The territory of Poland since the very beginning until the Middle Ages was a territory of immigrants from different cultures. The Polish State was established by the Slavs who, together with the Baltes, belonged to Indo-European family of languages.
Poland’s written history begins with the reign of Prince Mieszko I, who accepted Christianity for himself and his kingdom in AD 966. This acceptance gave the Polish State equal place among other Christian countries. It created a positive atmosphere for uniting the country and allowed the Prince to use missionaries who were coming to Poland to improve the administration system of the country.
Important dates in Polish history:
1025
The coronation of Boleslaw Chrobry, the first Polish king. It gave Poland full political independence.
1138
Division of Poland into districts – according to traditions of Medieval Europe, the Polish ruler, Boleslav II Krzywousty split Poland between his sons.
1226
German Teutonic Knights come to Poland
1320
Coronation of Vladyslav Lokietek and the unification of districts into one country
1333-1370
The reign of Casimir II the Great, the last of the Piast Dynasty. He achieved a lot to reunite the kingdom by creating a new administration system. He also improved the legal and juridical systems and developed the economy and culture as well as improved Poland’s place internationally. His death in 1370 caused a real turnaround in politics, as he died without an heir.
1385
The union of Poland and Lithuania through marriage of Queen Jadwiga to the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Wladyslaw II Jagiello. Poland and Lithuania undertook a common fight against the invasion of German Teutonic Knights. As a result of long lasting wars, in particular the Great War (1409-1411) and victory at the Battle of Grunvald in 1410 as well as the Thirteen Year War (1454-1466), the might of the German Teutonic Knights was broken.
16th 17th century
The so-called Golden Ages spawned great development of science, culture and arts, reformation, development of a new agricultural system and the simultaneous decline of the position of the town areas, war with Turkey (1683), Inflant War (1557–1572) and the Real Union with Lithuania. The end of the 16th century and 17th century were times of long lasting wars internal battles resulting from Cossack rebellions (1591, 1594-1595, 1630, 1637), culminating with the horrific Chmielnicki’s Uprising (1648-1654).
1772
The first division of Poland
1788–1792
A Four-Year Sejm
1791
Third of May Constitution
1793
The second division of Poland
1794
Kościuszko Uprising
1795
The third division of Poland – Poland disappeared from the map of Europe. For the greater part of society with the rule of partitioning powers, which exercised the policy of mass arrests, deportations, confiscation of goods, gave rise to thoughts of freedom that have never disappeared from the Polish society’s way of thinking
1807-1815
Warsaw Duchy
1830
November Uprising
1863
January Uprising.
1914–1918
1st World War – after the 1st World War Poland regained independence. On the 11th of November 1918, Marshall Joseph Piłsudski became a chief of the Polish Army and was backed by the government.
1939–1945
2nd World War – Poland lost 20% of its pre-war territory, 7,600 thousand Polish citizens (among them approximately 3 million Jewish people) were murdered by German and Russian invaders. The territorial changes resulted in a large migration of people from Central and Eastern Poland to the West. Vast numbers of people returned either from forced work camps in Germany or after having emigrated to Western Europe.
1946
Fabrication of the election and the referendum, overtaking the power by the communists supported by Soviet Union.
1980
Creation of Solidarity Movement, the first independent and self-run labour union. Solidarity arose as the result of the widespread unrest of the Polish people with the economic situation and the communist government rule. Mass labour protests turned quickly into strikes that were started in smaller industrial parks and culminated in the Gdansk Shipyard strike on 13th of August 1980. Gdansk Shipyard strikes were quickly joined by most of the enterprises in Gdansk and the whole of Pomerania. Among them were Szczecin Shipyard and Jastrzebie coal mine. The government was forced to enter talks which resulted in signing an agreement with the workers in Szczecin, Gdansk and Jastrzebie. The Gdansk agreement signed on 31st of August included governmental consent to form trade unions. The funding committees for new trade unions were being established across the whole country on a massive scale.
13.12.1981
Introduction of Marshall Law. General Wojciech Jaruzelski, under pressure from the party leader, and blackmailed by a threat of armed intervention of the Soviet Union imposed Marshall Law. The Marshall Law was suspended in December 1982 and officially cancelled in July 1983.
1989
Round Table talks and the fall of communism. Weakening of Soviet Union position led to agreement with the opposition and started the Round Table Talks. During these talks a National Assembly was established which then elected General Jaruzelski as President (July 1989–December 1990). General Jaruzelski delegated the mission of establishing a new cabinet to Tadeusz Mazowiecki who became the head of the Coalition Government (August 1989-December 1990).
1.01.1990
The Sejm introduces a new term for Poland – Polish Republic. The Eagle on the national emblem gets the crown back.
1990
Lech Wałęsa becomes President of Poland elected in a free presidential election.
1995
Aleksander Kwaśniewski elected President of Poland in presidential election
30.03.1998
European Union extension process officially started for 11 countries from Central, Eastern and Southern Europe.
1999
Poland joins NATO.
2003
Ratification of European Union Treaty by Poland. The Treaty says that Poland will become an official European Union member on 1st of May 2004.
