 | |
 Poland |  France |
|---|---|
France–Poland relations are relations between the nations ofPoland andFrance, which date back several centuries.
Despite a number of cultural similarities, such as being prominent old medieval European kingdoms, belonging toWestern civilization and sharing a commonCatholic religion, relations between France and Poland have only become relevant since theRenaissance era. From the 16th century onward, the two countries made more frequent attempts at alliances and political cooperation, and the French and Polish ruling houses intermarried several times. Relations gained greater significance during the reign ofNapoleon I, when Poles wereallies of Napoleon with the hope of resurrecting theirrecently occupied homeland, which, however, was not achieved. The French government sympathized with Polish rebels in1830 and1863 but did not intervene. At that time alarge Polish community settled in France.
Following the rebirth of independent Poland afterWorld War I,Poland and France were allies during theinterwar period andWorld War II. France declared war onNazi Germany when itinvaded Poland in 1939, but for the most part France did not engage in military action, thus it was accused of failing to act accordingly. France eventually also fell to the Germans the next year, and the Poles took part in theliberation of France in 1944. The two countries were on opposite sides during theCold War, resulting in limited, frosty relations. Following thefall of communism in Poland in 1989, the countries once again became close allies and partners.
Currently, both countries are part of theCouncil of Europe,European Union,NATO,OECD andOSCE. Poland is also an observer in theOrganisation internationale de la Francophonie.
Polish–French relations were nascent until the 18th century, due to geographical distance and thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's lack of involvement in the wars ofWestern Europe. French and Polish troops fought together as part of a larger European coalition against theOttoman invasion of Europe at theBattle of Nicopolis in 1396. In 1524, aFranco-Polish alliance was formed, however it fell through after KingFrancis I of France was defeated and captured by troops ofCharles V of Austria and Spain in theBattle of Pavia in 1525.[1] The first large wave of migration from France to Poland, consisting of persecutedHuguenots, occurred following theSt. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572.[2] In 1573,Henry III of France waselectedking of Poland, but he abdicated the next year to becomeking of France. The FrenchOrder of the Holy Spirit was dedicated to theHoly Spirit for commemorating Henry III's succession as king of Poland (1573) and France (1574) on twoPentecosts.
Two Polish kings,Władysław IV Vasa andJohn II Casimir, were married to French princessLudwika Maria Gonzaga. After his abdication in 1668, John II Casimir left for France, where he joined theJesuits and became abbot ofSaint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris. His heart was buried there.In the late 17th century, KingJohn III Sobieski married French princessMarie Casimire Louise de la Grange d'Arquien and tried to forge a Polish–French alliance. Analliance treaty was signed in 1675, however, due to external factors it was not implemented. When French princesses were Queens consorts of Poland in the 17th century, there was a second significant wave of French migration to Poland.[3]
Charles-Paris d'Orléans; François Louis, prince of Conti; Henri Jules, prince of Condé; andLouis, prince of Condé were candidates for the Polish throne.
In the 1730s,Stanisław I Leszczyński, king of Poland, who tried to continue Sobieski's efforts and align Poland and France, after losing theWar of the Polish Succession, retired to France, where he became duke ofLorraine in 1737. He was a great patron of arts and science in Lorraine. He established theAcadémie de Stanislas inNancy, and he commissioned the construction of thePlace Stanislas, Nancy's stunning main city square andUNESCOWorld Heritage Site. In the mid-18th century, his daughter, PrincessMarie Leszczyńska was the queen consort of France and wife ofLouis XV.
During the anti-RussianConfederation of Bar the French Court Royal supported the Polish confederates by sending French officers underCharles François Dumouriez.In the late 18th century both Poland and France entered a revolutionary period, with theFrench Revolution being a major influence on the reforms of theGreat Sejm in Poland. There was, however, never any official Polish–French alliance; in fact France was content to deflect some of its troubles by not allying itself with Poland, as Poland's neighbors,Prussia,Austria, andRussia, expecting a formation of such an alliance, and seeing Polish reforms as a sign ofJacobinite influence, were busy carrying out thepartitions of Poland and had less resources to spare to deal with events in France. Many French monarchists, merchants and craftsmen fled the French Revolution to Poland.[4][5][6]
Napoleon's creation of theDuchy of Warsaw gave every appearance of resurrecting the Polish nation from the political grave to which it had been consigned in the partitions that ended in 1795.[7] Russia defeated Napoleon and made the "independence" no more meaningful than that ofCongress Poland, which emerged from the Vienna settlement. However, the Duchy represented the hope of true independence, whereas Congress Poland was always in Russia's shadow.
