Poland

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Rzeczpospolita Polska

(In Detail) (In Detail)
National motto (unofficial): (polish: Bóg, Honor, Ojczyzna; english: God, Honour and Fatherland)'1
Anthem: Polish: Mazurek Dąbrowskiego (Translation: "Dąbrowski's Mazurka")'1
Official language	Polish2
Capital	Warsaw
Largest City	Warsaw
President	Lech Kaczyński
Prime Minister	Jarosław Kaczyński
Area  - Total  - % water	Ranked 69th 312,685 km² 2.6%
Population  - Total (2006)  - Density	Ranked 31st 38,536,869 123.5/km²
GDP  - Total (2003)  - GDP/head	Ranked 23rd $443.9 billion $11,623
Christianized  - Date	Mieszko I AD 966
Independence  -Regained	966-1795 November 11 1918
Currency	złoty (PLN)
Time zone  - in summer	CET (UTC+1) CEST (UTC+2)
National anthem	Mazurek Dąbrowskiego
Internet TLD	.pl
Calling Code	48
1 See also unofficial national mottos of Poland. 2 Belarusian, Cassubian, German, and Ukrainian are used in five communal offices. They are, however, not considered to be official languages.

Poland (Polish: Polska) is officially called the Republic of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska). It is a country in Central Europe ^[1] bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and the Baltic Sea, Lithuania, and Russia (in the form of the Kaliningrad Oblast exclave) to the north. It also shares a water border with Denmark and Sweden in the Baltic Sea. The total land area of Poland is about 312,685 sq km ^[2] (120,728 sq mi). This makes Poland the 69th largest country ^[3] in the world with population over 38.5 million people. The Poles live mainly in large cities, including the first capital of Poland, Cracow (Polish: Kraków), and present capital, Warsaw (Polish: Warszawa).

Poland became a country in 966. In 1569, Poland formed a long lasting union with Lithuania called Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth collapsed in 1795 and the Poles were without a country for 123 years. Poland regained its independence in 1918 after World War I but lost it again in World War II. Several years later, Poland became a communist country within the Eastern Bloc under control of the former Soviet Union.

In 1989, Poland broke its communist chains and became a liberal democracy. Since May 1, 2004, Poland is the 6th most populated member state of the European Union. Poland is also a member of NATO, the United Nations, and the World Trade Organization.

Contents 1 History 2 Geography 2.1 Main Cities 3 Transportation 4 Voivodeships 5 People 6 Famous people 7 References 8 External links

[edit] History

Poland began to form into a country around the middle of the 10th century in the Piast dynasty. In 966, Prince Mieszko I got himself and the whole Polish nation christened. In the 12th century Poland broke into some smaller states, which were later attacked by Mongol armies in 1241. In 1320 Władysław I became the King of the repaired Poland. His son Casimir III repaired the Polish economy, built new castles and won the war against the Ruthenian dukedom. The Black Death, which affected many parts of Europe from 1347 to 1351, did not come to Poland. Under the Jagiellon dynasty, Poland made an alliance with its neighbour Lithuania. The best times for Poland came after that union. In 1791, the Sejm of Poland and Lithuania accepted the Constitution of May 3 which was the first modern constitution in Europe and the second (after the United States) on Earth. In that time Poland was one of the biggest, richest and strongest kingdoms in Europe. Since that time Polish people have thought that freedom was the most important thing. Poles often call themselves the nation of the free people.

In the 17th century Sweden attacked all of Poland (this was called “the Deluge”). Many wars against the Ottoman Empire, Russia, Cossacks, Transylvania and Brandenburg-Prussia ended in 1699. During the following 80 years, the government and nationed were weaker, making Poland dependent on Russia. Russian tsars took advantage of this by offering money to traitors, who would block new ideas and solutions. Russia, Prussia, and Austria broke Poland into three pieces in 1772, 1793 and 1795, which dissolved the country. Polish people did not like the new kings, and often rebelled. Napoleon made another Polish state, “the Duchy of Warsaw”, but after the Napoleonic wars, Poland was split again by the countries at the Congress of Vienna. The eastern part was ruled by the Russian tsar. During World War I all the Allies agreed to save Poland. Soon after the surrender of Germany in November 1918, Poland became the Second Polish Republic (II Rzeczpospolita Polska). It got its freedom after several military conflicts; the largest was in 1919-1921 Polish-Soviet War.

