Wikipedia

Third Europe

A "Third Europe" was the 1938 proposal of an alliance between the Second Polish Republic, the Kingdom of Romania, and the Kingdom of Hungary. It was proposed by Polish foreign minister Józef Beck, as a mutual defense pact against both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

Third Europe
Trzecia Europa (Polish)
A Treia Europa (Romanian)
Harmadik Európa (Hungarian)
FormationN/A
TypeProposed alliance
Legal statusNot accepted
PurposeStop expansion of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union
Location
Region
Eastern Europe
Official language
Polish, Romanian, and Hungarian
Key people
Józef Beck

History

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Intermarium

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Main article: Intermarium

After the end of the First World War, Polish prime minister Józef Piłsudski proposed the Intermarium (lit. Between-Seas), a country that would include the Baltic states, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, and Yugoslavia. The country was meant to be a Federation that emulated the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which had dissolved in 1795. Pilsudki also hoped that the plan could stop the aggression of the newly formed Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic by keeping it out of Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine.[1][2][3]

Pilsudski's next proposal was without Ukraine or Belarus, but with the addition of Finland, Bulgaria, and Greece. This Intermarium would not only stretch from the Baltic to the Black Seas, but also from the Arctic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea.[4] This plan also failed, as Poland was distrusted by Czechoslovakia and Lithuania. While Poland had good relations with some other countries, it had tensions with its neighbors rendering such a union impossible. Only a Polish-Romanian alliance emerged from the proposal, being established in 1921.[5] In 1920, along with Yugoslavia and Romania, Czechoslovakia formed the Little Entente, which was supported by France.[6]

Beck's proposal

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Following Pilsudski's death in 1935, Polish Foreign Minister Józef Beck decided to create a plan for his own union between nations. He called his plan "Third Europe," an alliance between Poland, Romania, and Hungary. Beck hoped that the plan would prevent aggression by both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.[3] Beck also hoped that the plan could allow him to become closer with the United Kingdom, as well as establish cooperation with Japan and Türkiye, among other powers. The concept became very prominent in the tense prewar years of 1937–1939.[3] As observed by Marek Kornat, the principal of the Third Europe plan would be hard to reconstruct, as it was never implemented, and as Beck never gave an in-depth explanation of its principals.[7]

The proposal gained little traction before the onset of the Second World War due to the influence of Nazi Germany. Germany was the world's second largest economy (behind the United States) and the third most populous in Europe (behind the UK and France).[8] Germany had much more influence over Eastern Europe than either of the latter two powers due to its proximity to the region. Countries in Eastern Europe felt more inclined to follow Berlin's lead rather than Warsaw.[9]

Reactions

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Poland

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By 1939, the Polish government became divided about what to do amidst the Danzig Crisis, fearing an invasion by Nazi Germany. Beck said he was willing to accept a joint German–Polish condominium over Danzig (Now Gdańsk) in return German support of the Third Europe concept.[10] Many Europeans, however, became distrustful the Sanacja regime, and thus did not approve of Beck's proposal.[11] Beck’s fears would become realized with both the German and Soviet invasions of Poland, beginning the Second World War.[12][13]

Romania

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Romania had an interest in securing its borders from Soviet aggression and expansion, however it also suffered from bad relations with Hungary. The two had long been in territorial disputes over the Transylvania region, which did not end after Hungary pulled out of the region following World War I. Romania pursued a national defense strategy, hoping to avoid annexation and conflict with both the Soviets and Hungary.[14]

Hungary

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Hungary was more inclined to be in favor of the proposal, due to both it and Poland having territorial claims in Czechoslovakia. Hungary hoped to revise the Treaty of Trianon, which granted "Hungarian territory" to Czechoslovakia.[15] Hungary saw it as a chance to enable Hungary to remain independent from Germany, which was rapidly expanding through Central Europe. Hungary's participation in Beck's plan was more driven by opportunism more than ideological alignment.[16]

