WI Poland gained a colony during the interwar period?
- Thread starter marcinL
- Start date
If Poland gets it early enough it is possible
Edit: and as the war is becoming more and more unavoidable, many people might decide that harvesting bananas or coconuts on the other side of the world is much better idea than they had previously thought
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They could not. As in, I believe they literally could NOT get the Belgian Congo. Leopold had some deal with the French that if it went bankrupt under his care it would go to them. No one had a colony to even give up, really. Even the Italians only got barren deserts from the British and French, in lieu of a German colony. Though of course the Italians did nothing to take their colonies, but considering the British gave the French Syria and Kamerun, I assume they were a little miffed. As for the Pacific, you have the Japanese, Americans, British, French, and the Dominions. The Americans might give up their claim to some out of the way atoll, but they would would suitable compensation, and would not be giving up Hawaii, Guam, or American Samoa.
Is it full of cannibals or so disease-ridden that Europeans drop dead just from seeing it at the horizon?
Edit: but getting one of the larger former Kaiserreich islands would be interesting. And bring the joys of Japanese occupation to the collection.
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In general. There were many more people than there were jobs for them, so the area had a chronic poverty, unemployment, and starvation issue. In the Austrian days, it was referred to as 'Golicja I Glodomerja,' meaning 'naked and hungry.'
Polish Togoland? The colony was economically viable under the German Empire, so they won't lose money mantaining it. Would be interesting to see what happens to it after the war, I expect if things go as OTL, it would probably do a UDI in late 1946 when it is clear a non-Communist Poland is not happening.
Deleted member 9338
I am sure a piece could be carved out of Syria and Palestine, could make 1947 interesting
Deleted member 1487
So why spend money on a colony when they could instead spend on making Poland better?
Why did Germany invest in a colonial empire? So it could look important and make money off rare colonial goods.
Poland's motives were similar--gain plantation and mining profits, brag about having overseas colonies, and export unemployed people so they could work as planters, farmers, miners, etc.
Togoland is an interesting idea for a Polish colony--its 1914 population was about 1 million. 25,000 Poles on top of that would be a tiny minority, and I wonder how many would really stay after 1945. Enough, I think, to prop up a Polish state, though without support from the French and British, they might have to turn to Portugal and Rhodesia for assistance.
Being economically viable decreses its chances of being sold/given/whatvere to Poland, IMO. Some ass end of nowhere would be more probable.
But anyway, such a location could also serve as the place to send Polish refugees to during the war (otl they ended in places like India, Iran, Kenya and others) and various DPs that wouldn't want to go to Commie Poland after the war, not to mention Polish soldiers, so the population could grow tenfold during the war years and immediately afterwards.
Deleted member 1487
The only one that ever turned a profit was Togoland, as a whole colonialism for Germany was massive waste of money for the nation.
Except they couldn't afford it and there weren't new colonies gained after WW1 besides Ethopia, which resulted in LoN sanctions, and the swapping of colonial holdings by the defeated to the victorious in WW1. Poland simply could never afford a colony, nor was the world ever going to let it have one after WW1, while it had it's own internal areas to develop and colonize; Germany-France-Britain-the Netherlands-Belgium-Italy had about developed internally as much as possible barring technological developments, so were seeking resources abroad; they were already rich nations looking for captive markets; Poland was a poor nation still struggling to establish itself and had serious internal political problems:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Polish_Republic#Politics_and_government
Plus if anything the Poles were somewhat using the extreme Zionists to export Jews to Palestine and helping train them in terrorism against the British after they shut down Jewish immigration:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehi_(group)#Evolution_and_tactics_of_the_organization
It wasn't an idea for a Polish colony. Why would Britain for France just given them a profitable colony after they had conquered it??? The French and British split it between themselves in 1914 when they invaded it and incorporated it into their existing neighboring colonies years before Poland was even seriously conceived as an independent country.