In this lecture, Dr. Totten argues Hitler's ambition dragged the the world into another global war. Hitler legally came to power, due to the miscalculations of conservatives and businessmen who worried about the growth of the communist party in Germany. After being appointed Chancellor, Hitler used a manufactured crisis to consolidate power, using censorship, intimidation, and the abolishment of rival political powers. The Nazis perverted German culture, where Hitler was depicted as a genius, regardless of facts or evidence to the contrary. Dissenters who fought back, were sent to concentration camps, as everyone informed on each other to save themselves. The Nazis also embarked on a rearmament program that led other countries to respond in kind. While the United States reaffirmed its commitment to isolationism, Nazi power grew. The Spanish Civil War broke out in the mid-1930s, which became a proxy war for German and Soviet forces to hone their skills, which would be used to deadly effect in the Second World War. Hitler then moved to unify Austria and Germany in the Anschluss before demanding the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. At the Munich Conference, Great Britain and France approved this measure, hoping to establish "peace in our time." It failed and Hitler demanded the Polish Corridor the next year, as France and Great Britain searched for allies. When British diplomats snubbed the Soviet Union, the USSR signed the Soviet-Nazi Non-Aggression Pact, which enabled Hitler to invade Poland. As a result, Great Britain and France declared war, plunging the European continent into another great war.

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