Prehistory and protohistory Lusatian culture settlement in
Biskupin, 8th century BC The first
Stone Age archaic humans and
Homo erectus species settled what was to become Poland approximately 500,000 years ago, though the ensuing hostile climate prevented early humans from founding more permanent encampments. The arrival of
Homo sapiens and
anatomically modern humans coincided with the climatic discontinuity at the end of the
Last Glacial Period (
Northern Polish glaciation 10,000 BC), when Poland became habitable.
Neolithic excavations indicated broad-ranging development in that era; the earliest evidence of European cheesemaking (5500 BC) was discovered in Polish
Kuyavia, and the
Bronocice pot is incised with the earliest known depiction of what may be a wheeled vehicle (3400 BC). The period spanning the
Bronze Age and the
Early Iron Age (1300 BC–500 BC) was marked by an increase in population density, establishment of
palisaded settlements (
gords) and the expansion of
Lusatian culture. A significant archaeological find from
the protohistory of Poland is a fortified settlement at
Biskupin, attributed to the Lusatian culture of the
Late Bronze Age (mid-8th century BC). Throughout
antiquity (400 BC–500 AD), many distinct ancient populations inhabited the territory of present-day Poland, notably
Celtic,
Scythian,
Germanic,
Sarmatian,
Baltic and
Slavic tribes. Furthermore, archaeological findings confirmed the presence of
Roman Legions sent to protect the
amber trade. The
Polish tribes emerged following the
second wave of the Migration Period around the 6th century AD; Beginning in the early 10th century, the
Polans would come to dominate other
Lechitic tribes in the region, initially forming a tribal federation and later a centralised monarchical state.
Kingdom of Poland , whose acceptance of Christianity under the auspices of the
Roman Church and the
Baptism of Poland marked the beginning of statehood in 966. His son,
Bolesław I the Brave, was crowned
king in 1025 Poland began to form into a recognisable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the
Piast dynasty. In 966, the ruler of the Polans,
Mieszko I, accepted
Western Christianity under the auspices of the
Roman Catholic Church which was tantamount to the adoption of
Christianity by Poland. In 968, a missionary
bishopric was established in
Poznań. An
incipit titled
Dagome iudex first defined Poland's geographical boundaries with its capital in
Gniezno and affirmed that its monarchy was under the protection of the
Apostolic See. The country's early origins were described by
Gallus Anonymus in , the oldest Polish chronicle. An important national event of the period was the
martyrdom of
Saint Adalbert, who was killed by
Prussian pagans in 997 and whose remains were reputedly bought back for their weight in gold by Mieszko's successor,
Bolesław I the Brave. Also, Otto bestowed upon Bolesław royal
regalia and a replica of the
Holy Lance, which were later used at his coronation as the first
King of Poland , when Bolesław received permission for his coronation from
Pope John XIX. Bolesław also expanded the realm considerably by seizing parts of German
Lusatia, Czech
Moravia,
Upper Hungary, and southwestern regions of the
Kievan Rus'. is the only Polish king to receive the title of
Great. He built extensively during his reign, and reformed the Polish army along with the country's legal code, 1333–1370. The transition from
paganism in Poland was not instantaneous and resulted in the
pagan reaction of the 1030s. In 1031,
Mieszko II Lambert lost the title of king and fled amidst the violence. The unrest led to the transfer of the capital to Kraków in 1038 by
Casimir I the Restorer. In 1076,
Bolesław II re-instituted the office of king, but was banished in 1079 for murdering his opponent,
Bishop Stanislaus. In 1138, the country
fragmented into five principalities when
Bolesław III Wrymouth divided his lands among his sons. In 1226,
Konrad I of Masovia invited the
Teutonic Knights to aid in combating the
Baltic Prussians; a decision that later led to centuries of warfare with the Knights. In the first half of the 13th century,
Henry I the Bearded and
Henry II the Pious aimed to unite the fragmented dukedoms, but the
Mongol invasion and the death of Henry II in
battle hindered the unification. As a result of the devastation which followed, depopulation and the demand for craft labour spurred a migration of
German and Flemish settlers into Poland, which was encouraged by the Polish dukes. In 1264, the
Statute of Kalisz introduced unprecedented autonomy for the
Polish Jews, who came to Poland fleeing persecution elsewhere in Europe. In 1320,
Władysław I the Short became the first king of
a reunified Poland since
Przemysł II in 1296, and the first to be crowned at
Wawel Cathedral in Kraków. Beginning in 1333, the reign of
Casimir III the Great was marked by developments in
castle infrastructure, army, judiciary and
diplomacy. Under his authority, Poland transformed into a major European power; he instituted Polish rule over
Ruthenia in 1340 and imposed quarantine that prevented the spread of
Black Death. In 1364, Casimir inaugurated the
University of Kraków, one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in Europe. Upon his death in 1370, the Piast dynasty came to an end. He was succeeded by his closest male relative,
Louis of Anjou, who ruled Poland,
Hungary, and
Croatia in a
personal union. Louis' younger daughter
Jadwiga became Poland's first female monarch in
1384. The partnership between Poles and Lithuanians brought the vast multi-ethnic
