He clearly said that Russia and Germany wanted a smaller border between them. The same exact reason Mongolia has as much land as it does (keeps the Russian/Chinese border to its present minimum)
Josef Pilsudski who was later the leader of Poland lead Polish Legions in the Austro Hungarian Army because he hated the Russian empire more . However he was arrested by the Kaiser after he refused to bow to him . He hated monarchies especially the German and Russian one . This cause massive amounts of his troops to disobey the Germans .
yes, that is practically unknown to many people. The borders practically never shifted for 350 years until the division of Poland and when they did it happened usually in a more peaceful way. Poland was even in personal union with saxony for 66 years.
@@szabuowski8677The majority of those happened after the dissolution of the HRE. And while yes there were polish uprisings, those were also AFTER the first two partitions of Poland, when the Border had finally started to move after the ~350 years of peace.
@@szabuowski8677maybe I should have added the words "until the division of Poland". that was my bad. I was majorly referring to the times until 1772. They didn't shift a lot between 1385 and 1772.
Amusing, I thought "I wonder how many comments do I have to scroll down before someone makes a joke about them invading Poland in WW2" Didn't even have to scroll
You could say German-Polish relations were complicated. Funny moustache man actually wanted them as an ally. But completely fumbled his diplomacy playthrough by not inviting Poland to the Munich conference.
No, the painter was the first German leader who accepted Polish borders and anted an alliance against the USSR, this only stopped when Poland was guaranteed by France and Britain against Germany.
@@extrage3061 .... so by your logic, why did France and Britain declare war on Germany if Germany attacked Poland before any guarantees were given to it? What happened is that Britaina and France gave their guarantees in march and the war started in september of the same year. Meaning that your entire comment is wrong.
@@Cyricist001 Need I remind you that we are talking about the same guy who wanted to form a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union guaranteeing their sphere of influence in Europe? And who claimed that he would only occupy German-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia and would forever stop expanding afterwards? He was not the most reliable person when it came to promises.
@@3st3st77 For the love of God, those are some basic history textbook points you bring up that aren't even scratching the surface of the complexity behind them. AH was the first German leader to accept the new border between Wiemar Germany and Poland. AH was FAR more trustworthy than the British who have a long list of broken promises. 1. Abandoned their Native allies to the Americans. 2. Abandoned Prussia in the Seven years war. 3. Promised Jerusalem to the Arabs and the Soviets during WW1 at the same time, then colonized the area with the French instead.. 4. Toppled the Greek government to pull them into WW1 in exchange for Ottoman territory, then didn't give any promised aid in taking the territory from the Turks. 5. Persuaded the Armenians to rebel against the Ottomans, then left them to be slaughtered. 6.Promised the East Adriatic to Italy for entering WW1, then didn't deliver. And this is only some of the betrayals before WW2, like leaving Poland to fight Germany on its own and then left them to the Soviets, promised to not extradite the Croats fleeing the Communist partisans if they surrendered to them and then had them handed over to the Communists, the guarantee that Hong Kong will have 50 years of self governance under China but when that was broken they didn't defend Hong Kong's independence. Germany only broke two treaties, the none aggression pact with the Soviets and the promise that they won't take the French fleet which was broken when Britain refused to surrender so when the Germans came the French scuttled their fleet. 1. Britain offered more Czechoslovakian territory to Germany, AH refused and we have it black on white that the refusal infuriated Lord Halifax. 2. After Czechoslovakia was partitioned, the president of Czechia went around European great powers begging for guarantees, nobody accepted, Hacha then went to Berlin and AH told him flat out, Germany will guaranty Czechia if they become a protectorate, Hacha didn't want it but accepted when no better alternative was there to protect his country. The British parliament discussed what happened to Czechia and the consensus was that AH didn't break any treaty because the whole thing was initiated by Czechia itself. 3. AH courted Poland for an alliance, when Poland aligned itself with France and Britain (Germany's former enemies), AH needed an ally. The Brits were also pushing for a military alliance against Germany, but Stalin's demands were too steep so it went nowhere. Germany feeling encircled looked for any ally it could find so they approached Stalin, again, Stalin's demands were steep but Germany was out of options so they accepted. Germany tried once more negotiation with Poland, postponing the invasion for almost a week,, the negotiations failed and AH's generals told him to either invade now or forget the whole idea. The invasion happened at the start of September and when the Germans were dominating AH again offered peace and an alliance, which the Polish government refused because they trusted the Brits. Their response was and I quote "We would rather see Warsaw in rubble and under Soviet control than ally with Berlin". I guess they got their wish. Hell, AH tried to get the USSR to join the Axis in 1940 and Stalin had so high demand (the Balkans and Turkey) that the Germans were convinced that the Soviets demanded all that knowing it will be refused because they planed to invade Germany (there were millions of Soviet troops and tens of thousand of tanks concentrated on the German border in offensive positions with trains made for a western gauge. Every war Germany fought in WW2 was for one single reason, they felt threatened. They tried to negotiate and ally but when none of their peaceful moves made any headway, they decided that the preemptive strike was their best option before their enemies took the initiative.
It's often overlooked how WW1 was technically a civil war for Poland. Although it technically didn't exist, there were Poles both on the side of the Central Powers and the Entente fighting each other.
This was the case for Romanians as well, and Austria-Hungary made significant efforts to make sure none of the ethnic Romanians drafted from Transylvania actually fought in the region.
Yes, that is extremely sad and overlooked time in Polish history. More Poles died fighting in WW1, than in WW2 (in actual battles). And you need to combine that with the rest of civilian deaths, occupation, famine and spanish flu after the war.
Damn. I never thought about it that way. Which make sense why the Soviets and Nazis invading Independent Poland is what officially triggered World War 2.
1:20 I always thought it was weird, as a Lithuanian, that Germany would make the Lithuanian puppet state so large. I can get including cities like Vilnius (historical capital )and Grodno despite of large Polish populations due to proximity, but the southern regions were so far away from the core lands that they never, even at the height of the Grand Duchy, were lithuanian speaking. My guess was that to keep the Polish puppet state from getting too strong, but its just a hunch.
