The Franco-Polish alliance was the military alliance between Poland and France that was active between 1921 and 1940.
Contents |
Already during the France-Habsburg rivalry that started in the 16th century, France had tried to find allies to the east of Austria, namely hoping to ally with Poland. Poland's King Jan III Sobieski allegedly also had the intention to ally with France against the threat of Austria, but the greater threat posed by the Muslim-led Ottoman Empire made him fight for the Christian cause in the Battle of Vienna. In the 18th century, Poland was forcibly caused to cease to exist as a proper nation through a method called partition, performed by Russia and Prussia along with Austria, but Emperor Napoleon I of France recreated the Polish state in the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. With the rise of a united German Empire in the 19th century, both France and Poland found a new common enemy.
During the interwar period it was one of the cornerstones of the French foreign policy. Near the end of that period, along with the Franco-British Alliance, it was the basis for the creation of the Allies of World War II. During the Polish-Soviet War, France was one of the most active supporters of Poland, and sent the French Military Mission to Poland to aid the Polish army.
The pact was discussed by Polish Chief of State Józef Piłsudski and French President Alexandre Millerand in early February in Paris and signed there on February 19, 1921 by Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Count Eustachy Sapieha and his French counterpart Aristide Briand, in the background of the negotiations that ended the Polish-Soviet War (Treaty of Riga). The agreement assumed common foreign policies, promotion of bilateral economical contacts, consultation of new pacts concerning Central and Eastern Europe as well as help in case one of the signataries is attacked. As such it was a defensive alliance. The pact was amended February 21, 1921, with a secret military convention, which precised that the alliance is aimed at all possible threats from both Germany and the Soviet Union.
The alliance was further extended by the Franco-Polish Warrant Agreement signed October 16, 1925 in Locarno, as part of the Locarno Treaties. The new treaty subscribed all previously-signed Polish-French agreements to the system of mutual pacts of the League of Nations.
This alliance was closely tied with the Franco-Czech Alliance. The alliances of France with Poland and Czechoslovakia were aimed at deterring Germany from the use of force to achieve a revision of the postwar settlement or ensuring that German forces would be confronted with significant combined strength of its neighbours. Although Czechoslovakia had a significant economy and industry, and Poland a strong army, the French-Polish-Czechoslovakian triangle never reached its full potential. The Czechoslovakian foreign policy under Edvard Beneš shied however from signing a formal alliance with Poland that would force Czechoslovakia to take sides in the Polish-German territorial disputes. Czechoslovakia's influence was weakened by the doubts of its allies as to the trustworthiness of its army, Poland's influence was in turn undermined by the infighting between supporters and opponents of Józef Piłsudski. French reluctance to invest in its allies (especially Polish) industry, strengthening trade relations (buying their agricultural products) and sharing military expertise further weakened the alliance.
In the 1930s the Franco-Polish alliance remained mostly inactive and its only effect was the French Military Mission to Poland, which continued to work with the Polish General Staff ever since the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1920. However, with the Nazi threat becoming increasingly visible, in the later part of the decade both countries started to seek a new pact that would not only guarantee the independence of all contracting parties but would also ensure military cooperation in case of a war with Germany.
Finally, a new alliance was signed in 1939. The so-called Kasprzycki-Gamelin Convention signed May 19, 1939 in Paris (named after the Polish Minister of War Affairs General Tadeusz Kasprzycki and the commander of the French Army Maurice Gamelin) obliged both countries to provide military help to each other in case of a war with Nazi Germany. In May Gamelin promised a "bold relief offensive" within three weeks of German's attack.[1] Later staff talks and consultation between both armies' commands were also included in the treaty. Finally, it was enhanced with a political convention, signed in Paris on September 4, 1939.
Despite all the obligations of the treaties, France provided only token help to Poland during the Polish Defensive War of 1939, in the form of the Saar Offensive. This is often considered an example of Western betrayal. However, the political part of it was a basis of the recreation of the Polish Army in France in 1939.