ABSTRACT
This chapter presents inter-war Danzig as an unusual example of a port-city which rejected its broader hinterland for limited political reasons, and a case study of the primacy of political factors in determining port-hinterland relations. The growth and decline of Danzig's hinterlands illustrate the changing nature of port-hinterland relationships in general, although it is difficult to locate within established models because of the operation of political factors. Once Woodrow Wilson was persuaded by the British Prime Minister that Poland should not be granted Danzig, on the grounds that such an act would cause another calamitous European war, the die was cast for the establishment of a free city. Although Danzig's only hope seemed to depend on military aid or intervention from Great Britain, it eventually pulled back from forming a military relationship with London when it turned out that British plans for the Free City would end up hindering its own plans to be reunited with Germany.
