Britain and Danubian Europe in the Era of World War II, 1933-1941 (Britain and the World)

Description

This book is a study of British official attitudes towards the Danubian countries (Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia) from Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 to the year 1941, a period that marked serious but fruitless British political and economic efforts to unite this unruly part of Europe against Nazi ascendancy. Set against an international backdrop of regional revanchist, revisionist and irredentist tendencies, particularly in Hungary and Bulgaria, the book explores how these movements affected international relations in the region as they aimed to overturn the territorial order set down in Versailles following the Great War to restore the status quo of a more glorious national past. Offering fresh insights into the British-East Central and South East European relationship, the book charts the shifts in British official policy towards Danubian Europe, amidst competing regional nationalisms and the sudden and abrupt shifts in British global priorities during the early part of World War II. Foreword Acknowledgements Contents Abbreviations List of Maps 1 Introduction 2 Britain and Interwar Danubian Europe, 1933–1938 2.1 Locarno, the Great Depression and the British Strategy of European Concert of Powers 2.2 The Impact of the Rise of the Nazis to Power on British Danubian Strategy 2.3 Hungary Raises the Problem of Frontier Revision Internationally 2.4 The Collapse of Great Power Concert in Europe, 1935–March 1936 2.5 ‘We Cannot, Disinterest Ourselves in the Course of Events’, the Rhineland Crisis and Its Effects on British Strategy105 3 The Czechoslovak Crisis and British Danubian Strategy, 1938–1939 3.1 The Impact of the Anschluss on British Danubian Strategy 3.2 Active Appeasement and the Problem of Danubian Europe 3.3 The Hungarian, Romanian and Bulgarian Angles of the Munich Agreement 3.4 The British Reaction to the First Vienna Award 3.5 From the Policy of Appeasement to the Strategy of Confrontation 3.6 Hungary Occupies Ruthenia; The British Guarantee of Poland and Romania 4 Illusions and Disappointments: Britain and Danubian Europe in the ‘Phoney War’ 4.1 The Balkan Peace Front Before the War: Neutrality or the Encirclement of Germany? 4.2 Hungary and the Peace Front: Victim or a German Trojan Horse? 4.2.1 British Military Strategy in Europe at the Outbreak of War 4.2.2 The Nazi-Soviet Pact and the Transformation of British Strategy from Peace to War 4.2.3 The Shifting Priorities of Britain After the Outbreak of War 4.2.4 The Hungarian Enigma in the Phoney War 4.3 Hungary, Bulgaria and the Neutral Bloc in the ‘Phoney War’ 4.3.1 Britain in the Maze of Hungarian Territorial Demands 5 Contemplating Alternatives: Britain and Danubian Europe Between War and Peace, March 1940–April 1941 5.1 Hungary Grants Military Passage to Germany 5.2 The Impact of the Hungarian droit de passage on British Strategy 5.3 Shifts in British Danubian and Balkan Strategy After the Fall of France, and the Problem of Transylvania 5.4 British Reaction to the Second Vienna Award 5.5 The Origins of British Post-war Planning 5.6 British Strategy in the Balkans in Late 1940, and the Hungarian-Yugoslav Relationship 5.7 Germany and Hungary Turns Their Attention Southwards Conclusion Select Bibliography Index