1.
Castle Square, Warsaw
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Warsaws Castle Square is a historic square in front of the Royal Castle – the former official residence of Polish monarchs – located in Warsaw, Poland. It is a meeting place for tourists and locals. The Square features the landmark Sigismunds Column to the south-west, and is surrounded by historic townhouses and it marks the beginning of the bustling Royal Route extending to the south. The column commemorating King Sigismund III Vasa is the oldest and one of the monuments of the city. On the east side of the stands the Royal Castle reconstructed after the devastation of World War II. It was formerly the residence of the dukes of Mazovia, and then of the Polish kings, the Nazis bombed and blew it up by during World War II. In 1907 the viaduct was modernized to handle electric trams that went over there less than a year later and this square has witnessed many dramatic scenes in Polish history. Patriotic demonstrations took place there during the period before the outbreak of the January Uprising of 1863, on February 27,1861, Russian bullets killed five people. During martial law the square became the scene of the particularly brutal riot, the square is a hub for tourists and locals, who gather to watch street entertainers, participate in rallies, watch concerts and even engage in breakdancing. In 1997, at the Castle Square, U. S. President Bill Clinton gave a speech welcoming Poland to membership in NATO, according to official information, more than 1.5 million visitors were counted. Tourist attractions in Warsaw Virtual tour through Royal Castle Castle Square, Zapiecek. com
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Castle
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A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. Usage of the term has varied over time and has applied to structures as diverse as hill forts. Over the approximately 900 years that castles were built, they took on a great many forms with different features, although some, such as curtain walls. A European innovation, castles originated in the 9th and 10th centuries, after the fall of the Carolingian Empire resulted in its territory being divided among individual lords and princes. Although their military origins are often emphasised in castle studies, the structures served as centres of administration. Many castles were built from earth and timber, but had their defences replaced later by stone. Early castles often exploited natural defences, lacking features such as towers and arrowslits, in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, a scientific approach to castle defence emerged. This led to the proliferation of towers, with an emphasis on flanking fire, many new castles were polygonal or relied on concentric defence – several stages of defence within each other that could all function at the same time to maximise the castles firepower. These changes in defence have been attributed to a mixture of castle technology from the Crusades, such as concentric fortification, not all the elements of castle architecture were military in nature, so that devices such as moats evolved from their original purpose of defence into symbols of power. Some grand castles had long winding approaches intended to impress and dominate their landscape, while castles continued to be built well into the 16th century, new techniques to deal with improved cannon fire made them uncomfortable and undesirable places to live. As a result, true castles went into decline and were replaced by artillery forts with no role in civil administration, and country houses that were indefensible. From the 18th century onwards, there was a renewed interest in castles with the construction of castles, part of a romantic revival of Gothic architecture. The word castle is derived from the Latin word castellum, which is a diminutive of the word castrum, meaning fortified place. The Old English castel, Old French castel or chastel, French château, Spanish castillo, Italian castello, the word castle was introduced into English shortly before the Norman Conquest to denote this type of building, which was then new to England. In its simplest terms, the definition of a castle accepted amongst academics is a fortified residence. Feudalism was the link between a lord and his vassal where, in return for service and the expectation of loyalty. Castles served a range of purposes, the most important of which were military, administrative, as well as defensive structures, castles were also offensive tools which could be used as a base of operations in enemy territory
3.
Mannerist architecture and sculpture in Poland
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Mannerist architecture and sculpture in Poland dominated between 1550 and 1650, when it was finally replaced with baroque. The style includes various mannerist traditions, which are related with ethnic and religious diversity of the country, as well as with its economic. The mannerist complex of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska and mannerist City of Zamość are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the period between 1550 and 1650 was a Golden Age of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and a Golden Age of Poland. It was a time of prosperity due to grain trade. Grain was kept in richly embellished granaries and transported along the Vistula to the port of Poland - Gdańsk. It was also the time of religious tolerance due to the Warsaw Confederation, Poland was multinational and multi-religious country. All those nations and worships contributed to creation of the diversity of mannerist architecture and sculpture in Poland. Despite that Poland remain a country without stakes, all the major wars and military conflicts were conducted far from the territory of todays Poland, so the country could developed equally. Those favorable conditions are the reason why mannerist architecture and sculpture in Poland left so many beautiful examples, the mannerist architecture and sculpture have two major traditions, Polish-Italian and Netherlandish, that dominated in northern Poland. The Jews in Poland adapted patterns of Italian and Polish mannerism to their own tradition, triangle gables of late Gothic origin and large windows are the features of Dutch urban architecture in Northern Poland. The Polish mannerism, though dominated by Italian architects and sculptors, has its unique characteristics that differentiate it from its Italian equivalent. The architecture of the 16th-century Polish mannerism is marked by common usage of richly embellished attics of palaces and houses, arcade courtyards, the church architecture combined the late gothic tradition with renaissance symmetry and mannerist decoration. Churches were slender, usually without towers, the 17th-century Polish mannerism characterize with much more simplicity in decoration in benefit to harmony of the construction. The model to the early 17th-century residences were royal palaces, ujazdów Castle constructed for king Sigismund III Vasa was possible inspiration to the Bishop Palace in Kielce, whereas the Kielce palace was imitated by many magnate families in their residencies. Side towers become an element of every palace and funeral church chapels, modelled after mentioned Sigismunds Chapel. Another characteristics of the mannerism in Poland are city and palace fortifications built in Dutch style, the most popular decoration techniques were relief, sgraffito and rustication, whereas the material was mainly brick, plastered brick, sandstone and sometimes limestone. For some time the late renaissance coexisted with early baroque, Netherlandish and Polish-Italian architectural traditions were not isolated and penetrate each other to create a unique composition of Krzyżtopór Palace. This, one of the largest constructions of mannerism and early baroque in Poland, was intended as a fortified palace, the complex combined Dutch style fortifications with a palace built to Italian design, mannerist Polish decoration and some other, presumably Dutch elements
4.
