In this innovative and original study, Lenny Ureña Valerio analyzes the history of Prussian Poland, German Africa, and Polish colonies in southern Brazil and shows how their histories are intertwined, how German and Polish colonial agents and their colonial fantasies are interwoven. In Colonial Fantasies, Ureña Valerio chooses the perspective of medicine, using the work and testimonials of medical professionals, experts of health who mix medicine, hygiene, ethnography, and anthropology making the claim that medicine and imperialism are connected. Medical knowledge enabled Germans to live in tropical climates and to deal with tropical diseases such as malaria. Ureña Valerio also argues that medical knowledge was mixed with racism and eugenics. Disease treatments were used to restrain Indigenous populations and to stress their “otherness,” both in Prussian Poland and the German colonies in Africa.Colonialism is not a one-way street. Ureña Valerio argues that approaching the German borderlands only from a (post)colonial perspective generally places too much emphasis on German fantasies of domination and ignores the political activities and desires of the “colonized” (p. 2). Colonial Fantasies analyzes how Poles in the German Empire were both objects and subjects of colonial agendas and how they positioned themselves in relation to other Germans and local populations in German Africa and Brazil (p. 6). Cultural exchanges could influence political struggles and identification processes in the region. German and Polish doctors and intelligentsia exchanged ideas and knowledge, causing the Polish middle class to develop their own colonial fantasies. These colonial fantasies fueled patriotism in stateless Poland to overcome the stereotypes of backwardness put on them by the Germans (p. 46). This sheds new light on colonialism, which is usually seen as a way to enhance the home country and its wealth. The Polish settlements in Brazil are viewed as a form of colonialization as well, but the migrants—mostly peasants—were escaping German dominance and Germanization policy in Poland. These settler colonists were mainly looking for a way to be Polish.The first two chapters describe how medicinal knowledge in Germany was progressing but also how it was used to develop German colonial views of Poles in the eastern borderlands and how this was intertwined with racial beliefs. The findings of such German physicians as Robert Koch, August Hirsch, and Rudolf Virchow created knowledge about epidemic diseases but also contributed to the construction of the eastern borderlands as vulnerable areas. The field of experimental science, especially Robert Koch's teaching on bacteriology, had a major impact on the eugenics movement. Medical reports describing the cholera and typhus epidemics contributed to the construction of the eastern borderlands as a colonial space asking for German sanitary intervention (pp. 14–15). Ureña Valerio explains how Polish doctors benefited from and contributed to this knowledge. These Polish physicians also adopted the view that Jews and Poles were more associated with diseases and ignorance of hygiene measures, which could be viewed as a form of acceptance of the subaltern treatment of Poles.In chapter 3, Ureña Valerio analyzes the medical and colonizing missions in German Africa and Prussian Poland. She claims that Prussian Poland and the German African colonies were connected by an ideology that privileged ethnic Germans in overseas territories and the eastern borderlands. Medical knowledge supported Germany's colonial ambitions as new discoveries made it possible for Germans to live in tropical climates in Africa. The German colonies were also field laboratories: a place where physicians were able to conduct experiments among the native population to create new knowledge about how to treat diseases. Medical knowledge was not neutral: it was used to oppress both Prussian Poles in Poland and Indigenous peoples in the colonies. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, diseases were increasingly identified with colonial subjects and ethnic minorities who could therefore be viewed as foreign threats. Looking for sources of contagion, medical officials were trying to impose boundaries, enforce order, and maintain biological and cultural purities. Phobias against migrants were behind building concentration camps in Africa and medical containment centers in Prussian Poland. Especially in Africa, the circumstances of these medical practices were harsh, and Africans were subject to racial experiments that never would have been conducted with Europeans. In this chapter, Ureña Valerio also analyzes the tensions between the “self” and the “other” in the production of scientific and colonial knowledge. Polish travelers such as Jan Czekanowski and Emin Pasha developed an imaginary identification with the native population that led them to reflect on the Polish political situation in Europe and to build an image of the “good” colonizer. Moreover, they positioned themselves as cultural translators between the colonial power and local population and, therefore, felt superior to both Indigenous peoples and other colonizers (pp. 114–15).Chapter 4 examines Polish colonial fantasies by focusing on the memoirs and travel accounts of three expeditions made to Africa between 1882 and 1910 and, therefore, showcases Poles’ own engagement in colonial agendas. Using these sources enables Ureña Valerio to study the views of the Poles themselves. She claims that Poles in the nineteenth century were active in Africa and had colonial ambitions. On this matter, they felt superior to the Indigenous population. The Polish-educated, middle-class members supported imperialism and expressed European white supremacist ideas. Ureña Valerio argues that focusing on “others” in an overseas land contributed significantly to the increased interest Poles had in the question of ethnicity and otherness at home (p. 131). This knowledge adds another chapter to the history of the Polish diaspora.In chapter 5, Ureña Valerio examines the Polish settlements in Brazil, a place where Poles could overcome their subaltern position in Prussian Poland and show their skills in colonists’ activities. These migrants were mainly peasants who wished to escape not only the poor economic conditions in Prussian Poland but also the Germanization measures in imperial Germany. The founding fathers of the Polish colonies in Brazil viewed these settlements as communities in which they could promote Polish culture and improve the living standards of these Polish peasants. Polish colonists in Brazil thus looked for opportunities to be Polish, not to colonize the country. The Brazilian government welcomed the Polish colonists as Europeans, along with their German counterparts, to work on modernization projects. Ureña Valerio demonstrates in this chapter how Polish nationalists promoted these Polish settlements as a symbol of Polish racial and cultural superiority over the native Brazilians.In the conclusion and epilogue, Ureña Valerio repeats that studying the intersections between medicine and colonialism is fundamental to understanding Polish-German relations and the development of nationalist and racial views. Ureña Valerio argues that the close connection that has been drawn between pathologies at the biological and national levels turned physicians into social engineers capable of stopping and reversing racial degeneracy (p. 176). One of the main goals of Colonial Fantasies is to understand the political effectiveness of colonial discourse in Prussian Poland and how this is connected to nationalist movements in the region. Ureña Valerio claims that Poles were not passive receptors of colonial and racial discourses and state policies; they actively challenged and adopted civilizing agendas to uplift their culture and nation.