OK, some more comments:
wormyguy:
A very bad scenario for Poland is to be invaded by either of these two great powers. The nightmare scenario is to be invaded by both at the same time. Therefore, Poland cannot (as OTL) maintain a policy of antagonizing both Russia and Germany.
If Poland does not contain any former German territory, […] Poland must still therefore allow a great deal of German influence, if not control, into the country.
Being friendly with Russia is essentially not an option, because Russia will only be friends with a puppet Poland, where more decisions are made in Moscow than Warsaw.
One wonders why OTL Poland wouldn’t allow itself be a client of neither Germany nor Russia.
Still, if Germany is more stable than OTL, Russia looks like it would be rife with warlordism for the next decade and there is a Polish leader that actively works to calm Poles in Posen/Poznań then it might work.
Susano:
1. Brest […] I do think the city and its environs should belong to Poland, as a Belorussian Brest would make for awful borders and bad economical areas. OTOH, the border may immidatly run east to it. Hence my rough division of it
I agree. Brest/Brześć and Hrodna/Grodno should be easy enough to negotiate if Polish eastern borders were to be roughly similar to OTL post-WWII ones.
2. The Chelm area can be considered Polish coreland, and should be among Polands order 1 priorities - but OTOH the Ukranian claim is understandable due to demographics. So if Poland is forced to make compromises its at least possible to do it on that region. It should really be avoided, though. Hence the striping...
I’d rather compromise in Białystok area. Still, you are right, unless something very wrong is going on in the east Chełm area is most likely to be Polish.
4. The "Vilnius Corridor" and Lemberg...err, Lviv/Lwow city (if not surroundings) have Polish majorities, so that should be order 2 priorities...
Considering Lwów/Lemberg is easier to take and hold without international fuss (Since Lithuania has a higher chance of existing than Ukraine) I’d place Lwów/Lemberg higher than Wilno/Vilnus. As for the “Vilnus Corridor” north of Vilnius, it should be of much lower priority, unless Lithuania is hostile and Poland is looking to link up with Latvia and even then it I would place it at Priority 3.
5. If at the east is an USSR then Poland might want to have a bufferzone between it and its core territories.
I’m tempted to agree, however I would prefer if that bufferzone consisted of buffer states rather than annexed territories.
Trying to get near Kiev in any case is just asking for troubles, and to the east of Belorus Russia proper already starts, which would be even more trouble!
Agree.
6. Theres no point in trying to gain East Prussia or Lithuania in its interbellum borders.
As for East Prussia, yeah, it’s unattainable without post-WWII scale relocations and AFAIK
no one was willing to do that post-WWI. As for Lithuania, yeah, Lithuanians were quite hostile to Poland in that period and saw us as one of the greatest threats to their independence. Unless Lithuania is going Soviet and there is a possibility of attaining lands up to river Neman or for some reason there is a relatively pro-Polish government that would agree to federation, keep out.
7. Rutheno-Carpathia and the Bukovina would mean an unity of Russinian people, which could come to support Poland hence, but theres no need to actively pursue that.
Essentially, more Ukrainians, more problems. Avoid.
8. Come on, taking Spisz and Orawa was really just dickish! They were historically Hungarian and ethnically Slovakian, I think...
It’s been hard for me to find any concrete data on the subject. Those lands are all mountain villages anyway, therefore not really worth pursuing.
9. The Polish parts of Teschen should be tried to be gained, but its not worth a major conflict with Czechoslovakia, at least certainly not immidatly after WW1.
AFAIK Cieszyn/Teschen was controlled by Poland and then snatched by Chechoslovakia while Poland was distracted in the east. As I said before, it should be easy enough to keep otherwise. Then the best solution would be to actually allow the Cieszyn Silesia plebiscite. Poland had s a decent chance of winning that one and Czechs would get to keep Czech-majority areas. As for the railway, an agreement with Poland concerning it would be a nice first step towards an alliance.
10. Upper Silesia... […]All in all I do certainly think Poland should make an attempt to get at least as much as IOTL, but more of it (and the Upper Silesian industrial area as a whole) only when it really practically falls into its lap.
The situation is delicate since if the conflict escalates further Germany might march its armies and paramilitaries into Posen/Poznań. Still, I’d say Poland should really go for the industrial region after the cores are secured. The best solution would be either not allow the plebiscite or change it’s rules (Poland made at least one VERY stupid mistake when it suggested that people from outside Upper Silesia should be allowed to vote). That being said, I’d love to read a “Silesian Wars” TL.
11. The OTL remaining German lands and Danzig/Gdansk... same, really. They wouldnt be "trouble" for Poland, no more then it already had, and Danzig/GDansk would havea real use of course - but they were ethnically German, hence it really wouldnt be "ideal".
BTW, I’m curious just what would happen if Poland actually managed to get Gdańsk/Danzig. Autonomy similar to Silesian? Direct incorporation into Pomorskie voivodeship as capital? How many Germans would leave?
Which I think is not ideal, and really, if only Bromberg remained German, then this wouldnt cut off Poland from the sea,
It would cut one of two railway lines and made it more difficult to built the Coal Trunk-Line, but true, it wouldn’t be a full cut-off. As for priorities, I’d rather have Gdańsk/Danzig than Bydgoszcz/Bromberg, but the latter is much easier to obtain.
Molobo:
The primary regions of Poland that need to be in its control are:
1-Those inhabited by largest amount of ethnic Poles, avoiding national tensions and conflict
2-areas guaranteeing strategic security of Poland
3-areas that will allow for modernization of Polish industry and infrastructure
Can’t argue with that.
The desire to avoid national minorities is of course not universal-seeking control of both Gdansk and East Prussia is essential for Polish survival-both accesses to the sea is needed, and elimination of German enclave that can engage with clear military attack thrust to Warsaw-the capital of Poland.
I can understand Gdańsk, but as I said before whole of East Prussia would be just way too troublesome.
I love the purple arrows west and south, though.
As far as I can see, the southern one is intended represent non-territorial expansion so it should be Red rather than Purple. As for the German purple arrow, yeah, unless the Entente is marching to partition Germany it’s just too much trouble.
Douglas:
I don’t understand why Kraków/Cracow is not priority 1 and why Poland should pursue colonies, but otherwise it’s rather good if bland variant.
ctesiphon:
Other than the fact that it allows a bit more eastwards expansion it’s basically similar to mine, therefore I’m inclined to agree with it.
Oh, and Dyneburg - I don't know how many Poles were there, but unless very many,
From the top of my head it was between 10% to 20%.
Crap, I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote this, sorry. Magnificate's map has northern parts of Orava and Spis, which I had in mind, included in western Galicia.
I have the same OTL borders in case of Cieszyn, should I edit it?
Nietzsche:
Why, this doesn't show my biases at all...
Not in the least.
Of course I can’t agree with giving up Silesia or sea access. I do wonder why did you put Suwałki as lower priority than Poznań/Poznań?
As for the PoleTrolls, so far not one has appeared, so I would appreciate if we kept the jokes down.