History of Poland facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

The History of Poland is the history of rather different territories during the past millennium. At one time, in the 16th century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the second largest state in Europe, after Russia. At other times there was no separate Polish state at all. Poland got back its independence in 1918, after more than a century of rule by nearby empires, but its borders shifted again after the Second World War.

Formation and early history
Conflict with neighbors
Constitutional state
Post-Napoleonic period
World War II
Soviet era
Post-communist and the EU
Images for kids
See also

Formation and early history

Poland began to form into a country around the middle of the 10th century in the Piast dynasty. In 966, Prince Mieszko I got himself and the whole Polish nation christened.

Poland around 1020

In the 12th century Poland broke into some smaller states, which were later attacked by Mongol armies in 1241. In 1320 Władysław I became the King of the repaired Poland. His son Casimir III repaired the Polish economy, built new castles and won the war against the Ruthenian dukedom. The Black Death, which affected many parts of Europe from 1347 to 1351, did not come to Poland.

The Polish-Lithuanian Union when it was largest.

Beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila, the Jagiellon dynasty (1385–1569) formed the Polish-Lithuanian Union. The partnership proved beneficial for the Poles and Lithuanians, who played a dominant role in one of the most powerful empires in Europe for the next three centuries. The Nihil novi act adopted by the Polish Sejm (parliament) in 1505, transferred most of the legislative power from the Monarch to the Sejm. This event marked the beginning of the period known as "Nobility Commonwealth" when the State was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility. The Lublin Union of 1569, established the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as an influential player in European politics and a vital cultural entity.

Conflict with neighbors

In the 17th century Sweden attacked all of Poland (this was called “the Deluge”). Many wars against the Ottoman Empire, Russia, Cossacks, Transylvania and Brandenburg-Prussia ended with the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. During the following 80 years, the government and natione were weaker, making Poland dependent on Russia. Russian tsars took advantage of this by offering money to traitors, who would block new ideas and solutions. Russia, Prussia, and Austria broke Poland into three pieces in 1772, 1793 and 1795, which dissolved the country. Polish people did not like the new kings, and often rebelled.

The three pieces of Poland in 1772, 1773 and 1775 - Russia (Pink), Austria (Green) and Prussia (Grey)

Constitutional state

In 1791, in an attempt of reform the Sejm of Poland and Lithuania accepted the Constitution of May 3 which was the first modern constitution in Europe and the second (after the United States) on Earth. But that did not help against the partitions of Poland in 1793 and 1795.

Post-Napoleonic period

Napoleon made another Polish state, “the Dutchy of Warsaw”, but after the Napoleonic Wars, Poland was split again by the countries at the Congress of Vienna. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar.

Poland 1922-1938

World War II

See also: Polish victims of The Holocaust

During World War I all Western Allies agreed to save Poland. Soon after the surrender of Germany in November 1918, Poland became the Second Polish Republic (II Rzeczpospolita Polska). It got its freedom after several military conflicts; the largest was in 1919-1921 Polish-Soviet War.

On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany attacked Poland, and the Soviet Union attacked on September 17. Warsaw was defeated on September 28, and was split up into two pieces, one owned by Nazi Germany, the other by the Soviet Union. The eastern part of the German zone was turned into the German Government area. Out of all the countries that were in the war, Poland lost the highest amount of its people: over 6 million died, half of them Polish Jews. Poland also gave the most troops, after the US, the British and the Soviets, to ultimately defeat Nazi Germany. At the war's end, Poland's borders were moved west, pushing the east border to the Curzon line. The west border was moved to the Oder-Neisse line. The new Poland became 20% smaller by 77,500 square kilometeres (29,900 sq mi). The shift forced millions of people to move: Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews. After these events, Poland became, for the first time, a real country. There are still many Polish in the neighboring countries Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania, as well as in other countries. The most Poles outside of Poland are in the United States, especially in Chicago.

Soviet era

After the Second World War, the Soviet Union put a Communist government in Poland, and the country was named the People's Republic of Poland. In 1989 Solidarity - a political group led by Lech Wałęsa - helped defeat the communist government in Poland.

Post-communist and the EU

During the early 1990s the country turned its economy into one of the most solid in Central Europe. There were many improvements in human rights, such as free speech, democracy, etc. In 1991 Poland became a member of the Visegrad Group and joined NATO in 1999 also with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Polish voters then voted to join the European Union in a vote in June 2003. The country joined the EU on May 1, 2004.