Baroque architecture
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It was characterized by new explorations of form, light and shadow, and dramatic intensity. Baroque architecture and its embellishments were on the one hand more accessible to the emotions and on the other hand, the new style manifested itself in particular in the context of the new religious orders, like the Theatines and the Jesuits who aimed to improve popular piety. The architecture of the High Roman Baroque can be assigned to the reigns of Urban VIII, Innocent X and Alexander VII. Dissemination of Baroque architecture to the south of Italy resulted in variations such as Sicilian Baroque architecture or that of Naples. To the north, the Theatine architect Camillo-Guarino Guarini, Bernardo Vittone and Sicilian born Filippo Juvarra contributed Baroque buildings to the city of Turin and the Piedmont region. A synthesis of Bernini, Borromini and Cortona’s architecture can be seen in the late Baroque architecture of northern Europe which paved the way for the more decorative Rococo style. During the 17th century, Baroque architecture spread through Europe and Latin America, michelangelos late Roman buildings, particularly St. Peters Basilica, may be considered precursors to Baroque architecture. Colonialism required the development of centralized and powerful governments with Spain and France, the initial mismanagement of colonial wealth by the Spaniards bankrupted them in the 16th century, recovering only slowly in the following century. While this was good for the industries and the arts, the new wealth created an inflation. Rome was known just as much for its new sumptuous churches as for its vagabonds, one of the first Roman structures to break with the Mannerist conventions exemplified in the Gesù, was the church of Santa Susanna, designed by Carlo Maderno. The dynamic rhythm of columns and pilasters, central massing, there is an incipient playfulness with the rules of classic design, but it still maintains rigor. These concerns are more evident in his reworking of Santa Maria della Pace. Probably the most well known example of such an approach is Saint Peters Square, the piazza, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, is formed principally by two colonnades of free standing columns centred on an Egyptian obelisk. Berninis own favourite design was his church of SantAndrea al Quirinale decorated with polychome marbles. His secular architecture included the Palazzo Barberini based on plans by Maderno, Berninis rival, the architect Francesco Borromini, produced designs that deviated dramatically from the regular compositions of the ancient world and Renaissance. His building plans were based on geometric figures, his architectural forms were unusual and inventive. Borrominis architectural spaces seem to expand and contract when needed, showing some affinity with the style of Michelangelo. A later work, the church of SantIvo alla Sapienza, displays the same playful inventiveness and antipathy to the flat surface, following the death of Bernini in 1680, Carlo Fontana emerged as the most influential architect working in Rome
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Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
6.
Swedish Army
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The Swedish Army is a branch of the Swedish Armed Forces in which its main responsibility is land operations. The Swedish Army is attached to the Northern European Command and SJF, the peace-time organization of the Swedish Army is divided into a number of regiments for the different branches. The number of active regiments has been reduced since the end of the Cold War, the regiment forms training organisations that train the various battalions of the army and home guard. The Swedish Armed Forces recently underwent a transformation from conscription-based recruitment to a professional defense organisation. This is part of a goal to abandon the mass army from the Cold War and develop an army better suited to modern maneuver warfare. The battalion is the unit but all units are completely modular. There are a total of 6 permanent staffs under the central command capable of handling large battlegroups,4 regional staffs and 2 brigade staffs, until 1975 the Swedish monarch was the formal head of the army. In 1937, the staff agency Chief of the Army was created to lead the army in peace time, following a larger reorganization of the Swedish Armed Forces in 1994, CA ceased to exist as an independent agency. Instead, the post Chief of Army Staff was created at the newly instituted Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters. In 1998, the Swedish Armed Forces was again reorganized, most of the duties of the Chief of Army Staff were transferred to the newly instituted post of Inspector General of the Army. The post is similar to that of the Inspector General of the Swedish Navy, in 2014, the Chief of Army position was reinstated. This plan, however, was considered by the Supreme Commander to be due to the economic situation at the time. In 2013, the Armed Forces issued a statement saying that the reorganisation would only suffice for a defense of Swedish territory for one week. The force was to include the following units, In addition, the Territorial Defense Forces/Home Guard consists of 40 battalions with a total of 22000 men. Many of the soldiers have served abroad in the missions of the regular army. From 1942 onwards, the Swedish government embarked upon a massive and ambitious militarization program in which conscription was strictly enforced and compulsory service was extended for three years. From 1950 until around 1976 the size of the army was at an average of 250000 soldiers with a peak of 400000 active duty soldiers during the late 1950s, the compulsory service period included 2 months of basic training and 3 months of advanced occupational training. The rules were enforced, but dodging the draft was punishable with a year of imprisonment
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German Army (Wehrmacht)
