Why does history never speak of Poland?

Question

Poland was once a large and powerful country in Europes history but no one, (schools, TV, ext.) ever talks about it.

Answer 1

This is because they have been the victims of conquerors over the ages. If it's not the Russians, it was the Germans. The second verse of the Polish national anthem, a stirringly beautiful melody, still pays tribute to Napoleon.
Regards

Answer 2

Poland suffers from being the crossroads of Europe for most major wars. Napoleon goes east, Poland gets the brunt of it. Austria gets mad at Russia, there goes Poland.

Poland as we know it today is also known throughout history by a dozen other names, depending on the year. It was West Prussia, East Prussia, and Galicia during the partition. The Kingdom of Poland didn't incorporate many of the lands to the east and the south that we now consider Poland. Lithuania used to be Poland, but now stands as its own country. The Polish Congress was different than the Kingdom of Poland.

In some ways, actually many ways, the partition of Poland was a blessing to researchers. Instead of one very large country to research in looking for records, we have to look at smaller areas based on whether our ancestors were "German Poles", "Russian Poles" or Galicians.

One of my favorite movies about Poland was a biography of Pope John Paul II that was filmed in Poland and had real Polish actors in the key roles. It's called "A Man Who Became Pope" and it's one of the few films about Catholicism that I've ever saved. (I'm Orthodox, don't shoot me.) But it's an awesome and pretty faithful portrayal of 60 years of life in Poland.

Answer 3

Polish history does. Pick up a book on the history of Poland.

Answer 4

Poland has very interesting history. In 1604 Polish -Lithuanian (Poland and Lithuania were one country once) army conquered Moscow and "installed" there their own tsar. So it was the only country from Europe which managed to do this. In 1683 polish king Jan III Sobieski with their hussars in the battle of Vienna stoped Ottoman Empire army (Turks) from sezing whole Central Europe. During XVII century Polish- Lithuanian Commonwelth succeesfuly fought off invaders from nieghbour countries. Unfortunately in the XVIII century Poland - Lithuania was too weak to defend themselves properly so it was invaded by three plotting countries. After rebirths of Poland, Polish army fought off bolsheviks who wanted to join the revolution in Germany and Hungary and conquer the Europe.
In WWII polish army fought in France, Norway, in Battle of Britain (the best pilots of this battle), Africa (Tobruk), Italy (Monte Cassino), again in France (Falaise) in the The Netherlands ("Market garden"), Belgium, Germany. There was also Polish army on the eastern front. Polish resistance movement was one of the largest and the most effective in ocuppied Europe. Polish mathematicians were the first who deciphered german Enigma machine and their inteligence gave allies many important information for eg. percise diagram of V2 rocket. There were also polish agents who took part in the operantion which misled Germans before D- day.
Americans love simply stories with one scheriff, one bandit and many deffencless victims. So you won't have an opportunity to learn polish or other countries' histories properly in school or from TV because everything must base on this model.

Answer 5

History speaks of Poland all the time, you just have to know where to look. I learned even more about Poland in the recent documentary "The Rape of Europa." Fascinating.

Great country, great food, and they gave us Leelee Sobieski!

Answer 6

It isn't considered a powerful nation by most people. Britain has a rather lengthy and interesting history dating from the end of the Roman Empire to the present day. That's almost 2,000 years. So did Italy and Greece. American history deals with the struggles of an underdog fighting the British to gain independence and our history continues to this day.

If you want to read up on Polish history, I would suggest looking up books by British historian Norman Davies. Polish history is his specialty though he did write a huge, comprehensive history on the continent of Europe (that was used for one of my history classes).

Answer 7

you are right all i know about poland is that his sanctity john paul II was from there. Warsaw is the capital. the Warsaw Pact. September 1, 1939 Hitler invades Poland

Answer 8

history does speak of poland, just not american history.

Answer 9

germany keeps taking it over and over whats to be said about a country that fights tanks with horses

Answer 10

They talk a lot about it when they discuss WW2