History of the area In the 10th century, Pomerelia was settled by
Slavic Pomeranians, ancestors of the
Kashubians, who were subdued by
Bolesław I of Poland. In the 11th century, they created an independent duchy. In 1116/1121, Pomerania was again conquered by Poland. In 1138, following the death of Duke
Bolesław III, Poland was
fragmented into several semi-independent principalities. The
Samborides,
principes in Pomerelia, gradually evolved into independent dukes, who ruled the duchy until 1294. Before Pomerelia regained independence in 1227, their dukes were
vassals of Poland and
Denmark. Since 1308–1309,
following succession wars between Poland and Brandenburg, Pomerelia was subjugated by the
Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights in
Prussia. In 1466, with the
second Peace of Thorn, Pomerelia became part of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as a part of autonomous
Royal Prussia. After the
First Partition of Poland in 1772 it was annexed by the
Kingdom of Prussia and named
West Prussia, and became a constituent part of the new
German Empire in 1871. Thus the Polish Corridor was not an entirely new creation: the territory assigned to Poland had been an integral part of Poland prior to 1772, but with a large degree of autonomy.
Historical population Perhaps the earliest census data on the
ethnic and
national structure of
West Prussia (including areas which later made up the corridor) is from 1819.
Karl Andree, in (Leipzig 1831), gives the total population of West Prussia as 700,000including 50% Poles (350,000), 47% Germans (330,000) and 3% Jews (20,000). Data from the 19th century and early 20th century show the following ethnic changes in four main counties of the corridor (
Puck and
Wejherowo on the Baltic Sea coast;
Kartuzy and
Kościerzyna between the
Province of Pomerania and
Free City of Danzig): (77.4%),
Wejherowo (54.9%),
Kartuzy (77.3%) and
Kościerzyna (64.5%) counties, showing percentages of ethnic
Poles (including Kashubians) by the end of
World War I, according to the
Map of Polish population published in 1919 in Warsaw The following arguments were behind the creation of the corridor:
Ethnographic reasons The ethnic situation was one of the reasons for returning the area to the restored Poland. The majority of the population in the area was Polish. As the Polish commission report to the
Allied Supreme Council noted on 12 March 1919: "Finally the fact must be recognized that 600,000 Poles in West Prussia would under any alternative plan remain under German rule". Also, as
David Hunter Miller from president
Woodrow Wilson's group of experts and academics (known as
The Inquiry) noted in his diary from the
Paris Peace Conference: "If Poland does not thus secure access to the sea, 600,000
Poles in
West Prussia will remain under
German rule and 20,000,000 Poles in Poland proper will probably have but a hampered and precarious commercial outlet". The Prussian census of 1910 showed that there were 528,000 Poles (including West Slavic
Kashubians, who had supported the Polish national lists in
German elections) in the region, compared with 385,000 Germans (including troops and officials stationed in the area). The province of
West Prussia as a whole had between 36% and 43% ethnic Poles in 1910, depending on the source (the lower number is based directly on German 1910 census figures, while the higher number is based on calculations according to which a large part of those people counted as
Catholic Germans in the official census in fact identified as Poles). The Poles did not want the Polish population to remain under the control of the German state, which had in the past treated the Polish population and other minorities as second-class citizens and had pursued
Germanization. As Professor
Lewis Bernstein Namier (1888–1960)born to Jewish parents in
Lublin Governorate (
Russian Empire, former
Congress Poland) and later a British citizen, a former member of the
British Intelligence Bureau throughout World War I and the British delegation at the
Versailles conference, known for his
anti-Polish and
anti-German attitudewrote in the
Manchester Guardian on November 7, 1933: "The Poles are the Nation of the Vistula, and their settlements extend from the sources of the river to its estuary. ... It is only fair that the claim of the river-basin should prevail against that of the seaboard."
Economic reasons The Poles held the view that without direct access to the
Baltic Sea, Poland's economic independence would be illusory. Around 60.5% of Polish import trade and 55.1% of exports went through the area. The report of the Polish Commission presented to the
Allied Supreme Council said: 1,600,000 Germans in
East Prussia can be adequately protected by securing for them freedom of trade across the corridor, whereas it would be impossible to give an adequate outlet to the inhabitants of the new Polish state (numbering 25,000,000) if this outlet had to be guaranteed across the territory of an alien and probably hostile Power. The
United Kingdom eventually accepted this argument. As
Lewis Bernstein Namier, Professor of Modern History at the
University of Manchester and known for both his "legendary hatred of Germany" wrote in a newspaper article in 1933: The whole of Poland's transport system ran towards the mouth of the Vistula. ... 90% of Polish exports came from her western provinces. ... Cutting through of the Corridor has meant a minor amputation for Germany; its closing up would mean strangulation for Poland." By 1938, 77.7% of Polish exports left either through Gdańsk (31.6%) or the newly built port of
Gdynia (46.1%)
The Inquiry's opinion David Hunter Miller, in his diary from the
Paris Peace Conference, noted that the problem of Polish access to the sea was very difficult because leaving the entirety of
Pomerelia under German control meant cutting off millions of Poles from their commercial outlet and leaving several hundred thousand Poles under German rule, while granting such access meant cutting off East Prussia from the rest of Germany.
The Inquiry recommended that both the Corridor and Danzig should have been ceded directly to Poland. It is believed that the lesser of these evils is preferable, and that the Corridor and Danzig should [both] be ceded to Poland, as shown on map 6. East Prussia, though territorially cut off from the rest of Germany, could easily be assured railroad transit across the Polish corridor (a simple matter as compared with assuring port facilities to Poland), and has, in addition, excellent communication via
Königsberg and the Baltic Sea. In either case a people is asked to entrust large interests to the
League of Nations. In the case of Poland they are vital interests; in the case of Germany, aside from
Prussian sentiment, they are quite secondary". In the end, The Inquiry's recommendations were only partially implemented: most of
West Prussia was given to Poland, but Danzig became a
Free City. == Incorporation into the Second Polish Republic ==