Mainly Hitler wanted to quiet down the western European countries as not to repeat Germany's mistake in WWI - two war fronts. A means to an end.
Sir Winston Churchill denied him just that.
Rudolph Hess did not fly to Scotland because he was mad, as both sides claimed at the time. He flew there in an attempt at negotiating peace with the UK. Before the war both countries had a reciprocal admiration to some degree.
An interesting book on this subject is "The Hitler/Hess deception", from Martin Allen. I cannot vouch for the author's claims, but they do seem plausible.
When Hitler said "we need breathing room", he was thinking of Ukraine and its rich resources. After all he knew the concept of Geopolitics. And hence the Afrika Korps attempt at crossing the Suez, since things were starting to bog down as they draw closer to Stalingrad, the final gateway to his main goal.
And the reason why both contenders fought to last bullet, the last brick standing, for every yard that lead to the Volga.
Had Von Paulus crossed the Volga, the whole war in Europe would have had a very different outcome. USSR war machine would collapse due to loss of important industrial centres, and more importantly, due to loosing vital resources to the Germans. Oil, food, mineral resources. All things that would enable Germany to become fully autonomous -Geopolitics.
Which leads me to believe that if Hitler and Hess had succeeded in negotiating peace with the UK, Hitler would have easily bagged Ukraine. No waste of military resources in Western Europe and North Africa.
When the German forces invaded Poland in 1939, they cut "The Polish Corridor". It was called a corridor for a reason. Operation Barbarossa was the centrepiece of the whole thing.
And while we're at it, the German highways were built with the fast transfer of troops in mind.
It's all about resources, it always is.
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