 | |
 United Kingdom |  Poland |
|---|---|
| Diplomatic mission | |
| Embassy of the United Kingdom, Warsaw | Embassy of Poland, London |
British–Polish relations are the bilateral relations between the countries ofUnited Kingdom andPoland. Exchanges between the two countries date back to medieval times, when Britain and Poland, then one of Europe's largest countries, were linked by trade and diplomacy. As a result of the 18th-centuryPartitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by its neighbours, the number of Polish immigrants to Britain increased in the aftermath of two 19th-century uprisings (November Uprising of 1831 andJanuary Uprising of 1863) which forced much of Poland's social and political elite into exile. A number of Polish exiles fought in theCrimean War on the British side.
The number of Poles in the UK increased during theSecond World War. Most of the Polish people who came to the United Kingdom at that time comprised military units reconstituted outside Poland after the German and Sovietinvasion of Poland in September 1939, which marked the beginning of World War II. On 3 September 1939, Britain and France, which were allied with Poland,declared war on Germany. Poland movedits government abroad, first to France and, after its fall in May 1940, to London. The Polescontributed greatly to the Allied war effort and the Polish Air Force pilots played a conspicuous role in theBattle of Britain and the Polish army formed in Britain later fought duringOperation Overlord. The Polish Government in Exile, though denied majority international recognition after 1945, remained at its post in London until formally dissolved in 1991, after a democratically elected president had taken office in Warsaw.
Currently, both countries areNATO andOECD members and allies. Since theEuropean Union's 2004 enlargement, a significant number of Poles emigrated to the United Kingdom and now constitute one of thelargest ethnic minorities in the country.The United Kingdom gave full support to Poland's applications for membership in theEuropean Union andNATO.
Some Polish merchants reached England in the 14th century.[1]
According to the Polish historianOskar Halecki, there was a piece of correspondence by KingHenry V of England toWładysław II Jagiełło, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania requesting his assistance againstFrance in theHundred Years' War.[2] English–Polish relations had continued in the following years largely in the area of commerce, and diplomacy.
The 16th century saw the height of early modern diplomatic relations betweenPoland-Lithuania andEngland. WhenQueen Mary I of England andKing Philip II of Spain were married in 1554,Krzysztof Warszewicki was present to attend and witness their wedding. Warszewicki was at the time of theTudor-Habsburg marriage page toFerdinand, King of the Romans. According toNorman Davies, Warszewicki later became a notable Polish diplomat. The EnglishEastland Company, founded in 1579, fostered trade between England and Poland. In early modern times, England was Poland's second largest partner in maritime trade (after theNetherlands).[3] The Poles imported mainly cloth from England, while the English imported mainly grain, flax, iron, ash, tar, ship ropes and wood for shipbuilding from Poland.[3]
After the death of Queen Mary I, her sister,Elizabeth I, ascended to the English throne. Unlike herCatholic sister, Queen Elizabeth I was aProtestant and gave her support to the Dutch cause against theirSpanish Habsburg overlords in theEighty Years' War. With the English and the Dutch at war with the Spaniards, the conflict adversely affected the Spanish trade with the Polish port city ofGdańsk asBritish andDutch navies'privateers would seize Spanish vessels, including those sailing for Poland. It and, by extension, the city of Gdańsk sentPaweł Działyński to the Dutch and the English to persuade them to stop their attacks against Spanish ships headed for Gdańsk. However, as Norman Davies writes, Działyński was overly direct and blunt by threatening the Dutch and the English with an embargo of their merchants and goods.[4] Queen Elizabeth I responded with an equally-blunt response, and Działyński's mission ultimately failed. English diplomats and merchants enjoyed transit through Poland to theMiddle East to bypass Spanish spies and trade rivals in theMediterranean.[5]
The migration of Scots to Poland, dating back to 1380, intensified in the 16th and 17th centuries, resulting in the formation of a notableScottish diaspora in Poland.[6] The Scots were referred by Davies as "British Trading Agents".
As the 18th century dawned, the sun was setting slowly over thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Saxon Kings ofPoland–Lithuania had largely neglected Poland's diplomatic relations during this period, as they preferred to conduct their diplomatic affairs from Saxony. That, however, did not stop the conducting of diplomatic relations with other European states. In 1744–1746, the British government concluded negotiations in a treaty betweenGreat Britain, theDutch Republic,Hungary and Poland-Lithuania. The multilateral agreement, which the Journal of theHouse of Commons calls "Treaty of Friendship and Alliance", came during theWar of the Austrian Succession in which Britain fought on the side ofMaria Theresa ofAustria, the Queen of Hungary. Poland was a neutral power in the war and did not participate. However, asSaxony was a participant and the Elector of Saxony was the King of Poland, the treaty was signed and ratified in the name of the "Polish Republic".