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The German Army was the land forces component of the Wehrmacht, the regular German Armed Forces, from 1935 until it was demobilized and later dissolved in August 1946. The Wehrmacht also included the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe, during World War II, a total of about 13 million soldiers served in the German Army. Only 17 months after Adolf Hitler announced publicly the rearmament program, during the autumn of 1937, two more corps were formed. In 1938, four corps were formed with the inclusion of the five divisions of the Austrian Army after the Anschluss in March. During the period of its expansion by Adolf Hitler, the German Army continued to develop concepts pioneered during World War I, combining ground, the German Army entered the war with a majority of its infantry formations relying on horse-drawn transport. The infantry remained foot soldiers throughout the war, artillery also remained primarily horse-drawn, however their motorized and tank formations accounted for only 20% of the Heers capacity at their peak strength. The armys lack of trucks was a handicap to infantry movement especially during. Panzer movements also depended upon rail, driving a tank over 150 kilometers wore out its tracks, the Oberkommando des Heeres was Germanys Army High Command from 1936 to 1945. In theory the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht served as the military General Staff for the German Reichs armed forces, in practice OKW acted in a subordinate role as Hitlers personal military staff, translating his ideas into military plans and orders, and issuing them to the three services. However, as the war progressed the OKW found itself exercising increasing amounts of direct command authority over military units and this created a situation where by 1943 the OKW was the de facto command of Western Theatre forces while the Army High Command is the same on the Eastern Front. The Abwehr was the Army intelligence organization from 1921 to 1944, the term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germanys post-World War I intelligence activities be for defensive purposes only. After 4 February 1938, its title was Overseas Department/Office in Defence of the Armed Forces High Command, the method OKW adopted was to separate the Field Army from the Home Command, and to entrust the responsibilities of training, conscription, supply and equipment to Home Command. The German Army was mainly structured in Army groups consisting of several armies that were relocated, restructured or renamed in the course of the war, Forces or allied states as well as units made up of non-Germans were also assigned to German units. The army used the German term Kampfgruppe which equates to the English combat group or battle group and these provisional combat groupings ranged from an Army Corps size such as Army Detachment Kempf to commands composed of several companies and even platoons. They were named for their commanding officers, German operational doctrine emphasized sweeping pincer and lateral movements meant to destroy the enemy forces as quickly as possible. This approach, referred to as Blitzkrieg, was an operational doctrine instrumental in the success of the offensives in Poland, the military strength of the German army was managed through mission-based tactics, and an almost proverbial discipline. Once an operation began, whether offensive or defensive, speed in response to changing circumstances was considered more important than careful planning and coordination of new plans. These technologies were featured by propaganda, but were only available in small numbers or late in the war, as overall supplies of raw materials
8.
Sigismund III Vasa
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He was the son of King John III of Sweden and his first wife, Catherine Jagellonica of Poland. Elected to the throne of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sigismund sought to create a union between the Commonwealth and Sweden, and succeeded for a time in 1592. After he had deposed in 1599 from the Swedish throne by his uncle, Charles IX of Sweden. Shortly after his victory over his enemies, Sigismund took advantage of a period of civil unrest in Muscovy and invaded Russia. In 1617 the Polish–Swedish conflict, which had been interrupted by an armistice in 1611, while Sigismunds army was also fighting Ottoman forces in Moldavia, King Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden invaded Sigismunds lands, capturing Riga and seizing almost all of Polish Livonia. Sigismund, who concluded the Truce of Altmark with Sweden in 1629 and his Swedish wars resulted, moreover, in Polands loss of Livonia and in a diminution of the kingdoms international prestige. Sigismund remains a controversial figure in Poland. His long reign coincided with the apex of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealths prestige, power, on the other hand, it was during his reign that the symptoms of decline leading to the Commonwealths eventual demise surfaced. However, the question of whether the Commonwealths decline was caused by Sigismunds decisions or had its roots in historical processes beyond his personal control and he was commemorated in Warsaw with Sigismunds Column, commissioned by his son and successor, Władysław IV. Sigismund was born on 20 June 1566 to Catherine Jagiellon and the Grand Duke John of Finland at Gripsholm and his parents, at the time, were being held prisoner by King Eric XIV, but despite the Protestant domination of Sweden young Sigismund was raised as a Roman Catholic. In 1567 Sigismund and his parents where released from prison, and in 1568 Erik XIV was deposed, from 1568 Sigismund was the crown prince of Sweden. His mother was the daughter of Polish king Sigismund I the Old, in 1587 Sigismund stood for election to the Polish throne after the death of his uncle, King Stephen Bathory. He was supported by his aunt Queen Anna, Hetman Jan Zamoyski and it seemed that the issue of who would be King of Poland had been settled when Maximilian III invaded Poland to claim the crown. Hetman Jan Zamoyski defeated Maximilian at the Battle of Byczyna and took him prisoner, however, at the request of Pope Sixtus V, King Sigismund III released Maximilian, who surrendered his claim to Poland in 1589. King Sigismund also tried to maintain peace with his neighbor by marrying Archduchess Anne Habsburg in 1592. It was always his intention to maintain an alliance with Catholic Austria against the Protestant forces, when his father died King Sigismund III asked the Sejm to be allowed to claim his inheritance as the rightful King of Sweden. When he promised to respect Lutheranism as the religion of Sweden. Sigismund was crowned King of Sweden in 1594 and he appointed his uncle, Duke Charles, to rule as regent on his behalf in Sweden while he remained in Poland, since Sweden and the Commonwealth were only in a personal union, not united in one state
9.