Images for kids

Reconstructed Biskupin fortified settlement of the Lusatian culture, 8th century BC
Poland expanded under its first two rulers. The dark pink area represents Poland at end of rule of Mieszko I (992), whereas the light pink area represents territories added during the reign of Bolesław I (died 1025). The dark pink area in the northwest was lost during the same period.
Władysław I the Elbow-high
A representation of the Battle of Grunwald, a great military contest of the Late Middle Ages
King Casimir IV Jagiellon was the central figure of the Jagiellonian period
Nicolaus Copernicus formulated the heliocentric model of the solar system that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at its center
The Italian courtyard at Wawel Castle in Kraków, the former seat of Polish monarchs
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at its greatest extent, after the Truce of Deulino of 1619
Henry de Valois, later Henry III of France, was the first elected Polish king in 1573
Sigismund III Vasa enjoyed a long reign, but his actions against religious minorities, expansionist ideas and involvement in dynastic affairs of Sweden, destabilized the Commonwealth.
John II Casimir Vasa reigned during the Commonwealth's most difficult period. Frustrated with his inability to reform the state, he abdicated in 1668.
King John III Sobieski with his son Jakub, whom he tried to position to be his successor. Sobieski led the Commonwealth to its last great military victories.
Augustus II the Strong, the first Saxon ruler of Poland. His death sparked the War of the Polish Succession.
Stanisław August Poniatowski, the "enlightened" monarch
The Great Sejm adopted the Constitution of 3 May 1791 at the Royal Castle, Warsaw
Tadeusz Kościuszko's call for a national uprising, Kraków 1794
The three Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1772, 1793, and 1795)
The death of Józef Poniatowski, Marshal of the French Empire, at the Battle of Leipzig
Napoleon Bonaparte establishing the Duchy of Warsaw under French protection, 1807
The capture of the Warsaw arsenal at the beginning of the November Uprising of 1830
Chopin, a Romantic composer of piano works, including many inspired by Polish traditional dance music
Romuald Traugutt, the last supreme commander of the 1863 Uprising
Bolesław Prus (1847–1912), a leading novelist, journalist and philosopher of Poland's Positivism movement
Many Jews emigrated from the Polish–Lithuanian lands in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but most remained to form a large ethnic minority
Marie Curie, discoverer of radioactive elements
Rosa Luxemburg, leader of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania
Roman Dmowski's National Democracy ideology proved highly influential in Polish politics. He favored the dominance of Polish-speaking Catholics in civic life without concern for the rights of ethnic minorities, in particular the Jews, whose emigration he advocated.
"The Commandant" Józef Piłsudski with his legionaries in 1915
Ignacy Paderewski was a pianist and a statesman
The Regency Council of the Kingdom of Poland in 1918. The "Kingdom" was established to entice Poles to cooperate with the Central Powers.
Ignacy Daszyński
The Greater Poland Uprising, a war with Germany, erupted in December 1918
Polish–Soviet War, defenses near Warsaw, August 1920
Wincenty Witos (right) and Ignacy Daszyński headed a wartime cabinet in 1920. Witos was an agrarian party leader and a centrist politician, later persecuted under the Sanation regime.
Wojciech Korfanty fought for a Polish Silesia and was the leader of the Polish Christian Democratic Party
Władysław Grabski reformed the currency and introduced the Polish zloty to replace the marka
Piłsudski's May Coup of 1926 defined Poland's political reality in the years leading to World War II
President Ignacy Mościcki and Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły were among top leaders of Sanation Poland
Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski promoted Poland's Central Industrial Region
A year after Piłsudski's death, his former personal assistant General Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski became the Second Polish Republic's last prime minister
Foreign Minister Józef Beck rejected the proposed risky alliances with Nazi Germany and with the Soviet Union
Warsaw was one of Europe's chief cities before the Second World War, pictured in 1939
German battleship Schleswig-Holstein shells Westerplatte, 1 September 1939
Map of Poland following the German and Soviet invasions (1939)
Pilots of No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron won fame in the Battle of Britain
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Gen. Władysław Sikorski, prime minister of the Polish government-in-exile and commander-in-chief of Polish armed forces, shortly before his death in 1943
Surrender of the Warsaw Uprising
Polish generals on the Eastern Front
Samuel Willenberg showing his drawings of the Treblinka extermination camp
Warsaw destroyed, photo taken January 1945
The infamous gatehouse at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where at least 1.1 million people were murdered by the Nazi regime
The PKWN Manifesto, officially issued on 22 July 1944 in Soviet-liberated Poland. It heralded the arrival of a communist government imposed by the USSR.
German refugees fleeing from East Prussia, 1945
Stanisław Mikołajczyk's Polish People's Party tried to outvote the communists in 1947, but the election process was rigged. Mikołajczyk had to flee to the West.
President Bolesław Bierut, leader of Stalinist Poland
Primate Stefan Wyszyński's leadership led to the exceptional strength of the Polish Catholic Church
Communist aspirations were symbolized by the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw
Władysław Gomułka addressing the crowd in Warsaw in October 1956
Apartment blocks built in communist Poland (these located in Poznań)
First Secretary Edward Gierek (second from left) was unable to reverse Poland's economic decline
Lech Wałęsa in 1980
The signing of an agreement between leaders of striking workers and government representatives in Szczecin in August 1980
General Wojciech Jaruzelski meeting Soviet security chief Yuri Andropov during the 1980 crisis. Jaruzelski was about to become the (last) leader of communist Poland.
Martial law enforced in December 1981
Pope John Paul II in Poland, 1987
The reconstructed Polish Round Table in the Presidential Palace where an agreement between the communists and the opposition was signed on 4 April 1989