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Introduction to Polish history! From a Polish perspective [94]
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As there are troubling times in Europe nowadays, skies darkening in midst of summer over a beautiful country filled with the main river named Vistula in English (it is derived from the Latin version of the locals name for it
"Wisła") as you will soon learn Latin had a large impact on the Polish language and way of life, but for now bear with me cause there is another bear enireraly roaming close to this country's borders. Far far to it's eastern borders, funnily enough in a land that can be translated as "The borderlands" lives a people who again like many times in it's history are in conflict with another army being present on their lands. War is upon them, people being shot, murdered, plundered again like a very bad dream. Are they cursed? Who knows? Perhaps. Yet it still doesn't change the fact that troubles are coming slowly and the people of the fields are concerned about the east yet again, oddly enough the beginning of this country called
"Poles" have closest connotation to
Poles favorite weapon of all time was using lances perhaps, or for the more perverse mind a way for the English ladies to saviour a fond memory. Non the less, it certainly is derived from the Latin version of
Poloniae. Which again stems from comments regarding the rulers of Poland, the main rulers and leaders of the main tribes of
"Polanie" meaning
"those of the field", or more shortly
"fielders". To my suggestion it should been updated within the English lagnuage long ago, yet somehow the English and their fondness to the Latin version of most things is an ever strange thing.
None the less, the first beginnings of Poland had to do with the most known ruler of the fielder tribe, (what it stems from, working in the field or fighting in the field or even both is yet to be discovered!) Mieszko the first! Strangely enough he wasn't the first ruler of said tribe (his father and grandfathers name have been noted) yet, it is he nicknamed Teddy (Mieszko derives from the word Miś which is a more cute way of saying Niedzwiedź which certainly sounds more like bear in it's native tongue).
The Americans have Teddy Roosevelt yet Poland's first considered ruler was Teddy the first, how odd!
Either way he was mostly and honorably mostly remembered for adopting Christianity (Catholicism), some say it was out of political necessety as the ever growing influence of the Germanic peoples spread and conquest eastward had allready engulfed plenty of tribes west of the fielders (sorbs, pommeranians, lusatians and other tribes) swallowed up, threatened and slowly beaten or convinced in to subjecation by their new rulers introducing among other things a new religion. At these times it was the main driving force, uniting and making agreement among most members of society and to those it wasn't as important, had learned to stay quite as not to suffer consequences as religious Zeal was ever present.
Yet when Teddy the first adopted Christianity from his neighbouring folk the Czechs, who at the times funnily enough were called Bohemians (their country was the Kingdom of Bohemia, with allegiance towards the
Holy Roman Emperor who even they had a chance to rule as in history, why this is important you say? Becaouse there was internal feuds within the Catholic world about who had the right to appoint bishops, the Bishop of the city of Rome nicknamed Pope or the Emperor of the
Holy Roman Empire. oddly enough it was the Pope who was the kingmaker as the Pope was considered the Bishop to annoint blessed Christian rulers)
and due to the fact that the Bohemians were Slavic (it is unknown wether the word slave derives from the slavic word "słowo" meaning "word" or "sława" meaning "glory" or the Latin word "Servus" which means servant) it was quite easier to adopt Catholicism and wasn't seen as intrusive as other pagans at the time could have percieved it as such (which was brilliant!), however it was all part the conditions for Teddy the first to marry the princess of Bohemia (in the old times it was a way of creating alliances back then, strong ties by blood).
Back then in 966 CE, there wasn't much to speak of any slavic might or large slavic Empires. One of the influntial slavic countries were the lands currently called
Ukraine meaning
borderlands/at the land/near the country, Belarus (white Russia) and modern Russia (it's western parts ish) yet at the time of 966 it is described as Kiev Ruthinia/Kiev Russia/Kiev Rus depending on speakers culture and perspective, who seemed to have expanded from terrains of Novgorod (New Garden/New settlement) which are in modern St.Petersburg. After some time however it's main Centre was moved to Kiev in modern Ukraine, then split up to amny pieces before eastern slavs being invaded and engulfed by mongolian rule for a long long time.
in Poland the country of fielders however it was the Poles who expanded, conquered and started their reign among it's neighbours. Mostly during the reign and rule of the first crowned King of Poland: Bolesław (which can be shortly translated as great glory) so the great and glorious King of Poland expanded his tribes influence and reign to borders similar to nowadays modern Poland. Making the tribe of fielders one of the main tribes in this new country, later on as time went by the western germanic neighbours started to get used to this slavic Christian kingdom, trade was introduced, laws and generally all forms of influences. During the next 300-400 Poland was for a time divided among lesser rulers all proclaiming to be rulers of Poland, to some degree, it was during this time that Jews fled to this land in larger numbers due to prosecutions in Europe and at the same time a Monastic Order from the Crusades in the Holy land began to create a foothold to combat pagan pillagers and raiders on the behest of the Prince of Masovia. Many Polish historians have seen this as the seed that created a lot of modern Poland's problems yet, one can't ignore the vast impact that lead to this decision Poland was able to gain from by building itself up, create cohesion and create a problem so large that Pagans trembled and sought Polish supremacy as a guarantee for their very lives.
During this time the pagan mongolians who later on in one form or another turned to Islam (this is important to note to understand modern day issues by the way) conquered pillaged and sacked most of eastern europe, even raiding as far as Cracow (Kraków - Raven city). Yet due to unknown circumstances the mongol horde was unable to conquer Poland, many point out to the fact that the main leader of this horde (Genghis Khan) had recently died and the battle for a new heir had begun, leading to a larger focus on conquest in East Asia and seeking mostly tribute from western provinces. None the less, Poland provided being more then enough to stomache that the wolf hunger from the east was swayed for the time being to look somewhere else.
Poland then began to flurish from the decreased Pagan raids on her lands, broader trade and contact with western parts of europe (mostly via Bohemians or Germanic peoples. But, on the lands of balts (Prussians, Lithuanians, Latvians) this Teutonic order began to emarge as a large powerhouse, unable to ignore it any longer and conflicts arising. (Lithuanians were still pagan at the time, one of the last pagan peoples of Europe had conquered vast territories of former Kiev Rus, submitting the peoples of modern day Belarus, Ukraine and small parts of western Russia to pagan rulers, yet it had great deal of trouble fighting the Teutonic order).
A alliance grew at the time before the famous battle of Grunwald in 1410, as Poland's heir was a female girl the question of inheritance began to emarge as inheritance useally came by male lineage. But, due to Lithuanians pagan traditions and little knowledge of Christian traditions the Polish nobility was able to proclaim by legal means that Jadwiga became legally the King of Poland during her reign, while the younger brother of the Duke of Lithuania became her Husband (it wasn't until after her death that be in all practicality became king of Poland, while Lithuania was still ruled by another person) and in a similar way as Poland had adopted Christianity, Lithuania adopted Christianity as well through marriage, enacting a marriage between two individuals for the glory of God. It lead to a fully comitted union for a very long time between the Polish and Lithuanian people (in my humble opinion best way of spreading Christianity, by marriage).
After the famous battle of Grunwald, where the Teutonic order was beaten so badly it never truly recuperated itself back to it's former glory (only to be overshadowed by Hohenzollern dynasty of Brandenburg who famously created the Kingdom of Prussia, which later on lead to the downfall of the Polish Commonwealth creating enough vacuum and influence to emarge as Imperial Germany.
That however is for another time my dear readers. I hope you enjoyed this short first chapter of Polish history and feel free to add any contributions to the thread!
End of Chapter I - Written by Kashub1410 - in the early morning of 04.07.2022 CE
