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East Prussia after the ultimatum took force; the Klaipėda Region/Memelland is depicted in blue and East Prussia in red. On 20 March 1939, Nazi Germany's foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop presented an oral ultimatum to Juozas Urbšys, foreign minister of Lithuania.
The 1938 Polish ultimatum to Lithuania was delivered to Lithuania by Poland on March 17, 1938. The Lithuanian government had steadfastly refused to have any diplomatic relations with Poland after 1920, protesting the annexation of the Vilnius Region by Poland. [ 1 ]
The Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia were part of the Russian Empire during the 19th century, achieving independence in the aftermath of World War I.The rise of Nazi Germany during the 1930s created Soviet fears of a German invasion, [3] further aggravated by German expansion to the East, such as the ultimatum to Lithuania in March 1939, as a result of which the nation was ...
20 March 1939, German ultimatum to Lithuania was an oral ultimatum presented to Juozas Urbšys, foreign minister of Lithuania, by Joachim von Ribbentrop, foreign minister of Nazi Germany. The Germans demanded that Lithuania give up the Klaipėda region (Memelland), or the Wehrmacht would invade Lithuania.
Soviet expansion in 1939–1940. After the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September 1939, in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact the Soviet forces were given freedom over Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, an important aspect of the agreement to the Soviet government as they were afraid of Germany using the three states as a corridor to get close to Leningrad.
Lithuania was initially assigned to the German sphere, likely due to its economic dependence on German trade. After the March 1939 ultimatum regarding the Klaipėda Region, Germany accounted for 75% of Lithuanian exports and 86% of its imports. [1]
In early June, the USSR issued an ultimatum to Lithuania demanding the formation of a friendly government and the freedom of its troops to stay on Lithuanian territory. In practice, this meant the full annexation of Lithuania by the USSR. The Lithuanian government accepted the terms of the ultimatum on the night of 14–15 June.
The occupation of the Baltic states was a period of annexation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by the Soviet Union from 1940 until its dissolution in 1991.For a brief period, Nazi Germany occupied the Baltic states after it invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.