| |
Poland (Polish: Polska), officially the Republic of Poland (Polish:
Rzeczpospolita Polska), is a country located in Central Europe.
It is 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. Poland shares a maritime border with
Denmark in the Baltic Sea. The country has been a member state
of the European Union since May 1, 2004.
The Polish state was formed more than 1,000 years ago and reached
its golden age near the end of the 16th century under the Jagiellonian
dynasty, when Poland was one of the largest, wealthiest, and most
powerful countries in Europe. In 1791 the Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth adopted the Constitution of May 3, Europe's first modern
codified constitution, and the second in the world after the Constitution
of the United States. Soon afterwards, the country ceased to exist after
being partitioned by its neighbours Russia, Austria, and Prussia.
It regained independence in 1918 in the aftermath of the First World War
as the Second Polish Republic. Following the Second World War it became
a communist satellite state of the Soviet Union known as the
People's Republic of Poland. In 1989 the first partially-free elections in
Poland's post-World War II history concluded the Solidarity (Solidarnosc)
movement's struggle for freedom and resulted in the defeat of Poland's
communist rulers. The current Third Polish Republic was established,
followed a few years later by the drafting of a new constitution in 1997.
In 1999 Poland acceded to NATO, and in 2004 it joined the European Union.
|
