Why did Britain and France declare war on Germany?

• Lead up to creation of British-French guarantee of Poland, March 1939

  • After Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia, Britain and France believed that Hitler’s next move was to retake Poland
  • The Versailles Settlement established the Polish Corridor from German land
  • Poland cut Germany’s territory into two separate areas
  • The free city of Danzig lay in Poland
  • It had been made free in the Versailles Settlement
  • It used to be a German city and contained many Germans
  • Hitler had already demanded the return of Danzig
  • Hitler was expanding eastwards
  • Czechoslovakia bordered Poland
• British-French guarantee of Poland, March 1939- Britain and France

  • Britain and France abandoned the concept of appeasement by March 1939
  • They did not believe that Hitler would stop his aggressive foreign policy
  • Britain and France had made significant progress in rearmament
  • On 31st March 1939, Britain and France made a formal agreement with Poland
  • The two countries promised that they would protect Poland’s borders
• the Polish crisis and the outbreak of war

  • Hitler was surprised that Britain declared war because:
  • Britain and France had allowed Hitler to get away with similar invasions
  • Hitler believed he could negotiate with Britain
  • Hitler thought that, if he promised not to invade Britain and its colonies, Britain would allow Hitler to control Europe
  • Hitler believed that he had legitimate reasons to invade Poland
  • Germans lived in the Polish Corridor
  • Danzig was originally a German city
  • He did not think Britain was prepared for war

  
• Causes of WW2: TOV

  The harsh terms of the treaty caused significant political and economic issues in Germany. Lloyd George warned that the terms would cause a future conflict. The resentment for the treaty was one of the causes of the election of Hitler in 1933
• causes of WW2: Failures of LON 


  In the 1920s, the League of Nations had proven itself to be weak and ineffective. The League’s lack of action against the Manchurian and the Abyssinian Crises encouraged Hitler to take risks in his foreign policy. Britain and France favoured their own interests over the League’s
• causes of WW2: Hitler’s foreign policy

  Hitler’s aims were aggressive and expansionist. Ideas about Grossdeutchland and Lebensraum meant expanding eastwards into other countries. Hitler invested heavily in rearmament and the Luftwaffe. Possessing this much military power made war more likely
• causes of WW2: appeasement

  The policy gave Hitler Austria and the Sudetenland against their governments and the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler viewed Britain and France as weak. This encouraged him to make increasingly outrageous demands that would lead to war
• causes of WW2: Nazi-soviet pact

  The USSR had many reasons to avoid breaking the pact. As a result, Britain and France were weaker without the USSR. The pact gave Hitler the perfect conditions to invade Poland. He knew that, if his actions triggered a war, he would only fight this with Britain and France