Early Poland
(Watch Video: Partitions of Poland)
April 14, 966, known as the Baptism of Poland, is traditionally considered to be the nation’s founding event. On this date, the Piast clan’s pagan ruler Mieszko I, who had married Bohemia’s Duke Boleslaw I daughter Dobrawa, was baptized in the Latin rite. The Piast Dynasty reigned for 400 years. It was followed by the Jagiellonian Dynasty in 1386 and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569. Poland’s evolution was influenced by dynastic changes, internal disputes, wars, invasions, and extraordinary accomplishments. Poland was partitioned by its stronger neighbors (Prussia, Austria, Russia) and disappeared from the map of Europe for 123 years (1795 –1918). In 1918, at the end of World War I, Poland reappeared as an independent nation on the world map.
