06-11-2006, 10:56 AM
[size="2"]Poland[/size]
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[size="2"]ANCIENT POLAND - LAND OF THE POLANIE[/size]
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[size="2"]The region now known as Poland was one of the areas settled by the easternmost branch of the original Indo-European invaders of Europe, the Slavs, the last of whom entered the territory more or less simultaneously with the fall of the Roman Empire in the west - that is, during the 3rd and 4th centuries AD.[/size]
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[size="2"]The very name Poland is derived from the largest of these Slavic tribes, the Polanie. These Slavic tribes, like their neighbors in eastern Europe, clung longest to the original Indo-European religions and beliefs, being amongst the last to fall prey to the murderous evangelism of the early Christians. Southern Poland also fell prey to the ravages of Atilla the Hun, although no lasting racial imprint upon the population was left by the Asiatic warlord's passing.[/size]
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[size="2"]THE FIRST KINGDOM UNDER BOLESLAW[/size]
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[size="2"]Around 840 AD, the first large grouping of Slavic tribes emerged in Poland under the almost legendary king Piast. The Polish tribes were still at this stage all pagans, and it was only with the conversion of the Polish duke Mieszko, who reigned from 962 to 992, that Christianity was introduced to the Poles.[/size]
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[size="2"]Meiszko's son, Boleslaw, who reigned from 992 to 1025, was the first Polish king to start establishing definite borders to the Polish state in formation: he engaged in a successful campaign against some neighboring Germanic tribes to the west, and slightly expanded the Polish borders as a result. Shortly afterwards Poland was however to be divided up amongst the children of the royal house, and the greater Polish state collapsed once again.[/size]
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[size="2"]MONGOL INVASION[/size]
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[size="2"]In 1240, the Mongol terror from the east invaded Poland, having first decimated many other Slavic tribes to the east. Fortunately for Poland, the Mongols left the next year, but large parts of the country were laid waste as a result.[/size]
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[size="2"]Simultaneously, two new population shifts occurred. Large numbers of Prussians began to settle in Poland, moving away from internal troubles in the German states, and the first large settlement of Jews occurred in Poland, the latter moving away from growing anti-Semitism in western Europe.[/size]
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[size="2"]THE SECOND KINGDOM - WLADSLAW BEATS OFF GERMANS[/size]
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[size="2"]In 1320, a new Polish king was crowned, Wladyslaw I, who achieved fame for fighting off waves of invading Germans, during the course of which Wladyslaw managed to reunite Poland.[/size]
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[size="2"]His son, Kazimierz III, also called the Great, reigned from 1333 to 1370 and won renown for his reformation of Polish society and the founding of the Jagiellonian University in 1364. He also won the gratitude of Europe's Jewish population by actively aiding Jewish refugees from western Europe, allowing them to settle in large numbers in Poland.[/size]
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[size="2"]Above: Kazimierz the Great, King of Poland from 1333 to 1370. He won renown for establishing a semi-peace with the Teutonic Knights, and for his liberal policy towards Europe's Jewish population. He allowed them to settle in large numbers in Poland to escape increasing anti-Jewish sentiment in western Europe.[/size]
[size="2"]UNITY OF LITHUANIA AND POLAND - 1386 AD[/size]
[size="2"]Kazimierz III died heirless, and was succeeded by his niece, Jadwiga, who married the Grand Duke Jagiello of the territory of Lithuania in 1386. From this time a single sovereign ruled both countries until 1569, and Christianity was introduced to the latter state, it having remained pagan right until the mid-14th Century.[/size]
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[size="2"]THE TEUTONIC KNIGHTS[/size]
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[size="2"]Poland and Lithuania, were however, the subject of continued invasions by the Teutonic Knights - these attacks did not stop until 1410, when a combined Polish and Lithuanian army won a great victory over the order at the Battle of Tannenberg.[/size]
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[size="2"]This victory marked the emerence of Poland as a major power in eastern Europe, although the Teutonic Knights were only finally defeated in 1466.[/size]