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Mieszko I, Poland's first ruler, was baptized in 966, and this year is generally considered the beginning of the Polish state. This year is depicted on the first map. The second map shows Poland and Lithuania at the beginning of the 15th century. At that time, Poland and Lithuania were united by the Union of Krewa, which stipulated that these states remained separate, with their own armies and money, but shared a common king. The third map shows the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a de facto union of these two states in the 17th century, along with its vassals Courland and East Prussia. It was a multinational state, inhabited by Poles, Lithuanians, Germans, Ruthenians, and Jews, among others. The fourth map shows the partition treaties of 1795. There were three partitions in total: the first, involving Austria, Russia, and Germany, the second, involving Russia and Germany, and the third, carried out by the same countries as in the first. This ultimately ended the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The fifth map shows the Duchy of Warsaw, founded on conquered Prussian lands. They were an ally of France during the Napoleonic Wars. Among the most important state figures were Stanisław Małachowski, Stanisław Potocki, Józef Wybicki, author of the "Song of the Polish Legions in Italy," later established as the Polish national anthem, and Prince Józef Poniatowski, nephew of the last Polish king, Stanisław August Poniatowski, and general and national hero, the only foreigner to receive the title of Marshal of France from Napoleon. The sixth map shows the Second Polish Republic, established in 1918 after World War I, ending 123 years of partitions in former German and Russian lands. Józef Piłsudski, who served in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I, became its commander. He fought later in the Polish-Soviet War, among other places, and served as Minister of Military Affairs in the Second Polish Republic. Gabriel Narutowicz became the country's first president in 1922. Poland, as a weak country, was under constant pressure from its neighbors. These are the maps number seven and eight. Vulnerable to war, it prioritized defense. Ultimately, Germany, reassured by France's "appeasement" of its invulnerability from the west, after the annexation of Austria and the non-interventionist conquest of Czechoslovakia, attacked Poland in 1939. The Soviet Union also opposed Poland at that time. This time, however, France and the United Kingdom intervened. After the war, Poland, along with other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, came under Soviet rule ( This is map number nine. The era of the Polish People's Republic was a time of poverty and misery. The fall of the Polish People's Republic in 1989 was fueled by a nationwide wave of protests, including: Poznań - June 1956 Student March 1968 Gdańsk and Gdynia - December 1970 Radom, Ursus, and Płock - June 1976 General - August 1980 General - 1988 the last map shows the present, Poland is now a member of NATO and the EU ( the economy is developing dynamically and relations with other countries are gradually improving.
