Colonization attempts by Poland

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colonial territories, but over its history the acquisition of such territories has at times been contemplated, though never attempted. The closest Poland came to acquiring such territories was indirectly through the actions of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, a fief of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
.

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

The

which?] of the Kingdom of France, but after de Valois's decision to opt for the crown of France and return to his homeland, the idea was abandoned.[1]

Duchy of Courland and Semigallia

Main article:
Couronian colonization

On the basis of the

Union of Vilnius (28 November 1561), Gotthard Kettler, the last Master of the Livonian Order, created the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia in the Baltics and became its first Duke. It was a vassal state of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Soon afterward, by the Union of Lublin (1 July 1569), the Grand Duchy became the part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.[2]

Some colonial territories for the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia were acquired by its third Duke and Gotthard's grandson

Władysław IV Waza, and suggested creation of a joint trade company, which would be active in India. However, the ailing king was not interested, and Kettler decided to act on his own.[1]

New Courland

Trinidad and Tobago on a world map
Main article:
Couronian colonization of the Americas

The first colony founded by Jacob was the New Courland (Neu-Kurland) on the Caribbean island of Tobago. However, three initial attempts to establish a settlement (in 1637, 1639 and 1642) failed. The fourth was founded in 1654, but eventually in 1659 was taken over by a competing Dutch colony, also founded on the island in 1654. Courland regained the island after the Treaty of Oliva in 1660 but abandoned it in 1666. It briefly attempted to reestablish colonies there again in 1668 and in 1680 (that lasted to 1683). The final attempt in 1686 lasted until 1690.[2]

Gambia

Courland settlements in Africa
Further information:
History of The Gambia

In 1651

Denmark, Sweden, and the United Provinces. The Dutch annexed the Courland territories in Africa, bringing an end to their presence on the continent.[2]

Toco

The final Courish attempt to establish a colony involved the settlement near modern Toco on Trinidad, Lesser Antilles.[2]

Partitioned Poland

Cameroon expedition

In 1882, almost a century after Poland was partitioned and lost its independence, Polish nobleman and officer of Russian Imperial Fleet, Stefan Szolc-Rogoziński organized an expedition to Cameroon.[3][4] Officially that was an exploration expedition, but unofficially the expedition was looking for a place a Polish community could be founded abroad.[5] He had no official support from the Russian Empire, nor from its puppet Congress Poland, but was backed by a number of influential Poles, including Bolesław Prus, and Henryk Sienkiewicz. On 13 December 1882, accompanied by Leopold Janikowski and Klemens Tomczek, Rogoziński left French port of Le Havre, aboard a ship Lucja Małgorzata, with French and Polish flags. The expedition was a failure, and he returned to Europe, trying to collect more money for his project. Finally, after second expedition, Rogoziński found himself in Paris, where he died 1 December 1896.

Meanwhile, Cameroon was being slowly annexed by the German Empire. In 1884 Rogoziński signed an agreement with a British representative, who was to provide support for treaties he signed with Cameroonian chieftains, but next year, at the Congress of Berlin, the British government decided against pursuing any claims in the region and acceded to German claims (see Kamerun).

Second Polish Republic

Poland regained independence in the

Espirito Santo.[7]

Some historians, such as Tadeusz Piotrowski, have characterized government policies supporting interwar Polish settlement in modern-day Ukraine and Belarus as colonization (see Osadnik).[8] Using a highly theoretical framework, one scholar argues that Poland's settlement projects, in particular the Liberian affair, should be seen as a rework of the New South ideology that considered Africans as people who could only implement hard labour such as land cultivation and assume inferior economic and political positions, as attributed to African-Americans in the New South. Such projects, the argument goes, would lead to the prioritization of European lives over Africans' with economic and racial implications.[9] In contrast, several Polish and Polish-American historians attribute fewer racist motivations to Poland's attempts in Africa and Latin America. They point out that Poland's largely economic attempts to acquire tropical materials unavailable in continental Europe became infused with counterproductive colonial discourse still popular across Europe at the time.[10] The Polish projects, less politically expansionist than they might seem, fulfilled specific functions in Polish foreign policy not only in relation to the question of Jewish emigration but also in Polish-German relations.[11]

The following regions were considered for Polish colonization during the interwar period:

