“Peaceful” Annexations - Third Reich - Britannica

Poland’s refusal

Shortly after the Munich settlement, Ribbentrop had opened yet another claim by suggesting that Poland should agree to the return of the free city of Danzig (Gdańsk) to the Reich and to the construction of a German extraterritorial road and railway across Polish Pomerania to link East Prussia with the rest of Germany (October 24, 1938). These demands were renewed in sharper terms after Prague. They met with an uncompromising refusal from the Polish government, and on March 31, 1939, the British government, which had abandoned its policy of appeasement after the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia, announced its guarantee to Poland in the event of any act of aggression.

Hitler’s immediate retort was to denounce on April 28 the German-Polish Nonaggression Pact of 1934 and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935. In May the understanding with Mussolini was converted into the public “Pact of Steel,” but Hitler’s attention was directed above all to Moscow, where the British and French were negotiating with the Russians to build up a common front of resistance to German aggression. The difficulties encountered in these talks encouraged Hitler to make a secret counterproposal. Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin agreed to a visit by Ribbentrop, and the Nazi-Soviet pact was signed in Moscow on the night of August 23–24. To the public pact of nonaggression was appended a secret treaty dividing the whole of eastern Europe into spheres of influence and partitioning Poland.

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Hitler was convinced that the signature of the Moscow pact would lead the British and French to withdraw their guarantees to Poland. When the British government replied with the signature of a pact of mutual assistance between Great Britain and Poland (August 25), Hitler attempted to avert British intervention through further negotiations. The British, however, refused to bring pressure to bear on the Poles, and on September 1 the German army invaded Poland. Two days later Great Britain and France, after delivering an ultimatum demanding the immediate withdrawal of the invading forces, declared war on Germany.