On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany attacked Poland, and the Soviet Union attacked on September 17. Warsaw was defeated on September 28, and was split up into two pieces, one owned by Nazi Germany, the other by the Soviet Union. The eastern part of the German zone was turned into the German Government area. Out of all the countries that were in the war, Poland lost the highest amount of its people: over 6 million died, half of them Polish Jews. Poland also gave the most troops, after the US, the British and the Soviets, to ultimately defeat Nazi Germany. At the war's end, Poland's borders were moved west, pushing the east border to the Curzon line. The west border was moved to the Oder-Neisse line. The new Poland became 20% smaller by 77,500 square kilometeres (29,900 sq mi). The shift forced millions of people to move: Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews. After these events, Poland became, for the first time, a real country. There are still many Polish in the neighboring countries Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania, as well as in other countries. The most Poles outside of Poland are in the United States, especially in Chicago. After the Second World War, the Soviet Union put a Communist government in Poland, and the country was named the People's Republic of Poland. In 1989 Solidarity - a political group led by Lech Wałęsa - helped defeat the communist government in Poland. During the early 1990s the country turned its economy into one of the most solid in Central Europe. There were many improvements in human rights, such as free speech, democracy, etc. In 1991 Poland became a member of the Visegrad Group and joined NATO in 1999 also with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Polish voters then voted to join the European Union in a vote in June 2003. The country joined the EU on May 1, 2004.

[edit] Geography

The Polish popopopo is made mostly of the lowlands of the North European Plain, the Sudetes (including the Karkonosze) and the Carpathian Mountains (including the Tatra mountains, where there is the tallest mountain in Poland, Rysy, 2,499 m or 8,199 ft). Some large rivers cross the plains; the Vistula (Wisła), Oder (Odra), Warta the (Western) Bug. Poland also has over 9,300 lakes, mostly in the north. Masuria (Mazury) forms the largest lake area in Poland. Most of the ancient forests survive: see list of forests in Poland, Bialowieza Forest. Poland has a temperate climate, with cold, cloudy winters and warm summers with many showers and thunderstorms.

For detailed view see: Poland Topo Map on-line

[edit] Main Cities

	Agglomeration or conurbation	Voivodeship	Inhabitants (Estimated, 2005)
1	Katowice / MK (USIA)	Silesia	3,487,000
2	Warsaw (Warszawa)	Masovia	2,679,000
3	Kraków	Lesser Poland	1,400,000
4	Łódź	Łódź	1,300,000
5	Tricity	Pomerania	1,100,000
5	Poznań	Greater Poland	1,000,000

	City	Voivodeship	Inhabitants May 20 2002	Inhabitants December 31 2004
1	Warsaw (Warszawa)	Masovia	1,671,670	1,692,854
2	Łódź	Łódź	789,318	774,004
3	Kraków	Lesser Poland	758,544	757,430
4	Wrocław	Lower Silesia	640,367	636,268
5	Poznań	Greater Poland	578,886	570,778
6	Gdańsk	Pomerania	461,334	459,072
7	Szczecin	Western Pomerania	415,399	411,900
8	Bydgoszcz	Kuyavia-Pomerania	373,804	368,235
9	Lublin	Lublin	357,110	355,998
10	Katowice	Silesia	327,222	319,904
11	Białystok	Podlasie	291,383	292,150
12	Gdynia	Pomerania	253,458	253,324
13	Częstochowa	Silesia	251,436	248,032
14	Sosnowiec	Silesia	232,622	228,192
15	Radom	Masovia	229,699	227,613
16	Kielce	Świętokrzyskie	212,429	209,455
17	Toruń	Kuyavia-Pomerania	211,243	208,278
18	Gliwice	Silesia	203,814	200,361
19	Zabrze	Silesia	195,293	192,546
20	Bytom	Silesia	193,546	189,535
21	Bielsko-Biała	Silesia	178,028	176,987
22	Olsztyn	Warmia-Masuria	173,102	174,550
23	Rzeszów	Subcarpathia	160,376	159,020
24	Ruda Śląska	Silesia	150,595	147,403
25	Rybnik	Silesia	142,731	141,755
26	Tychy	Silesia	132,816	131,547
27	Dąbrowa Górnicza	Silesia	132,236	130,789
28	Opole	Opole	129,946	128,864
29	Płock	Masovia	128,361	127,841
30	Elbląg	Warmia-Masuria	128,134	127,655
31	Wałbrzych	Lower Silesia	130,268	127,566
32	Gorzów Wielkopolski	Lubusz	125,914	125,578
33	Włocławek	Kuyavia-Pomerania	121,229	120,369
34	Tarnów	Lesser Poland	119,913	118,267
35	Zielona Góra	Lubusz	118,293	118,516
36	Chorzów	Silesia	117,430	115,241
37	Kalisz	Greater Poland	109,498	108,792
38	Koszalin	Western Pomerania	108,709	107,773
39	Legnica	Lower Silesia	107,100	106,143
40	Słupsk	Pomerania	100,376	99,827
41	Grudziądz	Kuyavia-Pomerania	99,943	98,757