@@datdude119 thats a very good point. Another thought is that a lithuania of this size wouldnt be easily centralised, again making it more reliant on Germany.
Everybody wants a Poland, until they grow. A Poland is COMMITMENT, people! You can't just have one for Christmas and then dump it on the side of the road like so many other Polands!
its funny because in my Victoria 3 Prussia campaign I did the exact same thing for the exact same reasons, and I had no idea that it happened irl until now
@niono1587 Yes, especially when in any case france will do some revolution no matter what it would result! Sometimes, they become communist or even fa*sit. This is so realistic, dude...😅😂😂😂🎉
Yes but actually no. AH was the first chancellor that agreed to the Polish border, he courted Poland for years for an alliance and that stopped when Poland was guaranteed by France and Britain against Germany.
@@talesferreiralimadossantos8806 The region is richer than the east, the railway network is denser (although it suffered because of the rise of the car popularity too). Poznań is quite progressive, there are queer spaces in the centre and the pride parade called ‘Equality March’ happens yearly not as a protest anymore. We have some German architecture and even infrastructure. The linguistic influence of German on the regional dialect has faded away in everyday speech. Apart from Polish, English and Russian/Ukrainian are the most common languages in the city. Interestingly, you could find places with a German minority and German as an official language in southern Poland, way further from Germany.
@@amadeosendiulo2137 The German minority you mention resides in Upper Silesia. While the area of Oppeln is farther away from current-day Germany, the areas of Silesia inhabited by Germans or Germanic people (referring to people speaking a Germanic language, but not nationally German such as Austrians & Swedes etc) used to extend up to that area before the end of WW2.
Similar to the proposed Bulgaria that was created in the Treaty Of San Stefano, except in this case the proposed Bulgaria was a Russian puppet state meant to give Russia access to the Mediterranean. As I figured, Germany created/recreated Poland as a puppet/rump state.
To be fair, Nicolas II also promised to restore Polish Kingdom, on a little less harsh conditions as the Germans - and for the exact same reason. Yet another reason that pollitical leaders on all sides eventually gained interest in restoring Poland was to keep Poles fighting and supporting the ,,right" side, after historical propaganda campaign on both sides didn't work.
No, they did not. Germany promised a Polish state, but they refused to say what borders they would have. So for the whole time Polish government did not know what exactly territory they were governing. When the war was nearing to end there was series of uprising which started establishing who controls what. And this basically destroy foreign relation between all those new emerging states because there were multiple example when two or more governments toughs they controlled territory X.
It was mostly because Germany and to some extent Austria wanted to win over the Poles in support of the war effort and so promised them a independent state with large parts of the Polish speaking lands of the Russian empire. Basically to keep the Poles loyal so they don't try to revolt and possibly break away
No, the Central powers really wanted buffer states with Russia, Poland wasn't the only one that was supposed to be made from the Brest-Litovsk agreement. They would be puppet states, but the Soviets and American did the same thing, it's politics as usual.
All pro-central powers sentiments in Poland were killed by the central powers themselves. In February 1918 in treaty of Brest Germany and Austria transferred Chełm land from former Congress Poland to Ukrainian State. In protest Polish government led by Jan Kucharzewski resigned, and all Poles serving in Austrian military administration also resigned. Polish members of Austrian parliament moved to opposittion what prevented budget adoption and led to the parliamentary crisis in Austria. Also Polish auxiliary corp led by col Haller deserted from Austrian command. In Kraków officials decorated their dogs with Austrian orders and medals.
I love how everyone once in a while I'll just be watching a bunch of these and all of a sudden I realize the latest one I clicked on happened to be brand new
Everyone talks about James bisonette but nobody talks about how there’s a guy who is spinning three plates and he’s been spinning them for a couple years at this point
The eastern borders Poland would receive based on the Entente's proposal were not the 1921 border you showed in your video. It was actually along the Curzon line which is more similar to the 1945 border. The Entente also did not really aprove of Poland's new 1921 borders until they realised that they could not beat the Soviets militarily
@@talesferreiralimadossantos8806 Genocide, mostly. They weren't Nazis obviously but the Imperial German government still had pretty much the same opinions on the Polish that the Nazis did. There are letters from Bismarck from I believe the 1880s which expressed his desire for the total annihilation of the Polish people.
@@leris7697 The Kaiser most likely never wanted any new land, the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine had been proven problematic enough, and at the end of the war theyd rather just want to be surrounded by somewhat friendly and calm neighbouring states and its not like the Poles were a united people either, some of them would rather join Germany than be part of a new Polish state. It was a very tricky score to settle.
2:05 Note that the Entente didn't promise all this land. Poland fought Russia, Lithuania and Ukraine for the eastern part, and the west wasn't happy about Poland's "invasion". You should make a video about the Polish-Bolshevik war, it's pretty interesting.
Very important topic in Polish history is that we, the Poles, tend to ignore nowadays the fact of the Kingdom of Poland even existing despite it being responsible for basically creating Poland from nothing. Official historical narrative is that on 11.11.1918 we "got independence" but for some reason no one asks the question how exactly did it happen, it's like: *snap of fingers* boom Poland exists now. It's funny in its own way but primarily sad.
Most of people that created Poland have been exterminated in PRL. I am not sure of what we you are talking about. In Polish you say I did something or Poles did something.
Try telling in school that we in Poland should celebrate 7.10.18 as intependent day, not the 11.11. On 7.10 Regency Council declared polish independence. Tell us how it went xD
This is being taught in Polish schools, the problem is that praising Kingdom of Poland for polish independence would make as much sense as doing the same for Hans Frank's GG, KoP was artficial state created to trick Polish people into fighting alongside central powers, Germans didnt care about existence of Polish state and even wanted to carve half of its territories most notably northern Mazovia and Łódzkie, deport all Poles from there and settle those places with Germans.
