The history of Poland has its roots in the early migrations of Slavs, who established permanent West Slavic settlements in the Polish lands during the Early Middle Ages. The first ruling dynasty, the Piasts, emerged by the 10th century AD. Duke Mieszko I is considered the de facto creator of the Polish state and is widely recognized for the adoption of Western Christianity that followed his baptism in 966. Mieszko's duchy of Poland was formally reconstituted as a medieval kingdom in 1025 by his son Bolesław I the Brave, known for military expansion under his rule. Perhaps the most successful of the Piast kings was the last one, Casimir III the Great, who presided over a brilliant period of economic prosperity and territorial aggrandizement before his death in 1370 without male heirs. The period of the Jagiellonian dynasty in the 14th–16th centuries brought close ties with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a cultural Renaissance in Poland and continued territorial expansion that culminated in the establishment of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569.
The Kościuszko Uprising was an uprising against the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia led by Tadeusz Kościuszko in the Commonwealth of Poland and the Prussian partition in 1794. It was a failed attempt to liberate the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from Russian influence after the Second Partition of Poland (1793) and the creation of the Targowica Confederation.
The Kraków Uprising of February 1846 was an attempt, led by Polish insurgents such as Jan Tyssowski and Edward Dembowski, to incite a fight for national independence. The uprising was centered on the city of Kraków, the capital of a small state of Free City of Krakow. It was directed at the powers that partitioned Poland, in particular the nearby Austrian Empire. The uprising lasted about nine days, and ended with Austrian victory.
Warsaw Citadel is a 19th-century fortress in Warsaw, Poland. It was built by order of Tsar Nicholas I after the suppression of the 1830 November Uprising in order to bolster imperial Russian control of the city. It served as a prison into the late 1930s, especially the dreaded Tenth Pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel ; the latter has been a museum since 1963.
The Third Partition of Poland (1795) was the last in a series of the Partitions of Poland and the land of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth among Prussia, the Austrian Empire, and the Russian Empire which effectively ended Polish–Lithuanian national sovereignty until 1918. The partition was followed by a number Polish uprisings during the period.
The Polish Committee of National Liberation, also known as the Lublin Committee, was an executive governing authority established by the communists in Poland at the later stage of World War II. It was officially proclaimed on 22 July 1944 in Chełm, installed on 26 July in Lublin and placed formally under the direction of the State National Council. The PKWN was a provisional entity functioning in opposition to the Polish government-in-exile, the internationally recognized government of Poland. The PKWN exercised control over Polish territory retaken from Nazi Germany by the Soviet Red Army and the Polish People's Army. It was sponsored and controlled by the Soviet Union and dominated by Polish communists.
Polish Jacobins was the name given to a group of late 18th century radical Polish politicians by their opponents.
Piotr Ożarowski was a Polish noble (szlachcic), politic and military commander. Member of the infamous Confederation of Targowica, he reached the offices of Great Crown Hetman and castellan of Wojnice.
There were many resistance movements in partitioned Poland between 1795 and 1918. Although some of the szlachta was reconciled to the end of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, the possibility of Polish independence was kept alive by events within and without Poland throughout the 19th century. Poland's location on the Northern European Lowlands became especially significant in a period when its neighbours, the Kingdom of Prussia and Russia were intensely involved in European rivalries and alliances and modern nation states took form over the entire continent.
For our freedom and yours (Polish: Za naszą i waszą wolność) is one of the unofficial mottos of Poland. It is commonly associated with the times when Polish soldiers, exiled from the partitioned Poland, fought in various independence movements all over the world. First seen during a patriotic demonstration to commemorate the Decembrists, held in Warsaw on January 25, 18311, it was most probably authored by Joachim Lelewel. The initial banner has the inscription in both Polish and Russian, and was meant to underline that the victory of Decembrists would also have meant liberty for Poland. The slogan got shorter with time; the original had the form 'In the name of God, for our freedom and yours' ('W imię Boga za Naszą i Waszą Wolność'). The original banner has been preserved in the collection of Muzeum Wojska Polskiego in Warsaw.
Polish October, also known as October 1956, Polish thaw, or Gomułka's thaw, marked a change in the politics of Poland in the second half of 1956. Some social scientists term it the Polish October Revolution, which, while less dramatic than the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, may have had an even deeper impact on the Eastern Bloc and on the Soviet Union's relationship to its satellite states in Central Europe.
Polish–French relations date back several centuries, although they really only became relevant in the times of the French Revolution and the reign of Napoleon I. Poles were allies of Napoleon; a large Polish community settled in France in the 19th century, and Poles and French were also allies during the interwar period. Never in history has a Polish army fought against its French counterpart or otherwise. Official relations, having cooled during the Cold War, have improved since the fall of communism. Currently both countries are part of the European Union and NATO. Poland is also an observer in the Organisation internationale de la francophonie.
Apollo Korzeniowski was a Polish poet, playwright, translator, clandestine political activist, and father of Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad.
The "Whites" were a faction among Polish insurrectionists before and during the January Uprising in early 1860s. They consisted mostly of progressive-minded landowners and industrialists, the middle class, and some intellectuals of Russian controlled Congress Poland. The faction had its origins in the Towarzystwo Rolnicze started by Count Andrzej Artur Zamoyski in 1858. While the Whites supported ending serfdom, unlike the "Red" faction, they advocated for some kind of compensation to be made to the landlords. Also unlike the Reds, the Whites generally opposed the idea of an armed insurrection against Russia, seeing it as doomed to failure. Instead, they tried to use diplomacy and the support of other European powers to win greater autonomy, a separate administration, and a native Polish army for Congress Poland. They also tried to influence the Tsar to engage in the recovery of former Polish lands, which had been taken by partitioning powers Austria and Prussia. However, once the January Uprising broke out, most Whites supported it both politically and militarily.
Abolition of serfdom in Poland occurred over a period of time. At the end of 18th century a reform movement in Poland resulted in the Constitution of May 3, 1791 which took the peasantry under protection of state. Full abolishment was enacted by the Proclamation of Połaniec but it was also short-lived as Poland was parted by her neighbours. In the 19th century various reforms on Polish territories were taking place at different paces in the Austrian partition, Prussian partition and the Russian partition. Serfdom was abolished in Prussia in 1807, in Austria in 1848, in Russia in 1861, and in Congress Kingdom of Poland, in 1864.
Serfdom in Poland became the dominant form of relationship between peasants and nobility in the 17th century, and was a major feature of the economy of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, although its origins can be traced back to the 12th century.
The 1648 free election in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth began on October 6, 1648, and ended on November 17 of the same year. The new King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania was John II Casimir, the younger brother of previous king, Władysław IV, who had died on May 20, 1648.
