That there was going to be an independent Poland who was now inarguable.

Where the new Poland's borders would lie, on the other hand, was still very arguable indeed.

Poland has no natural geographic features that might help define a good defensible border,

which is part of the reason why the old Poland fell.

The process of defining Poland's borders led to conflict with every one of the country's new neighbors.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

The 20th century. Episode 180,

19, Poland, Part 2

This is the fifth episode of our 1919 world tour.

In the previous episode, we talked about the re-emergence of Poland as an independent nation in November 1918.

In that episode, we saw the new nation fight a seven-day war with

Czechoslovakia and a four-month war with Ukraine over border disputes. That was just the

beginning. There are more border disputes to come. Before we get into that, though, I'd like to take a step back and review the big picture.

There were upwards of 30 million Poles living in Eastern Europe in the early 20th century.

Add to that, the romantic nationalism of the 19th century, which was seeing disenfranchised

minorities across Europe, rediscovering their cultural roots and demanding equal

rights, and toss in a helping of self-determination, which is now all the rage, and the prospect of

a revived Poland begins to seem inevitable, at least in hindsight. As I pointed out last time,

think about how much grief five million checks gave the Austrians, or 4 million Irish gave the British, and ask yourself how long even the mightiest empires in Europe can hold back the aspirations of 30 million Poles.

In fact, you might be tempted to ask by now, not how was it that Poland was reborn, but what took so long?

The answer lies in partition.

The Poles may have had the numbers, but they were sundered.

...