John II Casimir Vasa
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John II Casimir was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania during the era of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Duke of Opole in Upper Silesia, and titular King of Sweden 1648–1660. In Poland, he is known and commonly referred as Jan Kazimierz and his parents were Sigismund III Vasa and Constance of Austria. His older brother, and predecessor on the throne, was Władysław IV Vasa and his reign commenced amid the confusion and disasters caused by the great revolt of the Cossacks under Chmielnicki, who had advanced into the very heart of Poland. The power of the king had been stripped of almost all its prerogatives by the influence of the nobles. Russia and Sweden, which had long been enemies of Poland, availed themselves of its distracted condition. George II Rakoczy of Transylvania also invaded the Polish territory, while diet after diet was dissolved by abuses of the liberum veto, Charles X Gustav of Sweden triumphantly marched through the country, and occupied Kraków while John Casimir fled to Silesia. During these long disturbances John Casimir, though feeble and of a disposition, frequently proved his patriotism. In the following year he retired to France, where he was treated by Louis XIV. His wife had died without issue before his abdication, related to the Habsburg rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, he was the third and last monarch on the Polish throne from the House of Vasa. He was the last ruler of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth bearing a connection to the Jagiellon dynasty. John Casimir was born in Kraków on 22 March 1609 and his father, Sigismund III, the grandson of Gustav I of Sweden, had in 1592 succeeded his own father to the Swedish throne, only to be deposed in 1599 by his uncle, Charles IX of Sweden. This led to a long-standing feud wherein the Polish kings of the House of Vasa claimed the Swedish throne and his mother, Queen Constance, was the daughter of Charles II of Austria and Maria Anna of Bavaria and also the younger sister of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor. John Casimir for most of his life remained in the shadow of his older half-brother and he had few friends among the Polish nobility. He did, however, display talent as a military commander, between 1632 and 1635, Władysław IV sought to enhance his brothers influence by negotiating a marriage for John Casimir to Christina of Sweden, then to an Italian princess, but to no avail. In 1637 John Casimir undertook a mission to Vienna, which he abandoned to join the army of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1636 he returned to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and fell in love with Baroness Guldentern, in return, Władysław attempted to make him the sovereign of the Duchy of Courland, but this was vetoed by the Commonwealth parliament. He was then freed by a mission of the appointed Voivode of Smolensk. In 1641 John Casimir decided to become a Jesuit, in 1642 he again left the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, accompanying his sister to Germany
10.
John III Sobieski
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John III Sobieski, from 1674 until his death King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, was one of the most notable monarchs of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Sobieskis military skill, demonstrated in wars against the Ottoman Empire, sobieskis 22-year reign marked a period of the Commonwealths stabilization, much needed after the turmoil of the Deluge and the Khmelnytsky Uprising. Popular among his subjects, he was a military commander. After his victories over them, the Ottomans called him the Lion of Lechistan, official title, Jan III, z łaski bożej, król Polski, wielki książę litewski, ruski, pruski, mazowiecki, żmudzki, kijowski, wołyński, podlaski i czernichowski, etc. His father, Jakub Sobieski, was the Voivode of Ruthenia and Castellan of Kraków, his mother, John Sobieski spent his childhood in Żółkiew. After graduating from the Nowodworski College in Kraków in 1643, young John Sobieski then graduated from the faculty of the Jagiellonian University in 1646. After finishing his studies, together with his brother Marek Sobieski, John left for western Europe and they visited Leipzig, Antwerp, Paris, London, Leiden and The Hague. Both brothers returned to the Commonwealth in 1648, upon receiving the news of the death of king Władysław IV Vasa and the hostilities of the Khmelnytsky Uprising, they volunteered for the army. They both fought in the siege of Zamość and they founded and commanded their own banners of cavalry. Soon, the fortunes of war separated the brothers, in 1649, Jakub fought in the Battle of Zboriv. In 1652, Marek died in Tatar captivity after his capture at the Battle of Batih, John was promoted to the rank of pułkownik and fought with distinction in the Battle of Berestechko. A promising commander, John was sent by King John II Casimir to Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire as one of the envoys in a mission of Mikołaj Bieganowski. There, Sobieski learned the Tatar language and the Turkish language and studied Turkish military traditions and it is likely he participated as part of the briefly allied Polish-Tatar forces in the 1655 Battle of Okhmativ. By 26 May 1656 he received the position of the chorąży koronny, during the three-day-long battle of Warsaw of 1656, Sobieski commanded a 2, 000-man strong regiment of Tatar cavalry. He took part in a number of engagements over the two years, including in the Siege of Toruń in 1658. In 1659 he was elected a deputy to Sejm, and was one of the Polish negotiators in the Treaty of Hadiach with the Cossacks. In 1660 he took part in the last offensive against the Swedes in Prussia, through personal connections, he became a strong supporter of the French faction in the Polish royal court, represented by Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga. In 1662 he was elected a deputy to the Sejm
11.
