History of Poland

Introduction to History of Poland

The ancestors of most of the inhabitants of Poland today belonged to Slavic tribes that began occupying the area about 2000 B.C. In about the fifth century A.D. Germanic tribes from the west began attempts to subdue the Slavs and convert them to Christianity. Mieszko, of the Piast family and head of the Polani tribe, united several of the west Slavic tribes in 963 for protection. At this time, Mieszko's people came to be known as Poles, and he became king.

Important dates in Poland

Despite the union, the Poles were unable to stop German attacks. In 966 Mieszko converted to Roman Catholicism and his subjects soon followed his example. As a result, the German attacks gradually declined. The conversion led to strong cultural ties with western Europe, rather than with other Slavic groups, most of which had converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

Mieszko was succeeded in 992 by his son, Boleslaw I. Boleslaw concluded agreements with Holy Roman Emperor Otto III and Pope John XIX that secured their recognition of the Piast family as the ruling dynasty of Poland.

Piast Dynasty

During the next few centuries, Poland was frequently at war with neighboring German states over borderlands. Under Boleslaw III (reigned 1102–38), Poland acquired much territory. However, he divided his kingdom into five principalities, one for each of his sons to rule after his death, leaving Poland weak and disunified. Poland's neighbors took advantage of the weakness and seized various Polish lands.

In 1228 the Teutonic Knights, a German military order, established an autonomous state (East Prussia) north of Poland and began raiding the northern Polish frontier. Mongols invaded from the east in 1241, and their attacks continued for almost a century, leaving Poland devastated.

By the 14th century, Poland was in a state of anarchy. During 1300–06, the ruling dynasty of Bohemia had seized the Polish throne. Wladyslaw Lokietek, the rightful Polish heir, overthrew Bohemian rule. He restored order to the Polish domains and was formally crowned in 1320.

Wladyslaw was succeeded by his son, Casimir III (reigned 1333–70). In 1338 he reunified the Piast lands that had been divided by Boleslaw. Casimir fostered trade and established a code of law that protected the rights of peasants and Jews. In 1364 he founded the University of Kraków (now called Jagiellon University).

Through conquest, Casimir doubled the size of the kingdom. He formed alliances with Lithuania and Hungary, and built fortresses to protect Poland's frontiers. He left no direct heir and his nephew, Louis, king of Hungary, succeeded him in 1370.

Jagiellon Dynasty

After Louis' death in 1382, a dispute over succession arose between rival factions of the nobility. In 1384 the magnates (nobles of the highest rank) elected Louis' daughter, Jadwiga, queen. In 1386 she married Jagiello, a Lithuanian duke, who, with the consent of the magnates, came to the throne as Wladyslaw II (reigned 1386–1434). The marriage was the beginning of the Jagiellon dynasty.

Raids by the Teutonic Knights continued to be a threat to Poland's northern frontier. In 1410 a combined Polish-Lithuanian army defeated the Knights in the Battle of Tannenberg. Hostilities continued intermittently until 1466, when the Knights were defeated at Toruń in East Prussia. In the Treaty of Toruń, the Knights agreed to incorporate much of their territory into Poland and pledged allegiance to the Polish king, Casimir IV.

The period from the late 15th century to the end of the 16th century has been called the golden age of Poland. The Renaissance flourished there and the country reached the height of its power and influence. Political reforms limited royal power and gave supreme legislative authority to the nobility. In 1493 the Sejm (parliament) was formed, representing the nobility. A constitution was adopted by the Sejm in 1505, requiring parliamentary assent for all legislation.

In the 16th century, border disputes with Russia led to a state of almost continuous warfare. In 1569 the Union of Lublin formally united Poland and Lithuania under Polish authority. The reign of the Jagiellon dynasty ended with the death of Sigismund II in 1572.

Decline and Partition

After the death of Sigismund, Poland began a steady decline. The nobility became increasingly corrupt. Many nobles were more concerned with accumulating private wealth than with the affairs of state.

The Polish throne passed to a Hungarian prince, Stephen Báthory (reigned 1575–86). He was a skillful general, defeating the Russians three times during 1579–86. Following Báthory's death, Polish unity began to crumble. Foreign powers bribed corrupt nobles in the government, creating internal chaos in an effort to destabilize Poland, a powerful rival. Sigismund Vasa, a Swedish prince related to the Jagiellon family, was elected king in 1587. In 1596 he made Warsaw the capital of Poland, replacing Kraków.

In the second half of the 17th century, Poland was invaded by the Swedes and by the Turks. The Swedes occupied much of northeastern Poland. John Sobieski, who repulsed the Turkish attack, was elected king by the nobles in 1674. After Sobieski's death, Polish nobles, under the influence of Peter the Great of Russia, selected as king a Saxon prince, who came to the throne as Augustus II (reigned 1697–1704; 1709–33). Augustus committed Poland to an alliance with Russia and Denmark against Sweden.

