The Piasts. 8th and 9th centuries AD saw in the Polish lands a number of territorial structures in early stage of development, and the ones which attained the predominant significance were the Wislans (Wiślanie) around the Cracow township establishment and the Polans (Polanie) in the Gniezno area.

King Boleslaw I Chrobry continued to consolidate and centralize the state structure, but after his death, the country returned to the process of internal disintegration and disorganization, which was further marred by external attacks by the neighbours and subsequently, the period of independence from the neighbouring Germany ended. Stability returned to the country in 1047-50 at the time of the next Polish ruler, Kazimierz I Odnowiciel, and at the time of his reign Krakow became the capital of the state.

Bolesław II Śmiały furthered the process of strengthening Poland, and the international role and position of the country was petrified by the coronation of the King in 1076. However, the internal opposition forced the King out of the country (after the Krakow bishop Stanisław was executed on the King’s orders). The country was weakened, only during the reign of the following king, Bolesław III Krzywousty, defended Poland from the German invasion in 1109, and conquered the Gdańsk coastal territories and Lubuskie lands and imposed his superiority over the Western Pomerania. After his death, Poland entered the 150-years’ long period of provincial fractioning.

After a brief period - at the turn of 13th and 14th centuries - of Czech Przemyślids’ rule over the Polish territories, Polish prince Władysław I Łokietek successfully unified a considerable portion of Poland (about 106 thousand square km). Łokietek was crowned the King of Poland in 1320. Newly reborn Polish state faced then the alien concordance between the Czechs and Teutons; after 1327 the Czech state gradually subordinated small Silesian princedoms, and the Teutons invaded Kujawy. The full consolidation of the state was achieved only under the following Polish king, Kazimierz III Wielki, who moved the state borders to the South-East (about 170 thousand square km; including the subordinated lands: about 240 thousand sq. km and 2 m inhabitants); internal stability, economic development and increase of international recognition were the positive outcomes. As the treaties with the Andegavens of Hungary provided, after the death of the last Piast King (1370) the rule of the Ludwika Węgierski followed. In 1384 the throne was seconded to his daughter, Hedwig (Jadwiga) who, following the treaty of Krewa (1385) married a Lithuanian, Grand Duke Jagiełło (Jogaila) thus starting the Polish – Lithuanian union and new dynasty, the Jagiellons (Jogaila).

Władysław II Jagiełło strengthened the country both internally and internationally. The victorious war against the Teutonic Knights (Grunwald 1410) removed the dangerous northern neighbor, while the Union of Horodło of 1413 tightened the bonds between Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Jogaila succeeded in obtaining succession of the Polish throne for his sons for the price of numerous concessions and privileges to the nobility, thus laying foundation for the future superiority of that social group in the country. The same policy was continued by king Kazimierz IV Jagiellończyk, who gained support of the nobility for his Nieszawa Statutes in 1454 and for the final destruction of the military might of the Teutons after the victorious Thirteen-years War 1454-66, which ended in inclusion of the Royal Prussia and Warmia into Poland and transformation of the Teutonic Order’ state into a Polish-subordinate territory. Rule of Jan I Olbracht and Aleksander Jagiellończyk brought further improvement of the social and political position of the nobility (Piotrków Benefits of 1496 and the Nihil Novi Constitution of 1505). The period in which the country flourished in the most versatile and profound way was the years when the 2 last kings of the Jogaila dynasty ruled: Zygmunt I Stary and Zygmunt II August. At the turn of 15th and 16th century Poland was inhabited by 7.5 m people. Friendly relations with the Habsburg was established, followed by the treaty of Vienna in 1515).

Elected kings. When king Zygmunta II August died in 1572 without a heir, the Jogaila rule in Poland ended. All subsequent kings were elected to the Polish throne by the direct election of the nobility. After a brief and misfortunate episode of Henri III Vallois rule, the ten-years’ long rule by Stefan Batory was full of attempts to strengthen the royal position internally and the war with z Russia for the Inflanty (1579-81), which ended in truce of Jam Zapolski in 1582. King Batory’s successor, Sigmuntus III Vasa, led Poland in a prolonged period of military conflict with Sweden because of his claims to the Swedish throne. Twenty-years’ long rule of Jan II Kazimierz was the period of considerable damage made to the country’s economy and mighty reduction in population, chaos in political life, loss of territories and fall in the international importance Poland once enjoyed. Magnificent victories of Jan III Sobieski (Chocim 1673, Vienna battle against the Turks in 1683) improved the situation only temporarily. After Sobieski’s death, Poland gradually became the target of hostile politics of the neighbour powers.

