Fascinating though academic map recording the formation of the Second Polish Republic formed just after the conclusion of World War I.

This separately issued folding map shows an early version of the new Polish state being formed after the end of World War I and the Soviet Polish War of 1919-21. In the southwest part of the country, is an uncoloured region around the cities of Opole, Glivitse and Katowice in Upper Silesia. At the time issue of this map, the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, had ordered a plebiscite to determine if it should be part of Poland or Germany. The plebiscite was bitterly fought, led to the Silesian Uprisings and ultimately ended with the region being divided between Germany and Poland in 1922.In the east, on this map, Polish border is shown to the at the city of Brest Litovsk. This was before the conclusion of the Treaty of Riga, which moved the border along ethnic lines to the city of Pinsk in modern Belarus. The final border in the east ultimately ran along the area shown with detail although without the red colour of the republic in the map, indicating that this extension was still under review. It was ultimately ratified by the League of Nations in 1923. This border changed yet again after 1939.

The map also portrays the Danzig Corridor, with the independent city of Danzig (now Gdansk), coloured in yellow.

Original colour. [POL1047]