[predavolk]

Originally Posted by Randomizer

Hitler was a Napoleon fanboy and the highlight of his 1940 trip to Paris was visiting Bonie's tomb. He also visited the Waterloo battlefield during the 1940 campaign in the West.
From the earliest days of the Party, the "Drive to the East" was an integral part of Nazi strategy. Bolshevism had to be destroyed and that meant attacking the Soviet Union; National Socialism could not co-exist with Communism. That was the historical role that Hitler cast for the Third Reich, it overshadowed almost every other consideration, at least until after Kursk. See Allan Bullock Hitler and Nial Ferguson The War of the World.
Good Hunting

Be that as it may, it wouldn't make sense for him to be deterred by the very (relatively) modest task of subduing a semi-friendly, weak Spain versus the logistical nightmare (as demonstrated by Bonie) that would be an attack on the Soviet Union (I say Russia as it was the ultimate target). I absolutely believe it was well within the Wermacht's ability to take Spain. They took far more space in the USSR, in front of equall or greater opposition, in the space of a few months. And the following weather conditions would have been far more favourable.

And it wouldn't have lengthened his defensive line as it would've removed the entire Med, which is were Germany was ultimately first attacked by the Allies (in North Africa, and then through the soft underbelly of Italy!).

But again, perhaps Hitler was too mesmerized with the Soviet Union to consider his own long-term logistic goals.