Lithuanian territories into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for its inhabitants, who coexisted in one of the largest European
political entities of the time. In the Baltic Sea region, the struggle of Poland and Lithuania with the
Teutonic Knights continued and culminated at the
Battle of Grunwald in
1410, where a combined Polish–Lithuanian army inflicted a decisive victory against them. In 1493,
John I Albert sanctioned the creation of a
bicameral parliament (the Sejm) composed of a lower house, the chamber of deputies, and an upper house, the chamber of senators. The
Nihil novi act adopted by the Polish
General Sejm in 1505, transferred most of the
legislative power from the monarch to the parliament, an event which marked the beginning of the period known as
Golden Liberty, when the state was ruled by the seemingly free and equal
Polish nobles. in
Kraków, seat of
Polish kings from 1038 until the capital was moved to
Warsaw in 1596 The 16th century saw
Protestant Reformation movements making deep inroads into Polish Christianity, which resulted in the establishment of policies promoting religious tolerance, unique in Europe at that time. In Poland,
Nontrinitarian Christianity became the doctrine of the so-called
Polish Brethren, who separated from their
Calvinist denomination and became the co-founders of global
Unitarianism. The European
Renaissance evoked under
Sigismund I the Old and
Sigismund II Augustus a sense of urgency in the need to promote a
cultural awakening. During the
Polish Golden Age, the nation's economy and culture flourished. The Italian-born
Bona Sforza, daughter of the
Duke of Milan and queen consort to Sigismund I, made considerable contributions to
architecture,
cuisine, language and court customs at
Wawel Castle. The latter coincided with a period of prosperity. The Polish-dominated union thereafter became a leading power and a major cultural entity, exercising political control over parts of Central,
Eastern,
Southeastern and Northern Europe. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth occupied approximately
at its peak and was the largest state in Europe. Simultaneously, Poland imposed
Polonisation policies in newly acquired territories which were met with resistance from ethnic and religious minorities. When he left Poland to become
King of France, his successor,
Stephen Báthory, led a successful
campaign in the
Livonian War, granting Poland more
lands across the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. State affairs were then headed by
Jan Zamoyski, the
Crown Chancellor. Stephen's successor,
Sigismund III, defeated a rival
Habsburg electoral candidate,
Archduke Maximilian III, in the
War of the Polish Succession (1587–1588). In
1592, Sigismund succeeded his father
John Vasa, in
Sweden. The
Polish-Swedish union endured until 1599, when he was
deposed by the Swedes. defeated the
Ottoman Turks at the
Battle of Vienna on 12 September 1683. In 1609, Sigismund
invaded Russia which was engulfed in a
civil war, Sigismund's long reign in Poland coincided with the
Silver Age. The liberal
Władysław IV effectively defended Poland's territorial possessions but after his death the vast Commonwealth began declining from internal disorder and constant warfare. In
1648, the Polish hegemony over Ukraine sparked the
Khmelnytsky Uprising, followed by the decimating
Swedish Deluge during the
Second Northern War, and Prussia's
independence in 1657. The
Saxon era, under
Augustus II and
Augustus III, saw neighbouring powers grow in strength at the expense of Poland. Both Saxon kings faced opposition from
Stanisław Leszczyński during the
Great Northern War (1700) and the
War of the Polish Succession (1733).
Partitions , the last
King of Poland, reigned from 1764 until his abdication on 25 November 1795. The
royal election of 1764 resulted in the elevation of
Stanisław II Augustus Poniatowski to the monarchy. His candidacy was extensively funded by his sponsor and former lover, Empress
Catherine II of Russia. The new king maneuvered between his desire to implement necessary modernising reforms, and the necessity to remain at peace with surrounding states. His ideals led to the formation of the 1768
Bar Confederation, a rebellion directed against the Poniatowski and all external influence, which ineptly aimed to preserve Poland's sovereignty and privileges held by the nobility. The failed attempts at government restructuring as well as the domestic turmoil provoked its neighbours to invade. In 1772, the
First Partition of the Commonwealth by Prussia, Russia, and Austria took place, an act which the
Partition Sejm, under considerable duress, eventually ratified as a
fait accompli. Corporal punishment of schoolchildren was officially prohibited in 1783. Poniatowski was the head figure of the
Enlightenment, encouraged the development of industries, and embraced republican
neoclassicism. For his contributions to the arts and sciences, he was awarded a
Fellowship of the Royal Society. In 1791, the
Great Sejm parliament adopted the
3 May Constitution, the first set of supreme national laws, and introduced a
constitutional monarchy. The
Targowica Confederation, an organisation of nobles and deputies opposing the act, appealed to Catherine and caused the
1792 Polish–Russian War. Fearing the reemergence of Polish hegemony, Russia and Prussia arranged and, in 1793, executed the
Second Partition, which left the country deprived of territory and incapable of independent existence. On 24 October 1795, the Commonwealth was
partitioned for the third time and ceased to exist as a territorial entity. Stanisław Augustus, the last King of Poland, abdicated the throne on 25 November 1795.
