In 1938 and 1939 Hitler did various risky monivours to get extra land for his country. He was trying to unite all germans and gain more factorys etc. His eye was on the smaller countrys. But none of them could stop him. The European forces were to weak against Germany, They had not prepared for war. But germany had.
Hitler had been failing to incorporate Austria into the Reich in 1934 , largely due to the opposition of Mussolini. By 1938 Hitler was assured of Italian support, while Britians and Frances lack of opposition to his earlier encroachments of the treaty of versailles only served to encourage him.Hitler then began to apply pressure on Austria. The nazi's stepped up a massive popaganda and terror campaign in Austria in order to promote the idea anschluss. Astrian chancellor , Kurt von Schuschnigg , was summoned to Berchtesgaden , Hitlers mountain retreat , to disuss Austro-German relations. The choice put to him was union or invasion, Schuschnigg agreed to appoint the Nazi, seyss-inquart , as Minister of the Interior with full control of the police as well as to give the Nazis complete freedom within Austria.Scgyscgbugg then made an agreement with Hitler that there should be a vote in Austria and see who wanted germany to be apart of Austria.
Hitler reacted quickly , he immiediatly moved the rechswehr to the austrian border, which was a very risky move , risking war so Schuschnigg resighned. Seyss-inquart took over as chancellor and immediately requested Nazi assistance to crush a so-called communist plot that he had discovered. on 12 martch 1938 , the german army moved into Austria and procalimed it apart of the German Reich . Anschluss had been effected and not a single shot had been fired. the vote was continued and 99,7% voted in favour of a anschluss.Hitler had once again broken the treaty of versailles, without any effective reaction from the league , Britian and france doing nothing.