  • Polish minority in Brazil
  • Great Crisis, the government in Warsaw ceased to fund the action. Private donations were insufficient, furthermore, the first settlers discovered the local condition to be much worse than advertised. In 1933, the contract with the Peruvians was terminated, and to avoid international scandal, all settlers returned to Poland.[12]
  • Angola: On 14 December 1928, the Maritime and Colonial League sent an expedition to Angola, which was then a Portuguese colony. The plan was to try to bring as many Polish immigrants as possible, and then try to purchase some land from the Portuguese. However, after five years, one of the first pioneers in Angola, Michał Zamoyski, wrote: "Personally, I would not persuade anybody to live in Angola". Living conditions were difficult, profits were marginal, and the idea was abandoned.[1]
  • Liberia: Liberian and Polish governments had good relations because of Polish support for Liberia in the League of Nations. In the fall of 1932, the League of Nations drafted a plan which projected turning Liberia into a protectorate, governed by one of members of the League. The plan was the result of internal policies of Liberia, where slavery was widespread. Since Poland was not regarded by the Liberians as a country which had colonial aspirations, in late 1932 unofficial envoy of Liberian government, dr Leo Sajous, came to Warsaw to ask for help. In April 1933, an agreement was signed between Liberia and the Maritime and Colonial League. The Africans agreed to lease minimum of 60 hectares of land to Polish farmers, for a period of 50 years. Polish businesses were awarded the status of the most favoured nation, and Warsaw was permitted to found a society to exploit natural resources of Liberia. Liberian government invited settlers from Poland in 1934. Altogether, the Liberians granted to Polish settlers 50 plantations, with total area of 7,500 acres (3,035 ha). In the second half of 1934, six Polish farmers left for Liberia: Giżycki, Szablowski, Brudziński, Chmielewski, Januszewicz and Armin. The project was not fully supported by the Polish government but rather by the Maritime League; only few dozens of Poles took on that offer (because of Liberian requests that the settlers should bring significant capital) and their ventures proved to be, on the most part, unprofitable. The original of the agreement has been lost, but, according to some sources, there was a secret protocol that allowed Poland to draft 100,000 African soldiers. The Polish involvement in Liberia was harshly opposed by the United States of America, creator of the nation of Liberia. As a result of American pressure, in 1938 the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs closed the office of the Maritime and Colonial League in Monrovia.[1][10]
  • Mozambique: plans for colonization of Mozambique were tied to business investments by some Polish enterprise near the late 1930s and never progressed beyond normal foreign investment (acquisition of agricultural lands and mines).
  • German Invasion of Poland in September 1939.[16]
See also: Madagascar Plan

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e "Polska na koloniach, Focus magazine, 07/05/09". Archived from the original on 22 February 2012. Retrieved 7 October 2009.
  2. ^ a b c d e (in Polish) Dariusz Kołodziejczyk, CZY RZECZPOSPOLITA MIAŁA KOLONIE W AFRYCE I AMERYCE? Archived 24 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Mówią wieki
  3. ^ EXPEDITION Out to Sea Archived 26 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine, 4 September 2003, Warsaw Voice
  4. Encyklopedia WIEM
  5. ^ "Szolc-Rogoziński Stefan (1861-1896) - biography". www.info.kalisz.pl. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  6. ^ a b c (in English) Taras Hunczak, Polish Colonial Ambitions in the Inter-War Period, Slavic Review, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Dec., 1967), pp. 648-656, JSTOR
  7. ^ Jerzy Mazurek. Kraj a emigracja: ruch ludowy wobec wychodźstwa chłopskiego, page 151
  8. ISBN 978-0-7864-0371-4
    .
  9. S2CID 148720825
    .
  10. ^
    doi:10.1017/s0018246x16000534
    .
  11. ^ Bujkiewicz, Zbigniew (1998). Aspiracje kolonialne w polityce zagranicznej Polski. Zielona Góra: Lubuskie Towarzystwo Naukowe.
  12. ^ Jerzy Mazurek. Kraj a emigracja: ruch ludowy wobec wychodźstwa chłopskiego, page 152
  13. ^ "Madagascar Plan". Jewish Virtual Library. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2009.
  14. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8047-4377-8
    .
  15. ISBN 978-90-279-3239-6
    .
  16. ^ "Michał Jarnecki, Madagascar in Polish Colonial Ideas and Plans, published in Nationalities Affairs (28/2006)". Archived from the original on 29 June 2019. Retrieved 8 October 2009.
  17. ISBN 978-1-4067-4564-1
    .

External links
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