In 1700 the allies invaded Swedish provinces along the Baltic, starting the Great Northern War. Charles XII, king of Sweden, repulsed the attack and invaded Poland. He deposed Augustus and replaced him with Stanislaw Leszczynski (reigned 1704–09), a Polish noble. Charles invaded Russia, but was defeated at Poltava in 1709. Peter the Great restored Augustus to the Polish throne. The war ended in 1721, leaving Russia as the dominant power in the region.

After Augustus died in 1733 the Polish nobles elected Leszczynski king. Russia invaded Poland and put Augustus' son on the throne; he ruled 1733–63 as Augustus III. The invasion touched off a general European conflict known as the War of the Polish Succession (1733–35), which confirmed Augustus' accession.

Augustus permitted the magnates to usurp the power of lesser nobles, and Poland fell into anarchy. Rival factions of magnates were manipulated by foreign powers. After Augustus' death, Russia and Prussia agreed to cooperate with each other in Polish affairs. They placed Stanislaw Poniatowski (reigned 1764–95) on the throne. In 1768 patriotic nobles formed the Confederation of the Bar. The Confederation, led by Casimir Pulaski, revolted against Poniatowski and his supporters, hoping to end foreign interference in Polish affairs.

The revolt was crushed by Russian troops in 1772 and Russia, Prussia, and Austria partitioned sections of Poland among themselves. Poland lost one-third of its territory and nearly half of its population.

In 1791 the Poles adopted a constitution that strengthened the Polish government. Russia invaded Poland in 1792 and forced the repeal of the constitution. In 1793 Prussia and Russia agreed to a second partition of Poland.

Thaddeus Kosciusko led an uprising in 1794 in reaction to the partition, but was defeated by Russian, Prussian, and Austrian troops in 1795. A third partition was carried out later that year and Poland ceased to exist as an independent nation.

In 1807 part of Poland was reconstituted by Napoleon Bonaparte as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. The Congress of Vienna (1814–15) reestablished the Kingdom of Poland, but as part of the Russian Empire with the czar of Russia as king. After the failure of a Polish revolution against Russia during 1830–31, Poland was incorporated into Russia.

Rebirth of Poland

During World War I, Poland was a battlefield for the armies of Germany and Austria-Hungary on one side and Russia on the other. On November 10, 1918, a Polish republic was proclaimed with Ignace Jan Paderewski, Roman Dmowski, and Józef Pilsudski as its leaders. A provisional government was formed in Warsaw in January, 1919.

Under the Treaty of Versailles (1919), the exact location of the Polish-German border was to be settled by plebiscite. The city of Danzig (Gdańsk) was established as an independent territory supervised by the League of Nations. The Polish Corridor was created west of Danzig, giving Poland access to the Baltic. The corridor cut off East Prussia from the rest of Germany and became a source of tension between Poland and Germany.

Polish armies sought to occupy all eastern territory that had been part of Poland at the time of the first partition. Border disputes led to skirmishes with the Ukrainians and the Bolsheviks. In 1919 Lord Curzon, the British foreign minister, proposed an eastern frontier that came to be called the Curzon Line. The Curzon Line was rejected by the Poles. Poland invaded Russia in 1920, and in the following year the Treaty of Riga established the boundary 100 miles (160 km) east of the Curzon Line. The new border reincorporated much ethnically Polish territory into Poland.

The Polish republic adopted a constitution in 1922. Government instability, however, led to a coup in 1926 by supporters of Pilsudski, who had retired as head of the army in 1923. Pilsudski became dictator and ruled through a puppet president until his death in 1935.

World War II

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, beginning World War II. The Soviet Union, under an arrangement with Germany made a month earlier, invaded on September 17. Poland fell in 36 days. Germany occupied the western half and the Soviet Union occupied the eastern half. Polish leaders fled and formed a government-in-exile in London.

Poland suffered enormously under Nazi occupation. Some five million Poles, including some three million Jews, were killed. A movement arose to resist the Nazis. In 1944 an uprising by members of the resistance movement in Warsaw was crushed by the Nazis. Many Poles who escaped the country joined Allied combat units, fighting Germany on both the eastern and western fronts.

The Allies began discussing the postwar boundary lines of Poland at the Tehran Conference in 1943. The question was settled at the Yalta Conference in 1945. The Soviet Union's territorial claims were recognized and the eastern Polish boundary was moved back approximately to the Curzon Line. The western boundary was moved far into Germany, along the Oder and Neisse rivers. This boundary, called the Oder-Neisse Line, was intended to be only temporary; the final boundary was to be fixed later by treaty with Germany. Poland was given administration over the former German territory. The German population, except for a few hundred thousand, had either fled or been expelled and was replaced by Poles.

