Colonial Days: We Demand Colonies For Poland Poster, Maritime and Colonial League (1938)
EMPIRE LINES21 Jul 2022

Colonial Days: We Demand Colonies For Poland Poster, Maritime and Colonial League (1938)

Dr. Piotr Puchalski depicts interwar Poland's imperial aspirations, through the Maritime and Colonial League's 1938 poster, Colonial Days: We Demand Colonies For Poland.

Facing economic crises and the onset of World War II, Poland looked to Africa as a source of material wealth, potential place of alternative appeasement, and site of refuge for its Jewish population. With their abundance of 'exotic' fruits and peoples, propaganda posters advertised Poland's Colonial Days events in April 1938, improving public awareness of places like Cameroon, Madagascar, and Liberia, and bolstering national support for elites' ever-shifting visions for colonialism. Colouring Eastern European perceptions of Africa, this poster highlights how colonialism was a truly global phenomenon, attracting the interest of powers without colonies of their own. Today, Poland is more often considered a victim of imperial exploitation – most famously by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union - than a historic empire or colonial power. But Colonial Days reveals persistent Polish cultural and socioeconomic insecurities, and how European political and artistic trends, from racial pseudoscience to modernism, were moulded by colonial interactions.

PRESENTER: Dr. Piotr Puchalski, Assistant Professor of Modern History at the Pedagogical University of Kraków. He specialises in the history of Poland, colonial empires, international relations, and contemporary tourism. He is the author of Poland in a Colonial World Order: Adjustments and Aspirations, 1918-1939, published by Routledge in 2022.

ART: Colonial Days: We Demand Colonies For Poland Poster, Maritime and Colonial League (1938).

IMAGE: 'Colonial Days Poster'.

SOUNDS: Gary War.

PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic.


Follow EMPIRE LINES at: twitter.com/jelsofron/status/1306563558063271936

Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines

Episoder(162)

I Am a Man and a Brother (2021-Now), with Chris Day and Gabriella Gay (EMPIRE LINES Live at V&A Wedgwood)

I Am a Man and a Brother (2021-Now), with Chris Day and Gabriella Gay (EMPIRE LINES Live at V&A Wedgwood)

In this special episode, glass artist Chris Day and poet and creative producer Gabriella Gay join EMPIRE LINES live, to reflect on the complex histories of the Wedgwood Anti-Slavery Medallion, and the...

26 Feb 59min

Hidden Histories, with Wormcasts, from the Chelsea Physic Garden

Hidden Histories, with Wormcasts, from the Chelsea Physic Garden

Wormcasts is a podcast from Chelsea Physic Garden, created by the Young Producers – a group of 16 – 24 year olds working to engage more young people with the garden.  This series explores the global h...

16 Feb 5min

The Foreign Invention of British Art: From Renaissance to Enlightenment, Leslie Primo (2025), with Miranda Kaufmann (EMPIRE LINES Live at the National Gallery, London)

The Foreign Invention of British Art: From Renaissance to Enlightenment, Leslie Primo (2025), with Miranda Kaufmann (EMPIRE LINES Live at the National Gallery, London)

In this special episode, authors and historians Leslie Primo and Miranda Kaufmann join EMPIRE LINES live, to discuss migration, national identity, and the many heritages of Britain’s best-known artwor...

29 Jan 58min

The Water Diviners, Jumana Emil Abboud (2020-) (EMPIRE LINES x Artes Mundi 11, Mostyn)

The Water Diviners, Jumana Emil Abboud (2020-) (EMPIRE LINES x Artes Mundi 11, Mostyn)

Contemporary artist Jumana Emil Abboud respirits water sources from Palestine to Wales, drawing on folklore, oral storytelling, and memories of dispossession and resistance, in her ongoing series of c...

15 Jan 21min

Every Monument Will Fall, Dan Hicks (2025) (EMPIRE LINES Live at Common Ground, Oxford)

Every Monument Will Fall, Dan Hicks (2025) (EMPIRE LINES Live at Common Ground, Oxford)

In this special episode, author, curator, and archaeologist Dan Hicks joins EMPIRE LINES live, to trace the origins of contemporary conflicts over art, history, memory, and colonialism, through their ...

18 Des 20251h 14min

Introducing: Wormcasts, from the Chelsea Physic Garden

Introducing: Wormcasts, from the Chelsea Physic Garden

Wormcasts is a podcast from Chelsea Physic Garden, created by the Young Producers – a group of 16 – 24 year olds working to engage more young people with the garden.  This series explores the global h...

8 Des 20252min

Colorless Green Freedoms Sleep Furiously, Miloš Trakilović (2023), with Jelena Visković (EMPIRE LINES Live at Forma, Artists' Film International 2025)

Colorless Green Freedoms Sleep Furiously, Miloš Trakilović (2023), with Jelena Visković (EMPIRE LINES Live at Forma, Artists' Film International 2025)

In this special episode, contemporary artists and filmmakers Miloš Trakilović and Jelena Visković join EMPIRE LINES live, exloring narratives of war, displacement, and visual cultures in the collapse ...

20 Nov 202544min

Voiceless Mass, Raven Chacon and Scottish Ensemble (2025) (EMPIRE LINES x Fruitmarket, Edinburgh Art Festival 2025)

Voiceless Mass, Raven Chacon and Scottish Ensemble (2025) (EMPIRE LINES x Fruitmarket, Edinburgh Art Festival 2025)

Composer and artist Raven Chacon amplifies the Catholic Church’s complicity in the suppression of Indigenous people in the Americas, through their composition for organ, Voiceless Mass (2021).Raven Ch...

6 Nov 202518min

Populært innen Samfunn

rss-spartsklubben
giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
konspirasjonspodden
aftenpodden-usa
popradet
rss-nesten-hele-uka-med-lepperod
rss-henlagt-andy-larsgaard
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
alt-fortalt
wolfgang-wee-uncut
grenselos
rss-dannet-uten-piano
min-barneoppdragelse
fladseth
frokostshowet-pa-p5
rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
synnve-og-vanessa
rss-frekvens-med-anine-olsen
opptur-med-annette-og-ingeborg