Make Polish a foreign language taught in European schools

When I was at secondary school I always wondered why Polish was not a language offered in my school, nor is it commonly taught as a classroom foreign language in other secondary schools, in the UK or elsewhere in Europe. The languages normally taught as foreign languages in the UK are Spanish, French and German while the language of Poland, a country similar in size to Spain, France or Germany, was not offered. On the other hand, western European languages, not least of all English but to a lesser extent German, are taught as default foreign languages in Eastern Europe.

How do we make Polish a classroom foreign language on par with Spanish, French or German?
 
Poland needs to have remained a great power. That would give it a prestige and usefulness. So it would likely require a pre-1900 POD.

Spanish, French, and German are the de facto foreign languages taught among English speakers. That is because Spain and France were historical great powers with large empires with lots of inhabitants. France in particular was cultural dominant and had been for a long time. German is taught because it became a great power in the 1800s, and Germany dominated academics, engineering, chemicals, and science before WWII as well as the German economic might once it was unified. Earlier than that, German law and craftsmanship had been prized and was atrractive for much of eastern Europe int he Middle Ages, Magdeburg and Lubeck law was applied, and everyone asked for German settlers to create towns.

For Polish to be a language that is offered, Poland needs be equally useful so that people see the benefit of learning Polish. Since Poland never had a colonial empire, it needs to be very successful in Europe and attain some kind of dominance in critical technical fields. This is very hard to see happening post 1900. Even if Poland does better IOTL post 1920 (say Pilsudski is able to united much of Ukraine and Belarus into a single confederation and becomes the dominant power in eastern Europe), it is extremely poor. Its economy is very undeveloped. Even if it does well, Poland is unlikely to develop the prestige and technical excellence until the very late twentieth century at earliest.

So I think the POD needs to be back in time so that the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is never partitioned - perhaps even back to prevent the Khmelnitsky Uprising and the Deluge. If Poland is the dominant power in Eastern Europe, and its universities and high culture flourish, then Polish might be attractive enough so that the language is something other people want to know.
 
Poland should be more notable power that Polish language would be widely taught in Europe. So there should be pre-1900 POD.
 
Basic outline for a post-1900 scenarior:


They go communist in the interwar period, and get a better deal than anyone in OTL with the USSR. Germany still goes fascist, there is still a war, it's just now there is a Polish occupation zone, and Poland are commonly recognized as Moscow's catspaw in the region.

Occupied Germany learns Polish in school. Poland then later undergoes China-style reforms, becoming an economic power as the USSR collapses. Now secondary schools in France, the Low Countries, and West Germany are teaching Polish, because students expect to study at Polish universities, or take a job at a Polish firm.
 
Poland did have a period of religious freedom in the 1500s and longer.
http://scholar.harvard.edu/pmalysz/content/heretics-house-polish-tolerance

They passed the Warsaw Confederation in 1573. But there was stuff before it to make it possible.

So, this just lasts even longer, Poland becomes famous for its universities and one other thing (metallurgy? banking? a branch of architecture/engineering?) This one other thing is what adds character and color to the alternate timeline.
 
Basic outline for a post-1900 scenarior:


They go communist in the interwar period, and get a better deal than anyone in OTL with the USSR. Germany still goes fascist, there is still a war . . .
And after the war, there's a Polish zone of occupation in Germany. Poland rather viewed as the Soviet's catspaw in the area.

Except Stalin was arrested during his brief period of incapacitation after the Nazi invasion on June 22, 1941. A small fraction of leaders got it together enough to do it. The Soviets do about the same during the war, perhaps a little bit better.

The Soviets have somewhat better leadership. At least non-insane leadership. Possibility of cold war going better.

And in fact, Poland becomes one of the first proving grounds in a new cold war in which the two systems compete on who can do a better job at providing genuine economic development! Poland remains primarily communist, but they swing some really advantageous trade deals with America. Other Eastern European countries remain capitalists, but they swing really advantageous deals with both the Soviets and the Americans. This new different cold war is an absolute boon to the Third World.
 
Top