Chapter 35:
On April 5th, Italy swallowed the small nation of Albania, but thanks to Nazi Germany drawing all of Europe's aggro, the event passed by unnoticed.
Britain and France used every means at their disposal, such as trade sanctions and warnings, to pressure Germany, cautioning that they would no longer tolerate any further territorial ambitions, but Hitler's response was extremely concise.
On April 28th, Hitler tore up the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact, which had been signed to resolve a trade war with Poland, and scrapped the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, a concession Britain had made to Germany despite criticism from France and Italy.
Hitler's message was clear: he would secure Danzig no matter what Britain and France did.
Around the same time, in the Soviet Union, Maxim Litvinov was dismissed from his post as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs (Foreign Minister) and replaced by Vyacheslav Molotov.
As summer began, Hitler started pressuring Poland to either hand over Danzig or choose war.
However, Poland, a nation that had participated in the dismemberment of its strategic ally Czechoslovakia just to snatch a small piece of territory like Cieszyn, had no intention of giving up its only access to the sea.
-
July 10, 1939