The Twilight of French Eastern Alliances, 1926-1936: French-Czechoslovak-Polish Relations from Locarno to the Remilitarization of the Rhineland PDF
Preview The Twilight of French Eastern Alliances, 1926-1936: French-Czechoslovak-Polish Relations from Locarno to the Remilitarization of the Rhineland
Piotr S. Wandycz The Twilight of French Eastern Alliances, 1926—1936 French-Czechoslouak-Polish Relations from Locarno to the Remilitarization of the Rhineland PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS Princeton, New Jersey Copyright © 1988 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Guildford, Surrey Ail Rights Reserved This book has been composed in Linotron Sabon Clothbound edition of Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. Paperbacks, although satisfactory for personal collections, are not usually suitable for library rebinding Printed in the United States of America by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wandycz, Piotr Stefan. The twilight of French eastern alliances, 1926—1936 : French-Czechoslovak- Polish relations from Locarno to the remilitarization of the Rhineland / Piotr S. Wandycz. p. cm. “Sequel to .. . France and her eastern allies, 1919—1925“—Pref. Bibliography: p. Includes index. ISBN o—691—05528—9 (alk. paper) I. France—Foreign relations—1914—1940. 2. France—Foreign relations— Czechoslovakia. 3. Czechoslovakia—Foreign relations—France. 4. France— Foreign relations—Poland. 5. Poland—Foreign relations—France. 6. Europe—Politics and government—1918-1945.1. Wandycz, Piotr Stefan. France and her eastern allies, 1919-1925. II. Title. DC394.W36 1988 327.440437—dci9 88-5789 C1P For Kasia, Joanna, and Antoni Contents Preface / xi Abbreviations/XV Background: The French System/ 3 / Part One. Post-Locarno Diplomacy 1 Chapter 1. The Shadow of Locarno /19 The Powers/19 The Eastern Allies ! 29 Geneva, Berlin, Prague / 3 6 Chapter 2. The Turbulent Year 1926 / 47 Piłsudski"s Coup d’Etati 47 Crisis in Prague, Union Nationale in Paris l 56 Thoiry and Its Repercussions 163 Chapter 3. Eastern or Central European Locarno/73 Polish Diplomatic Offensive!73 Polish Advances and Czechoslovak Reserve! 82 A Stalemate ! 91 Chapter 4. Toward the Evacuation of the Rhineland /106 Continuing Frustrations: Zaleski in Rome! 106 Elusive Pursuits: Beneš in Berlin /113 Polish Moves Snubbed ! 120 Chapter 5. The End of an Era /13 3 Moves and Countermoves in Central Europe! 133 Renewed Polish Efforts: The Hague Conference! 140 The Aftermath of The Hague! 148 An Overview! 156 viii Contents Part Two. The Depression Chapter 6. Revisionism and Briand’s European Union /163 Rhineland Evacuated !163 Briand’s European Union ! 170 Revisionism RampantÍ178 Chapter 7. Austro-German Union and Financial Diplomacy /192. The Curtius—Schober Project 1192 Political Moratorium and the Soviet Angle! 103 Annus Terribilis / 2,11 Chapter 8. French Initiatives and Failures / 222 Plan Tardieu ! 222 French-Polish Malaise! 229 Gleichberechtigung! 238 An Overview ! 252 Part Three. Responses to Hitler Chapter 9. A Dilemma: The Four Power Pact / 259 Disarmament or Preventive Warf ! 259 The Four Power Pact! 273 Fiopes Deceived ! 290 Chapter 10. At Crossroads, the German-Polish Declaration of Nonaggression / 300 Alternatives! 300 An Intermezzo ! 315 The Declaration of z6 January 1934! 324 Chapter 11. Louis Barthou and His Diplomacy/336 Beginnings ! 3 3 6 In Warsaw and Prague ! 347 The Eastern Pact ! 35 6 Chapter 12. Fronts or Façades? / 371 Laval’s First Steps 1371 Toward the Stresa Front! 381 Paris, Moscow, Prague!395 Chapter 13. The Test of 7 March/410 ; The Impact of the Ethiopian Crisis ! 410 ^ Hodža Plan and the Ratification of the Franco-Soviet Treaty ! 422 Contents ix Remilitarization of the Rhineland / 431 ' The Epilogue /445 Appraisal: A Pattern of Relations / 448 Appendices/47t? Bibliography /491 Index / 523 Preface Ecartée de l’Europe centrale, la France resterait-elle nue grande puissance? Victor de Lacroix to Delbos, 17 July, 1936 This book is chronologically a long-delayed sequel to my France and Her Eastern Allies 1919-1925 {Minneapolis, r962). The delay proved a bless ing in many respects, for during the last two decades the French archives were made available for research as were several Polish collections scat tered around the world. In contrast to my previous, somewhat pioneering efforts, I was confronted this time with an over abundance of sources, cer tain