You're spot on, but it actually didn't start with the Nazis; Hitler just adopted it as part of his foreign policy (I believe he even writes about it in Mein Kam

You're spot on, but it actually didn't start with the Nazis; Hitler just adopted it as part of his foreign policy (I believe he even writes about it in Mein Kampf although I haven't looked it up). The official name for this philosophy is Lebensraum [1] and it's widely recognized as having started in the late 19th century, decades before WWI errupted, when Germany had a growth spurt and started to feel the pain of over population. However, how much Lebensraum had to do with the first war is unclear, since the Princip/Ferdinand situation was the huge spark that started it. That said, there was a whole plan assembled during WWI based on it called Septemberprogramm [2] with the goal of expanding German territory for resources. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensraum https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensraum [2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septemberprogramm https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septemberprogramm