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Poland Historical Geography: Difference between revisions
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The historical atlases described in the “[[Poland Maps|Maps]]” section in this outline contain maps depicting boundary changes, migration and settlement patterns, military actions, and ethnic and religious distribution. | The historical atlases described in the “[[Poland Maps|Maps]]” section in this outline contain maps depicting boundary changes, migration and settlement patterns, military actions, and ethnic and religious distribution. | ||
[[Image:Poland.jpg|thumb|left|300px]] | |||
'''Who is a Pole and Where is Poland?'''<br>Poland emerged in the 10th century and for 400 years after was fairly stable territorially. Most of the population was Roman Catholic and Slavic-speaking, with a few Germans. After 1386 Poland and Lithuania united, forming the Rzeczpospolita or Commonwealth. This commonwealth soon included Jews, Tatars, Armenians, Germans, Ukrainians, Luthuanians, White Ruthenians (Belorusians), and Czechs. <br>Poland became a nation of territory rather than ethnicity. After 1795, when Poland was partitioned out of existence, the chief factor identifying one as a Pole disappeared. Rising nation states, such as France, had time to assimilate no French ethnic groups into their population and develop a strong sense of nationalism. Poland however was dismantled before this could really occur. Instead people remained more strongly identified with their individual ethnic groups. <br>The same thing occurred in the late 1800s and early 1900s when many immigrants arrived in the United States from Poland. They usually settled and associated with fellow Jews, Russian Orthodox, or ethnic Germans. Only Roman Catholic ethnic Poles who spoke Polish were usually identified as Poles in the United States. <br>Poland as it stands today is smaller and lies much further west than its 14th century predecessor. This is the result of two main events, the First and Second World War. After the First World War Poland’s borders were defined using a combination of the 14th century borders, and the inclusion of only areas that were majority of the population was ethnic Poles. After the Second World War, the Soviet Union claimed much of what had once been Poland, and Poland received large amounts of territory from Eastern Germany.<br>Source: Rodziny Summer 2006 P.11-16, 943.8 D25p, V. 29 no 3 | |||
[[Category:Poland]] | [[Category:Poland]] | ||