Election of Stanisław August Poniatowski, a candidate of ‘a Familia’ and supported by the Russian Empress, Catherine II, permitted implementation of (albeit curtailed) internal reforms (for which Russia permitted). In response to reforms and to Russian interference in the Polish internal affairs, pro-Russian policy of the king and ‘the Family’ the conservative part of nobility responded with military secession of Bar 1768-72. After the secession was suppressed, the first partitioning of Poland in 1772 between Austria, Prussia and Russia followed. However, some reforms, initiated and supported by the king were attempted: in 1773 the Commission for National Education was initiated, the Four-Years Sejm passed the bill on auction for the military, the rights of cities and towns were vastly broadened, and the Polish Constitution of 3 May 1791 was passed and declared. The work on internal reconstruction of Poland was destroyed by the Targowica Confederation of 1792 which was swiftly followed by the intervention of the Russian army (the Polish – Russian war of 1792), which prompted the II partitioning of Poland between Russia and Prussia. The attempt to retain the remains of the independent state which took form of the Kościuszko-led Insurrection of 1794 ended in loss and the III partitioning of Poland followed in 1795. And thus the independent Polish state ceased to exist for more than a century.

Following the formal partitioning of Poland, the polish lands were introduced into the invading countries’ territories and their respective provinces: the Austrian part was transformed into the Galizien, the Prussian-captive lands were became the Western Prussia, Southern Prussia and New Eastern Prussia, and the lands captured by Russia were divided into Russian provinces (gubern). In all lands, the own invaders’ laws were imposed and the administration was centralized.

Political life returned to life after the outburst of the Russian revolution in 1905-07, which developed strongly in the Russian-occupied lands. As a result of the Revolution, the citizens of the Polish origin received (limited) national concessions (among others: Polish-language schools, rights to set up associations, and a national representation in the Russian State Duma (the parliament) and the State Council). By no means those concessions prevented the development of attempts to regain independence. In 1908-14 several paramilitary organizations were set up in Galizien (those were the Polish paramilitary organizations with aim of preparation for restoration of independence). At the moment of outburst of the 1st World War the Polish drive to the independence was represented by a number of political factions: the pro-Russian (National Democracy with R. Dmowski) – which associated the hope for national Independence to the success of the Entente, in particular Russia; and the pro-Austrian (J. Piłsudski, the Polish Legions), which expected the Central States to win.

The outburst of the 1st World War in 1914 in which the states occupying the Polish lands fought against each other intensified the Polish hopes for independence. The Western superpowers also became active in the Polish case, and in 1917, in Paris, the National Polish Committee was set up, which the entente recognized as 6the official representation of the Polish. In France, the Polish army started to be built (the Polish Army in France during the 1st World War). After the Central States seconded parts of the former Polish kingdom to Ukraine (the Peace of Brzesko, 1918) the Polish Corps which at that time were fighting at their side - the Polish Supplementary Corps under the command of general J. Haller, crossed the frontier line and united with the 2nd Polish Corps in Russia. On 8 January 1918, the American President W. Wilson announced his 14-point declaration in which point 13 referred to Poland’s independence. On 7 October 1918 The Regency Council proclaimed Poland an independent state, and on 28 October the Polish Liquidation Committee was formed.

