Poland

In the middle of the tenth century the lands between the Oder and the Vistula were held by a cluster of West Slavic tribes, among them the Polanie, the 'people of the fields', whose dukes of the Piast line gradually extended their dominion over their neighbours. The first of these rulers to emerge clearly into recorded history is Mieszko I, who by around 960 governed a substantial realm later described in a papal document as the Civitas Schinesghe.

Mieszko's decisive act was religious and political at once. In 966, having married the Christian Bohemian princess Dobrawa, he accepted baptism in the Latin rite. The conversion drew Poland into the orbit of Western, rather than Byzantine, Christendom, gave its rulers a recognised place among the Christian princes of Europe, and helped to forestall the kind of forced Christianization and conquest that Germany imposed elsewhere on the Slavs. In 1000 the emperor Otto III made a celebrated pilgrimage to Gniezno, where an independent Polish ecclesiastical province was established, signalling the new kingdom's standing.

Mieszko's son, Boleslaw I the Brave, expanded the state and in 1025 secured a royal crown, becoming the first king of Poland. The early kingdom remained fragile, however, dependent on the strength of individual rulers. When Boleslaw III Wrymouth died in 1138 he divided his realm among his sons in a testament intended to prevent succession wars; instead it inaugurated nearly two centuries of fragmentation into competing duchies, weakening Poland against its neighbours.

Turning points

1. 966Religion

   The Baptism of Poland

   Duke Mieszko I accepted Christianity in the Latin rite, conventionally dated to 14 April 966, bringing his realm into Western Christendom and marking the traditional birth of the Polish state.

   [1] [3]

2. 1000Religion

   Congress of Gniezno

   Emperor Otto III made pilgrimage to Gniezno and an independent Polish church province was established, recognising the young state's standing within Christian Europe.

   [2]

3. 1025Politics & Power

   Coronation of Boleslaw I the Brave

   Boleslaw I was crowned king at Gniezno, the first ruler to bear the royal title of Poland and to win recognition of the realm as a kingdom rather than a duchy.

   [2] [4]

4. 1138Politics & Power

   Testament of Boleslaw III and fragmentation

   The dying Boleslaw III Wrymouth divided Poland among his sons, beginning nearly two centuries of fragmentation into rival duchies that weakened the state against its neighbours.

   [2]

Figures of the era

The fragmentation that followed 1138 left Poland exposed to the Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century and to the aggressive expansion of the Teutonic Knights along the Baltic. Reunification came slowly. Wladyslaw I the Elbow-high reclaimed the royal crown in 1320, and his son Casimir III the Great (reigned 1333-1370) consolidated and transformed the realm. Remembered as the king who 'found a Poland of wood and left one of stone', Casimir codified the law, fortified towns, welcomed Jewish settlers fleeing persecution elsewhere, and in 1364 founded the university at Krakow, the second oldest in central Europe. He was the last of the Piast kings.

Casimir's death without a male heir opened the way to a new and momentous union. In 1385 the agreement at Krewo arranged the marriage of the young Polish monarch Jadwiga to Jogaila, grand duke of Lithuania, who was baptised, took the name Wladyslaw II Jagiello and accepted the Polish crown. The marriage joined the kingdom of Poland to the vast Grand Duchy of Lithuania and founded the Jagiellonian dynasty, under which a Polish-Lithuanian state stretched from the Baltic toward the Black Sea.

The new partnership soon faced the Teutonic Order. On 15 July 1410 the combined Polish and Lithuanian armies under Jagiello won a crushing victory over the Knights at the Battle of Grunwald, one of the largest battles of medieval Europe, breaking the Order's power in the Baltic. Over the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries the Jagiellonian realm became a centre of Renaissance learning and religious tolerance, its astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus reshaping the understanding of the cosmos, its nobility steadily acquiring the privileges that would define the coming Commonwealth.

Turning points

1. 1333–1370Politics & Power

   Reign of Casimir III the Great

   The last Piast king reformed the law, founded the University of Krakow in 1364, expanded the kingdom and welcomed Jewish settlers, leaving Poland prosperous and consolidated.

   [5] [2]

2. 1385Politics & Power

   Union of Krewo and the Jagiellonian dynasty

   The agreement at Krewo arranged the marriage of Queen Jadwiga to Jogaila of Lithuania, who was baptised as Wladyslaw II Jagiello, joining Poland and Lithuania under a new dynasty.

   [2] [8]

3. 15 Jul 1410War & Rupture

   Battle of Grunwald

   Polish and Lithuanian forces under Wladyslaw II Jagiello destroyed the army of the Teutonic Knights at Grunwald, halting the Order's eastward expansion in the Baltic.

   ↗See the data

   [6]

4. 1543Culture & Ideas

   Copernicus publishes 'On the Revolutions'

   The Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus published his heliocentric theory, placing the Sun rather than the Earth at the centre of the cosmos and helping to launch modern astronomy.

