Poland in a Colonial World Order: Adjustments and Aspirations, 1918–1939

At the Yale University Modern Europe Colloquium in 2013, Tara Zahra commented offhandedly that several dissertations could be written on interwar East Central European states trying to gain overseas colonies. It sounded like an exciting prospect then, and today we are starting to see some such dissertations in print. Piotr Puchalski's new book, derived from his doctoral thesis, takes on various attempts by the Polish Second Republic's government to spread its power outside Europe, especially into Africa and South America. The framework for the book extends the idea of "colonialism" beyond imperialism or expressions of political control over territory abroad, and we learn how several forms of Polish colonialism played out in practice. While telling this story, Puchalski puts the history of interwar Poland into the context of a global struggle for resources and economic development.The first two chapters highlight how some of the earliest colonial schemes of the period, focused especially in Brazil, blurred the lines between emigrant colonialism and settler colonialism. Puchalski claims that Poland was "managing its expatriated population to secure as much political and economic leverage as possible" (p. 43). The goals are outlined in chapter 2, where we learn that Poland's colonial dreams were part of general ambitions to modernize the country. As Puchalski shows, the obsessions of the semi-official Maritime and Colonial League (Liga Morska i Kolonialna), and its predecessor organizations, were not an expression of Poland's strength, but rather of its political weakness and economic fragility in post-Versailles Europe.Perhaps the best chapter in the book addresses a uniquely Polish phenomenon of "Promethean" colonialism. Prometheanism was a policy of the Polish government to support nationalisms abroad, in an attempt to undermine the Soviet Union. Here Puchalski uncovers a new aspect of this impulse, whereby Polish leaders supported Black self-determination in Liberia, Haiti, and Ethiopia, at the expense of Western powers, namely the United States and Italy. This is particularly fascinating because Puchalski is able to untangle the web of interests and ideals that led to a situation where a somewhat peripheral European country was supporting Pan-Africanists because of "Poland's self-perception as an anti-imperial nation" (p. 136). Of course, this was not entirely altruistic. Government officials forged the strongest connections with Liberia, where experts saw an attractive potential for rubber exports. Haiti, in turn, was supposed to provide the Poles with tons of coffee at discounted prices in exchange for support.Puchalski devotes an entire chapter to the famed (or notorious) foreign minister Józef Beck and skillfully places his policy of international "equilibrium" into the colonial context. Beck attempted to play all sides and thus abandoned the previous mode of Prometheanism. The same moral quandaries that have been the subject of hot debate repeat in a slightly different geographic context, since the hope for even partial revision of the postwar order in Poland's favor created a situation where Nazi German revisionism or Fascist Italian imperial expansion became acceptable by default because they could not be condemned. Puchalski sees some of Beck's schemes as redeeming, such as his proposal for a global trade currency, but this chapter seems to highlight further Beck's short-sighted opportunism that perhaps opened the door for Poland's destruction in 1939.The sixth chapter also aims for redemption of another controversial set of policies: sending Polish Jews to Madagascar. This rather embarrassing episode in Poland's interwar history highlights official antisemitism within the supposedly 'tolerant' Piłsudskiite camp. Puchalski is not the first to explore this thorny issue, but he argues that what seems like an attempt to rid Poland of the Jews was really just an attempt to make Polish Jews into "colonial emissaries" on Madagascar (p. 188). This was supposed to provide "mutual benefits" to the emigrating Jews and Poland (p. 216). It is beyond doubt that Poland's government consistently, regardless of who was in power, pursued policies to dislodge Jews from their traditional role as commercial intermediaries and merchants. One of the weapons utilized in this battle was emigration, but the author warns us to not draw straight lines to the Nazi Final Solution. Puchalski writes, "Ideology mattered, and the Polish government did not view Jews as a lesser race" (p. 216). This is hard to argue with because he paints with such a broad brush, but were there many people within the Polish government in positions of power who viewed Jews as a lesser race? Yes, certainly. Whether or not the Polish government at one point or another also considered that having Polish Jews living in Madagascar would be "useful" to them does not change the fact that there was a concerted effort to reduce the number of Jews in Poland based on a racist ideology that viewed Jews as a "threat" to Poland's economic independence and continued existence.At the heart of the book is a subtle argument about how Polish colonial policy (or fantasy) shifted in response to geopolitical change. As such, the hope for emigration outlets, the provision of raw materials, or trading partners was not simply a matter of Poland's needs, but a reaction to the world around them. This rather straightforward approach allows the author to explain why, for the most part, each attempt to establish Polish colonial relationships ended in failure, placing the blame outside Polish hands to somewhere beyond the horizon.At the same time, the main thesis is a consequence of the lens through which Puchalski views these events, namely as diplomatic history. Within that tradition of diplomatic history, Puchalski effectively places the actions of Polish officials into the Wilsonian system. Therefore when seeking to answer the question of why a country like Poland would expend resources on colonial projects in the first place, Puchalski tells us that the flawed Versailles system is to blame. One of the major contributions of the book, extending beyond Polish history, is that according to Puchalski the Wilsonian system, by continuing colonialism rather than ending it, created a situation where Poland's pursuit of colonial possessions was a rather natural progression of events, not some aberration.In Polish-language historiography, the colonial question is hardly new, with books on colonial discourse, the aforementioned Jewish emigration question, and others. The innovation here is to bring in a large archival source base from France, Germany, the U.S., the U.K., and of course Poland to dive deep into the diplomatic questions. This is no doubt a great contribution to the literature.That said, the narrative is disjointed and hard to follow, making it nearly impossible to know who was doing what to whom at any time. This is due in part to an overabundance of people's names whose mention in the text served no purpose. In addition, the book's main characters—foreign minister Józef Beck, head of the Maritime and Colonial League Gustaw Orlicz-Dreszer, and traveler-diplomat Mieczysław Lepecki—appear merely as shadows. None of these figures is treated thoroughly so that we could learn about their ideological baggage and therefore be able to understand the ample quotes drawn from them. Orlicz-Dreszer, as the head of a colony-promoting organization, was extremely important for this movement, but only one paragraph is devoted to his biography, half of which is spent assuring the reader that despite his "ethnic German origins" he was decidedly "anti-German" (p. 62). Ultimately much of the book revolves around the ministry of foreign affairs, or Brühl Palace as Puchalski renders it, but where did the colonial issue rank on the day-to-day operations of the ministry or for Józef Beck? Puchalski does not tell us. And as with all discussions of failed plans, it is important to capably explain why we should care. Since most of these colonial projects were rather small—for example, the South American settlements had only around 1300 inhabitants by the late 1930s (p. 232)—then what is the significance of the Poland's "colonies?"The author bit off a huge task by having Polish diplomats come up against French, British, Portuguese, and American colonial policy, in the context of the League of Nations and, of course, confronting local people and their own demands. But the goal of putting Poland in the global context fell short. After reading the book, I did not better understand how various environments fit together, nor did I get a sense of how those circumstances related to Polish decision making, which was the heart of the thesis. On the level of quibbles, the translations here are weak and sometimes nonsensical. For example, gwałt should not be rendered as "rape" as it is on page 150, but rather "violence." Such mistakes here and elsewhere can lead to misleading interpretations for the non-expert.All this does not detract, however, from Puchalski's innovative approach and the work he has done to push Polish history into a new vein and place it in a global context. Poland in a Colonial World Order is an expert book with a rather limited audience, but it is nonetheless essential for understanding an understudied aspect of interwar history.