Читать книгу The Danube Cycleway Volume 2. From Budapest to the Black Sea онлайн

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In Germany the effect was mostly economic, large reparation payments and inflation leading to national bankruptcy and political unrest. The Nazi party, led by Adolf Hitler, took advantage of this upheaval, taking power in Germany in 1933 with a policy that included overturning Versailles and expanding German territory. A referendum in Austria (1938) led to the Anschluss, political union between Germany and Austria under Nazi control. German invasions of Czechoslovakia and Poland led to the Second World War (1939–1945), with Hungary, seeking to regain territory lost in Trianon, joining the German-Austrian Axis. For a variety of local reasons, Romania, Bulgaria and the Croatian part of Yugoslavia also supported the Axis powers. The Germans invaded Yugoslavia (1941), where they met fierce resistance from communist partisans led by Josip Tito. After the failure of Germany’s attempt to invade Russia (1942), Russian forces slowly got the upper hand and pushed German forces and their allies back through central and south-eastern Europe.