Top of page

World War I: Restoring Poland

Share this post:

(The following guest post is by Ryan Moore, a cartographic specialist in the Geography and Map Division.)

Prior to World War I, Poland was a memory, and its territory was divided among the empires of Germany, Russia and Austro-Hungary; these powers along with France and Great Britain were wrestling for dominance of the continent, as illustrated in this serio-comic map. The Germans dominated the resource-rich lands of Silesia and controlled the industrial centers of Posen and Breslau. Germany also controlled the port city of Danzig, known today as Gdansk, which was an important commercial center on the Baltic Sea. Russia exercised jurisdiction over Warsaw and the eastern regions of historic Poland. Austro-Hungary occupied Galicia. The area contained the culturally important city of Lviv (Lemberg) and mines and oil fields found along the Carpathian Mountains. A 1912 Rand McNally map illustrates Europe without Poland.

Figure 1The start of World War I reignited Polish dreams of self-determination. Two years later, in 1916, the Polish cartographer, Eugeniusz Romer (1871-1954), illustrated the rise and fall of his country in this map, pictured left, titled “History.” The map was part of his atlas known as the “Geographical and Statistical Atlas of Poland” that later helped shape Poland’s independence in the Paris peace negotiations of 1919.

Romer produced his atlas in secret, as the authorities of Austro-Hungary, where he lived, reacted harshly to anything that might foment political unrest. Romer combed the archives of the Austrian government, researching census data and economic reports, which he used to craft 32 map plates replete with tables and textual accompaniment in Polish, French and German. His highly detailed depictions included geography, geology, climate, flora, history, political administration, population, ethnography, religious groups, education, land ownership, farming, natural resources and communication networks. The atlas was hailed as a masterpiece.

The Germans and Austrians responded swiftly to stamp out this cartographic declaration of independence, and the publication was banned. Romer was forced into hiding to avoid arrest and prosecution. However, copies of the atlas were smuggled to the United Kingdom and the United States, where it reached policymakers. Upon the American entrance into the war in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson articulated the idea of a free Poland among the goals outlined in his Fourteen Points.

The defeat of Germany and Austro-Hungary, and the collapse of imperial Russia, ended the main barriers to Poland’s independence. Poland’s Prime Minister, the celebrated American concert pianist Ignacy Paderewski, along with Romer and other negotiating team members, believed their territory should stretch as far east as Lithuania and should subsume German-held territory in the west and along the Baltic Sea. To the exasperation of the Americans, British and French, the Poles made seemingly conflicting arguments for territory. In the cases of Silesia and the Baltic coast, they argued that the areas had a majority of Polish speakers and therefore should be Polish. Whereas, in the east, in the case of Galicia and modern-day Lithuania, the argued that historic Polish cultural institutions, such as universities and churches, proved that the land should belong to Poland despite Poles being the minority population.

President Wilson and his team were often sympathetic to the Poles; however, Wilson wanted a “scientific” solution and directed his team to draw borders based on the dominant language of the people in a given area, such as in this map found in the Woodrow Wilson papers. Great Britain, on the other hand, was deeply concerned about this approach. They feared Poland would appropriate too much of Germany’s important natural resources and industry in the east. Britain wanted Germany left in a position to pay restitution for the war and to avoid a communist uprising, like the one in Russia.Figure 2

The solution was a compromise that was despised by the Poles and the Germans. The port of Danzig, with its majority German population, was placed under the administration of the League of Nations and placed into a binding customs union with Poland. The port was situated in a narrow strip of Polish territory known as the Polish Corridor. The land was dangerously sandwiched between Germany proper in the west and German East Prussia. Romer illustrated the problem in his map “Administration” (1921), pictured right. Angry about the diplomatic settlement in the west, Poland decided to use military force to achieve its goals in the east. It mobilized an army and appropriated land that included the city of Vilnius and oil fields in eastern Galicia.

In 1919, the Second Polish Republic was born. The country, however, lacked the population and industrial might of its foreboding German and Russian neighbors. It was forced to count on Great Britain and France to provide military assistance. When the hour of need arrived, however, Poland was largely left to fight alone. In 1939, the Nazis overran Poland in weeks, showing the world a new form of warfare called blitzkrieg (“lightning war”). The Nazi’s occupation lasted until 1944 when the Soviet army drove them back into Germany. The Soviets stayed in Poland until 1989. Today, Poland is a free republic and member of the NATO alliance. Its current borders are illustrated in this Central Intelligence Agency map.

