dec 18, 1940 - Preparations for Operation Draft East (Operation Barbarossa) unfinished

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Germany suddenly had a substantial edge in its preparations to destroy the USSR. Without the British Royal Navy to obstruct the Reich, the country was now free to trade with the rest of the globe without restriction, at least with the nations who wanted to do business with them anyways.

It significantly increased the German war effort by allowing for the import of oil from Venezuela, Iraq and Iran, as well as obtaining iron ore imports from Norway, which decided to trade with Germany rather than risk upsetting them or providing justification for an invasion.

It means the Reich didn't have to rely on its affiliated countries for trading; countries like the Kingdom of Romania and even the USSR would have been Germany's single choice to fund its war effort if there had been a blockade.

The Soviet Union no longer provided economic assistance for the Germans, but the two sides did now engage in their first diplomatic conflict. ?The Soviet Union had forced jurisdiction over the Baltic republics and the areas of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina from Romania and Finland. ?

The USSR started pursuing these claims almost immediately because of the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.?

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