Era of insurrections , carried out by the
Kingdom of Prussia (
blue), the
Russian Empire (
brown), and the
Austrian Habsburg Monarchy (
green) in
1772,
1793 and
1795 The Polish people
rose several times against the partitioners and occupying armies. An unsuccessful attempt at defending Poland's sovereignty took place in the 1794
Kościuszko Uprising, where a popular and distinguished general
Tadeusz Kościuszko, who had several years earlier served under
George Washington in the
American Revolutionary War, led Polish insurgents. Despite the victory at the
Battle of Racławice, his ultimate defeat ended Poland's independent existence
for 123 years. In 1806, an
insurrection organised by
Jan Henryk Dąbrowski liberated western Poland ahead of
Napoleon's advance into Prussia during the
War of the Fourth Coalition. In accordance with the 1807
Treaty of Tilsit, Napoleon proclaimed the
Duchy of Warsaw, a
client state ruled by his ally
Frederick Augustus I of Saxony. The Poles actively aided French troops in the
Napoleonic Wars, particularly those under
Józef Poniatowski who became
Marshal of France shortly before his death at
Leipzig in 1813. In the aftermath of Napoleon's exile, the Duchy of Warsaw was abolished at the
Congress of Vienna in 1815 and its territory was divided into Russian
Congress Kingdom of Poland, the Prussian
Grand Duchy of Posen, and
Austrian Galicia with the
Free City of Kraków. In 1830,
non-commissioned officers at Warsaw's
Officer Cadet School rebelled in what was the
November Uprising. After its collapse, Congress Poland lost its
constitutional autonomy,
army and legislative assembly. During the
European Spring of Nations, Poles took up arms in the
Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 to resist
Germanisation, but its failure saw duchy's status reduced to a mere
province; and subsequent integration into the
German Empire in 1871. In Russia, the fall of the
January Uprising (1863–1864) prompted severe
political, social and cultural reprisals, followed by deportations and
pogroms of the Polish-Jewish population. Towards the end of the 19th century, Congress Poland became heavily industrialised; its primary exports being coal,
zinc, iron and textiles.
Second Polish Republic Marshal
Józef Piłsudski was a hero of the Polish independence campaign and the nation's premiere statesman from 1918 until his death on 12 May 1935. In the aftermath of
World War I, the
Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland, confirmed through the
Treaty of Versailles of June 1919. A total of 2 million Polish troops fought with the armies of the three occupying powers, and over 450,000 died. Following the
armistice with Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the
Second Polish Republic. The Second Polish Republic reaffirmed its sovereignty after
a series of military conflicts, most notably the
Polish–Soviet War, when Poland inflicted a crushing defeat on the
Red Army at the
Battle of Warsaw. The inter-war period heralded a new era of Polish politics. Whilst Polish political activists had faced heavy censorship in the decades up until
World War I, a new political tradition was established in the country. Many exiled Polish activists, such as
Ignacy Jan Paderewski, who would later become prime minister, returned home. A significant number of them then went on to take key positions in the newly formed political and governmental structures. Tragedy struck in 1922 when
Gabriel Narutowicz, inaugural holder of the presidency, was assassinated at the
Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw by a painter and right-wing nationalist
Eligiusz Niewiadomski. By the late 1930s, due to increased threats posed by political extremism inside the country, the Polish government became increasingly heavy-handed, banning a number of radical organisations, including communist and ultra-nationalist political parties, which threatened the stability of the country.
World War II 7TP tanks on military manoeuvres shortly before the
invasion of Poland in 1939 World War II began with the
Nazi German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, followed by the
Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September. As agreed in the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was split into two zones,
one occupied by Nazi Germany, the other by
the Soviet Union. The
wartime resistance movement, and the
Armia Krajowa (
Home Army), fought against the occupation. It was one of the three largest resistance movements of the entire war, and encompassed a range of clandestine activities, which functioned as an
underground state complete with
degree-awarding universities and
a court system.