Would you consider doing videos on the Swiss or Swedish nuclear weapons programs? It seems they both got pretty extensively far into it but scrapped them as the cold war came to an end. Really interesting stuff personally
In just under 3 minutes, this says more and also more accurately than numerous stories, movies or documentaries dedicated to this topic. I'm a half-Dutch/half-Polish historian and deep into this particular topic and genuinly impressed by how much info was crammed into these 165 seconds. In Poland, they tend to glorify the restoration of the country, which is why a lot of modern interpretation of that time is heavily biased, coloured or even inaccurate. But this is clean, direct, funny and most importantly, it's correct. Well done!
Also, they wanted to create a polish batalion that would fill the conscription needs of the German Empire. They estimated 1 milion poles would be able to fight in german army but that backfired because the polish troops didn't want to fight for the germans and after the polish comitte was abolished by the germans they all turned against Germany. That's why the polish state in 1918 already had a national army.
During World War One, Poland was divided and occupied by three major powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. The region had been partitioned between these empires in the late 18th century and had ceased to exist as a sovereign state. However, during World War One, various Polish political factions and military units fought on different sides of the conflict.
Germany only occupied the areas of Posen and West Prussia from Poland. Russia and Austria had the most. (In the German Empire only lived 3 Millionen poles)
Russia until 1814 only had Russian land under control, not Polish land. It was only after the Napoleonic Wars when the Poles sided with the French during the invasion of Russia that the Russians decided to turn the remaining Polish state into a puppet with a very high degree of autonomy
At first the split was more even (though Austria missed 2nd partition, too bad for them). Russia got a bigger part of the cake after Napoleonic Wars as they were big contributors to Napoleon's downfall, courtesy of that disastrous winter campaign, while Prussia and especially Austria got demolished quite a lot in early years. Russia actually wanted even more, but Britain put a stop to it, as always on the mission to keep "balance". With all of that said, German part was the most developed of all partitions.
Another interesting puppet of Germany was the "United Baltic Duchy", a kind of pseudo-Teutonic Order State with a German nobility and consisting of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as having a cool black and white Nordic Cross flag. This state was the successor of another short-lived German puppet state called the "Duchy of Courland and Semigallia" (not to confused with the earlier Polish vassal of the same name).
OMG so Christian cross that is used all over Europe and is the symbol of Catholic church is Teutonic? Jesus. Please write to Putin who is the head of Orthodox Church immediately.
I have heard of Polish people celebrating the birth of modern Poland on November 11, 1918, corresponding to the Treaty of Versailles. Apparently they considered the German puppet state described in this video to be Poland in name only.
Not Poland in name because it was in fact Poland governed by Polish. The independence given by Germans was very limited and didn't grant us all of former western territories. That's why after 11.11.1918, when Piłsudski becomes sole governor of Poland, uprisings in Upper Poland and Silesia occur. Then, we go on war with Soviets to secure our eastern border (btw Piłsudski didn't want bigger Poland but Ukrainian and Belarussian independent states as buffer zones against Russians, Treaty of Riga made it impossible). In the meantime, we take Vilnius from Lithuanians in a tricky way after they refuse our alliance proposal (they had their reasons though). So Piłsudski's plan wasn't fulfilled and we end up being gang-banged by Germans and Russians in 1939.
It is important to mention - to us Poles at least - that what you drew as post-WWI borders proposed by the entente was not what the entente had in mind. Whole Greater Poland area was initially omitted and it took an uprising with several months of actual fighting to become part of Poland sanctioned by the treaty of Versailles. So yeah, Prussians/Germans were very correct with their worries of potentially rebellious people. Cheers from former festung Posen.
Actually after the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (in short Poland-Lithuania) was carved up, Russia didn't actually annex it but created retained the Kingdom of Poland, which it finally annexed a few years before WW1. The Emperor of Russia was the King of Poland.
The best thing is that the Entente didn't want an independent Poland either, they preferred Poland in union with Russia, like before, and if it was going to be independent it shouldn't be too big so as not to offend Russia
That was the plan of Eastern Entante (excluding Japanese, they were cool). Western Entante didn't get involved in Polish matters for long time, mainly because they saw them as insignificant - that was, until the formation of gen. Haller's Blue Army in France in 1917.
Thanks for sharing this piece of history. Despite being german, I never heard of it before. Provably because school tends to focus on the western front of WWI.
If you want more precise information about the topic, I suggest you two videos: The Kingdom of Poland during WW1 and The Occupation of Poland in WW1 both from Sir Manatee channel
The great thing about the brevity of each installment is that the hasty end begets another video. Poland "getting" all those lands after the war came with additional wars. 11.11.18 was not the end of war in the "other half" of Europe. There were years of nastiness to go, flirts with communism... generally confusing times.
And see, for all the post war German bitching about Poland after 1918, Poland was actually advantageous to Germany. It was a buffer to the new, scary USSR and would have been easy pickings for German ecconomic investment. And Germany's clever idea of invasion in 1939 resulted in Germany losing a lot more land in 1945.
In Poland we are taught that independence 1918 that restored Polish state after more than 100 years came thanks to marshall Pilsudski, president Wilson (who has a major square in Warsaw), and the general upheaval of WW1 that also restored independent Czechoslovakia etc.
I appreciate this channel for highlighting how Europeans fought over the same small strips of land for over 900 years. While simultaneously calling Africans and others warring, savage tribes
I guess Fun Fact abaut the Regency Council: Suprisingly they weren't just Spineless laceys to Germany and, like the vid said, declared independence and Kind of gave foundations for second republic. BTW one of its members, Zdzisław Lubomirski, lived long enough to WW2 and even afther the fall of Warsaw indirectly suported the creation of Polish Resistance. So yea Pretty nice.
@@solsunman383 I guess it would depend. It was seriously chaotic time where we had lie 2 small republics of National minorites the the polish bolshevik war etc. The answer is...propably not/ would depend on world events and peace deals.
