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Originally Posted by Dreadnought
No, Hitler's invasion of Poland was an economic necessity for him. Germany was critically short of foriegn currency at that point, and German expansionism was dictated largely by economic need (additional currency, raw materials, ect). Without conquest, Germany couldn't keep up its spending for very long, and the overheating economy would have collapsed long before 1944-45.
Agreed he needed money and resources to power the ever growing war machine he created. But from what I have read he didnt want to go to war with England until his ultimate Navy was ready. The invasion of Poland completely changed this as Englad declared war. Thank God he didnt get the time to build it. However the amount of subs Germany had made operational during those years was staggering and they extracted a very large toll on the Brits and Allies men and supplies. Just think of how much equipment still to this day sits at the bottom from convoy attacks by subs,raiders,planes.
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Actually, I saw a program on the Axis which claimed that Hitler's original idea for a partnership was with Italy and Britian. Germany would take mainland Europe, Italy the Med, and Britian would keep control of it's colonies.
Japan was instead sought out and procurred as an ally as a plan b for what alliance Hitler had really wanted. And as far as the apparent lack of trust, might be due at least in part to the Japanese possibly reading and hearing master race propaganda. And maybe knowing they'd be as secure with their treaties as Russia was.