Augustus II the Strong
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Augustus II the Strong of the Albertine line of the House of Wettin was Elector of Saxony, Imperial Vicar and became King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Augustus great physical strength earned him the nicknames the Strong, the Saxon Hercules, in order to be elected King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Augustus converted to Roman Catholicism. As a Catholic, he received the Order of the Golden Fleece from the Holy Roman Emperor, as Elector of Saxony, he is perhaps best remembered as a patron of the arts and architecture. He established the Saxon capital of Dresden as a cultural centre. Augustus also amassed an art collection and built lavish baroque palaces in Dresden. His reigns brought Poland some troubled times and he led the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Great Northern War, which led to the Russian Empire strengthening its influence in Europe, especially within Poland. His main pursuit was bolstering royal power in the Commonwealth, characterized by broad decentralization in comparison with other European monarchies and he tried to accomplish this goal using foreign powers and thus destabilized the state. Augustus was born in Dresden on 12 May 1670, the son of the Elector Johann Georg III. As the second son, Augustus had no expectation of inheriting the electorate, since his brother, Johann Georg IV. Augustus married Kristiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth in Bayreuth on 20 January 1693 and they had a son, Frederick Augustus II, who succeeded his father as Elector of Saxony and King of Poland as Augustus III. While cavorting during the season in Venice, his older brother. On 27 April 1694, Johann Georg died without issue and Augustus became Elector of Saxony. To be eligible for election to the throne of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1697, the Saxon dukes had traditionally been called champions of the Reformation. Saxony had been a stronghold of German Protestantism and Augustus conversion was considered shocking in Protestant Europe. Although the prince-elector guaranteed Saxonys religious status quo, Augustus conversion alienated many of his Protestant subjects, as a result of the enormous expenditure of money used to bribe the Polish nobility and clergy, Augustus contemporaries derisively referred to the Saxon dukes royal ambitions as his Polish adventure. His church policy within the Holy Roman Empire followed orthodox Lutheranism and ran counter to his new-found religious, the Protestant princes of the empire and the two remaining Protestant electors were anxious to keep Saxony well-integrated in their camp. Saxony remained Lutheran and the few Roman Catholics residing in Saxony lacked any political or civil rights. In 1717, it clear just how awkward the situation was, to realize his ambitious dynastic plans in Poland and Germany
12.
Augustus III of Poland
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The only legitimate son of Augustus II of Poland, he followed his father’s example by joining the Roman Catholic Church in 1712. In 1719 he married Maria Josepha, daughter of the Holy Roman emperor Joseph I, chosen king by a small minority of electors on 5 October 1733, he drove his rival, the former Polish king Stanisław I, into exile. He was crowned in Kraków on 17 January 1734, and was recognised as king in Warsaw in June 1736. Augustus gave Saxon support to Austria against Prussia in the War of the Austrian Succession and his last years were marked by the increasing influence of the Czartoryski and Poniatowski families, and by the intervention of Catherine the Great in Polish affairs. His rule deepened the anarchy in Poland and increased the dependence on its neighbours. The reign of Augustus witnessed one of the greatest periods of disorder in Polish history, Augustus was the only legitimate son of Augustus II the Strong, Prince-Elector of Saxony and king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth who belonged to the Albertine line of the House of Wettin. His mother was Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, groomed to succeed his father as king of Poland, Augustus converted to Catholicism in 1712, when publicly announced, this caused discontent among the Protestant Saxon aristocracy. Upon the death of Augustus II in 1733, Augustus inherited the Saxon electorate and was elected to the Polish throne, with the support of the Russian Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. He was opposed by the forces of Stanisław I Leszczyński, who had usurped the throne with Swedish support during the Great Northern War, reigning from 1706 until 1709, Stanisław was overthrown after the Swedish defeat at Poltava. As King, Augustus was uninterested in the affairs of his Polish–Lithuanian dominion, focusing instead on hunting, the opera, Augustus delegated most of his powers and responsibilities in the Commonwealth to Heinrich von Brühl, who served in effect as the viceroy of Poland. Augustuss eldest surviving son, Frederick Christian of Saxony, succeeded his father as Elector, a Russian-supported coup détat in Poland, instigated by the Czartoryskis, resulted in the election of Stanisław August Poniatowski as king of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania on 7 September 1764. August was portrayed by Ernst Dernburg in the 1941 film Friedemann Bach, in Dresden on 20 August 1719, Augustus married Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria, the eldest child of Joseph I, the Holy Roman Emperor. Bachs title of Koeniglicher Pohlnischer Hoff Compositeur is engraved on the page of Bachs famous Goldberg Variations. History of Saxony History of Poland Rulers of Saxony List of Lithuanian rulers Dresden Castle – Residence of Augustus III Bach, Johann Sebastian, Mass in B Minor, Cue points, Oregon Bach festival
13.