@@solsunman383 There were actually plans when Central Powers were still in control. There was a big auction of potential candidates, mostly various German and Austrian princes obviously, but the strongest candidate was Charles Stephen of Austria, but he needed an OK from emperor Charles, who actually had plans to take the crown for himself without intermediates. Then Central Powers lost the war and Regency Council transferred their competencies to Piłsudski, so it was kind of a Hungary + Horthy situation, but not quite, as new state called itself a Republic, not a monarchy without a king like Hungary.
They restored Poland because they quote "felt like it".
"Felt cute, might conquer it later"
He clearly said that Russia and Germany wanted a smaller border between them.
The same exact reason Mongolia has as much land as it does (keeps the Russian/Chinese border to its present minimum)
missed the joke
What could possibly go wrong?
-famous last words until mid 1918
Heh
Josef Pilsudski who was later the leader of Poland lead Polish Legions in the Austro Hungarian Army because he hated the Russian empire more . However he was arrested by the Kaiser after he refused to bow to him . He hated monarchies especially the German and Russian one . This cause massive amounts of his troops to disobey the Germans .
yo
Bro went from explaining gta lore to history lores
Sup man
The green in the Polish flag represents unchanging borders.
The blue represents reliable allies.
I see what you did there.
Jesus Christ of the colour palette, couldn't you have chosen a better pair? 😜
And the purple in the Polish flag its competent governments and leaders
You are writing nonsense, the Polish flag does not contain....
OOOOOOOOOOH
But there’s no green or blue on the Polish flag? I think?
What is very interesting (and goes unnoticed) is that for centuries Polish - German (HRE) border was probably the most peaceful land border of Poland
yes, that is practically unknown to many people. The borders practically never shifted for 350 years until the division of Poland and when they did it happened usually in a more peaceful way. Poland was even in personal union with saxony for 66 years.
@@szabuowski8677The majority of those happened after the dissolution of the HRE. And while yes there were polish uprisings, those were also AFTER the first two partitions of Poland, when the Border had finally started to move after the ~350 years of peace.
Even better. Catholocism, a pillar of polish identity, got it's way into the kingdom with significant german support.
If we ignore the czech-polish wars which brought silesia into the HRE with subsequent german settlement/influence, then yea you're right.
@@szabuowski8677maybe I should have added the words "until the division of Poland". that was my bad. I was majorly referring to the times until 1772. They didn't shift a lot between 1385 and 1772.
Germany restored Poland in WW1, so they could invade it in WW2.
Very clever move.
Made my day. I'm going to use it whenever some German "patriot" mumbles how Germany is so terrible now and it's all our fault
Masterful gambit sir
Germany made the Soviet Union so that the Nazis would have to fight a front in the East. Big brain moves
Lol oof
Amusing, I thought "I wonder how many comments do I have to scroll down before someone makes a joke about them invading Poland in WW2"
Didn't even have to scroll
Germany: We want a Poland
Germany 20 years later: We want a Poland. Again. Only this time it's actually ours.
Poland: ...
E
By the way, Germany vehemently supported Poland's accession to the EU. That was also 20 years ago now.
You know what that means... /s
You could say German-Polish relations were complicated. Funny moustache man actually wanted them as an ally. But completely fumbled his diplomacy playthrough by not inviting Poland to the Munich conference.
1944: Russia: "now WE want a Poland of our own!"
Poles: "..."
@@AFGuidesHD bro bought 1 million subs lmaoo what a loser, also that's just dead wrong germany wanted danzig from the start
Germany in 1916: We want Poland on the map of Europe!
Germany in 1939: Not that much Poland...
*1939.
No, the painter was the first German leader who accepted Polish borders and anted an alliance against the USSR, this only stopped when Poland was guaranteed by France and Britain against Germany.
@@extrage3061
.... so by your logic, why did France and Britain declare war on Germany if Germany attacked Poland before any guarantees were given to it?
What happened is that Britaina and France gave their guarantees in march and the war started in september of the same year.
Meaning that your entire comment is wrong.
@@Cyricist001 Need I remind you that we are talking about the same guy who wanted to form a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union guaranteeing their sphere of influence in Europe? And who claimed that he would only occupy German-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia and would forever stop expanding afterwards? He was not the most reliable person when it came to promises.
@@3st3st77
For the love of God, those are some basic history textbook points you bring up that aren't even scratching the surface of the complexity behind them.
AH was the first German leader to accept the new border between Wiemar Germany and Poland.
AH was FAR more trustworthy than the British who have a long list of broken promises.
1. Abandoned their Native allies to the Americans.
2. Abandoned Prussia in the Seven years war.
3. Promised Jerusalem to the Arabs and the Soviets during WW1 at the same time, then colonized the area with the French instead..
4. Toppled the Greek government to pull them into WW1 in exchange for Ottoman territory, then didn't give any promised aid in taking the territory from the Turks.
5. Persuaded the Armenians to rebel against the Ottomans, then left them to be slaughtered.
6.Promised the East Adriatic to Italy for entering WW1, then didn't deliver.
And this is only some of the betrayals before WW2, like leaving Poland to fight Germany on its own and then left them to the Soviets, promised to not extradite the Croats fleeing the Communist partisans if they surrendered to them and then had them handed over to the Communists, the guarantee that Hong Kong will have 50 years of self governance under China but when that was broken they didn't
defend Hong Kong's independence.
Germany only broke two treaties, the none aggression pact with the Soviets and the promise that they won't take the French fleet which was broken when Britain refused to surrender so when the Germans came the French scuttled their fleet.
1. Britain offered more Czechoslovakian territory to Germany, AH refused and we have it black on white that the refusal infuriated Lord Halifax.
2. After Czechoslovakia was partitioned, the president of Czechia went around European great powers begging for guarantees, nobody accepted,
Hacha then went to Berlin and AH told him flat out, Germany will guaranty Czechia if they become a protectorate, Hacha didn't want it but accepted when no better alternative was there to protect his country. The British parliament discussed what happened to Czechia and the consensus was that AH didn't break any treaty because the whole thing was initiated by Czechia itself.