With the death ofAugustus III in late 1762,Stanisław August Poniatowski was elected to the Polish throne at the end of 1764. Although KingGeorge III mentioned the election of Stanisław August Poniatowski in His Majesty's most gracious speech toParliament in 1765,[7] his speeches to Parliament in 1772 and 1773 made no references to the 1772First Partition of Poland byRussia,Prussia, and Austria. In 1789, after the imposition of high customs duties by Prussia on Polish goods transported through seized Polish Pomerania to the still Polish port of Gdańsk, Britain, interested in continued trade with Poland, tried to persuade Poland to relinquish its cities of Gdańsk andToruń to Prussia in exchange for declared British guarantees of continued free use of the Gdańsk port by Poland and a reduction in Prussian duties, but thePolish Parliament declined.[8]
George III did not mention theSecond Partition in his 1793 speech to Parliament or theThird and Final Partition in his 1795 speech to Parliament. In reaction to the decision ofHis Majesty's Government to make no diplomatic protests against the actions of Russia, Prussia, and Austria, the 18th- and 19th-century contemporaries in Britain on the European continent and scholars ofPolish history have often made the conclusion that Britain was indifferent to the situation in Poland.[9]
Although Britain seemed to be largely indifferent to thePartitions of Poland, many of Britain's political elites, including George III andEdmund Burke, voiced their concerns in their correspondences and publications about the partitions and theimbalance of power in Europe that they had created.
During theCongress of Vienna,Lord Castlereagh,British Foreign Secretary from 1812 to 1822, was a major proponent of restoration of Polish independence, but he later dropped that point to attain ground in areas on which theUnited Kingdom had greater interest.
In the 19th century, frostyBritish–Russian relations prompted more interest in an independent Poland from Britain. In the British populace too, sympathy for Poland and the other oppressed peoples of Europe was common.
Britain, along with itsalliesFrance and theUnited States, was crucial in securing Polish independence at the end ofWorld War I in order to recruit national minorities against theCentral Powers ofGermany andAustria-Hungary. During theParis Peace Conference at the end of World War I, the British delegation underDavid Lloyd George opposed France and the United States's territorial concessions towards Poland as excessive and potentially provocative towards theWeimar Republic. Lloyd George was influential in makingDanzig (Gdańsk) anautonomous city-state rather than a direct Polish territory, and also secured theUpper Silesia plebiscite. Another major point of disagreement was the point of its eastern borders.[10]
During thePolish-Soviet War, the support of the British government was truly with Poland, but peace was by far the preferred option resulting inLord Curzon's drawing of theCurzon Line as part of an attempted mediated peace. The agreement was not adopted in time, and Poland soon took the upper hand in the war pushing its border further to the east. Lloyd-George adopted a policy in which it would support Poland's defense against the Soviet Red Army west of the Curzon Line but would oppose attempts to reconquer its pre-Partition borders as its leaderJózef Piłsudski desired.[10]
During the 1920s and the early 1930s, British views of Poland were generally negative because of itsexpansionism and treatment ofethnic minorities. That was particularly the case from theBritish left. Overall, the right wing in Britain, meanwhile, held more neutral views of Poland because of its position as abuffer against theSoviet Union.
Poland's view of Britain was then generally ambivalent.France or even Germany was then the primary focus of British friendship and attempts to gain protection. The firstPolish embassy inLondon was established only in 1929.
With the rise of theNazi party inGermany, the British and the Poles began to see more of a point in friendly relations. On 31 March 1939, the British made a guarantee of independence to Poland. On 25 August, anAnglo-Polish military alliance was signed. At first glance, that treaty was just a catch-all mutual assistance pact against the aggression of any other European nation, but a secret protocol attached to the agreement made clear that it was to defend Poland from Germany.
