Little Entente
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Little Entente
Little Entente (äntäntˈ), loose alliance formed in 1920–21 by Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia. Its specific purposes were the containment of Hungarian revisionism (of the terms of the World War I peace treaty) and the prevention of a restoration of the Hapsburgs. The three nations were drawn together by three bilateral treaties of defensive and economic alliance. This combination eventually became closely bound to France by financial and treaty obligations, and Poland sometimes cooperated with it but did not enter the alliance. Yugoslavia and Romania were also members of the Balkan Entente, formed in 1934.
The overall aims of the Little Entente and the Balkan Entente, taken together, were the preservation of the territorial status quo, established by the treaties of Versailles, Saint-Germain, Trianon, and Neuilly, against the efforts of Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Bulgaria to have those treaties revised; the prevention of Anschluss, or union, between Germany and Austria; and the encouragement of closer economic ties among its members. The Little Entente was successful in its aims until the rise of Hitler in Germany, when French prestige was gradually displaced by German economic penetration and political pressure. It began to break apart in 1936 and was effectively ended when Czechoslovakia lost its membership by the formation of the Munich Pact (1938).
Little Entente
an alliance of Czechoslovakia, Rumania, and Yugoslavia, set up in 1920–21 in order to maintain the balance of power that arose in central and southeastern Europe after World War I. It was a major element in the French system of military and political alliances in Europe in the 1920’s and 1930’s. The entente followed the lead of French foreign policy and had a clearly anti-Soviet orientation. The Little Entente was based on bilateral agreements among its partners signed in 1920–21. The Little Entente had considerable armed forces, was linked with Poland through the anti-Soviet Rumanian-Polish pact concluded on July 18,1921, and relied on the help of France.
The weakening of the French position in Europe after the adoption of the Dawes Plan in 1924 and the signing of the Locarno Treaties in 1925 led to a weakening of the Little Entente as well. In an attempt to retain its influence over the partners of the entente, France concluded military and political agreements with them (with Czechoslovakia on Jan. 25, 1924, with Rumania on June 10,1926, and with Yugoslavia on Nov. 11,1927). But the value of these agreements for France was greatly reduced by Rumania’s rapprochements with Britain, with Hungary, and especially with Italy (Italo-Rumanian pact of friendship of 1926). Agreements concluded by Yugoslavia caused a new crack in the system of the Little Entente: the Yugoslav-Bulgarian pact of eternal friendship (Jan. 14, 1937) and the Italo-Yugoslav nonaggression pact (Mar. 25, 1937). The Munich Agreement of 1938, which Britain and France concluded with the fascist governments of Germany and Italy, and which led to the annexation of Czechoslovakia by Hitler’s Germany, put an end to the Little Entente.
PUBLICATIONS
British and Foreign State Papers, vol. 114. London, 1924. Pages 695–96.League of Nations. Treaty Series, vol. 54. [Geneva, n.d.] Document No. 1289.