[edit] Transportation

• Rail: Poland's railways are one of the larger railways in the European Union, with 23,420 kilometres (14,552 miles) of network (1998). Access to track has been opened up to competition[1] as required by the EU. Fixing of the network, bringing important routes into the same standard as western European railway networks, is going very slowly, and long maintenance times have brought speed restrictions on many other lines. Line closing and the withdrawing of feeder services like those that took place in the UK under the 'Beeching Axe' have gone faster since 2000.
• Road: By Western European standards, Poland has a poor state of roads/highways. The Government has a program to improve the standard of many important national highways by 2013. The total length of expressways/highways is 364,657 kilometres (226,587 mi). There are 9,283,000 registered passenger cars, as well as 1,762,000 registered trucks and buses (2000).
• Air: Poland has ten major airports (from biggest to smallest: Warsaw, Kraków, Katowice, Gdańsk, Wrocław, Poznań, Szczecin, Rzeszów, Bydgoszcz and Łódź), a total of 123 airports and airfields, and also three helicopter airports. The amount of passengers at Polish airports has grown quickly since 1991.
• Marine: The total length of good rivers and canals for transport is 3,812 kilometres (2,369 mi). The merchant marine is made of 114 ships, with an extra 100 ships registered outside the country. The main ports and harbours are: Port of Gdańsk, Port of Gdynia, Port of Szczecin, Port of Świnoujście, Port of Ustka, Port of Kolobrzeg, Gliwice, Warsaw, Wrocław.

[edit] Voivodeships

Poland is made of sixteen regions known as voivodeships (województwa, singular - województwo):

Voivodeship	Capital city (cities)
Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship (Kujawsko-Pomorskie)	Bydgoszcz and Toruń
Greater Poland Voivodeship (Wielkopolskie)	Poznań
Lesser Poland Voivodeship (Małopolskie)	Kraków
Łódź Voivodeship (Łódzkie)	Łódź
Lower Silesian Voivodeship (Dolnośląskie)	Wrocław
Lublin Voivodeship (Lubelskie)	Lublin
Lubusz Voivodeship (Lubuskie)	Gorzów Wielkopolski and Zielona Góra
Masovian Voivodeship (Mazowieckie)	Warsaw
Opole Voivodeship (Opolskie)	Opole
Podlasie Voivodeship (Podlaskie)	Białystok
Pomeranian Voivodeship (Pomorskie)	Gdańsk
Silesian Voivodeship (Śląskie)	Katowice
Subcarpathian Voivodeship (Podkarpackie)	Rzeszów
Swietokrzyskie Voivodeship (Świętokrzyskie)	Kielce
Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship (Warmińsko-Mazurskie)	Olsztyn
West Pomeranian Voivodeship (Zachodniopomorskie)	Szczecin

Lower levels of administrative division are:

• powiats (counties)
• gminas (commune)

[edit] People

Most Polish people are Catholics and are of Polish nationality.

In the past, Poland was inhabited by people from different nations and of different religions (mainly Judaism). This changed after 1939, because of the Nazi Holocaust and decisions by the following communist goverment.

[edit] Famous people

• Fryderyk Chopin, a composer.
• Pope John Paul II. Before he became Pope, he was a Bishop in Kraków.
• Mikołaj Kopernik, an astronomer who discovered that the Earth moves around the Sun.
• Tadeusz Kościuszko, an army commander who fought for USA's and Poland's independence.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Tourist information portal

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