Why did Poland take part of Czechoslovakia after Munich?

Question

Why did they refuse Soviet help? Why did they think they could defeat Germany in the East on their own? Why did they send horses against the panzers? Why did they invade Russia in 1920?

Answer 1

The plebescite process set up byt the League of Nations for redrawing the map of Eastern Europe was very inefficient, and so not everyone was happy with what the end result was. After that, the political process in Eastern Europe was very difficult as well. In many ways, this is still the case in the Balkans, where each country likes to think they should be the same size today as they were when at their national zenith, whenever that might have been.

Prior to the reign of Catherine the Great in Russia, the Union of Poland and Lithuania has stretched all the way from the Vistula River to beyond Kieve in Ukraine. As stated above, the Poles felt that the peoples of ByeloRussia were thus part of their heritage, and they thought they should liberate them and reunite with them.

In the mid 1930's, after France had made anti-Germany alliances with all of the new Eastern European countries to make up for the loss of Russia to Bolshevism, all of these countries (like England and France at the time) felt that Russia was more dangerous, so all of them including Poland made non-aggression pacts with Hitler. In 1939, Poland had received assurances from Chamberlain in England that if Germany invaded, England and France would declare war in solidarity. While England and France did declare war, the French military still felt that Russia was more of a threat, and thought that if Germany were to be bordered with Russia that the two would quickly go to war and wipe each other out. It did not work out as they hoped, France was instead destroyed first.

And, finally, the Poles did not charge Panzers with Lancers, that is a popular myth and you can find where I answered that earlier.

Answer 2

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