Communist Rule

The Western powers persuaded the Polish government-in-exile in London to merge with the provisional government that had been set up in Lublin under Soviet sponsorship. The coalition government, called the Government of National Unity, was formed in June, 1945, and was strongly pro-Communist. All large industries were nationalized, and the collectivization of farm lands began. In 1946 free elections promised by the Soviets were held. The Communists won by a landslide as police harassed and intimidated non-Communist politicians. The remnants of the Polish government-in-exile that had been based in London fled.

The Soviets, holding key positions in the government and economy, dominated Polish affairs. Polish Communists who were also nationalists, led by Wladyslaw Gomulka, resisted Soviet intervention, but were expelled from the party during 1948–49. In 1949 the Communists attempted to curtail the influence of the Roman Catholic church. Many members of the clergy were imprisoned, and church lands were seized.

In 1956 there were anti-Soviet riots in Poznań. Following a purge of Soviet sympathizers from the Communist party, a nationalist government was set up in October with Gomulka at its head. The Soviet Union threatened to invade Poland but accepted the new government after being assured Poland would remain an ally.

Under Gomulka's leadership, Soviet officers in the armed forces were replaced with Poles; members of the clergy were released from prison; persecution of the church was halted; and farm collectivization was reversed, with most of the land put under individual ownership. The Polish people were given greater liberty, and the nation established freer contacts with the West.

Gomulka became less liberal in his policies during the early 1960's. Most of the freedoms extended to the people in 1956 were withdrawn. The government subjected the church to more restrictions.

In 1968, students opposing the harsh rule rioted in Warsaw and other cities. Top government officials blamed Jews and liberals for fomenting the disorders, and thousands of Jews left the country.

In 1970 Poland signed a friendship treaty with West Germany. It opened diplomatic relations between the two nations and provided for German recognition of the Oder-Neisse Line. Also, widespread rioting by workers over worsening economic conditions caused Gomulka to resign.

Edward Gierek, the new premier, made plans to revitalize the economy through an industrialization program. To finance the program, Poland secured huge loans from western nations. Poor management and international economic problems in the late 1970's doomed the plan and left Poland deeply in debt. In 1976 the government announced price increases for food in an attempt to reduce spending for food subsidies, which made up a large part of the budget. Massive demonstrations erupted and the government cancelled the increases.

The position of the Roman Catholic church in Poland was greatly strengthened by the election in 1978 of a Polish pope (John Paul II) and his visit to Poland in 1979.

In 1980, higher food prices precipitated massive strikes throughout the country. To end the crisis, the government changed leaders and agreed to most of the workers' demands, which included the right to organize unions independent of government and Communist party control. The new unions formed a national federation, called Solidarity, headed by Lech Walesa, the leader of a major strike in Gdańsk.

For 16 months the Polish people, rallying behind Solidarity, enjoyed unprecedented political freedom. In late 1981, however, Premier Wojciech Jaruzelski, under increasing pressure from the Soviet Union, imposed martial law.

In 1982 there were scattered demonstrations in Poland against the government, but all were quickly suppressed. Solidarity and most other independent trade unions were outlawed. In 1983 Pope John Paul II made a second trip to Poland, urging government leaders to allow more civil liberties. In August martial law was lifted, but new restrictions on civil liberties had become part of the legal code. In 1985 Jaruzelski became president of Poland.

An agreement in 1989 between the government and Solidarity restored the union's legal status and permitted it to nominate candidates for a limited number of seats in parliamentary elections. Overwhelming victories by union candidates in those elections led to the formation of a Polish government not dominated by the Communists—the first such government since World War II.

In 1990 Jaruzelski resigned and, after Poland's first direct elections for president, was replaced by Lech Walesa. Since becoming a democracy, Poland has been dominated by two political blocs: Solidarity Election Action (a coalition of dozens of small parties) and the Democratic Left Alliance (the former Communists and trade unionists). Each has held the presidency and majorities in Parliament. A third party, the Freedom Union, emerged in the late 1990's, representing the new business class and many intellectuals and former dissidents. Throughout the 1990's, Poland sought closer ties to western Europe. In response to these efforts. Poland was invited to join NATO in 1997.

In 1999, Poland became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military alliance of Western nations. In 2000, Kwasniewski was reelected president. In parliamentary elections in 2001, the Democratic Left Alliance won the most seats. The party formed a coalition government with the Peasant Party. In 2004, Poland joined the European Union (EU). The EU is an organization of European countries that promotes economic and political cooperation among its members. In elections in September 2005, the Law and Justice party won about a third of the seats in Poland's parliament. The party formed a coalition government with two smaller parties. That October, Lech Kaczynski, one of the leaders of the Law and Justice party, was elected president.