ON THIS DAY ·
Pact of Steel
22 May 1939 — Germany and Italy sign a full military alliance in Rome. Mussolini privately warns he cannot fight before 1943; Hitler is planning for that September.
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The moment in context
Germany occupied Prague in March 1939, and the act was different in kind from everything before it. This was not the revision of a German-populated border but the outright seizure of a non-German state, which destroyed the claim that German policy sought only self-determination. Britain answered by guaranteeing Poland, even though it could not send an army there in time to matter. Italy, taking its cue, seized Albania and joined Germany in the Pact of Steel.
From Outbreak of WW2 in Europe, chapter 8 of The Road to War, 1931–1941 (1939).
The place: Pact of Steel — map and full story →
Teach this in 5 minutes
- Why it happened — Prague converted the doubters. Every previous gamble had worn a costume of justice — plebiscites, minorities, treaty grievances. March 1939 came undressed. British opinion, press…
- The turn — The Kremlin, 23 August 1939. Ideology said this handshake was impossible — which is exactly what made it the hinge of the year. The pact did three things at once: it made the…
- What it changed — Eastern Europe is partitioned by annex. The protocol’s spheres became facts within a year: eastern Poland absorbed after a staged plebiscite, the Baltic states garrisoned then annexed…
Then ask the room: Should Britain and France have guaranteed Poland — a promise they could not keep — or was the guarantee the necessary end of appeasement? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
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