   [7]

Figures of the era

On 1 July 1569 the Union of Lublin transformed the dynastic link between Poland and Lithuania into a single federal state, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the 'Republic of Both Nations'. Ruled by a monarch elected by the nobility and governed through a common parliament, the Sejm, the Commonwealth was one of the largest and most populous states in Europe. Its political culture, in which the szlachta, the noble class, held extensive rights, has been called a 'noble democracy'; its Warsaw Confederation of 1573 guaranteed an unusual measure of religious toleration at a time when much of Europe was convulsed by religious war.

The seventeenth century brought both glory and ruin. Polish and allied forces under King John III Sobieski relieved the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683, a celebrated victory for Christian Europe. But the same century saw the Cossack uprising, wars with Muscovy and the catastrophic Swedish invasion of 1655-1660 known as 'the Deluge', which devastated the country. Internally, the Commonwealth was increasingly crippled by the liberum veto, the rule by which a single deputy could dissolve the Sejm and annul its work, allowing reform to be blocked and foreign powers to buy paralysis.

By the eighteenth century a weakened Poland had become a field for the ambitions of its neighbours. The first partition of 1772 by Russia, Prussia and Austria stripped away large territories. In a final burst of reform the Sejm adopted the Constitution of 3 May 1791, Europe's first modern codified constitution and the second in the world, seeking to strengthen the state and abolish the worst abuses. The reforms provoked Russian and Prussian intervention: the second partition followed in 1793, and after the defeat of Tadeusz Kosciuszko's national uprising the third partition of 1795 erased the Commonwealth entirely from the map of Europe.

Turning points

1. 1 Jul 1569Politics & Power

   Union of Lublin

   Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania united into a single federal state, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ruled by an elected monarch and a common Sejm, one of Europe's largest powers.

   [8] [9]

2. 1655–1660War & Rupture

   The Deluge

   A devastating Swedish invasion during the Second Northern War ravaged the Commonwealth, causing enormous loss of life and population and accelerating the state's long decline.

   ↗See the data

   [11] [2]

3. 12 Sep 1683War & Rupture

   Relief of Vienna

   King John III Sobieski led the allied cavalry charge that broke the Ottoman siege of Vienna, marking the high point of the Commonwealth's military reputation in Europe.

   ↗See the data

   [10]

4. 1772–1795Politics & Power

   The Partitions of Poland

   In three stages (1772, 1793, 1795) Russia, Prussia and Austria divided the Commonwealth among themselves, despite the reforming Constitution of 3 May 1791, ending Polish statehood for 123 years.

   [12] [13]

Figures of the era

After 1795 the Polish lands were ruled from Saint Petersburg, Berlin and Vienna. The Napoleonic era briefly raised hopes: the Duchy of Warsaw (1807-1815) gave a measure of self-government, but the Congress of Vienna in 1815 redrew the partition, creating a nominal Kingdom of Poland under the Russian tsar. Polish resistance erupted repeatedly, most notably in the November Uprising of 1830-1831 and the January Uprising of 1863-1864, both of which were crushed and followed by harsh repression, confiscations and intensified policies of Russification and Germanization.

Statelessness did not extinguish national identity; in many ways it sharpened it. Denied political institutions, Poles invested their nationhood in language, religion and culture. The poetry of Adam Mickiewicz, the music of Frederic Chopin, written largely in exile, and the Catholic Church all became vessels of a national consciousness that the partitioning powers could not suppress. Émigré communities, especially in France, sustained the cause abroad, while at home clandestine education and economic self-organisation preserved a sense of common purpose.

The First World War shattered the partitioning empires that had divided Poland. Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary fought one another across Polish soil and all three collapsed by 1918. As the war ended, Polish leaders moved to restore the state: on 11 November 1918 Jozef Pilsudski took command in Warsaw and an independent Poland was proclaimed, reborn after more than a century of partition.

Turning points

1. 1815Politics & Power

   Congress of Vienna and the 'Congress Kingdom'

   The post-Napoleonic settlement re-divided the Polish lands and created a nominally autonomous Kingdom of Poland under the Russian tsar, entrenching foreign rule.

   [14] [12]

2. 1830–1831War & Rupture

   The November Uprising

   Poles in the Russian partition rose against the tsar; after initial successes the rising was crushed, bringing reprisals, the end of the Kingdom's autonomy and a wave of political exile.

   ↗See the data

   [14]

3. 1863–1864War & Rupture

   The January Uprising

   A protracted guerrilla insurrection against Russian rule ended in defeat and severe repression, including executions, deportations to Siberia and intensified Russification.

   ↗See the data

   [14]

4. 11 Nov 1918Independence

   Restoration of independence

   As the partitioning empires collapsed at the end of the First World War, an independent Polish state was proclaimed under Jozef Pilsudski, ending 123 years without statehood.

