Nationality issues on Polish maps prepared for the Paris Peace Conference 1919-1920

Abstract

The military and political outcome of World War I, and the deliberations of the Paris Peace Conference, offered a real chance for the rebirth of Polish statehood. A key issue was the justification of Poland’s future territorial shape, in which ethnic issues played a significant role alongside historical, economic and strategic criteria. The aim of this paper is to show and discuss selected archival nationality maps, often of an expert nature, produced by Polish scholars for the purpose of negotiating the territorial extent of Poland during the Paris Peace Conference. To what extent were they an attempt at an objective representation of the national reality of the Polish territory, and to what a subjective perception and experience of space by the authors of the maps? What were the aims and ideas of their creators, what did they want to achieve? To what extent did the political reality of the time determine their behaviour?