Council of Ministers (Poland)
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The Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland is the collective executive decision-making body of the Polish government. The cabinet consists of the Prime Minister, also known as the President of the Council of Ministers, the Deputy Prime Minister, who acts as a vice-president of the council, the current competences and procedures of the cabinet are described between Articles 146 to 162 of the constitution. The process of forming the council of ministers begins with the nomination of the minister by the President of Poland. The prime minister will then propose the composition of the cabinet, furthermore, the president is forbidden to select a different cabinet composition than the one already selected by the prime minister. Following their nomination, all members of the take the oath of office within the Column Room of the Presidential Palace. Within fourteen days of its appointment, the cabinet, headed by the minister, is obligated to submit an agenda to the Sejm together with a vote of confidence. An absolute majority of votes in the presence of at least half of all Sejm deputies is required to approve of the cabinet, which the president will then accept and administer their oaths of office. Should a vote of confidence fail again, the process of nomination is handed back to the presidency, who must again appoint a prime minister, who will then nominate other members of the cabinet. If the vote of confidence fails a third time, the president is obliged to shorten the Sejms term of office, the council of ministers is headed by the prime minister, known also as the President of the Council of Ministers. The prime minister directs the activities and acts as its representative. Furthermore, the prime minister ensures the implementation of the policies, coordinates and controls the work of his or her ministers. The prime minister may also be assisted by a deputy prime minister, both the prime minister and deputy prime minister can discharge the functions of a minister. The deputy prime ministers position is normally offered to representatives of the junior coalition partner. Deputy prime ministers also take on other ministerial positions, the rest of the cabinet is composed of ministers, whose tasks and governmental administrative portfolios are selected and organized by the prime minister. Cabinet ministers may originate from the Sejm and Senat, Ministers may also be selected from outside of the legislature. First are the department ministers, who exercise authority and responsibility within the governments administration, including ministries, subordinate departments. Regulations by any member of the council of ministers can be overruled by the cabinet upon a motion by the prime minister, the premier is also empowered to reshuffle or remove members from the cabinet. The style of the government and the roles of its ministers are not constitutionally mandated, the constitution entrusts the cabinet to craft and implement the most important regulations and policies of the state
14.
Giovanni Battista Trevano
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Giovanni Battista Trevano was an Italian-speaking architect who worked in Poland as royal architect for King Sigismund III Vasa, of the Vasa dynasty, which ruled Poland at the time. Trevano started working in Poland around 1600, new work was undertaken in the years 1598-1619. The castle, much altered over the years, was bombed and dynamited by the Nazis as a symbol of Polish culture and was rebuilt in the years 1971–1988 as a national monument. In Kraków, on the Wawel hill, following a fire in 1595, the first Baroque church built in Poland was the Church of St. Peter and Paul on Ulica Grodzka, erected by order of Sigismund III Vasa for the Jesuits in the years 1597—1619. It was designed by Giovanni de Rossi as a basilica with a domed crossing. As with Jesuit churches throughout Catholic Europe, its façade is a variant of that provided by Giacomo Della Porta for the Church of the Gesù. Also in Kraków, St Martins Church, was built by Trevano and it has been used for Lutheran worship since 1816. Jana, no.12, the Krauze House was originally a Gothic building but was remodeled by Giovanni Petrini, the house has a doorway with a segmental pediment. The palace stands out in Poland in retaining its original features virtually unchanged, dmochowski, Zbigniew, The Architecture of Poland
15.
World Heritage Site
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A World Heritage Site is a landmark which has been officially recognized by the United Nations, specifically by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Sites are selected on the basis of having cultural, historical, scientific or some form of significance. UNESCO regards these sites as being important to the interests of humanity. The programme catalogues, names, and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common culture, under certain conditions, listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund. The program was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of the Worlds Cultural and Natural Heritage, since then,192 state parties have ratified the convention, making it one of the most adhered to international instruments. As of July 2016,1052 sites are listed,814 cultural,203 natural, in 1959, the governments of Egypt and Sudan requested UNESCO to assist their countries to protect and rescue the endangered monuments and sites. In 1960, the Director-General of UNESCO launched an appeal to the Member States for an International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, the campaign, which ended in 1980, was considered a success. The project cost $80 million, about $40 million of which was collected from 50 countries, the projects success led to other safeguarding campaigns, saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, and the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia. UNESCO then initiated, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the United States initiated the idea of cultural conservation with nature conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar proposals in 1968, the Convention came into force on 17 December 1975. As of June 2016, it has been ratified by 192 states, including 188 UN member states plus the Cook Islands, the Holy See, Niue, a country must first list its significant cultural and natural sites, the result is called the Tentative List. A country may not nominate sites that have not been first included on the Tentative List, next, it can place sites selected from that list into a Nomination File. The Nomination File is evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and these bodies then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee. There are ten selection criteria – a site must meet at least one of them to be included on the list, up to 2004, there were six criteria for cultural heritage and four criteria for natural heritage. In 2005, this was modified so there is now only one set of ten criteria. Nominated sites must be of outstanding value and meet at least one of the ten criteria. Thus, the Geneva Convention treaty promulgates, Article 53, PROTECTION OF CULTURAL OBJECTS AND OF PLACES OF WORSHIP. There are 1,052 World Heritage Sites located in 165 States Party, of these,814 are cultural,203 are natural and 35 are mixed properties
16.
