Danzig crisis

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The Danzig crisis was an important prelude to World War II. The crisis lasted from March 1939 until the outbreak of war on 1 September 1939. The crisis began when tensions escalated between Nazi Germany and the Second Polish Republic over the Free City of Danzig (present-day Gdańsk, Poland). The city, since the early 14th century largely German-speaking, had been ruled variously by Polish and German authorities in its long history. After the Partition of Poland, it had been ruled by Prussia from 1793 and the German Empire from 1871. At the end of World War I the city came under the governance of the League of Nations (via the Treaty of Versailles) and was placed under a settlement that aligned it with Poland for external affairs, despite the fact that this arrangement was opposed by the local population. As part of his aggressive foreign policy after the Nazi rise to power, Adolf Hitler sought to bring Danzig back under German control, and also wished Poland to sign the Anti-Comintern...

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