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poland history Essay

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The Poles who were West Slavic people established Poland in the late 5th century. History was first written in the 10th century about Poland when the Polish nation changed into Christianity in 966. Prince Mieszko I was the first ruler and his son, Boleslaw I, was the first king of Poland. This established the Piast dynasty that lasted from 966 to 1370. During the Piast dynasty there where Piast kings with a lot of rivalries from nobility and Bohemian and Germanic invasions that made Poland a very troubled country. The last king of the dynasty was Casimir III, crowned in 1333. He extended Polish influence eastward to Lithuania and Russia. He acquired Pomerania from the Teutonic Knights and shifted borders between Poland and Germany. During …show more content…

After Polish troops were driven out of Moscow in 1613, Russia became more powerful. After that Poland went into a time of war beginning in 1648, Ukrainian, Cossacks, marauding Tartars, Turks, and Russians attacked Poland. The Swedes did the greatest damage. They conquered and laid to waste almost the entire country in 1655. King John III Sobieski’s victory over the Turks at Vienna in 1683 recovered some of Poland’s power but he couldn’t stop the Russians and the further loss of the eastern territory. During the reign of Augustus II (ruled 1697-1733), who was the elector of Saxony, Poland was involved in the Great Northern War, which mainly took place in Poland. The war of the Polish Succession was triggered when Augustus III became the new king of Poland (Grolier).
Stanislaw II (ruled 1764-95), who was a puppet of Catherine II of Russia, was the last king of Poland. The Confederation of Bar (1768), a French supported alliance of Polish nobles, was formed from the Anti-Russian feeling, but this was unable to prevent the dismemberment of Poland by Russia, Prussia, and Austria. The constitution of May 3,1791 granted political rights to burghers and peasants. Tadeusz Kosciuszko’s national insurrection of 1794 was defeated and followed by the partition of 1795. This marked the disappearance of Poland from the map of Europe (Grolier).
Poland reemerged when Napoleon I

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