Hitler did not of course wish to repeat the constellation of World War I and in this respect Britain was crucial. Hitler was firmly convinced that, unlike an export-directed strategy, which would lead inevitably into conflict with the global influence of the British Empire, his strategy of Continental expansion posed no fundamental threat to Britain, whose basic interests lay outside Europe. It was fundamental to his strategic conception in the 1920s and early 1930s that he would be able to secure a dominant position for Germany in Europe without coming into conflict with Britain.
