A Decolonial View

Discussion about colonialism and postcolonialism in Polish discourse is relatively fresh. However, it is not fresh in terms of discussion of French, British and other countries’ colonialisms, but the one that would be directly connected with the country itself. Relatively new are discussions that would combine the issue of Poland being colonized. However, the interesting thing that is taking place is connecting anyhow Poland with the issue of colonialism and being seen as a colonizer. Further, apart from the dominant discussion about colonialism and Polish neighbours, many interesting stories about this topic appear in the form of interesting facts.

Therefore, by conducting a very quick and short search through google, I was curious what could be found under the phrase “Polish colonialism”. I anticipated that the topics would be connected with dominant issues. However, what brought my attention were the articles in which Poland was presented as a colonizer. It would not be surprising if the articles spoke about early Polish times but recalled the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Such example is the idea to move (the entire) Polish population that would be independent to an island in The Pacific Ocean. Even though the idea was more than controversial, the thinking behind was that such a move would set Poles free from the neighbours. So considered was choosing the independence for the sake of the Polish.

Another interesting attempt to start participation in colonialism was Liga Morska i Kolonialna (Naval and Colonial League), which aimed to open the path to Polish colonialism by buying overseas lands. Even though the interest in this movement was significant, the idea collapsed once the Second World War broke out.

Even though digging deeper into these areas would probably reveal other nuances, it is interesting to see that such ideas were present. Connecting Poland based on analogies with colonialism by being colonized is one thing already present. However, less often is the discussion about Poland as colonizer, which seems to be interesting especially based on the times in which the claims were made.

By Katarzyna Kiryluk