3. AH courted Poland for an alliance, when Poland aligned itself with France and Britain (Germany's former enemies), AH needed an ally. The Brits were also pushing for a military alliance against Germany, but Stalin's demands were too steep so it went nowhere. Germany feeling encircled looked for any ally it could find so they approached Stalin, again, Stalin's demands were steep but Germany was out of options so they accepted. Germany tried once more negotiation with Poland, postponing the invasion for almost a week,, the negotiations failed and AH's generals told him to either invade now or forget the whole idea. The invasion happened at the start of September and when the Germans were dominating AH again offered peace and an alliance, which the Polish government refused because they trusted the Brits. Their response was and I quote "We would rather see Warsaw in rubble and under Soviet control than ally with Berlin".
I guess they got their wish.
Hell, AH tried to get the USSR to join the Axis in 1940 and Stalin had so high demand (the Balkans and Turkey) that the Germans were convinced that the Soviets demanded all that knowing it will be refused because they planed to invade Germany (there were millions of Soviet troops and tens of thousand of tanks concentrated on the German border in offensive positions with trains made for a western gauge.
Every war Germany fought in WW2 was for one single reason, they felt threatened. They tried to negotiate and ally but when none of their peaceful moves made any headway, they decided that the preemptive strike was their best option before their enemies took the initiative.
It's often overlooked how WW1 was technically a civil war for Poland. Although it technically didn't exist, there were Poles both on the side of the Central Powers and the Entente fighting each other.
This was the case for Romanians as well, and Austria-Hungary made significant efforts to make sure none of the ethnic Romanians drafted from Transylvania actually fought in the region.
Instead of civil war, it was more like a bets, who would win WWI and grant Poland independence for your sacrifice
Yes, that is extremely sad and overlooked time in Polish history. More Poles died fighting in WW1, than in WW2 (in actual battles). And you need to combine that with the rest of civilian deaths, occupation, famine and spanish flu after the war.
Damn. I never thought about it that way. Which make sense why the Soviets and Nazis invading Independent Poland is what officially triggered World War 2.
I have heard that some Polish unitis realising they are facing other Polish units would secretly agree to shoot in the air to avoid harming eachother.
Germany wanted a cute little buddy buffer state that they could eat when it grew up and stopped being cute.
me when the state I created to separate me from russia refuses to hand me danzig
So, a livestock buffer state
In urban planning this is known as "extra-territorial jurisdiction", land banked for a future annexation.
but later adding Galicia would make a rather less little buddy buffer state...
@@Account_abandoned-q7m💀💀
1:20 I always thought it was weird, as a Lithuanian, that Germany would make the Lithuanian puppet state so large. I can get including cities like Vilnius (historical capital )and Grodno despite of large Polish populations due to proximity, but the southern regions were so far away from the core lands that they never, even at the height of the Grand Duchy, were lithuanian speaking. My guess was that to keep the Polish puppet state from getting too strong, but its just a hunch.
Despite what the romantic nationalism of the last 200 or so years tries to make us believe, it's never about trifling things like languages.
I think it was to separate Polish speaking populations as much as possible to make any revolt not just a German effort but a multi national one.
@@datdude119 thats a very good point. Another thought is that a lithuania of this size wouldnt be easily centralised, again making it more reliant on Germany.
@@dvv18 Yeah, and then Yugoslavia happens. Not fun.
fascinating that they wanted to create a state like this, yes. but at the end of th day it is just power politics anyway.
I wanted a Poland for Christmas one year
U get it?
You would only play with the box it came in. 🎁
Everybody wants a Poland, until they grow. A Poland is COMMITMENT, people! You can't just have one for Christmas and then dump it on the side of the road like so many other Polands!
Same
@@gustykraken Mom said only gifts that fit under the tree
It is a well known fact that a strong empire survives on a healthy diet of Poland.
Yeah, especially russians who were fighting against countless Polish rebelions destabilizating their already pretty divided country
😂😂😂...truly smart bro🎉🎉🎉
@@gerwaltspodnovigradu5508well the russian empire wasnt a strong empire about that time
@@Lucasrocha-pl1ll well austrians weren't either, but russians were stronger than austrians and literally only other strong country there was germany
Well, it is all the Sejm. 😂
Rare moment of historical Germany wanting Poland to exist.
Moments when Poland wanted Germany to exist are even rarer. Nonexistent even.
@mixererunio1757Shhhh, they might call you a fashy
*Poland would not be fully independent of Germany
Rare moment of historical Germany when forgoten why Poland shouldn't exist in first place*
Trololo
its funny because in my Victoria 3 Prussia campaign I did the exact same thing for the exact same reasons, and I had no idea that it happened irl until now
ye its very fun in video games when you end up reverse engineering things that happened in real life because it just makes sense.
@niono1587
Yes, especially when in any case france will do some revolution no matter what it would result!
Sometimes, they become communist or even fa*sit.
This is so realistic, dude...😅😂😂😂🎉
Vic3 sucks
Then why are you "participating" in this conversation? @@palchum1185
gay af
Germany in ww1 : we want a Poland
Germany in ww2 : we want Poland
Funny how one letter changes everything
Yes but actually no. AH was the first chancellor that agreed to the Polish border, he courted Poland for years for an alliance and that stopped when Poland was guaranteed by France and Britain against Germany.
@@tronKrizone literal iota makes all the difference, a universe worth: homoousios vs homoiousios ☦️
Germany in ww3: we poland
Did Germany say a Poland? They meant all Poland. Sorry for the mistake.
"Congratulations, you are being liberated. Please do not resist."
And we resisted 😉
Especially here in Poznań.
@@amadeosendiulo2137How's life there now? Do you still have German influence?
