What is it about?
Lebensraum – the space a state believes is required for its natural expansion – has a pivotal role in the global expansion projects. Whenever this concept is discussed, it is almost exclusively reduced to the Imperial Russia’s domination of less-stately countries in Central and Eastern Europe; the British exploration and colonization of territories in Africa and Asia; the French settlements in parts of the Caribbean Islands and Africa; the German experimentation in South-West Africa, and the Dutch seaborne competing with the Spanish and Portuguese’s expansionism. Study related to Poland’s attempted acquisition of colonial territories outside Europe is rarely discussed.
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Why is it important?
Drawing on the activities of the Polish Colonial Society, this article contends that the building blocks of colonization were not confined solely to European imperial powers. As colonization forged ahead in the twentieth century, Poland seemed to be the country where colonialism played a significant role in both national and transnational politics.
Perspectives
The conditions created by the European imperial powers such as Spanish, Portugal, Great Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands encouraged less powerful European states to attempt colonization at the time when the “Scramble for Africa” had been completed. This paper highlights colonialism, the colonial imperative, racism and related issues and provides a thought-provoking new case to think again about European colonialism and the need to broaden the parameters of the debate.
Bolaji Balogun
University of Leeds
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Polish Lebensraum: the colonial ambition to expand on racial terms, Ethnic and Racial Studies, October 2017, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2017.1392028.
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