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Thursday 14 April 2016

Top 10 Cities of Poland

Poland, officially the Republic of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska; Kashubian: Pòlskô Repùblika), is a country in Central Europe, bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast (a Russian exclave) and Lithuania to the north. The total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres (120,726 sq mi),[7] making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people,[7] Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world,[9] the sixth most populous member of the European Union, and the most populous post-communist member of the European Union. Poland is a unitary state made up of 16 voivodeships.
Many historians trace the establishment of a Polish state to 966, when Mieszko I,[10] ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a longstanding political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin, forming the Polish--Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth ceased to exist in 1795, when the Polish territory was partitioned among the Kingdom of Prussia, the Russian Empire, and Old Austria. Poland regained independence (as the Second Polish Republic) at the end of World War I, in 1918.
Two decades later, in September 1939, World War II started with the invasions of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (as part of the Molotov--Ribbentrop Pact). More than six million Polish citizens died in the war.[citation needed] Poland became a client state of the Soviet Union in 1944 and was accordingly renamed the People's Republic of Poland in 1952. During the Revolutions of 1989, Poland's communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy and renaming itself the "Third Polish Republic".
Despite the vast destruction the country experienced during World War II, Poland managed to preserve much of its cultural wealth. There are currently 14 heritage sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in Poland[11] and 54 Historical Monuments. Since the end of the communist period, Poland has achieved a "very high" ranking in terms of human development. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland

6 comments:

  1. A very tumultuous and tragic history.
    Many thanks for this informative post, Gosia.
    Colin

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  2. Thanks so much for sharing part of your world with us. I hope you enjoy a beautiful weekend.

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    1. Mildred our history was so complicated

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  3. Thanks for a very concise history.

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