Italy

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Despite Italy being a part of the Rome-Berlin Axis and being an ally with Germany, they still supported the idea of a Third Europe. Many Italian officials called it a "Horizontal Axis," including foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano. Ciano was apprehensive about German influence in Southeastern Europe, a region he believed should be under Italian influence. He hoped that Germany's Anschluss would quell Hitler's expansionism, and although it was contrary to Italy's interests, Ciano still sought to build a bloc in Eastern Europe that was supported by Italy. "When Vienna becomes the second German capital," Ciano said to Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, "Budapest should be ours."[16]

References

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  1. ^ Andrzej Paczkowski, The Spring Will Be Ours: Poland and the Poles from Occupation to Freedom, Penn State Press, 2003, ISBN 0-271-02308-2, p. 10
  2. ^ Roman, Wanda Krystyna (2003). Działalność niepodległościowa żołnierzy polskich na Litwie i Wileńszczyźnie. Polska: Naukowe Wydawn. Piotrkowskie. p. 23. ISBN 978-83-88865-08-4. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Ištok, Robert; Koziak, Tomáš (2009). "Międzymorze as a Polish Geopolitical Concept". Folia Geographica (14). Prešov.
  4. ^ Tadeusz Marczak, Międzymorze wczoraj i dziś Archived 2009-03-03 at the Wayback Machine [Międzymorze Yesterday and Today], a Polish-language version of the paper, Myezhdumorye vchera i syevodnia [Międzymorze Yesterday and Today], published in Беларусь — Польша: путь к сотрудничеству (Belarus and Poland: the Path toward Cooperation. Materials of an International Scholarly Conference), Minsk, Belarus, 2005.
  5. ^ Hugh Ragsdale, The Soviets, the Munich Crisis, and the Coming of World War II, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge ISBN 0-521-83030-3
  6. ^ Text in League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 13, pp. 232-235.
  7. ^ Kornat 2008.
  8. ^ Greenwood, Sean (2002). "Danzig: the phantom crisis, 1939". In Gordon Martel (ed.). Origins of the Second World War Reconsidered A.J.P. Taylor and the Historians. London: Taylor & Francis. p. 227. ISBN 9781134714186.
  9. ^ Greenwood 2002, p. 227.
  10. ^ Weinberg 1980, p. 193.
  11. ^ Cienciala 1999, p. 58.
  12. ^ "The Invasion of Poland". The National WWII Museum | New Orleans. 2023-10-17. Retrieved 2024-10-14.
  13. ^ Watt 1998, pp. 425, 430–431: "In the end, the Western Allies did nothing to aid the Poles militarily. There were no bombing raids, and there was no massive assault on the Siegfried Line. The pitifully small offensive that the French had conducted on the Saar River was exaggerated by the French and used to salve their own consciences."
  14. ^ "Romania's Disaster at Stalingrad". Warfare History Network. 2020-11-07. Retrieved 2024-10-14.
  15. ^ Putz, Orsolya (2019) Metaphor and National Identity: Alternative conceptualization of the Treaty of Trianon. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
  16. ^ a b Winchester, Betty Jo (1973). "Hungary and the "Third Europe" in 1938". Slavic Review. 32 (4): 741–756. doi:10.2307/2495494. ISSN 0037-6779.

Bibliography

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  • Cienciala, Anna (1999). Igor Lukes and Erik Goldstein (ed.). The Munich crisis of 1938: Plans and Strategy in Warsaw in the context of Wester appeasement of Germany. London: Frank Cass. pp. 48–81.
  • Greenwood, Sean (2002). "Danzig: the phantom crisis, 1939". In Gordon Martel (ed.). Origins of the Second World War Reconsidered A.J.P. Taylor and the Historians. London: Taylor & Francis. p. 227. ISBN 9781134714186.
  • Kornat, M. (2008): Realna koncepcja czy wizja ex post? Polska idea „Trzeciej Europy” (1937–1938). Online: http://politologia.wsb-nlu.edu.pl [28.11.2008].
  • Watt, Richard (1998). Bitter Glory Poland and its Fate (third ed.). Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0781806739.
  • Weinberg, Gerhard (1980). The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany Volume 2 Starting World War Two 1937-1939. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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