The Prussians on the Thames? Reasons for British Resistance to Polish Claims to Gdańsk after the Great War

In the settlement of the question of Gdańsk after the Great War, Britain came out as the power that was the most critical to Polish geopolitical aspirations among the Allies. This led some in Poland to call the British “Prussians on the Thames.”This paper discusses the reasons behind such British “Polono‑skepticism.” After reviewing the common explanations given in the literature, the paper suggests that Britain’s Polish policy at the time was guided by civilisational assumptions and historical considerations which had their roots in the demise of the Lithuanian‑Polish commonwealth in the end of the 18th century.