Poland
From Slavic.info
If the history of a nation begins with the establishment on the throne of a foreign dynasty as in the case of Russia, it appears that the people have no desire to create prehistoric myths in connection with their origin. However, this was not true in regard to the Poles, for in the beginning of Polish history their rulers were native, although they were of unknown origin. Soon legends came into existence to make up for the deficiencies of historical facts: the legend of the foundation of Gniezno by Lech and Krakow by Krakus and the story of a virtuous peasant named Piast who is generally considered the founder of the Piast Dynasty.
We know that in the ninth century such Slavic tribes as the Kuyavians, Masovians, Polanes, Silesians and others lived in the area between the Vistula and the Oder. It seems most probable that one of the early Piast rulers succeeded in uniting them under the hegemony of the Polanes.
The first ruler of Poland known to history is Mieszko (the great grandson of the legendary Piast?) who appears as a Polish champion in the year 963, when, according to the records of the German chronicler Widukind, he was involved in war against the Germans. There is something ominous in the fact that Poland's earliest appearance in history shows her in conflict with the Germans.
In 966 Christianity was introduced into Poland by the Czechs, who were later to be followed by German missionaries. Italian and French monks from Monte Cassino, Liege and Cluny brought Western letters, architecture, and science to Poland by means of the Latin language. Thus from this early age, Poland opened her doors and welcomed the culture of the Occident.
Mieszko's successor Boleslaw the Valiant incorporated Slavic Pomerania into Poland, and in doing so extended her border to the Baltic Sea. From this time on, the struggle for control of the Baltic coast was to be the motive of the many wars fought in northern Polish territory between Russia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany and Sweden.
Fearing the danger of Germanization, Boleslaw succeeded in founding a Polish archbishopric in Gniezno, by means of which he was able to make his country ecclesiastically independent from Germany. A serious blunder, however, was committed in 1225 when the Teutonic Knights were invited to settle around Chelmno on Polish territory60. The Knights, under the pretext of introducing Christianity to the Baltic peoples, frequently penetrated into their territory but also invaded Polish lands to points far beyond the concessions granted them, which thus led to the continuous struggle between Poland and Germany.
In contrast to the profound influence that the Mongolian invasion had upon Russia, it affected Poland only slightly in cultural matters. Significant not only for Polish history but perhaps for all Europe was the Battle of Lignica in 1241 when the Mongols were stopped in their westward drive by the Piast Henry the Pious of Silesia.
The Piast Dynasty came to a close with the death of Kasimir the' Great in 1370. His most important contribution to the cultural development of the nation was the founding of the University of Krakow in 1364. To Kasimir also is due the abolition of the privileges for German settlers; and the privilegia Judaeorum, which, by guaranteeing certain rights to the Jews, was an influence on the social and cultural life of the people.
A temporary union with Hungary in the person of King Louis of Hungary, son of the Piast princess Elizabeth, was followed by a brief period during which, for lack of a male heir to the Piast throne, the young Piast Jadwiga63 was made queen. Her subsequent marriage with Jagietto of Lithuania resulted in the union of the two countries when Jagietto was crowned King of Poland under the name of Wladislaw II. He is remembered in history for the defeat of the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of Griinwald-Tannenberg in 1410 which brought about a considerable decrease of German influence.
After Jagietto's death his son Wladislaw became King of Poland and Hungary, uniting both kingdoms once more under one man. But these brief unions were without noticeable influence on either nation. One result, however, was Poland's first contact—through her king—with Turkey, which was attacked by the Hungarians under Wladislaw, who fell in the Battle of Varna in 1444.
Kasimir III, Wladislaw's brother and successor, contributed much to Poland's future by marrying Elizabeth of Austria; the political situation of Europe being greatly affected by the thirteen children she bore him: one son became King of Bohemia and Hungary; through marriage a daughter was to share in the founding of the Swedish Vasa line of the future Polish kings; three sons in turn were Kings of Poland, while another son became a cardinal.
The last two kings of the Jagieito Dynasty, Sigismund I and Sigismund II, waged war against the Turks. Although battles were fought on South Polish territory no traces of Turco-Tartarism are to be found in any branch of Polish cultural life. Sigismund I's Italian wife, Countess Sforza, was responsible for the importation of certain Italian post-Renaissance influences, traces of which are still discernible. The dispatch of a special papal nuncio and the installation of the Jesuits contributed to this Italian influence. During this period, the most brilliant epoch in her history (sixteenth century), Poland was the largest state in Europe, embracing both the Ukraine and the Baltic coast within her boundaries.
With the end of the Jagietto Dynasty in 1572, Poland became a republic in which her kings were elected by the people, who in this instance consisted almost exclusively of the nobility. The first of the elected kings was Henry of Valois, who, after four months rulership returned to France. His name appears in the history of the polonaise (p. 33). No native was ever considered among the many pretenders to the Polish crown at this time; as for example the very able Stephen Batory66, elected king in 1675, was a Hungarian whose successors were of the Swedish Vasa Dynasty. Poland did not elect a king of Polish blood until 1674, when Jan Sobieski, who earned the title of Saviour of Christianity in Europe for his victory over the Turks at the Battle of Vienna (1683), was elected.
During the rule of the Saxon kings, following Sobieski's death, Poland was at various times subject to the will of Russia, Sweden, Austria, France and Germany. The corrupt Polish nobility which was divided into rival factions fought each other with the support of foreign powers. This tragedy came to an end and another began, when in 1795 Poland, after three partitions between Russia, Austria, and Prussia, ceased to exist as a state. Stanislaw Poniatowski, a genuine patriot, Ambassador to the Russian court and lover of Catherine the Great, was Poland's last king. His nephew Josef Poniatowski and Taddeus Kosciuszko were the leading personalities during Poland's death struggle and the period of the Duchy of Warsaw established by Napoleon.
Russification and Germanization of the Polish territories annexed by Russia and Prussia respectively were carried out with thoroughness, whereas the Poles of Galicia, who were placed under Austrian control after the partition, enjoyed a certain amount of freedom and national privileges.
The Polish state established after World War I was conquered by Germany in 1939; the new republic, set up at the conclusion of World War II, comprises the original Polish territory without the Ukrainian and Lithuanian minorities, and in addition those parts of eastern Germany in which Slavs have dwelled for 1500 years. Among them are the Lusatian Sorbs (Wends) who have survived Germanization by Prussia; their geographical position between Poles and Czechs is expressed in their language and folk music.