History

Since the Middle Ages Poland has ranked among the great European states. It had its heyday in the 16C when it became a centre of Renaissance art and of religious peace. However, the nobility, powerless to deal with the decline of the major trade routes, handed the country over to her powerful neighbours. Poland ceased to exist as an independent country between 1795 and 1918, yet it was during this period that the stateless nation took shape. After 1945, the country, by then ethnically homogeneous, stood up to the USSR through the Church and the working class yearning for the end of socialism. Differences in the 20C led some observers in the West to think there was ‘another Europe’, but the entry of Poland into the EU in 2004 served as a reminder that her history fully shares in the major events that shaped the continent’s political landscape.