Warsaw Old Town
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The Warsaw Old Town is the oldest part of the capital city. It is bounded by the Wybrzeże Gdańskie, along with the bank of Vistula river, Grodzka, Mostowa and it is one of the most prominent tourist attractions in Warsaw. The heart of the area is the Old Town Market Place, rich in restaurants, cafés, surrounding streets feature medieval architecture such as the city walls, the Barbican and St. Johns Cathedral. The Old Town was established in the 13th century, initially surrounded by an earthwork rampart, prior to 1339 it was fortified with brick city walls. The town originally grew up around the castle of the Dukes of Mazovia that later became the Royal Castle, the Market Square was laid out sometime in the late 13th or early 14th century, along the main road linking the castle with the New Town to the north. Until 1817 the Old Towns most notable feature was the Town Hall built before 1429, in 1701 the square was rebuilt by Tylman Gamerski, and in 1817 the Town Hall was demolished. In the early 1910s Warsaw Old Town was the home of the prominent Yiddish writer Alter Kacyzne, parts of it were bohemian, with painters and artists having their studios, while some streets were a Red-light district housing brothels. In 1918 the Royal Castle once again became the seat of Polands highest authorities, in the late 1930s, during the mayoralty of Stefan Starzyński, the municipal authorities began refurbishing the Old Town and restoring it to its former glory. The Barbican and the Old Town Market Place were partly restored and these efforts, however, were brought to an end by the outbreak of World War II. During the Invasion of Poland, much of the district was damaged by the German Luftwaffe. Following the Siege of Warsaw, parts of the Old Town were rebuilt, a statue commemorating the Uprising, the Little Insurgent, now stands on the Old Towns medieval city wall. After World War II, the Old Town was meticulously rebuilt, in an effort at anastylosis, as many as possible of the original bricks were reused. The rubble was sifted for reusable decorative elements, which were reinserted into their original places. The Old Town Market Place, which dates back to the end of the 13th century, is the heart of the Old Town. Here the representatives of guilds and merchants met in the Town Hall, and fairs, the houses around it represented the Gothic style until the great fire of 1607, after which they were rebuilt in late-Renaissance style. Castle Square is a visitors first view of the reconstructed Old Town and it is an impressive sight, dominated by Zygmunts Column, which towers above the beautiful Old Town houses. Enclosed between the Old Town and the Royal Castle, Castle Square is steeped in history, here was the gateway leading into the city called the Kraków Gate. It was developed in the 14th century and continued to be an area for the kings
17.
Polish language
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Polish is a West Slavic language spoken primarily in Poland and is the native language of the Poles. It belongs to the Lechitic subgroup of the West Slavic languages, Polish is the official language of Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries. It is one of the languages of the European Union. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet, which has 9 additions to the letters of the basic Latin script, Polish is closely related to Kashubian, Silesian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Czech and Slovak. It is also the second most widely spoken Slavic language, after Russian, in history, Polish is known to be an important language, both diplomatically and academically in Central and Eastern Europe. Today, Polish is spoken by over 38.5 million people as their first language in Poland. It is also spoken as a language in western parts of Belarus and Ukraine, west and central Lithuania, as well as the northern parts of the Czech Republic. There are 55 million Polish language speakers around the world, Polish began to emerge as a distinct language around the 10th century, the process largely triggered by the establishment and development of the Polish state. With Christianity, Poland also adopted the Latin alphabet, which made it possible to write down Polish, the precursor to modern Polish is the Old Polish language. Ultimately, Polish is thought to descend from the unattested Proto-Slavic language, Poland is the most linguistically homogeneous European country, nearly 97% of Polands citizens declare Polish as their first language. Elsewhere, Poles constitute large minorities in Lithuania, Belarus, Polish is the most widely used minority language in Lithuanias Vilnius County and is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania. There are significant numbers of Polish speakers among Polish emigrants and their descendants in many other countries, in the United States, Polish Americans number more than 11 million but most of them cannot speak Polish fluently. The largest concentrations of Polish speakers reported in the census were found in three states, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. Enough people in these areas speak Polish that PNC Financial Services offer services available in Polish at all of their machines in addition to English and Spanish. According to the 2011 census there are now over 500,000 people in England, in Canada, there is a significant Polish Canadian population, There are 242,885 speakers of Polish according to the 2006 census, with a particular concentration in Toronto and Montreal. The geographical distribution of the Polish language was affected by the territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II. Poles settled in the Recovered Territories in the west and north and this tendency toward a homogeneity also stems from the vertically integrated nature of the authoritarian Polish Peoples Republic. The inhabitants of different regions of Poland still speak standard Polish somewhat differently, first-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty distinguishing regional variations
18.