The other lasting significance of Napoleon's Grand Duchy is that it cast off old feudal Poland to some degree under the rule of the partitioning powers. Serfdom was abolished and a modern legal code based on the French model was introduced.[citation needed] Critical was the contribution the Napoleonic period made towards the creation of a national legend or myth, which was to sustain and comfort Poles down the decades that followed. Amongst other things, it contributed to a belief that the rest of Europe had an abiding interest in the fate of Poland, arising from Bonaparte's support in 1797 for the formation ofPolish Legions, recruited from amongst émigrés and other exiles living in Italy.[citation needed] The Polish national anthem, "Dąbrowski's Mazurka", is a celebration of the legion's commander,Jan Henryk Dąbrowski, and Napoleon is only mentioned in passing. Napoleon's treatment of these soldiers was cynical in the extreme.[according to whom?] After theTreaty of Lunéville in 1801, they were sent to the West Indies to suppress the slave revolt in the French colonySaint-Domingue, or modernHaiti.[citation needed]
Napoleon continued to use Poles where it suited him best. Of the fresh forces raised after the creation of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, some 10,000 were sent to fight against the Spanish and the British in thePeninsular War. However, the Poles were most enthusiastic aboutthe 1812 war against Russia-which Napoleon called the Second Polish War-as they formed by far the largest foreign contingent of the Grand Army.[citation needed] There is no precise information on what form the peace would have taken if Napoleon had won his war against Alexander, but many Poles held to the belief that it would, at the very least, have led to a fully restored Poland, including Lithuania; a return, in other words, to the situation prior to the first partition in 1772. The whole experience of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw is one of Polish confidence in Napoleon's promise of a better future, though there is really nothing that proves he would have fulfilled these expectations.[according to whom?]
Polish national determination did impactCzar Alexander I, as he accepted that there could be no return to the position prevailing in 1795, when Poland had been extinguished. On his insistence, lands that had fallen to Prussia on the Third Partition, including the city of Warsaw, became part of his new 'Polish State', asatellite state that had a high degree of political latitude and one that preserved theNapoleonic Code. Alexander may have hoped to transfer some of the fierce loyalty the Poles had formerly shown towards his great rival towards himself; but he merely perpetuated a myth. The hope of a liberal Poland, of Napoleon's Poland was kept alive, until it was all but destroyed in the uprising of 1830–1831.[citation needed] Thereafter, most of those who went into exile sought refuge in France, the home of the Napoleon myth, which gave it fresh life. In 1834, from his Paris exile,Adam Mickiewicz wrote his epic poem,Pan Tadeusz, which celebrates Napoleon's entry into Lithuania in 1812 thus;All sure of victory, cry with tears in eyes/God is with Napoleon, and Napoleon is with us!
Although the legend declined over the years, especially asNapoleon III offered no support to the Polish rising of 1863, it did not altogether die.[citation needed] It received fresh encouragement in 1918, as France was the only western power that offered unqualified support to the newly independent Poland. May 5, 1921, the hundredth anniversary of Napoleon's death, was formally marked by commemorations across the new nation. And he lives, and will continue to live, in the national anthem.[citation needed]
TheGreat Emigration was an emigration of political elites from partitioned Poland from 1831 to 1870, particularly after theNovember andJanuary uprisings. Since the end of the 18th century, people who carried out their activities outside the country asemigres played a major role in Polish political life. Because of this emigration of political elites, much of the political and ideological activity of the Polish intelligentsia during the 18th and 19th centuries was done outside of the lands of partitioned Poland. Most of those political émigrés were based in France, seen by the Poles - freshly influenced by Napoleon - as the bastion of liberty in Europe.[8]
It was during that era that some celebrated Poles came to live in France, such as the composerFrédéric Chopin, writers likeAdam Mickiewicz,Cyprian Norwid or entrepreneurs likeLouis Wolowski andCitroen and much later, the scientistMaria Skłodowska-Curie (Marie Curie).
