Slajd 1

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Information about my country the
Poland (officially the Republic of Poland )
The part And the history
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The flag of the Poland
The emblem of the Poland
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The position of the Poland in Europe.
Is a country in central Europe. Poland is
bordered by Germany to the west the Czech
Republik and Slovakia to the south Ukraine,
Belarus and Lithuania to the east and the Baltic
Sea and Kalingrad Oblast , a Russian exlave, to
the north.
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Prehistory Historians have postulated that
throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic
groups populated the regions of what is now known
as Poland. The exact ethnicity and linguistic
affiliation of these groups has been hotly
debated in particular the time and route of the
original settlement of Slavic peoples in these
regions has been the subject of much
controversy. The most famous archeological find
from Polands prehistory and protohistory is the
Biskupin fortified settlement (now reconstructed
as a museum), dating from the Lustin culture of
the early Iron Age, around 700 BC.
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Piast dynasty Poland began to form into a
recognizable unitary and territorial entity
around the middle of the tenth century under the
Piast Dynasty. Polands first historically
documented ruler Mieszko I, was baptized in 966,
adopting Catholic Christianity as the nation's
new official religion, to which the bulk of the
population converted in the course of the next
centuries. In the twelfth century, Poland
fragmented into several smaller states. In
1320,Wladyslaw I became the King of a reunified
Poland. His son, Kazimierz III, is remembered as
one of the greatest Polish kings. Poland was also
a centre of migration of peoples and the Jewish
community began to settle and flourish in Poland
during this era . The Black Death which affected
most parts of Europe from 1347 to 1351 did not
reach Poland.
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Jagiellon dynasty Under the Dynasty Poland
forged a union with its neighbour, the Grand
Duchy of Lithuania. In 1410, a Polish-Lithuanian
army inflicted a decisive defeat on the Teutonic
Knights, both countries' main adversary, in the
battle of Grunwald. After the Thirteen YearsWar,
the Knight's state became a Polish vassal. Polish
culture and economy flourished under the
Jagiellons, and the country produced such figures
as astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus and poet Jan
Kochanowski. Compared to other European nations,
Poland was exceptional in its tolerance of
religious dissent, allowing the country to avoid
the religious turmoil that spread over Western
Europe in that time.
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Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth A golden age
ensued during the sixteenth century after the
Union of Lublin which gave birth to the Polish
Lithuanian Commonwealth. The nobility of Poland,
far more numerous than in Western European
countries, took pride in their freedoms and
parliamentary system. During the Golden Age
period, Poland expanded its borders to become the
largest country in Europe.
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In the mid-seventeenth century, a Swedish
invasion (The Deluge) and the
CossacksChmielnicki Uprising which ravaged the
country marked the end of the golden age.Numerous
wars against Russia coupled with government
inefficiency caused by the Liberum veto, a right
which had allowed any member of the parliament to
dissolve it and to veto any legislation it had
passed, marked the steady deterioration of the
Commonwealth from a European power into a near-
anarchy controlled by its neighbours. Despite the
erosion of its power, the Commonwealth was able
to deal a crushing defeat to the Ottoman Empire
in 1683 at the Battle of Vienna.
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The reforms, particularly those of the Great
Sejm, which passed the Constitution of May 3,
1791, , the world's second modern constitution,
were thwarted with the three partitions of Poland
(1772, 1793, and 1795) which culminated in
Poland's being erased from the map and its
territories being divided between Russia,
Prussia, and Austria.
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Reconstitution of Poland During World War I, all
the Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland
that United States President Woodrow Wilson
proclaimed in Point 13 of his Fourten Points.
Shortly after the surrender of Germany in
November 1918, Poland regained its independence
as the Second Polish Republic. It reaffirmed its
independence after a series of military
conflicts, the most notable being the Polish
Soviet War (19191921) when Poland inflicted a
crushing defeat on the Read Army.
11-XI-1918
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World War II The Sanacja movement controlled
Poland until the start of World War II in 1939,
when Nazi Germany invaded on 1 September and the
Soviet invasion of Poland followed on 17
September. Warsaw capitulated on 28 September
1939. As agreed in the Molotov- Ribbentrop Pact,
Poland was split into two zones, one occupied by
Germany while the eastern provinces fell under
the control of Soviet Union.
1-IX-1939
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Of all the countries involved In the war, Poland
lost the highest percentage of its citizens over
six million perished, half of them Polish Jews.
Poland made the fourth-largest troop contribution
to the Allied war effort, after the Soviets, the
British and the Americans. The Polish
expeditionary corps played an important role in
the Italian Campaing, particularly at the Battle
of Monte Casino. At the war's conclusion,
Poland's borders were shifted westwards, pushing
the eastern border to the Curzon Line. Meanwhile,
the western border was moved to the Oder Neisse
Line. The new Poland emerged 20 smaller by
77,500 square kilometres (29,900 sq mi). The
shift forced the migration of milions of people,
most of whom were Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and
Jews.
Monte Cassino
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Postwar Communist Poland The Soviet Union
instituted a new Communist government in Poland,
analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern
Bloc. Military alignment within the Warsaw Pact
throughout the Cold War was also part of this
change. The Peoples Republic of Poland was
officially proclaimed in 1952. In 1956, the
régime of Wladyslaw Gomulka became temporarily
more liberal, freeing many people from prison and
expanding some personal freedoms. A similar
situation repeated itself in the 1970s under
Edward Gierek, but most of the time persecution
of communist opposition persisted. Labour turmoil
in 1980 led to the formation of the independent
trade union Solidarity, which over time became
a political force. Despite persecution and
imposition of nartial law in 1981, it eroded the
dominance of the Communist Party and by 1989 had
triunphed in parliamentary elections. Lech
Walesa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually won
the presidency wn 1990. The Solidarity movement
heralded the collapse of communism across Eastern
Europe.