page_title: France–Poland relations
section_title: Great Immigration
hierarchical_section_title: France–Poland relations / History / Great Immigration
context_page_description: Polish–French relations date back several centuries, although they really only became relevant in the times of the French Revolution and the reign of Napoleon I. Poles were allies of Napoleon; a large Polish community settled in France in the 19th century. The French government sympathized with Polish rebels in 1830 and 1863 but did not intervene. Poland and France were allies during the interwar period, 1919-1939. France and Great Britain declared war on Nazi Germany when it invaded Poland in 1939, but were unable to stop the quick conquest. Never in history has a Polish army fought against its French counterpart. Nevertheless the two countries were on opposite sides during the Cold War 1947-1989. Official relations have been warm since the fall of communism in Poland in 1989. Currently both countries are part of the European Union, NATO and OECD. Poland is also an observer in the Organisation internationale de la francophonie.
context_section_description: The Great Emigration was an immigration of political elites from Poland from 1831–1870, particularly after the November and January uprisings. Since the end of the 18th century, people who carried out their activities outside the country as emigres played a major role in Polish political life.  Because of this emigration of political elites, much of the political and ideological activity of the Polish intelligentsia during the 18th and 19th centuries was done outside of the lands of partitioned Poland. Most of those political émigrés were based in France, seen by the Poles - freshly influenced by Napoleon - as the bastion of liberty in Europe.
  It was during that era that some celebrated Poles came to live in France, such as the composer Frédéric Chopin, writers like Adam Mickiewicz, Cyprian Norwid or entrepreneurs like Louis Wolowski and Citroen and much later, the scientist Maria Skłodowska-Curie (Marie Curie).
caption: Jarosław Dąbrowski caricatured in Le Père Duchesne Illustré: "Un bon bougre!... Nom de Dieu!..." ("Good chap!... Good God!...")
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