Storm from the East

"It will not be any European statesman who will unite Europe. Europe will be united by the Chinese" - Charles de Gaulle

Here is a map of the world in 1939:

(I have created a backstory, but am not going to explain it before hand. And I don't particularly care about butterflies for reasons previously discussed elsewhere on this board, but basically, if all timelines are possible, then some will exist where the butterfly effect is hardly noticeable despite radical differences in the past).

stormfromtheeast1939.png
 
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January 1939:

France announces plans to massively upgrade the Maginot Line.

Polish leader, Rydz-Smigly, despairing of a French offensive in the West in the event of war with Germany, begins secret negotiations Chancellor Goering of Germany.


February 1939:

2nd Polish-German non-aggression pact announced. Germany gains Danzig and extra-territorial railway to East Prussia. Secret protocols assign Poland a share of Czechoslovak territory to Poland (the Zaolzie region), territory in Lithuania, and in they event of war with the USSR, parts of the Ukraine. Other secret protocols give German support for Polish Promethian policy (Poland's long-standing policy of supporting national minorities in the USSR in order to undermine that country's Trotskyist regime).

Spanish-civil war: the last Republican outposts in Catalonia fall to the Nationalist forces of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera.


March 1939:

Germany demands Memel (Klapedia region) from Lithuania. Poland then issues a demand for a border region including the towns of Vilkaviskis and Lazdijal from Lithuania.

Lithuania concedes, but Germany and Poland proceed to occupy the country, facing virtually no resistance.

Madrid falls to Spanish nationalists. Spanish civil war ends. UK and France recognize the government of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera.


April 1939:

Britain offers guarantees to Romania, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Greece.
 
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May 1939:

Germany guarantees Estonia and Latvia against the USSR, establishing bases in these countries.


June 1939:

In a triumph of diplomacy for the Germany foreign minister, Adolf Hitler, Germany, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Spain, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia sign the Pact of Steel. An apparently defensive alliance directed against the Soviet Union.

A secret of agreement between Germany, Italy, Poland and Hungary, contains a joint alliance aimed at the Little Entente (Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romania).

Mussolini insists that the pact should be formally initiated by a meeting of the heads of state in Rome.


July 1939

Germany begins agitation to gain the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia.

The USSR tries to initiate talks with the Western allies, and even offers to join the Little Entente (so as to guarantee Czechoslovakia against Germany).

Headers of the Pact of Steel goverments meet in Rome.

Chancellor Goering's plane crashes in the Alps on the return flight from Rome.
 
August 1939:

Czechoslovakia suggests allowing the USSR to join the Little Entente. Britain and France oppose the idea. Romania demurs at providing access to Soviet troops. Little Entente splits in acrimony.

Adolf Hitler becomes leader of Germany. Heinrich Himmler disappears from public view (secretly arrested), Heydrich becomes head of police/SS. Albert Speer becomes economics & armaments minister.

Soviet leader, Trotksy initiates secret talks with Germany.

Germany, Poland and Hungary make the famous "7 demands" to Czechoslovakia, requiring territorial (based on the presence of German, Polish and Hungarian minorities in parts of Czechoslovakia) and economic concessions

France prepares to mobilize, and urges Britain to stand firm against Germany. British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain flies to Berlin to try to negotiate a settlement with Hitler.

As the world stands on the brink of war, US President Charles Lindbergh urges a negotiated solution, and warns that peaces painful compromises, and as "self-determination" for national minorities.
 
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