@@talesferreiralimadossantos8806 The region is richer than the east, the railway network is denser (although it suffered because of the rise of the car popularity too). Poznań is quite progressive, there are queer spaces in the centre and the pride parade called ‘Equality March’ happens yearly not as a protest anymore.
We have some German architecture and even infrastructure. The linguistic influence of German on the regional dialect has faded away in everyday speech. Apart from Polish, English and Russian/Ukrainian are the most common languages in the city.
Interestingly, you could find places with a German minority and German as an official language in southern Poland, way further from Germany.
@@amadeosendiulo2137 The German minority you mention resides in Upper Silesia. While the area of Oppeln is farther away from current-day Germany, the areas of Silesia inhabited by Germans or Germanic people (referring to people speaking a Germanic language, but not nationally German such as Austrians & Swedes etc) used to extend up to that area before the end of WW2.
“Kurwa”
Because James Bissonette wanted to use Poland as a place to exile his enemies
Who
Please be kind to trans kids
my newborn is trans
@@paulcowlishawA patreon who gets mentioned in the end of every video
Sadly Kelly Moneymaker had no intentions of reviving Poland as it would weaken his alliance with Sky Shapal and thus .. war
As they deserved
Viva la Bisonette
Similar to the proposed Bulgaria that was created in the Treaty Of San Stefano, except in this case the proposed Bulgaria was a Russian puppet state meant to give Russia access to the Mediterranean.
As I figured, Germany created/recreated Poland as a puppet/rump state.
You know it's a good day when History Matters posts German politics
So, basically…
Wilhelm II: “Wanna make Nicky angry?”
Franz Joseph: “Yeah”
Nicholas II: *cries in Yekaterinburg*
🤓 actually it by the time poland was created it would Karl I because Franz Joseph died in 1916
@@NicolasHaufe So you’re saying…
Will II: “Charlie, wanna make Nicky Angry?”
Karl I: “Bet”
Nicholas II: *screams at Ipatiev House*
To be fair, Nicolas II also promised to restore Polish Kingdom, on a little less harsh conditions as the Germans - and for the exact same reason.
Yet another reason that pollitical leaders on all sides eventually gained interest in restoring Poland was to keep Poles fighting and supporting the ,,right" side, after historical propaganda campaign on both sides didn't work.
I hate you Willy 🤬
Nicky-Rusian Empire 1916
1939: "Your services are no longer required"
1945: "Likewise"
Germany, 1939: "Your services are no longer required by the Reich. Poland is, by my authority, dissolved. Terminated."
Poland: "You expect us to yield?"
Hitler: "No, I expect you to die."
Finally, Ive been waiting for Poland lore!
So what you should look for is the 10/11th century CE.
0:07 It would be coller if there was written on the grave "We'll be back"
when Germany has its own version of Sikes-Picot...and actually fullfills its end of the bargain
Not enough straight lines 😊
No, they did not. Germany promised a Polish state, but they refused to say what borders they would have. So for the whole time Polish government did not know what exactly territory they were governing. When the war was nearing to end there was series of uprising which started establishing who controls what. And this basically destroy foreign relation between all those new emerging states because there were multiple example when two or more governments toughs they controlled territory X.
It did not actually fullfil the bargain but sure
It was mostly because Germany and to some extent Austria wanted to win over the Poles in support of the war effort and so promised them a independent state with large parts of the Polish speaking lands of the Russian empire. Basically to keep the Poles loyal so they don't try to revolt and possibly break away
No, the Central powers really wanted buffer states with Russia, Poland wasn't the only one that was supposed to be made from the Brest-Litovsk agreement. They would be puppet states, but the Soviets and American did the same thing, it's politics as usual.
All pro-central powers sentiments in Poland were killed by the central powers themselves. In February 1918 in treaty of Brest Germany and Austria transferred Chełm land from former Congress Poland to Ukrainian State.
In protest Polish government led by Jan Kucharzewski resigned, and all Poles serving in Austrian military administration also resigned.
Polish members of Austrian parliament moved to opposittion what prevented budget adoption and led to the parliamentary crisis in Austria.
Also Polish auxiliary corp led by col Haller deserted from Austrian command.
In Kraków officials decorated their dogs with Austrian orders and medals.
I love how everyone once in a while I'll just be watching a bunch of these and all of a sudden I realize the latest one I clicked on happened to be brand new
Gotta love history videos man!
Everyone talks about James bisonette but nobody talks about how there’s a guy who is spinning three plates and he’s been spinning them for a couple years at this point
The eastern borders Poland would receive based on the Entente's proposal were not the 1921 border you showed in your video. It was actually along the Curzon line which is more similar to the 1945 border. The Entente also did not really aprove of Poland's new 1921 borders until they realised that they could not beat the Soviets militarily
Germany 30 years later: You no longer need to exist
Poland after ww2: "still D.R.E starts playing" Guess who's back
@@bartosz1320as a Russian puppet 😂😂😂
@@luigi7720 Poland in 1989: "without me starts playing" Guess who's back, back again
Germany 110 years later: Actually, can you also take Saxony with you?
@@Todietipsosadly your joke went over the heads of most here… 😐
Poland can also take Sachsen-Anhalt, and especially Meklemburg.
Thank you and have a great weekend, HM!
James bissonete payed a goodwill price for them to do that
Who
No, it was Kelly Moneymaker.
James Castañeda stopped funding this long ago.
As a maker of Poles myself, this really intrigued me
May I ask what kind of Poles you make?
As a Pole I appreciate the using of polish 'nie' instead of 'no' ; in fun fact no
xD
Nie means never in German which makes it even funnier imo.
And polish money as well
0:13 - yes .. that eternal question , why? 😂
The plan to annex the polish strip was only a suggestion and it was never really implemented and i dont think the plan was seriously considered.
It was the favored plan by Ludendorff and Hindenburg, who by 1918 were the de facto dictators of Germany
Yeah, what would be the point of creating a Polish state, transfer Poles to there, but also annex a strip of land to populate with Germans?
@@talesferreiralimadossantos8806 buffer.
