I need to know everything there is to know about the Kingdom of Poland - not just as a political entity but the culture and attitudes that dominated the region at the time.
I need a crash course on what made Poland, Poland.
>>787341
It was Mexicans anon.
Mexicans made Poland Poland.
>muh commonwealth
>muh intellectuals
>muh decentralization
>muh constitutions
>muh partitions
>muh christ of europe
GRUNWALD
R
U
N
W
A
L
D
>>787341
Read God's Playground. Best crash course book for the history of Poland.
>>787341
Could you be more precise?
>>787341
Fact: The Germans invented Poland in 1916 to steal clay from the Russians. Needlessly to say, the idea failed.
Poland is a victim of historically being surrounded by heathens and germans.
>Lithuanian king fucked shit Polish queen (talking about Władysław II Jagiełło here).
>Declared himself Polak (like the treacherous cunt that he is).
>took up Catholicism (fucking cuck)
>Poland isn't rekt from having no male in charge/heirs.
>Polaks get to talk shit about how great they are for centuries to come.
>Say Lithuania wasn't greater than them (assholes).
>They did have great intellectual minds, science and shit (give credit where it is due).
>Upper classes acted and behaved just like the upper classes of the West.
>Lost all their shit because of poor geography
>Shit heirs down the line
>Internal turmoil
>>788812
Forgot to say
>endless division and being somebody else's bitch
>made Poland, Poland
Now you literally can't say shit to any one of them, they are unified as fuck. When it comes to being nationalistic, they are right up there with all the others.
>even EU can't tell them what to fucking do
>say they don't want refugees: no refugees
>say they don't want Euro currency: no Euro currency.
As a Lithuanian, wish Lithuanians were as unified w/ one another as the Polish, a little jelly here.
>>787341
bankers made the luith/polish empire to control the german holy confederation from the east
religion vs state
>muh usury
>>788812
Ah, another product of our lovely nationalistic educational system.
Lithuania in itself was never larger than Poland, the only thing Lithuania had going was the superpower of being a Ruthenian overlord. At the times of "muh realm from one sea to another", which lasted for like, 20 years, Lithuania proper made up like 10% of the country.
Also, Lithuania had the problem of being isolated from the West, and Poland was the only gateway to European culture. Although technically Byzantium culture was an alternative.
>>788812
>Catholicism
>bad
Spotted the russian rape-babby.
>>789022
Don't hate, the public perception of medieval history literally comes from 19th century romanticism. And that one in turn is based on Vytautas personal historians praising him, not dissimilar to personality-cults of modern dictators.
>>787341
norman davies "god's playground"
"Boże igrzysko" if you want to read it in polish
>>787341
"Poland" is a pretty vague concept. Early Piastian kingdom was more like a tribal federation then a state. Later Commonwealth Poland had a horse culture much like the Sioux or the Cossacks in the eastern regions and a courtly feudal system modelled largely on Italian and French courtly manners. Later still, during Poland's partition periods, Poles largely became a rural and backward people, pushed out of positions of wealth and power by Russian or German masters.
Modern Poland is the child of Nationalism, two World Wars, and a Cold War. Two things that haven't changed: They still admire the French, and they're still a race of peasants.
>>789090
>They still admire the French
We honestly don't like French, maybe besides Napoleon, but he were Corsican.
We stil remember that Henry escaped from Poland to take over France. Although this gave the opportunity to make Stephan Bathory into the king.
>>787341
Mieszko I
>United tribes in lands that is roughly modern Poland.
>Forced to accept Holy Roman Emperor as his overlord after loosing a battle. Rules as Duke of Poland.
>Married Dobrava, daughter of Duke of Bohemia (who also is under overlordship of HRE), Boleslav.
Boleslav the Brave
>Was supporting various pretenders for German crown.
>When Otto III's supporters won, he sided with future Emperor, who was already crowned King of Germany.
>Otto III had ambition of recreating Roman Empire
>Otto III had part in Christianization of Hungary and of crowning their first King.
>Otto III called Boleslav I a friend of the Empire (Congress of Gniezno), and gave him power of a King within his realm, along with formation of Arch-bishopry in Poland, free of German dependency (something Bohemia lacked).
>Otto III died on his way back from Italy, at age of 22
>When he died, on his way was Zoey, Byzantine princess, that was supposed to marry him in Rome.
>Henry II, new German King and later Emperor, started the long enmity between Poland and Germany.
>After Henry's death, Boleslav had himself officially crowned as a King.
More or less that was the start.