important gaps notwithstanding. The past twenty years have seen a significant extension of our knowl edge of European diplomacy in the 1920s and early 1930s. A “new inter national history” has appeared utilizing the freshly opened archives and seeking a more integrated approach to the study of diplomacy. Several valuable monographs and specialized articles on France and East Central Europe have been published; however, no comprehensive treatment of the French “system” has appeared. The present work concentrates on France, Poland and Czechoslovakia (and deals only tangentially with the Little Entente). In addition to consid ering bilateral relationships, 1 have attempted to place the political, mili tary and economic intercourse between the three states within the chang ing international context. In the course of my research, many questions had to be faced. To what extent can one speak of an integrated French system of eastern alliances? Was such a combination one of the main op tions for the preservation of peace and status quo in interwar Europe? How was it conceived by the three main partners? Did the interaction between Paris on the one hand, and Warsaw and Prague on the other, represent a paradigm of a great power-smallcr states relationship that transcends the 1920s and 1930s? Does the story throw a light on the West- East rapports in general? An investigation of events during the decade after Locarno appeared particularly useful in providing an understanding of the eventual disinte xii Preface gration of the French eastern alliances. Both December 1925, the date of the finalization of the Locarno pact, and March 1936 stand out as mile stones of a process that culminated with the Anschluss, the Munich con ference, and the invasion of Poland. Whereas these latter events have been extensively examined in many works, the former has not. To mention but one glaring gap, there is still no monograph on Locarno. My research and writing would have been impossible without the gen erous support of several institutions and many individuals. Two years spent in Poland, Czechoslovakia, France, and Britain—1972-73 under the International Research and Exchanges Board program and 1977-78 as a Guggenheim Fellow—allowed me to do most of my research in European archives. Grants from the American Philosophical Society and the Hoover Institution in 1980 enabled me to do research in Stanford; a grant of the American Council of Learned Societies in 1982 gave me another oppor tunity to complete work in European archives. I acknowledge all this as sistance with gratitude. The Griswold Committee of the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale provided a generous stipend for the typing of this manuscript for which I am grateful. Many friends and colleagues have assisted me in various ways, and I wish I could enumerate them all. Among those Czechoslovak historians who went out of their way to make my stay in their country fruitful and intellectually rewarding, Jaroslav Valenta and Zdeněk Sládek (and his wife) deserve special thanks. Colleagues and friends in France who pa tiently answered my numerous requests include Bernard Michel, Georges Mond, Zbigniew Rapacki, Henry Rollet, and Georges-Henri Soutou. I am obliged to Colonel Henry Fournier-Foch for copies of documents from Marshal Foch papers, now at Chateau de Vincennes. I would like to thank René Massigli, Ambassadeur de France, for permission to use his papers at the Quai d’Orsay. I am grateful to Jerzy Łukaszewski, rector of the Col lege d’Europe in Bruges, who kindly located some documents for me in the Belgian Archives, and to Peter Krüger, who did the same in the Bundesar chiv. Alice Teichová graciously answered several of my queries. Among Polish historians, Henryk Bułhak kept me au courant of latest Polish pub lications, while Zbigniew Landau and Jerzy Tomaszewski were particu larly helpful with regard to my research on economic issues. When visiting Poland I profited from conversations and discussions with many diplo matic historians. Let me mention only Henryk Batowski, Tadeusz Jędrusz- czak, Michał Pułaski Alina Szklarska-Lohmannowa, and Marian Zgór- niak. I am most grateful to several former Polish diplomats whom I consulted, particularly Count Edward Raczyński. I owe a special debt to Wacław Jędrzejewicz, a soldier and politician of interwar Poland, its historian in
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