[poh-luh
nd] 
| a republic in E central Europe, on the Baltic Sea. 38,700,291; ab. 121,000 sq. mi. (313,400 sq. km). Capital: Warsaw. |
Po·land (pō'lənd)  (click for larger image in new window) A country of central Europe bordering on the Baltic Sea. Unified as a kingdom in the 10th century, it enjoyed a golden age under the Jagiello dynasty (1386-1572) and was a major power in the 15th and 16th centuries. National independence was lost in 1697 and it was carved up among other states in three partitions (1772, 1793, and 1795). Poland then disappeared as a geographic entity until its reconstitution as a republic in 1918. Its present boundaries date from the end of World War II. Warsaw is the capital and the largest city. Population: 38,500,000. |
Republic in central Europe, bordered by the Baltic Sea and Russia to the north, Lithuania to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, The Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, and Germany to the west. Its capital and largest city is Warsaw.
Note: Poland was a great power from the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries, but in the eighteenth century it was partitioned three times among Austria, Prussia, and Russia. It was again recognized as an independent state in 1919.
Note: The invasion of Poland by Germany in 1939 precipitated World War II.
Note: During World War II, about six million Poles, including three million Jews, died from German massacres, starvation, and execution in concentration camps such as Auschwitz.
Note: In 1952, Poland became a people's republic on the Soviet model.
Note: The Solidarity movement, which demanded greater worker control in Poland, emerged in the early 1980s as one of the first signs of popular discontent with single-party rule and the communist economic system.
Note: In 1989, Solidarity-backed candidates swept to victory in free elections, but Solidarity subsequently declined sharply as a political force.
Note: Poland joined NATO in 1999.