Why did England and France declare war on Germany in 1939?

Question

And not the USSR and Germany? The USSR invaded Poland at the same time. Churchill wanted to declare war on them both.

By spring 1940, Germany had taken over Austria, Checkloslovakia, and Poland.

By 1940, the USSR was fighting Finland, took over Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. and siezed a large part of Poland.

Again, what was the reason for the free world attacking Germany? Germany seems to me the lesser of two evils given that their the two countries' civilian terror was about the same.

Answer 1

Yes but they hated the Nazis more overall and had treaties with Poland and the Nazi propaganda machine was also part of its undoing. The Soviets did NOT use the propaganda the same way.

Also I think more were worried about Germany because of WWI and not Russia. Most of what Stalin was and did was unknown to the world until much later. Hitler was hated more at the time. He was the more evil of two evils I suppose.

imagine if they had joined with germany against russia as hitler dreamed!!

(I still say it was because they feared Hitler more and not Stalin and thought they could control Stalin and they were wrong!)

Answer 2

England and France had an agreement with Poland that they would come to her defense should ANY nation invade. Germany did - France and England lived up to their bargain. There were, and are, such agreements all over the place, i.e. NATO.
Germany the lesser of two evils??? PLEASE.... They started the whole damn thing. And that b*stard Hitler sent little boys out into the streets with wooden rifles to "defend" Berlin.
The German government, military machine and Hitler are responsible for the horrific civilian terror suffered by the Germans.
At least we (the Allies) spent the first 3/4 of the War targeting industrial sites only. The Germans blitzed London on purpose before we even entered the War. Their purpose was to terrify the civilians. Didn't work, did it?
German aggression was the reason there was a War. How many millions, mostly civilians, died as a resullt? What are they teaching you over there?

Answer 3

Britain and France had specifically warned Germany that enough was enough after Hitler had absorbed all of Czechoslovakia. They were diplomatically obliged to back up their promise to fight if Poland was violated as it was on September 1st, 1939. It was fairly clear at the time that Germany was the main aggressor, and Stalin's USSR was just following on Hitler's coat tails.
[It's amazing to me how many American students think WWII started on December 7th, 1941.]
Added note - Slovakia was already in the Nazi sphere of influence when some Slovaks participated in the invasion of Poland. Other satellite countries provided troops when Hitler invaded Russia on June 22nd, 1941 - - including a French division made up of anti-communist Frenchmen. By June 1941, most of France had been under Nazi control for almost a year. There were some Frenchmen who approved of Hitler.
Extra note - - Churchill did not like Stalin or communism one bit - but the old saying is "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", so Churchill was willing to be an ally of the USSR realizing that Russian men would be doing the bulk of the fighting and dieing which is exactly what happened during WWII. British (and also American) losses were relatively small compared with the losses among the Russian people - soldier and civilian alike.

Answer 4

Interesting point.
Germany seized both Austria and Czechoslovakia between 1938 and 39.
In Munich, both England and France delivered Czechoslovakia to Hitler, it seems hoping that Hitler would stop there.
But Hitler seized three basic things: The Czech money, of course, the beer factories ( Czechoslovakia consumes more beer than Germany ) and the ammunition factory Skoda, one of the biggest in Europe.
After alfie felt prepared, he invaded Poland, which was under a protection agreement with England and France.
Then, the prime minister Chamberlain gave Churchill the hot potato and resigned.
England, then, declared war to Germany.

No. Germany was much more aggressive and dangerous than Russia. Old Stalin advanced slowly.
Besides, some people believed that alfie would do the dirty work for them, and he did. He attacked Russia in 1941

Answer 5

France and the UK had pledged to defend the territorial integrity of Poland.

The campaign in Finland was a dismal failure for the Red Army, until the Wehrmacht came in in support. Historians attribute this to the purge of the General staff by Stalin.
Czechoslovakia was before Poland, as was Austria, they voted to annex themselves to Germany, as far as the Germans were concerned, the Panzer groups at the Austrian frontier were just a coincidence.

The Soviet Union was a closed shop, so to speak, the stories about the purges and so forth came out during the Cold War.

I can see the rationale about the lesser of two evils here, except that Stalin was murdering his people as more of an afterthought, Hitler, thanks to the plan set up by Heidrich, had a deliberate intent to eliminate Jews, Homosexuals, Gypsies, and Communists from Europe. There is something in law about prior intent in murder, that changes it from second to first degree. Though I don't want to make it sound like there are such things as first and second degree genocide.

Answer 6

They could not afford an alliance between the two powers (Soviet Union and Germany) so early in the conflict. Also they were well aware of the fragility concerning the Ribbentrop-Molotov Non-Aggresion pact. The Allies probably supposed that Hitler will attempt an invasion of Russia long before the Barbarossa plan was put into action. So the plan was to fight against one enemy in Europe and then let the Soviets and the Nazis wage war on each other. By using this strategy the Allies hoped the two military powers would be destroyed and never again pose any threat to world security. But they were only partially right, as Stalin's power grew even greater after the war was ended.

Answer 7

E and F had guaranteed Poland - said that any German attack would be resisted by war.
Hitler went ahead and attacked. So England and France had to come good on their promise. It's as simple as that.
Germany was difinitely NOT the lesser of two evils since Germany was a lot closer to France and England than Russia. A Germany in control of the East would have been irresistible in Europe.

Answer 8

By 1938 it was clear that Hitler was intent on expanding german territory and the Munich Crisis was just a postponement of war.
Britain and France had a mutual assistance pact with Poland and knew that if they did not honour it then Hitler would feel free to invade another country.
Churchill was not in power in 1939 when Germany and Russia invaded Poland it was neville Chamberlain.
Whatever Britain and France felt about Stalin , they knew they had to confront Hitler first because he was the more immediate threat to them.
As for the comparison of evil, while it is true that Stalin had instituted a reign of terror against his own people , it was felt that Hitler's terror was just as bad and he was more likely to export it to other countries. .

Answer 9

becouse they, france and england had me in mind, they dint liked me change languages,hahaha, if hilter, { he was the potts btw ] had not been stoped he had conquered teh whole word by now and you be saying horss pitsssts

Answer 10

alliances