_Squadron_RAF_with_one_of_their_Hawker_Hurricanes%2c_October_1940._CH1535.jpg)
After theGerman annexation of Czechoslovakia, Britain abandoned its foreign policy ofappeasement and declared that an annexation of Poland would mean war. In March 1939, the British gave up on plans to avoid sending an army to the continent in the event of conflict with Germany and to rely on theRoyal Navy and theRoyal Air Force. Plan were put in place for eventually providing 32 divisions, starting with two Corp of two divisions each, within 33 days of mobilization.[11]
After theinvasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in September 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September and honourings agreement signed with Poland, and a Britishnaval blockade of Germany was initiated. On 4 September, anRAF raid againstKriegsmarine warships inWilhelmshaven was undertaken, and theBritish Expeditionary Force (BEF) left the British Isles to arrive in France, where it was immediately placed underFrench 1st Army Group and so it was stationed in the defensive line on theFrench/Belgium border. In September 1939, however, the BEF had only two divisions, with severe shortages of modern equipment. By the end of September, it had doubled in size to four divisions, but severe equipment shortages continued. The divisions fulfilled the undertaking given for two Army Corps assembled in France 33 days after mobilization.[12]
It had been decided that no major air operations against Germany would take place because of French concerns over reprisals on RAF launches from French airfields, against targets in Germany and so most British bomber activity over Germany was the dropping of propaganda leaflets and reconnaissance.[13] That theme would continue in meetings of theAnglo-French Supreme War Council meetings until 1940.
ThePolish government-in-exile was based inLondon since 1940. During the war, 250,000 Polish people served with British forces taking part in many key campaigns. A twelfth of all pilots in theBattle of Britain werePolish. Poles were among the prisoners of Germanforced labour camps in theoccupied Channel Islands,[14] and British prisoners of war were amongAllied POWs held inGerman POW camps and forced labour subcamps operated inoccupied Poland. ThePolish resistance movement helped British POWs escape from German POW camps, gave shelter to POWs who had escaped from German POW camps and forced labor camps, and organized their escapes either by sea toneutralSweden or by land throughHungary to southeastern Europe.[15][16]
Gibraltar was the site of the1943 Gibraltar Liberator AL523 crash, in which GeneralWładysław Sikorski, the commander-in-chief of the Polish Army and Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile, was killed. The crash was officially ruled to have been an accident, however, there are manycontroversies and theories surrounding it.
During theYalta Conference and the postwar alteration of Poland's borders, British-Polish relations hit a low because of Britain was perceived to have compromised over Poland's fate so readily. Poland saw that in a particularly negative light because of its large contribution to the war effort and its sacrifices.
After the war, many Polish servicemen remained in Britain and further numbers of refugees arrived in the country.
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At first, British relations to Soviet-occupiedPolish People's Republic were largely neutral with some sections of thefar left even being supportive of the regime. ThePolish government-in-exile remained in place at 43 Eaton Place,London, however, and no Poles were forced to return home.
During theCold War, Poland retained a largely-negative view of Britain as part of the West. British efforts meanwhile were focused at trying to split Poland from theWarsaw Pact and encouraging reforms in the country.
In the 1990s and the 2000s, the newly-democratic Poland maintained close relations with Britain; both in defence matters and within theEuropean Union. Britain was one of only a few countries to allow equal rights to Polish workers upon Polish accession in 2004 after which 375,000 Poles registered to work in Britain.
The results of the2011 British census has shown thatPolish is now the second most common spoken first language inNorthern Ireland, after English, and surpassedUlster Scots andIrish. Poland and the United Kingdom have staged several intergovernmental consultations,[17][18] the last of which took place in December 2018 inLondon with Prime MinistersTheresa May andMateusz Morawiecki and their cabinet members.[19]
The United Kingdom is the largest importer of Polish goods outside the EU, and the third largest importer of Polish goods overall (as of 2019).[20]
In December 2020, Poland sent medical and military personnel to help administer more than 15,000COVID-19 tests to people who were stuck in a huge roadblock outside theEnglish Channel inKent, thus allowing them to enter France and relieving the traffic jam.[21]
In November 2021, during theBelarus–European Union border crisis, the United Kingdom sent 150 British armyRoyal Engineers to support Poland's border security.[22]
In response to the Russian military build-up proceeding theinvasion, on 17 February 2022, the UK, Poland andUkraine agreed aBritish–Polish–Ukrainian trilateral pact to strengthen strategic cooperation between the three countries.[23] In a poll published by Rating Group, Ukrainian respondents voted in favour of closer ties to Poland and the UK as opposed to NATO membership.[24]
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In January 2025, the UK and Poland announced the start of negotiations on a Defence and Security Treaty.[25]
Trade between theUnited Kingdom and Poland is governed by theEU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement since 1 January 2021.[28][29]
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