Franco-Polish Military Alliance
The term Franco-Polish Military Alliance refers to the military alliance between Poland and France that was active between 1921 and 1939. Along with the Franco-British Alliance it was the basis for creation of the Allies
The pact was signed February 19, 1921 in Paris by Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Count Eustachy Sapieha and his French counterpart Aristide Briand. 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. In the 1930's 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-Bolshevik War of 1919-1920. However, with the Nazi threat becoming increasingly visible, in the later part of the decade both countries started to seek 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. 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, the alliance was never fulfilled by France, which failed to provide any help to Poland during the Polish Defence War of 1939. However, the political part of it was a basis of recreation of the Polish Army in France in 1939.
As one of the parts of the original text stated that the contracting powers will not sign a separate peace treaty until the end of the war, the alliance was broken by France, who following her defeat in 1940, signed a peace treaty with Nazi Germany.