Europe in 1939 quiz

What's on this map

Europe on 1 September 1939, the morning German troops crossed into Poland. In eighteen months Germany had grown fast. It annexed Austria in March 1938 and the Sudetenland in October 1938. In March 1939 it occupied the rest of the Czech lands as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and took the Memel territory from Lithuania. Slovakia became a separate state under German protection, and Hungary took Carpatho-Ukraine. On this map Germany, Austria and the Czech lands are all part of the German Reich, with the Protectorate as its own shape.

The Second Polish Republic stretches far to the east, past Vilnius and Lviv. The Free City of Danzig sits on the Baltic between Poland and East Prussia. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are independent, Finland borders the Soviet Union near Leningrad, and Romania still has Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. Italy had occupied Albania in April 1939, and Ireland was independent and neutral.

The places people miss

• Free City of Danzig – a tiny city-state under the League of Nations, annexed by Germany on the first day of the war.
• Slovakia – separate from the Czech lands since March 1939, with its capital at Bratislava.
• Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia – the Czech core around Prague, ruled from Berlin.
• Lithuania – Kaunas was the capital, because Poland held Vilnius.
• Albania – an Italian protectorate since April 1939.
• Iceland – an independent kingdom, but it still shared its king with Denmark.

How to learn it

• Start with the new Germany: trace Austria, the Sudetenland and East Prussia, then the Protectorate.
• Then go from north to south along the Soviet border: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania.
• Use Study mode to read each country's status. Most of Europe declared itself neutral in September 1939.
• Compare with Europe in 1914 and Cold War Europe to see how much changed in 70 years.