Which Of The Following Did More To Enable The Invasion Of Poland? The Nazi-soviet Pact Or British And French Appeasement

Which of the following did more to enable the invasion of Poland? (10marks)

The Nazi-Soviet Pact or British and French Appeasement

The Nazi-Soviet Pact did more than the Anglo-French appeasement to enable the invasion of Poland.

The Nazi-Soviet Pact was the most important factor for enabling the invasion of Poland. Although right through to the middle of August, Stalin continued to keep both sides open, the slow pace of the military discussions with Britain and France seems to have convinced Stalin that an agreement with Hitler would be preferable.The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed between USSR and Germany on 23rd of August 1939 as Hitler needed a pact of neutrality with USSR to avoid a war on two fronts(Russia-on the East front and Britain and France on the West). The Pact consisted the fact that the two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years. The Nazi-Soviet Pact enabled the Invasion of Poland because not only did it commit Germany and USSR to benevolent neutrality towards each other, but in a secret protocol it outlined the German and Soviet spheres of interest in Eastern Europe: the Baltic states and Bessarabia in Romania fell within the Soviet sphere, while Poland was to be divided between the two. The Pact also provided for substantial sales of oil and grain to Germany which were key to Germany s war machine. By neutralising the USSR, the pact made an attack on Poland a much less risky policy for Hitler, even if Britain and France did try to come to its rescue. Without the supplies coming from the USSR, Germany may have been disadvantaged due to a lack of colonies and labour. The Pact was therefore the most significant reason for Poland s invasion as it enhanced Hitler s confidence to attack Poland being ensured of the USSR s neutrality, it provided Germany with the valuable supplies for their military actions and it did make a German attack on Poland almost inevitable.

Anglo-French appeasement was less important than the Nazi-Soviet Pact, but it still contributed to the invasion of Poland. Appeasement during the 1930 s, was essentially a traditional British policy to avoid damaging conflict between countries in order to not repeat the previous mistakes of ww1 taking in consideration its catastrophic impacts on all countries economies. In November 1937 Chamberlain launched a major initiative aimed at achieving settlement with Hitler to divert German expansion in Eastern Europe by offering to return African colonies to Germany. This is when Chamberlain won over the French to this policy but unfortunately instead of aiming to maintain peace, this form of appeasement only emboldened Hitler to invade territories essentially leading to World Two, -despite the Treaty of Versailles-Britain and France allowed him to build a military capable of fighting a major war, hoping he would leave them alone if they left him alone. Another example of appeasement was Anschluss-the uniting of Germany and Austria into a Greater Germany. It was also an idea which was prohibited by the Treaty of Versailles and Hitler had attempted Anschluss once before in 1934, but with a weak military force and the opposition of Mussolini, Hitler found that he could not achieve his aims. However, in 1938, the situation had changed significantly as Hitler s military forces were much stronger and battle hardened and Italy was also not a problem as Hitler and Mussolini had signed the Anti-Comintern Pact in 1937. Hitler used the Austrian Nazi party to cause trouble in Austria with marches, rallies and riots all demanding unity with Germany. Whilst the local Nazis did this, Hitler applied pressure to the Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg that Anschluss was the only option for Austria. Schuschnigg was unsure so appealed to Britain and France who ignored his requests and made clear that they did not oppose German unity with Austria. In the face of this Schuschnigg held a plebiscite to ask the Austrian people to solve the matter. Hitler used the plebiscite to his advantage and sent German soldiers to Austria to oversee the vote. This was supposed to ensure a free and fair vote, but in practice was a method of intimidation. The vote passed with 99.75% of people voting for unity with Austria. Anschluss enabled the invasion of Poland as the lack of intervention from Britain and France led to success in Austria which meant that Hitler s confidence increased more and more. It also showed that Britain and France would not intervene to stop the Treaty of Versailles being overturned, which boosted Hitler s confidence to achieve his aggressive aims. Next came the Sudeten crisis where Hitler intended to exploit Sudeten demands for independence to smash Czechoslovakia. Fearing war, Chamberlain negotiated the Munich agreement with Hitler in which Sudetenland was ceded to Germany and the rest of Czechoslovakia was guaranteed by Britain, France, Italy and Germany on 29th September. Chamberlain hoped to avoid a war over Czechoslovakia by conceding to Adolf Hitler s demands and he promised it would bring peace in our time . However, In March 1939, Germany occupied Prague and marked the total failure of appeasement policy. Therefore appeasement brought closer to the invasion of Poland as it led to Hitler deciding that Britain and France were afraid of him and would not step on to stop him, no matter what. Hitler said: Our enemies are little worms, I saw them at Munich .

To conclude, the Nazi-Soviet Pact was more important than British-French appeasement to enable the invasion of Poland. Although appeasement exacerbated Hitler s aggression because of the freedoms he had (Anschluss, Munich agreement, colonies being offered), the war only came a year later, when USSR signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact, as this offered Hitler a non-aggression pact, which stated that Germany would not attack the USSR and that the two countries would remain neutral if attacked by external forces. The Nazi-Soviet Pact paved the way for Hitler to invade Poland as this way he avoided the threat of a major two-front war. Without the Pact, it is possible that there might have not been a world war over Poland as Hitler would have had to fight a two front war and he wouldn t have been able to recover his nerve so quickly. Therefore, the Nazi-Soviet Pact did more to enable the invasion of Poland even though Britain and France s appeasement policy also contribute.