World War I Centennial, 2017-2018: With the most comprehensive collection of multi-format World War I holdings in the nation, the Library of Congress is a unique resource for primary source materials, education plans, public programs and on-site visitor experiences about The Great War including exhibits, symposia and book talks.  

Comments (18)

  1. Romer produced his atlas in secret, as the authorities of Austro-Hungary, were (sic) he lived, reacted harshly to anything that might foment political unrest.

  2. Please edit, I found at least 4 errors in reading.
    Thank you.

  3. As if necessary the restoring of the Poland identity was maybe the only goal of the unhuman massacre.

  4. I remember the map when I was growing up in Poland under Soviet domination. For us it was treasure we discovered and cherished. Treasure illegal to posses at the time like many other things attesting to the facts from Poland history and books on the black list.

  5. re:Edgardo Berraz
    As if necessary the restoring of the Poland identity was maybe the only goal of the inhuman massacre.
    What are you referring to?

  6. “The Soviets stayed in Poland until 1989.” Actually, the Soviets seized German territory east of the Oder and renamed it Kaliningrad, which remains Russian territory inside Poland.

  7. Michener’s “Poland” was revealing about the early people of the area of Poland & how many times the land was over run by neighboring countries and how many governments claimed the area now under Polish rule. Fiction yes, but incredible read. Except for not being able to speak [in your head]all the foreign names.

  8. An interesting essay, but as others have noted, with spelling errors and also some errors in geography.

    “…rich lands of Silesia, which were found on the then German eastern border and included cities such as Posen ”

    Posen/Poznan was and is the capital of a region called Great Poland – Wielkopolska – that lies between Silesia and Pomerania.

  9. As if necessary the restoring of the Poland identity was maybe the only goal of the inhuman massacre.
    What are you referring to?

  10. An early draft of this story was posted prior to editing, and several errors were a part of the initial posting. We have corrected the errors, and apologize for any inconvenience.

  11. “An early draft of this story was posted prior to editing, and several errors were a part of the initial posting. We have corrected the errors, and apologize for any inconvenience.”
    Would you please replace the errors above with the corrected text!
    Russia occupied Poland and had done so since they attacked Poland shortly after the Nazis attacked from the west end. Please tell the history as it really occurred!

  12. Vilnius never, ever will be Poland its too far from Romers % of native speakers. Check history, check current situation.

  13. “The Soviets stayed in Poland until 1989”

    The last soviets soldiers left Poland by train, on September 18th 1993 0920H, through Terespol/Brzesc border crossing. (wikipedia)

  14. It is very important to know about the past of the country you want to travel. Poland is one of my favorite places to visit in schengen region, I will be making my plans to travel to Poland soon in this month, I just want to know more about the procedure of applying for a Poland visa, but I am unable to get the details.

  15. I want to know ore of the great country of poland

  16. What a bunch of Polish fantasy propaganda. What about the part about Polish nationalists invading German lands and driving out the German inhabitants? What about the proposal to just take East Prussia and either expel all the Germans or make them a ridiculously large part of the “Polish” state? What about the part with the Polish nationalists marching east to “stop the Bolsheviks” and ending up trying to conquer conquer Russia? What about the invasion and claiming of a “Polish state” by taking lands where Ukrainian speakers were anywhere from 50 to 75% of the population? The only reason “Polish” identity-to-statehood was an agenda in 1919 is it was a convenient way to carve Europe into impotent states with minimal resources so the globalists could screw everyone over across the world from London. Oh sure, they played to this sudden love of Polish nationalists and self-determination, specifically because it played into their agenda. And the game repeats, but nobody listens. Ukrainian nationalism is suddenly

  17. Breslau was not part of the pre-partition Poland and it was in all respects a German city, as the whole oh lower Silesia. Putting Breslau on the same level as occupied Warsaw is simply historically not accurate.

    • Hi,

      I believe the story says that. The map, as the story points out, was made by a Polish cartographer who created his blueprint for what he thought the country should look like.

Add a Comment

This blog is governed by the general rules of respectful civil discourse. You are fully responsible for everything that you post. The content of all comments is released into the public domain unless clearly stated otherwise. The Library of Congress does not control the content posted. Nevertheless, the Library of Congress may monitor any user-generated content as it chooses and reserves the right to remove content for any reason whatever, without consent. Gratuitous links to sites are viewed as spam and may result in removed comments. We further reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to remove a user's privilege to post content on the Library site. Read our Comment and Posting Policy.


Required fields are indicated with an * asterisk.