The Second Republic. Disintegration of discipline in the German and Austrian armies and increase of radical and extremist reactions in the society after the revolution on the East, as well as the emergence of the Temporary Peoples’ Government of the Polish Republic in Lublin in the night of 6/7 November 1918 were decisive for the Regency Council stepping up their efforts for liberation of J. Piłsudski from the internment in Magdeburg and bringing him to Warsaw, which occurred on 10 November. On 11 November Pilsudski has handed over the supreme command over the quickly growing Polish military forces and the information of the cease fire in the western front resulted in the spontaneous disarming of the German army soldiers and proclamation of independence. The regency Council which lost credibility due to their co-operation with the occupants handed the civil power to Pilsudski on 14 November; also the Lublin government acknowledged Pilsudski’s superiority. On 17 November Piłsudski called a new government with J. Moraczewski, a socialist as the prime minister. The government issued a manifesto announcing the soon-to-follow vast economic, social and political reforms. After the unsuccessful attempt of the coup d’etat Pilsudski reached a compromise with the conservatives and thus on 16 January 1919 a government was formed under the premiership of I. Paderewski. The government was accepted by the conservative factions and recognized by the Entente. The Legislature was elected in direct elections on 26 January 1919 and on 20 February 1919 the new parliament passed the so-called the Little Constitution which handed over the executive power to J. Piłsudski as the Head of the State (Naczelnik Państwa). The Polish state comprised initially the Polish Kingdom and the western Galicja. At the Peace Conference in Paris in January 1919 the recognized Polish interests represented mainly by R. Dmowski and the activists of KNP became the subject of conflict between France and England. The treaty of Versailles of 1919 provided Poland with the following territories: Pomorze Wschodnie though without Gdansk (Wolne Miasto Gdańsk), Wielkopolska (uprising in Wielkopolska), and the polls were to be organized to decide on the allegiance of upper Silesia, Warmia and Mazury (in 1920 polls in Warmia and Mazury). In the Upper Silesia the brutal repressions of the German authorities led to Silesian Uprisings in August 1919 and August 1920, and the borders were set finally after the 3rd Silesian Uprising (May 1921), which exploded after the plebiscite in Upper Silesia that turned detrimental to Poland (only the people born, and not those inhabiting the lands were allowed to take part in the poll) – so thus Poland obtained 29% of the polling areas (though the greater part of the industrial potential and 46% of population of the Upper Silesia). The Polish borders in the Cieszyn Silesia was set by the Entente in July 1920 at a conference in Spa, in line with the suggestions by the Czech government (Czech military actions) and thus 2 Polish counties were included into the Czech territory.

The Polish Republic was a multi-national (the Poles constituted 65% of its population) and multi-religion country (Roman Catholics were 62%), of a predominantly agricultural character (64% employed in agriculture). The industry had been developing exclusively in the Łódź and Warsaw provinces, in the Upper Silesia and in the Old Polish Centre. Modern agriculture was characteristic to the Wielkopolska region, and the remaining areas of the new state were overpopulated in the villages, and the extensive agriculture characterized most of that sector of economy.

When Piłsudski and Sanification of State (Sanacja) Camp took over the power, which was formally sanctioned by the National Assembly electing Piłsudski to the post of the Polish President (which he refused and named Ignacy Mościski as his candidate). After 1926 the Polish foreign policy moved closer to Great Britain and when Hitler took power (1933) the old allegiance with France was renewed; the policy of equal relations was implemented towards Germany and the Soviet state (Non-aggression Treaties of 1932 and 1934, respectively). On 1st September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, which was in fact the beginning of the 2nd World War.

As the September 1939 campaign was lost by Poland and following the unexpected attack of the Soviets on Poland on 17 September 1939 the Polish state was destroyed and the Polish authorities emigrated. Following the foreign pressures, the Polish government was interned in Roumania, and a new Polish government led by general W. Sikorski (the Premier and Supreme Commander), composed mostly of the members of anti-Sanification opposition was installed in Paris. Ignacy Mościcki ensured the continuity of the Polish state authorities as he nominated W. Raczkiewicz his successor; in the face of the collapse of France, in June 1940 the Polish authorities were transferred to Great Britain; despite Poland being the most faithful ally of Great Britain, and in the effect of breaking of diplomatic relations between USSR and the Polish Government (the issue was the Katyn murders) the political support of the Western allies to the Polish government decreased with time, which resulted in consent of the Western powers to place Poland within the zone of the Soviet influence (Conference in Teheran 1943 Conference in Yalta 1945) and removal of recognition of the Polish government in exile in July 1945 however, the government in exile continued operations in London, retaining the continuity of the sovereign and independent Polish authority until 1990.

Soviets’ efforts to include Poland into their zone of influence resulted in breaking of relations with the Polish government and setting up the Soviet-subordinated and dependent political centre (the so-called Union of Polish Patriots) and the regular army – 1st Infantry Division of T. Kościuszko (battle of Lenino). In 1944 the Polish Army n ISSR was transformed, after merging it with AL. Communist guerrillas into the Polish Military Forces whose tactical entanglement took part in 1945 fighting at Odra and Nysą rivers and storming of Berlin. As the Soviet army approached the pre-war Polish borders, the Underground Government of Poland produced the plan “Burza” – the Storm – that was approved by the Polish government. Execution of the plan brought in repressions towards the Home Army (AK) clandestine soldiers by Soviets and the Polish communists, and the implementation of the plan in Warsaw, due to alien reaction of the Soviet army resulted in tragic collapse of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. In the lands taken by the Soviets, the NKWD arrested operatives and leaders of the Polish Underground State. In March 1945, 16 leaders of the Polish Underground State invited to talks with the Soviets were treacherously arrested (The Process of the Sixteen).