Some of the remnants of the 19th-century Polish community in France, i.e. thePolish Library,Adam Mickiewicz Museum and Polish Historical and Literary Society in Paris are listed by UNESCO'sMemory of the World Programme.[9]
Poland and France were political and military allies during the interwar period. The political agreement signed in Paris on February 19, 1921 established cooperation between them.[10][11] Starting with theBlue Army that aided France in World War I and theFrench Military Mission to Poland during thePolish–Soviet War (1919–1921), theFranco-Polish Military Alliance was signed in 1921 and continued until theGerman invasion of Poland.
France declared war onGermany when itinvaded Poland in 1939, and thenattacked Germany, however, the French soon withdrew in what is known as thePhoney War. During the German invasion, Poland evacuated itsgold reserve to France.[12] During the subsequent Germanoccupation of Poland,a new Polish Army formed in France under the command of GeneralWładysław Sikorski in late 1939. Polish units included the1st Grenadiers Division, among others. France itself fell to Germany following theGerman invasion of France in 1940, and afterwards, 23,000 Poles were deported by the Germans toslave labour inGerman-occupied France,[13] and Frenchprisoners of war were also deported toGerman prisoner-of-war camps andforced labour camps in German-occupied Poland. Due to the German occupation of both countries, official Polish–French relations ceased in 1940–44. Some Polesbecame part of theFrench Resistance.[14] Polish troops also took part in theliberation of France in 1944. Despite this, France was blamed for betraying its promise to help in Poland, due to the alliance treaty signed between Poland and France prior to World War II; later it was extended afterlarge territories in the East of Poland was annexed by theSoviet Union, which eventually became modernBelarus,Ukraine andLithuania after theDissolution of the Soviet Union in 1990–1991.[15]
 | This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(May 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
During the Cold War, Polish–French relations were poor, due to both countries being on the opposite sides of theCold War. However France was - again - a site of a thriving Polish emigrant community (seeKultura andJerzy Giedroyc). Other prominent members of the Polish community in France of that period have includedRene Goscinny.
In 1957, Poland and France signed an agreement for cultural cooperation,[16] resulting in the founding of the Centre Français at theUniversity of Warsaw withMichel Foucault as its first director.[17]
Polish-French relations have improved after thefall of communism. Poland, France andGermany are part of theWeimar Triangle which was created in 1991 to strengthen cooperation between the three countries.[18]
France, as a founding member of theEuropean Community,European Union, andNATO, as well as a permanent member of theUnited Nations Security Council and nuclear power, is one of Poland's principal political, economic, cultural, scientific and technological partners.
The year 2004 marked a breakthrough in Polish-French relations. After a period of tension caused by different approaches to theIraq crisis and theEuropean Constitution negotiations, relations improved. After theaccession of Poland to the European Union on May 1, 2004, meetings of theheads of state from both countries have been organized yearly.
France is the largest contributor offoreign direct investment in Poland. The French companies with the largest presence in Poland includeOrange,Vivendi,Carrefour,Casino,Crédit Agricole,Saint Gobain andAuchan.
Controversy was caused by the phrase "Polish Plumber", which appeared in France around 2005.[19]
About one millionethnic Poles live in France, concentrated in theNord-Pas de Calais region, in the metropolitan area ofLille and thecoal-mining region (bassin minier) aroundLens andValenciennes. Polish mineurs' descendants are also found inAuberny.
Poland and France have held intergovernmental consultations on several occasions.[20][21] The last such summit took place on 2015 in Paris with PresidentFrançois Hollande and Prime MinisterEwa Kopacz.
In August 2022, Poland sent 146 firefighters and 49 vehicles to France, the largest such group from a foreign country to help extinguish the2022 wildfires in France.[22]
In May 2025 inNancy, Polish Prime MinisterDonald Tusk and French PresidentEmmanuel Macron signed a cooperation and friendship treaty with a defense clause committing the parties to mutual military support in case of an attack by an aggressor.[23] Macron stressed that the treaty was not a substitute for existing military relations through the European Union and NATO.
While France was one of the founding members of theEuropean Union (EU), Poland joined the European Union (EU) in2004. While France was one of the founding members ofNATO, Poland joined NATO in 1999.
.jpg)
Zubrzycki, J. (1953). "Emigration from Poland in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries".Population Studies: A Journal of Demography.6 (3):248–272.doi:10.1080/00324728.1953.10414889.
| Africa |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Americas | ||
| Asia | ||
| Europe | ||
| Oceania | ||
| Former | ||
| Multilateral relations | ||
| Diplomatic missions | ||
