Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Preface
- Map
- 1 Introduction: Baltic security problems between the two World Wars
- 2 Great Britain and the Baltic in the last months of peace, March–August 1939
- 3 Nazi German policy towards the Baltic states on the eve of the Second World War
- 4 The role of Danzig in Polish–German relations on the eve of the Second World War
- 5 Great Britain, the Soviet Union and Finland at the beginning of the Second World War
- 6 The attitude of the Scandinavian countries to Nazi Germany's war preparations and its aggression on Poland
- 7 The Soviet occupation of Poland through British eyes
- 8 The meeting of the Lithuanian Cabinet, 15 June 1940
- Index
2 - Great Britain and the Baltic in the last months of peace, March–August 1939
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Preface
- Map
- 1 Introduction: Baltic security problems between the two World Wars
- 2 Great Britain and the Baltic in the last months of peace, March–August 1939
- 3 Nazi German policy towards the Baltic states on the eve of the Second World War
- 4 The role of Danzig in Polish–German relations on the eve of the Second World War
- 5 Great Britain, the Soviet Union and Finland at the beginning of the Second World War
- 6 The attitude of the Scandinavian countries to Nazi Germany's war preparations and its aggression on Poland
- 7 The Soviet occupation of Poland through British eyes
- 8 The meeting of the Lithuanian Cabinet, 15 June 1940
- Index
Summary
If the breaking of the Munich Treaty by Hitler in March 1939 meant the failure of Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy, then the basic problem that emerges is whether the failure of the Munich policy changed anything and, if so, why it meant a change of British policy in the Baltic Sea region. This problem is the major concern of this chapter.
The last months of the existence of Versailles Europe were extremely difficult for British diplomacy. During this period the diplomacy of the United Kingdom was forced more than ever to undertake efforts to secure the highest interests of the state. These were described in an extract from a Foreign Office memorandum of 1926: ‘We have all we want – and maybe even more. Our only goal is to maintain what we have and to live in peace.’ The basic aim of British policy therefore remained the desire to maintain the integrity of the metropolis and the Empire. Thus British interests concerning the Baltic Sea region were determined by its level of importance for the achievement of the goal expressed in the memorandum of 1926.
From the beginning of the twenties until spring 1939 the Baltic Sea region was not a focus of British Government activity. In trying to determine the basis of the relations between Great Britain and the Baltic region in that period it is necessary to consider mainly the economic sphere.
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- Information
- The Baltic and the Outbreak of the Second World War , pp. 21 - 49Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992
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