@@talesferreiralimadossantos8806 Genocide, mostly. They weren't Nazis obviously but the Imperial German government still had pretty much the same opinions on the Polish that the Nazis did. There are letters from Bismarck from I believe the 1880s which expressed his desire for the total annihilation of the Polish people.
@@leris7697 The Kaiser most likely never wanted any new land, the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine had been proven problematic enough, and at the end of the war theyd rather just want to be surrounded by somewhat friendly and calm neighbouring states and its not like the Poles were a united people either, some of them would rather join Germany than be part of a new Polish state.
It was a very tricky score to settle.
woah! I am a Pole that love history but I never heard of it! I didn't thought that I will find something here about Poland that I don't know about
You didn´t know that the Germans were the founders of the Polish nation state O_o The Germans even printed the first Polish money.
2:05 Note that the Entente didn't promise all this land. Poland fought Russia, Lithuania and Ukraine for the eastern part, and the west wasn't happy about Poland's "invasion". You should make a video about the Polish-Bolshevik war, it's pretty interesting.
Every single problem we have since 1900s is because of bolshevics.
Very important topic in Polish history is that we, the Poles, tend to ignore nowadays the fact of the Kingdom of Poland even existing despite it being responsible for basically creating Poland from nothing. Official historical narrative is that on 11.11.1918 we "got independence" but for some reason no one asks the question how exactly did it happen, it's like: *snap of fingers* boom Poland exists now. It's funny in its own way but primarily sad.
Most of people that created Poland have been exterminated in PRL. I am not sure of what we you are talking about. In Polish you say I did something or Poles did something.
History classes in every country usually omit uncomfortable facts like this one.
Try telling in school that we in Poland should celebrate 7.10.18 as intependent day, not the 11.11. On 7.10 Regency Council declared polish independence. Tell us how it went xD
This is being taught in Polish schools, the problem is that praising Kingdom of Poland for polish independence would make as much sense as doing the same for Hans Frank's GG, KoP was artficial state created to trick Polish people into fighting alongside central powers, Germans didnt care about existence of Polish state and even wanted to carve half of its territories most notably northern Mazovia and Łódzkie, deport all Poles from there and settle those places with Germans.
@@bunkol294 still denying its role in the preparing Polish for independence is just weird.
Nice detail that Germanys, Polands and Austria-Hungarys colours are the same as the current German flag.
(Black, Red and Gold/Yellow)
1+1=2, 4-2=2 and this is exactly as 4*2/4 so you are a Russian troll.
Nice video.👍
Would you consider doing videos on the Swiss or Swedish nuclear weapons programs? It seems they both got pretty extensively far into it but scrapped them as the cold war came to an end. Really interesting stuff personally
The video quality improvement alot
Another amazing video
history matters is the best way to learn history honestly
In just under 3 minutes, this says more and also more accurately than numerous stories, movies or documentaries dedicated to this topic. I'm a half-Dutch/half-Polish historian and deep into this particular topic and genuinly impressed by how much info was crammed into these 165 seconds. In Poland, they tend to glorify the restoration of the country, which is why a lot of modern interpretation of that time is heavily biased, coloured or even inaccurate. But this is clean, direct, funny and most importantly, it's correct. Well done!
Also, they wanted to create a polish batalion that would fill the conscription needs of the German Empire. They estimated 1 milion poles would be able to fight in german army but that backfired because the polish troops didn't want to fight for the germans and after the polish comitte was abolished by the germans they all turned against Germany. That's why the polish state in 1918 already had a national army.
Thank you for making this video, much appreciated.
During World War One, Poland was divided and occupied by three major powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. The region had been partitioned between these empires in the late 18th century and had ceased to exist as a sovereign state. However, during World War One, various Polish political factions and military units fought on different sides of the conflict.
Germany only occupied the areas of Posen and West Prussia from Poland. Russia and Austria had the most. (In the German Empire only lived 3 Millionen poles)
Russia until 1814 only had Russian land under control, not Polish land. It was only after the Napoleonic Wars when the Poles sided with the French during the invasion of Russia that the Russians decided to turn the remaining Polish state into a puppet with a very high degree of autonomy
At first the split was more even (though Austria missed 2nd partition, too bad for them). Russia got a bigger part of the cake after Napoleonic Wars as they were big contributors to Napoleon's downfall, courtesy of that disastrous winter campaign, while Prussia and especially Austria got demolished quite a lot in early years. Russia actually wanted even more, but Britain put a stop to it, as always on the mission to keep "balance". With all of that said, German part was the most developed of all partitions.
Weź se przeczytaj historię niemcy okupuwały całą dzisiejszą polskę przez krotki czas
Vassal feeding saves time and admin points you would need to use to core annexed provinces.
Day 3 of asking him to finish the English/British history series
Another great video. Humorous at times and informative.
Another interesting puppet of Germany was the "United Baltic Duchy", a kind of pseudo-Teutonic Order State with a German nobility and consisting of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as having a cool black and white Nordic Cross flag. This state was the successor of another short-lived German puppet state called the "Duchy of Courland and Semigallia" (not to confused with the earlier Polish vassal of the same name).
OMG so Christian cross that is used all over Europe and is the symbol of Catholic church is Teutonic? Jesus. Please write to Putin who is the head of Orthodox Church immediately.
Another great video!
Can you do a video on why there was no coalition against Cromwell like what happened to Napoleon
This week in questions we didn't know we needed to ask but are really curious about. 😁
I have heard of Polish people celebrating the birth of modern Poland on November 11, 1918, corresponding to the Treaty of Versailles. Apparently they considered the German puppet state described in this video to be Poland in name only.
