, and he did so within the context of asymmetrical bilateral relationships that Berlin preferred, rather than through multilateral diplomacy. This chapter is organized by the phases of Germany's war between 1940 and 1945. The first is the defeat of France in 1940, which opened the possibility of reshaping the European and overseas colonial maps. The second is Germany's attack on the USSR, the preparations for which demanded the remapping of Eastern Europe and a closer relationship with Japan, which resulted in global war. A third is the German murder of all Jews within reach, a project in which Germany's European allies were expected to help. The fourth is Germany's defeats in the Soviet Union, North Africa and Western Europe, combined with Japan's defeats in the Pacific, during which the Axis eroded.