Walking through the towns and villages of modern day Poland, you get an unmistakable sense of how important the Catholic religion is to the Polish people. The conversion to Catholicism was undertaken in 966 under Poland’s first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I. This was the first time Poland as a recognizable territory existed, and though the state soon disintegrated into smaller countries, it was reunified under Władysław I in 1320. It is his son Kazimierz III, who is remembered as one of the great Polish kings. It was also during this period that many Jews settled in Poland, fleeing persecution in Portugal and Spain.

Jagiellon Dynasty

Under the Jagiellon dynasty, where Poland forged an alliance with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the region saw a period of cultural and economic advancement, producing such individuals as astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus and poet Jan Kochanowski. The alliance also inflicted important military defeats against the armies of the Teutonic Knights. Soon after this the partnership expanded its territory even more and by the sixteenth century was the largest country in Europe. However, Swedish invasions, Cossack uprisings and numerous wars with Russia led to the disintegration of the state by the middle of the seventeenth century. Poland was divided and then eventually cut up and shared out between Prussia and Russia, so for a while the country ceased to exist on the maps of Europe.

Partitioned Poland

The Poles were less than happy with the occupation and the division and so a number of uprisings and rebellions took place, although all of these were put down in a bloody manner. After Napoleon swept across Europe, he set up a Polish state called the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807, although this only lasted until 1815 after the Allies inflicted defeat on the advancing French. The Eastern part of the country fell back under the Russian Tsar who gradually reduced freedoms, whilst the Southern part fell under Austrian rule which had more freedom, with Krakow becoming the centre of Polish cultural life

Back to Poland Again and the Move West

Poland was given its independence after the Allied victory in World War One, and was immediately tested, forced into battle with the Soviet Red Army, which it eventually won in 1921 after two years of fighting. However the country only remained independent until the second world wide conflict, during which Germany invaded and then shared the spoils with the Soviet Union. Poland suffered terribly during the war, with over 6 million people perishing under occupation. Almost half of all those who died were Jewish. After the war Poland’s borders were significantly redrawn, realigning the country westwards. This redrawing of borders led to the forced migration of millions of Ukrainians, Poles and Germans.

Communism and Modern Times

Communism heralded repression and the dominance of the Soviet Union similar to that throughout most of Eastern Europe. There were some periods of brief respite as the country opened up and became more liberal but for the most part this wasn’t the case. The growing non-Communist union movement led by Solidarity became strong enough to force the communists from power in 1989, which was the start of the fall of communism across the Eastern Bloc. There were tough times for the Polish people however as the shock of joining a market economy led to widespread unemployment and the collapse of many staple industries. Interestingly no government in Poland has ever won successive elections and voter turnout has dropped significantly. Poland joined the European Union in 2004 and continues to integrate itself into world markets. It will hold the football European Championships along with Ukraine in 2012.