Britain, France and the Naval Arms Trade in the Baltic, 1919 -1939: Grand Strategy and Failure

ISBN-13: 9780714653198 / Angielski / Twarda / 2004 / 260 str.

Donald J. Stoker;Stoker Donald

Opis

At the end of World War I, France and Great Britain established a Cordon Sanitaire in eastern Europe to further their own security interests. With this backdrop, Donald Stoker's book examines British and French involvement from 1919 to 1939 in the creation and development of the naval forces of Poland, Finland and the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Focusing upon the manner in which the French and British competed for sales of warships, naval aircraft and other naval materials, and their efforts to place naval advisers and military missions in these states, the book reveals how each power waged their respective struggles for economic and political influence in the smaller countries. Both Britain and France hoped that initial successes would garner future sales and further their influence in the recipient nation's economic life. The haphazard and often surprisingly corrupt manner in which French and British private and governmental institutions conducted business in the region weakened the Cordon Sanitaire, the very system the two powers created, and undermined their respective grand strategies. In the end, British and French abandonment of the region helpe

Spis treści

1. War, Intervention and the Birth of the Successor States, 1914-19 2. Naval Development in the Baltic Successor States, 1918-22 3. Unintended Consequences: The effects of the Washington naval treaties on the Baltic 4. Contracts, Competition and Corruption, 1923-25 5. General Kirke's Mission to Finland, 1924-25 6. New Contracts, New Competition, New Corruption, 1926-32 7. The German Projects: Finnish naval development and Anglo-French failure, 1926-34 8. The Final Sales, 1933-39 9. The British Naval Treaties and British Abandonment, 1935-39 10. Grand Strategy and Failure 11. Conclusion

O autorze

Donald Stoker