On 11 November 2016, Poles celebrated the 98th anniversary of the restoration of Polish independence in 1918, following 123 years of partition and foreign rule.
The Chairholder of the European Civilization Chair, Professor Richard BUTTERWICK-PAWLIKOWSKI, talked on Polish Radio about broader contexts of the re-establishment of an independent Polish state—the geopolitical transformations related to the breaking of empires at the end of the First World War. He spoke of armed conflicts that continued into the early 1920s, and explored implications of the different priorities of the victorious allied powers—France, Great Britain and the USA —for the restored, newly founded or expanded states of Central and Eastern Europe. The interview, in Polish, can be accessed here.
At Natolin on 7-8 April 2015, the European Civilization Chair organized a major international conference 'Breaking Empires, Making Nations? The First World War and the Reforging of Europe'. An edited volume based on the papers and discussions is in preparation.