Key Terms

📖 Key Terms

Nazi-Soviet Pact (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, 23 August 1939)

A non-aggression treaty between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, signed by foreign ministers Molotov (USSR) and Ribbentrop (Germany). The public terms stated that Germany and the USSR would not attack each other for 10 years. A secret protocol divided Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence — Germany would take western Poland, the USSR would take eastern Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Secret Protocol

The hidden section of the Nazi-Soviet Pact that divided Eastern Europe between Germany and the USSR. Its existence was denied by the Soviet Union until 1989. The protocol meant the USSR actively benefited from Germany's invasion of Poland — on 17 September 1939, Soviet troops invaded Poland from the east, in coordination with the German invasion from the west.

Polish Corridor and Danzig

Hitler's stated justifications for invading Poland. The Polish Corridor was a strip of Polish territory that separated Germany from East Prussia (created by the Treaty of Versailles). Danzig (now Gdansk) was a German-speaking city made a "Free City" under League protection by Versailles. Hitler demanded both be returned to Germany. Poland refused. Britain and France had guaranteed Polish independence — and this time, they kept their word.

British guarantee to Poland (March 1939)

After Hitler seized the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Chamberlain announced that Britain would defend Poland's independence if it was threatened. France gave a similar guarantee. This was the formal abandonment of appeasement — but Hitler did not believe Britain would actually fight. His miscalculation of British resolve was the immediate trigger for war.

Two-front war

Hitler's greatest strategic fear — fighting enemies simultaneously on Germany's western border (France/Britain) and eastern border (USSR). Germany had nearly lost WW1 partly because of this problem. The Nazi-Soviet Pact solved it by neutralising the USSR, allowing Hitler to concentrate force against Poland and then Western Europe.