Not Poland in name because it was in fact Poland governed by Polish. The independence given by Germans was very limited and didn't grant us all of former western territories. That's why after 11.11.1918, when Piłsudski becomes sole governor of Poland, uprisings in Upper Poland and Silesia occur. Then, we go on war with Soviets to secure our eastern border (btw Piłsudski didn't want bigger Poland but Ukrainian and Belarussian independent states as buffer zones against Russians, Treaty of Riga made it impossible). In the meantime, we take Vilnius from Lithuanians in a tricky way after they refuse our alliance proposal (they had their reasons though). So Piłsudski's plan wasn't fulfilled and we end up being gang-banged by Germans and Russians in 1939.
the historical context behind Germany's actions in World War One through this insightful animated documentary. 📜🌍
It is important to mention - to us Poles at least - that what you drew as post-WWI borders proposed by the entente was not what the entente had in mind. Whole Greater Poland area was initially omitted and it took an uprising with several months of actual fighting to become part of Poland sanctioned by the treaty of Versailles. So yeah, Prussians/Germans were very correct with their worries of potentially rebellious people. Cheers from former festung Posen.
Good video.
I really love HM videos, but I usually already know 90% of the content. This time I really learned a lot! Thanks!
Possible History needs to watch this video
Actually after the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (in short Poland-Lithuania) was carved up, Russia didn't actually annex it but created retained the Kingdom of Poland, which it finally annexed a few years before WW1. The Emperor of Russia was the King of Poland.
It got annexed 50 years before WW1, not a few years.
Never clicked fast than ever
The best thing is that the Entente didn't want an independent Poland either, they preferred Poland in union with Russia, like before, and if it was going to be independent it shouldn't be too big so as not to offend Russia
That was the plan of Eastern Entante (excluding Japanese, they were cool). Western Entante didn't get involved in Polish matters for long time, mainly because they saw them as insignificant - that was, until the formation of gen. Haller's Blue Army in France in 1917.
@@Admiral45-10Entente
Thanks for sharing this piece of history. Despite being german, I never heard of it before. Provably because school tends to focus on the western front of WWI.
"I have gotten the greatest return on investment in history!"
-James Bissonette (probably)
More videos please
If you want more precise information about the topic, I suggest you two videos: The Kingdom of Poland during WW1 and The Occupation of Poland in WW1 both from Sir Manatee channel
It's like one of those movies where a bully loses his favorite target and creates a new one, but the new target gets too strong...
0:45 - wasn’t he the man with the deform right arm?
Yeah
Yeah
Fun fact "Nie"! I love this channel!
No mention of their decades of attempting to eliminate the Polish identity?
James bissonete payed a goodwill price for them to do that.
The great thing about the brevity of each installment is that the hasty end begets another video. Poland "getting" all those lands after the war came with additional wars. 11.11.18 was not the end of war in the "other half" of Europe. There were years of nastiness to go, flirts with communism... generally confusing times.
0:07 I always felt bad for Poland 🇵🇱 because that happened to them 😢 love from Makkah.
I do like these info reports
Woooo! History!
Very interesting thanks for the video.
As a Kaiserreich fan this is too accurate lmao
Fascinating!
And see, for all the post war German bitching about Poland after 1918, Poland was actually advantageous to Germany. It was a buffer to the new, scary USSR and would have been easy pickings for German ecconomic investment.
And Germany's clever idea of invasion in 1939 resulted in Germany losing a lot more land in 1945.
Confirmed: History Matters watches SirManatee.
James Bisonette cast the deciding vote to create a new Polish state.
It's still wild to think that for a time, the United States and Poland-Lithuania existed together.
Because James bissonette wants to carve out a kingdom for himself
I get this video in my recommendations right as I finish watching a video about the Western Front of WW1.
Same, only I didn't watch it to the end.
what video did you watch?
@@ellidominusser1138 Western Front Remastered by Full World Map
@CAProductions051 Oh I think I watched the same
It would be a Polish state without the core of Poland: Poznań and Gniezno.
I want a video comparing the Hudson Bay Company's role in Canada versus the British East India Company's role in Merica.
Phoenix of Europe.
James Bissonette and Kelly Moneymaker.
Name a more iconic duo, I'll wait
Interesting
In Poland we are taught that independence 1918 that restored Polish state after more than 100 years came thanks to marshall Pilsudski, president Wilson (who has a major square in Warsaw), and the general upheaval of WW1 that also restored independent Czechoslovakia etc.
I love when you say "But fun fact, no"
Surely you mean "Nie" ^^
I appreciate this channel for highlighting how Europeans fought over the same small strips of land for over 900 years. While simultaneously calling Africans and others warring, savage tribes
Europeans aren't calling Africans savages for fighting wars, it's a plethora of reasons from how they fight, to cannibalism to wide spread grapes etc
among the alternative timelines out there, german victory in ww1 is one of the most interesting in my opinion.
Newly independent Poland did not acquire its extensive eastern territories until its 1920-21 war with Russia.
One of my Favorite episodes!
I guess Fun Fact abaut the Regency Council: Suprisingly they weren't just Spineless laceys to Germany and, like the vid said, declared independence and Kind of gave foundations for second republic. BTW one of its members, Zdzisław Lubomirski, lived long enough to WW2 and even afther the fall of Warsaw indirectly suported the creation of Polish Resistance. So yea Pretty nice.
Did the regency ever seriously consider parking a noble bum on the throne of Poland?
@@solsunman383 I guess it would depend. It was seriously chaotic time where we had lie 2 small republics of National minorites the the polish bolshevik war etc.
The answer is...propably not/ would depend on world events and peace deals.
All things considered, they did a good a job with what they had.
@@solsunman383 There were actually plans when Central Powers were still in control. There was a big auction of potential candidates, mostly various German and Austrian princes obviously, but the strongest candidate was Charles Stephen of Austria, but he needed an OK from emperor Charles, who actually had plans to take the crown for himself without intermediates. Then Central Powers lost the war and Regency Council transferred their competencies to Piłsudski, so it was kind of a Hungary + Horthy situation, but not quite, as new state called itself a Republic, not a monarchy without a king like Hungary.
@@masterexploder9668 Interesting. Do you think Poland would have retained the monarchy if Charles Stephen had been elected, even after the war?