   ↗See the data

   [14] [12]

Figures of the era

The Second Polish Republic of 1918-1939 was born into difficulty, knitting together territories that had been ruled for over a century by three different empires. It fought to secure its borders, repelling the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw in 1920, and grappled with economic hardship and political instability, including the authoritarian turn after Pilsudski's coup of 1926. Yet it rebuilt a Polish state, educational system and culture, and was home to the largest Jewish community in Europe, some three million people.

That fragile independence was destroyed in 1939. On 1 September Nazi Germany invaded from the west, beginning the Second World War in Europe; on 17 September the Soviet Union invaded from the east, in accordance with the secret protocol of the German-Soviet pact of August 1939. Poland was overrun and partitioned once more between the two powers. The occupation that followed was among the most savage of the war. Germany sought to destroy the Polish nation as a political and cultural entity, murdering intellectuals, clergy and leaders, and treating the population as a source of forced labour.

Occupied Polish soil became the principal site of the Holocaust. Germany established its largest extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where some 1.1 million people, the great majority of them Jews, were murdered, alongside other death camps such as Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 and the broader Warsaw Uprising of 1944, in which the Home Army rose against the Germans only to be crushed while the Soviet army halted nearby, became symbols of resistance and of catastrophe. By 1945 Germany had murdered roughly three million Polish Jews and between 1.8 and 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians; the country had lost about a fifth of its population and its capital lay in ruins.

Turning points

1. Aug 1920War & Rupture

   Battle of Warsaw

   Polish forces under Pilsudski halted the advance of the Soviet Red Army outside Warsaw, securing the independence of the young republic in the Polish-Soviet War.

   ↗See the data

   [16] [12]

2. 1 Sep 1939War & Rupture

   German and Soviet invasion of Poland

   Nazi Germany invaded on 1 September, starting the Second World War in Europe; the Soviet Union invaded from the east on 17 September, and the two powers again partitioned Poland.

   ↗See the data

   [17] [18]

3. 1940–1945War & Rupture

   Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Holocaust on Polish soil

   Germany operated its largest concentration and extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where some 1.1 million people, overwhelmingly Jews, were murdered as part of the genocide carried out across occupied Poland.

   ↗See the data

   [19] [20]

4. 1 Aug 1944War & Rupture

   The Warsaw Uprising

   The Polish Home Army rose against the German occupiers in Warsaw; after 63 days the rising was crushed, much of the city was destroyed and tens of thousands of civilians were killed.

   ↗See the data

   [20]

Figures of the era

The defeat of Germany did not bring Poland freedom but a new subjection. Liberated by the Red Army, the country was drawn into the Soviet sphere; a communist government, backed by Moscow and consolidated through rigged elections, established the Polish People's Republic. Its borders were shifted westward at the insistence of the Allies, with the loss of eastern territories to the Soviet Union and the acquisition of former German lands in the west, accompanied by vast forced movements of population. For more than four decades Poland was a one-party state within the Soviet bloc.

Resistance to communist rule recurred, in workers' protests in 1956, 1970 and 1976, and drew strength from the Catholic Church, above all after the election in 1978 of the Krakow archbishop Karol Wojtyla as Pope John Paul II. In 1980 a wave of strikes centred on the Gdansk shipyard produced Solidarity (Solidarnosc), the first independent, self-governing trade union in the Soviet bloc, led by the electrician Lech Walesa; within weeks it counted some ten million members. The regime responded with martial law in December 1981, outlawing the union and interning its leaders, but Solidarity survived underground.

The exhaustion of the communist system brought it to the negotiating table. The Round Table talks of 1989 led to partly free elections on 4 June 1989, the first of their kind in the Soviet bloc, which Solidarity won overwhelmingly and which helped set off the collapse of communism across Eastern Europe. Poland built a democratic republic and a market economy, joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union on 1 May 2004, becoming one of the larger member states and, after the hardships of transition, one of central Europe's notable economic successes.

Turning points

1. 1947Politics & Power

   Establishment of communist rule

   Backed by the Soviet Union and rigged elections, a communist government consolidated power, founding the Polish People's Republic within the Soviet bloc.

   [22] [21]

2. Aug 1980Politics & Power

   Birth of Solidarity

   Strikes at the Gdansk shipyard led by Lech Walesa produced Solidarity, the first independent trade union in the Soviet bloc, which rapidly grew to about ten million members.

   [21] [22]

3. 13 Dec 1981Politics & Power

   Martial law

   The communist authorities imposed martial law, banned Solidarity and interned its leaders, including Walesa, driving the movement underground for the rest of the decade.

   [21] [22]

4. 4 Jun 1989Independence

   Semi-free elections and the fall of communism

   Round Table talks produced partly free elections that Solidarity won overwhelmingly, ending communist rule in Poland and helping trigger the collapse of the Soviet bloc.

   ↗See the data

   [21] [22]

5. 1 May 2004Politics & Power

   Accession to the European Union

   Poland joined the European Union, completing its return to the West after the fall of communism and accelerating its economic and political integration into Europe.

   [24]

Figures of the era