Polish code breakers were responsible for
cracking the Enigma cipher and Polish scientists participating in the
Manhattan Project were co-creators of the American
atomic bomb. In the east, the Soviet-backed
Polish 1st Army distinguished itself in the battles for
Warsaw and
Berlin. six German
extermination camps were established in occupied Poland, including
Treblinka,
Majdanek and
Auschwitz. The Germans
transported millions of Jews from across occupied Europe to be murdered in those camps. Altogether, 3 million Polish Jews – approximately 90% of Poland's pre-war Jewry – and between 1.8 and 2.8 million ethnic Poles were killed, including up to 100,000 members of the Polish
intelligentsia. The
Romani people were also exterminated. During the
Warsaw Uprising alone, over 150,000 Polish civilians were killed, most were murdered by the Germans during the
Wola and
Ochota massacres. At least 100,000 Poles were also murdered by the
Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) between 1943 and 1944 in what became known as the
Wołyń Massacres.
Of all the countries in the war, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens: around 6 million perished – more than one-sixth of Poland's pre-war population –
half of them Polish Jews. About 90% of deaths were non-military in nature. In 1945, Poland's borders
were shifted westwards. Over two million Polish inhabitants of
Kresy were expelled along the
Curzon Line by
Stalin. The western border became the
Oder-Neisse line. As a result, Poland's territory was reduced by 20%, or . The shift forced the migration of
millions of other people, most of whom were Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews. In 1944, Stalin had made guarantees to
Churchill and
Roosevelt that he would maintain Poland's sovereignty and allow democratic elections to take place. However, upon achieving victory in 1945, the elections organised by the occupying Soviet authorities were falsified and were used to provide a veneer of legitimacy for Soviet hegemony over Polish affairs. The Soviet Union instituted a new
communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the
Eastern Bloc.
As elsewhere in Communist Europe, the Soviet influence over Poland was met with
armed resistance from the outset which continued into the 1950s. Despite widespread objections, the new Polish government accepted the Soviet annexation of the pre-war eastern regions of Poland The new communist government took control with the adoption of the
Small Constitution on 19 February 1947. The
Polish People's Republic (
Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa)
was officially proclaimed in 1952. In 1956, after the death of
Bolesław Bierut, the régime of
Władysław Gomułka became temporarily more liberal, freeing many people from prison and expanding some personal freedoms.
Collectivisation in the Polish People's Republic failed. A similar situation repeated itself in the 1970s under
Edward Gierek, but most of the time persecution of
anti-communist opposition groups persisted. Despite this, Poland was at the time considered to be one of the least oppressive states of the Eastern Bloc. Despite persecution and imposition of
martial law in 1981 by General
Wojciech Jaruzelski, it eroded the dominance of the
Polish United Workers' Party and by 1989 had triumphed in Poland's first
partially free and democratic parliamentary elections since the end of the Second World War.
Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually
won the presidency in 1990. The Solidarity movement heralded the
collapse of communist regimes and parties across Europe.
Third Polish Republic following the
death of Poland's top government officials in a plane crash on 10 April 2010 A
shock therapy programme, initiated by
Leszek Balcerowicz in the early 1990s, enabled the country to transform its
Soviet-style planned economy into a
market economy. As with other
post-communist countries, Poland suffered temporary declines in social, economic, and living standards, but it became the first post-communist country to reach its pre-1989
GDP levels as early as 1995, although the unemployment rate increased. Poland became a member of the
Visegrád Group in 1991, and joined
NATO in 1999. Poles then voted to join the
European Union in
a referendum in June 2003, with
Poland becoming a full member on 1 May 2004, following the
consequent enlargement of the union. Poland joined the
Schengen Area in 2007, as a result of which,
the country's borders with other member states of the
European Union were dismantled, allowing for
full freedom of movement within most of the European Union. In 2011, the ruling
Civic Platform won
parliamentary elections. In 2014, the
Prime Minister of Poland,
Donald Tusk, was chosen to be
President of the European Council, and resigned as prime minister. The
2015 and
2019 elections were won by the national-conservative
Law and Justice Party (PiS) led by
Jarosław Kaczyński, resulting in increased
Euroscepticism and
increased friction with the European Union. In December 2017,
Mateusz Morawiecki was sworn in as the Prime Minister, succeeding
Beata Szydlo, in office since 2015. President
Andrzej Duda, supported by Law and Justice party, was re-elected in the 2020 presidential
election. , the
Russian invasion of Ukraine had led to 17 million
Ukrainian refugees crossing the border to Poland. , 0.9 million of those had stayed in Poland. == Geography ==