I would say from discussions with quite a few Poles that there is an imperialistic streak in them. The way they describe old efforts in Lithuania and Ukraine makes me wonder.
It's difficult to explain cause I don't know who you are. If you're an Irish, I do understand why you didn't.
But in case you're a proud Englishman you could recall Wales, Scotland, Ireland (yes), not forgetting about Jersey, Guernsey et al., Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, Ionian Is., half of Africa, Arabian Coast (I'd prefer to omit Palestine for security reasons), 3 Indias, Ceylon, Burma, Malayas, Hong-Kong, King-Kong and some thousand isles more.
Poles were more docile. They just wanted to build some houses, sow some wheat and sell it to lackland Britons and Dutch.