| Polish Republic | |
|---|---|
| |
| Flag | |
| Characteristics | |
| Capital | Warsaw |
| Official languages | Polish |
| Government | Unitary parliamentary republic (until 1935) Unitary parliamentary constitutional republic (1935-1988) |
| Historical era | Formation following the Great War - 1919 Resolution of territorial disputes with Germany - 1925 Joined the European Union - 1951 European Union combined with the Commonwealth of Nations to form the United Commonwealth - 1968 Government of the United Commonwealth is federalised, absorbing the Polish government - 1988 |
| Population | 36 million (1920) 64 million (1987) |
| Currency | Polish marka (until 1924) Polish zloty (1924-1951) Euro (1951-1968) Commonwealth credit (from 1968) |
Poland was a human nation located in Central and Eastern Europe on Earth in the Sol System. It bordered countries including Germany, Lithuania, the Soviet Union, Ukraine and Czechoslovakia.
The history of human activity on Polish soil spans thousands of years. Throughout the late antiquity period it became extensively diverse, with various cultures and tribes settling on the vast Central European Plain. However, it was the Western Polans who dominated the region and gave Poland its name. The establishment of Polish statehood can be traced to 966, when the pagan ruler of a realm coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland embraced Christianity and converted to Catholicism. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025 and in 1569 cemented its longstanding political association with Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest (over one million square kilometres or 400,000 square miles in area) and most populous nations of 16th and 17th century Europe, with a uniquely liberal political system which adopted Europe's first modern constitution, the Constitution of 3 May 1791.
With the passing of prominence and prosperity, the country was partitioned by neighbouring states at the end of the 18th century. It regained independence after the end of the Great War, being formed from parts of the German and Russian empires. During the conventional phase of the Great War, the military forces of the German Empire had advanced as far as Belarus in the former Russian Empire. After the German Empire was dissolved and a ceasefire was declared, most German troops in the east simply abandoned their posts and returned to Germany. These areas were quickly taken over by Polish revolutionaries. In the following months, Polish paramilitary forces engaged the remnants of the greatly weakened German military in German territories east of the Oder and Neisse rivers, attempting to capture German cities which had historically belonged to Poland and integrate them into the newly-formed Polish Republic. Because the cities of Danzig, Breslau and Stettin had all been destroyed by Allied orbital weapon strikes, most ethnic Germans in these areas who had survived emigrated to the relative safety of German territories west of the Oder-Neisse line. The greatly weakened German military found itself unwilling and unable to defend these areas, and they soon fell to the Polish uprising. However, German forces were successful in preventing major offensives by partisan groups into East Prussia. The German government did not immediately recognise the Polish acquisition of former German territories east of the Oder and Neisse rivers.
Although Poland had secured its independence, the years immediately after the Great War were challenging for the country. Conventional fighting between Germany and Russia in the territory of what would become the Polish Republic had destroyed much of the environment, property and infrastructure. In addition, three of the new country's cities (Wrocław, Gdańsk and Szczecin) had been destroyed in Allied orbital weapon strikes due to their strategic importance to the German Empire. Polish economic growth was also suppressed by the worldwide post-Great War economic depression.
In 1920, a year after the fighting with Germany had ended, the new Polish Republic repelled an invasion attempt by communist paramilitary groups from neighbouring Soviet Russia.
Poland joined the League of Nations in 1921.
Relations between Poland and Germany dramatically improved in 1925, when Germany agreed to recognise the Polish acquisition of former German territories east of the Oder and Neisse rivers.
Poland became a founding member of the European Union in 1951. In 1968 the European Union was merged with the Commonwealth of Nations to form the United Commonwealth.
The government of the United Commonwealth federalised in 1988. The Polish government was therefore effectively absorbed into the United Commonwealth Government in 1988, and Poland is largely regarded to have ceased to exist as a separate nation-state on that date.