Conquerors of Seas and Oceans: The Maritime and Colonial League and Polish Colonial Aspirations, 1924–1939

Series: 

Author:
Marta Grzechnik
This book examines the vision of maritime and colonial expansion developed by the Maritime and Colonial League, Poland’s second largest mass organization in the interwar period. It focuses on how the League aspired to transform Poland from a land into a maritime nation, from backward and marginal to modern and central; to create "a new, pioneering type of Pole, conqueror of seas and oceans, mosquitos and malaria (…) building bridges, taming waterfalls and carrying high the banner in the name of Poland” (Michał Pankiewicz in Morze, September 1936). Through active presence in the colonial world and by exercising power over it, Poland was to overcome its internal problems and become a modern power with global presence, on equal terms with its Western European neighbors.
Copyright Year:
2025
E-Book (PDF)
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-74679-4
Publication:
08 Dec 2025
Hardback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-74678-7
Publication:
09 Dec 2025
Cover Conquerors of Seas and Oceans: The Maritime and Colonial League and Polish Colonial Aspirations, 1924–1939

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Marta Grzechnik, Ph.D. (2010), European University Institute, works at the University of Gdańsk. She is a historian with an interest in the history and historiography of the Baltic Sea region, Polish maritimity, and Polish colonialism.
Acknowledgements
List of Figures

Introduction
 1 Catching up and Escaping
 2 Poland and Its Problems in the Interwar Period
 3 Maritime and River/Colonial League
 4 Methodology, Sources, Structure

Part 1: Conquerors of Seas and Oceans



Introduction to Part 1

1 “A Pole Does Not Have to Know the Sea:” Maritime and Land Cultures

2 The LMiR/LMiK and Its Maritime Program
 1 The Maritime League
 2 Experiencing and Celebrating the Sea
 3 Actual and Potential Maritimity

3 Cultivation of the Sea
 1 “City of Sea and Dreams:” the Construction of Gdynia
 2 “On Our Own Ships into the Wide World:” Maritime Trade
 3 The League’s Attempts at Developing Overseas Trade: Elemka and Poznań
 4 The Navy

4 A Global Power?
 1 Polska Mocarstwowa
 2 The League Goes Colonial

Part 2: The Hungry and the Satiated



Introduction to Part 2

5 Emigration and Settlement
 1 For an Active Emigration Policy
 2 Brazil: Emigrants into Pioneers
 3 Angola: Tensions and Paradoxes
 4 The Dynamic and the Stagnant

6 Mandates
 1 “We Have Special Rights to Cameroon:” Renegotiating the Mandates System
 2 In Germany’s Wake

7 The Colonial Question as a Global Problem
 1 Raw Materials and Export Markets
 2 The Global Imbalance as Cause of Crisis and War
 3 The Jewish Question

Part 3: Knowledge and Its Uses



Introduction to Part 3

8 Production of knowledge
 1 Organization of Colonial Knowledge Production in Interwar Poland
 2 Tropical Climate and Tropical Disease
 3 Exploration and Map-Making
 4 Production of Tradition: Past Explorers

9 Production of Race
 1 Empty Lands
 2 Becoming European

10 Displaying Knowledge

Conclusions

Bibliography
Index
Scholars, students, and other readers interested in global and world history, European, East European and East Central European history, history of Poland, and history of European colonialism.
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