Poland [antikvár]

More than a thousand years ago, the Polish state came into being in the area between the Carpathian and Sudety (Sudeten) Mts. in the south and the Baltic Sea in the north and between the rivers Odra in the west and the Bug in the east, as the result of the unification of related West Slav tribes. A decisive part was played in this process by the Polanie (Polanes), who inhabited Wielkopolska (Polonia Maior). This powerful tribe gained power and imposed their rule on the others, giving their name to the state. The first historical ruler was Mieszko I, of the Polane Piast Dynasty. Mieszko was baptized into the Christian faith in 966, accepting Christianity through Bohemia from Rome, thus leading the Polish state into the sphere of influence of the Mediterranean culture prevailing in western Europe. This had a far-reaching influence on the culture and architecture of Poland. Mieszko's successor, Boleslaw Chrobry (The Brave), the first crowned king of Poland, completed the work of his father, creating a strong state over an area of about 250,000 sq. km. into which he later incorporated for a short time the Czerwiensk land in the east, Slovakia and Moravia in the south and Milsko (Milzenland) and Luzyce (Lusatia) in the west. In the following centuries, due to the weakening of the central authorities resulting from division into duchies, the frontiers of the Polish state and also the territories inhabited by the Poles underwentchanges. Despite the unification in the 14th century of most of the Polish lands and the strengthening of the state thanks to the wise policy of the last of the Piasts, King Casimir the Great, centuries of German expansion pushed the state frontiers eastwards in relation to the area originally occupied by the Polish tribes. The germanization that followed expansion also moved the ethnic boundary eastwards (thus changing both the state and national frontier). The Germans made the greatest inroads eastwards in the north, along the Baltic coast, where their conquests and germanization policy led to the submission not only of a large part of the Slavic Pomeranians, but also the Baltic Prussian tribes living to the east of them, who were later exterminated or germanized by the Order of the Teutonic Knights. They were replaced by German colonists and later by the Mazurians, who came from nearby Mazovia, most of whom also gradually underwent germanization. German expansion in the south was also considerable, along the Sudety Mts., the aim being to separate the fraternal nations of Poland and Bohemia. Although Silesia lost its ties with the Polish state early, being taken over first by the Luxemburg Dynasty, then by the Hapsburgs and later being incorporated into Prussia, the people of this region resisted germanization for a long time and in the eastern part never ceased to be Poles. Wielkopolska, the cradle of Polish statehood, re-