The Polish Peoples’ Republic. On 21 July 1944 in Moscow, a PKWN, Polish Committee of National Liberation was set up; its members were the delegates from KRN, ZPP and the Union of the Polish Communists in the Soviet Union. On 22 July a manifesto was published announcing the beginning of social and economic reforms, return to the March constitution and recognizing the Polish – Soviet border alongside the Curzon line (without Lwów). In 1947 the Polish government, under pressures from the Soviet Union, rejected the offer to join co-operation within the Marshall plan, thus making the Polish economy dependent on the Soviet state economy by subordinating it to the Soviet state within the structures of the so-called Comecon (1949). Additionally, the political economic and military dominance of the Soviet Union was strengthened by the Polish participation on the so-called Warsaw Treaty. In 1947-48 the first 3-year plan of reconstruction was implemented, and the maximum etatism, agricultural reform and nationalization of all large and small industry were its principles (the true target was of political nature: to liquidate land owners’ class and bourgeoisie). The economic policy of the Polish Peoples’ Republic led to quasi – cycle of conjunction: initially liberal, pro-consumption policy, increase of the investment plan with investment directed towards the so-called key industries (heavy and machine-building industry, energy sectors); shift of all means towards the reaching the goals of that plan (fall in the tempo of GDP increase) at the expense of agriculture and social consumption (stagnation or fall of real pay) led to social unrest, which ended in political crises and changes of the team in power (1956, 1970, 1980), which started the operation by calming social unrests by increasing the expenditure for consumption.

In 1978 the Free Trade Unions and Peasant Self-Defence Committees were formed. The moral and psychological factor triggering protests and resistance to authorities was the election of the Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyła to the position of the Roman Pope and his 1st visit to the homeland in June 1979. As the economic crisis deepened the whole country fell to protest strikes, which were particularly severe in the Seacoast which ended in signing of the social concordance in Gdańsk, Jastrzębe and Szczecin, in which the authorities recognized that the workers demands were justified and agreed to permit creation of free trade unions, independent of the PZPR - the Communist party. In the effect, E. Gierek was removed from power and position of 1st secretary of the Communist Party, and S. Kania elected to the position. The Central Committee of the party assumed a new policy of te so-called socialist renewal; in September 1980 the authorities permitted registration NSZZ "Solidarność" (‘Solidarity’ free trade union) (Chairman of the All Poland Concordance Committee: L. Wałęsa), which soon transformed into a widespread social movement demanding, among others, democratisation, improvement of demands of social and political nature, abolishing of all censorship, ban on false history and interpretation of the Polish movements fighting for independence (in particular true representation of Polish-Soviet relations). In April 1989 NSZZ "Solidarność" and NSZZ RI "Solidarność" – free trade unions for workers and farmers were registered.

The Third republic. In June 1989 popular parliamentary elections were held (the so-called contractual elections) and entirely independent and free elections to the Senate (upper house), which gave victory to the candidates supported by the Citizens’ Committee "Solidarność". As the state economy collapsed and the Communist Party last all credibility the Citizens’ Committee forged the alliance with ZSL and SD parties: a new Coalition government was created (Citizens’ Com, , ZSL, SD, PZPR; prime minister: T. Mazowiecki) dominated by the former opposition; the National Assembly, with just 1 vote for, elected W. Jaruzelski to the post of the Country president; the name of the country was changed to the republic of Poland.

In December 1990 after L. Wałęsa won the presidential elections (he defeated T. Mazowiecki and, in 2nd round, S. Tymiński), the President of Poland in Exile, R. Kaczorowski handed the insignia of power to the newly elected president. In the following presidential elections in 1995, L. Wałęsa lost (with minimal number of votes) in the 2nd round to A. Kwaśniewski.

Sources: R. Grodecki, S. Zachorowski, J. Dąbrowski Dzieje Polski średniowiecznej, t. 1-2, Kraków 1926; Historia państwa i prawa Polski, red. J. Bardach, t. 1-4, Warszawa 1968-72; Kultura Polski średniowiecznej. X-XIII w., red. J. Dowiat, Warszawa 1983; W Konopczyński Dzieje Polski nowożytnej, t. 1-2, Warszawa 1986; S. Kieniewicz Historia Polski 1795-1918, Warszawa 1987; W. Roszkowski Najnowsza historia Polski 1918-1989, Warszawa 1991; A. Paczkowski Pół wieku dziejów Polski 1939-1989, Warszawa 1996; Kultura Polski średniowiecznej. XIV-XV w., red. B. Geremek, Warszawa 1997; A. Dudek Pierwsze lata III Rzeczpospolitej 1989-1995; Kraków 1997.