Partitions of Poland
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The First Partition of Poland was decided on August 5,1772. Two decades later, Russian and Prussian troops entered the Commonwealth again, Austria did not participate in the Second Partition. The Third Partition of Poland took place on October 24,1795, with this partition, the Commonwealth ceased to exist. In Polish, there are two words for the two meanings. In Polish historiography, the term Fourth Partition of Poland has also been used, the term Fourth Partition in a temporal sense can also mean the diaspora communities that played important political role in re-establishing the Polish sovereign state after 1918. A single member of parliaments belief that a measure was injurious to his own constituency, even after the act had been approved and it became increasingly difficult to undertake action. The liberum veto also provided openings for foreign diplomats to get their ways and this applies particularly to the last Commonwealth King Stanisław August Poniatowski, who for some time had been a lover of Russian Empress Catherine the Great. Their alliance later became known in Poland as the Alliance of the Three Black Eagles, the Commonwealth could never be liquidated unless its long-time ally, Austria, allowed it, so Catherine had to use diplomacy to win Austria to her side. Frederick II retaliated by ordering enough Polish currency counterfeited to severely affect the Polish economy and this new constitution undid the reforms made in 1764 under Stanisław II. The liberum veto and all the old abuses of the last one, the irregular and poorly commanded Polish forces had little chance in the face of the regular Russian army and suffered a major defeat. In 1769 Austria annexed a small territory of Spisz and in 1770 – Nowy Sącz and these territories had been a bone of contention between Poland and Hungary, which was a part of the Austrian crown lands. In February 1772, the agreement of partition was signed in Vienna, early in August, Russian, Prussian and Austrian troops simultaneously invaded the Commonwealth and occupied the provinces agreed upon among themselves. The partition treaty was ratified by its signatories on September 22,1772, to Austria fell Zator and Auschwitz, part of Lesser Poland embracing parts of the counties of Kraków and Sandomir and the whole of Galicia, less the city of Kraków. Catherine of Russia was also very satisfied, by this diplomatic document Russia came into possession of that section of Livonia that had remained in Commonwealth control, and of Belarus embracing the counties of Vitebsk, Polotsk and Mstislavl. By this partition, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth lost about 30% of its territory and half of its population, by seizing northwestern Poland, Prussia instantly gained control over 80% of the Commonwealths total foreign trade. Through levying enormous customs duties, Prussia accelerated the collapse of the Commonwealth, after having occupied their respective territories, the three partitioning powers demanded that King Stanisław and the Sejm approve their action. By 1790 the First Polish Republic had been weakened to such a degree that it was forced into an unnatural and terminal alliance with its enemy, the Polish–Prussian Pact of 1790 was signed. The conditions of the Pact contributed to the succeeding and final two partitions of Poland–Lithuania, the May Constitution of 1791 enfranchised the bourgeoisie, established the separation of the three branches of government, and eliminated the abuses of the Repnin Sejm
19.
Mazovia
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Mazovia is a historical region in mid-north-eastern Poland. Borders of the Mazovian Voivodeship, which was created in 1999, do not reflect exactly its original shape, historical Mazovia existed since the Middle Ages until the partitions of Poland and consisted of three voivodeships with the capitals in Warszawa, Płock and Rawa Mazowiecka. In a narrower sense, the Mazovian Voivodeship was only the first of them, between 1816 and 1844 another Mazovian Voivodeship existed, encompassing the south of the region. In the Middle Ages the main city of the region was Płock, since 1138 Mazovia had a separate branch of the Piast dynasty and was incorporated to the Polish Crown as late as in the 15th and 16th centuries. As much as over 20% of Mazovian population was the yeomanry, inhabitants of Mazovia are Mazurzy – hence the region of Masuria, settled by them. Mazovia has a landscape without hills and without lakes and it is spread over the Mazovian Lowland, on both sides of the Vistula river and its confluence with Narew and Bug. Forests cover one-fifth of the region, with the large Kampinos Forest, Puszcza Biała, in the north Mazovia borders on the Masurian subregion of former Prussia, in the east on Podlachia, in the south on Lesser Poland and in the west on Greater Poland. The area of Mazovia is 33,500 km2 and it has population of 5 million. When the Slavs came to this region from the area of Polesie, they mingled with the descendants of Vistula Veneti. This created a Lechitic tribe, Mazovians, the historical region of Mazovia in the beginning encompassed only the territories on the right bank of Vistula near Płock and had strong connections with Greater Poland. In the period of the rule of the first monarchs of the Piast State, Płock was one of their seats, in the period 1037–1047 it was the capital of the independent, Mazovian state of Masław. Between 1079 and 1138 this city was de facto the capital of Poland, during the 9th century Mazovia was perhaps inhabited by the tribe of Mazovians, and it was incorporated into the Polish state in the second half of 10th century under the Piast ruler Mieszko I. In 1138 the duchy of Mazovia was established, and during the 12th and 13th centuries it joined temporarily various adjacent lands and endured invasions of Prussians, Yotvingians, and Ruthenians. To protect its northern section Conrad I of Masovia called in the Teutonic Knights in 1226, after the reunification of the Polish state by Władysław I in the early 14th century, Mazovia became its fief in 1351. In the second half of 15th century western Mazovia and in 1526/1529 the main part was incorporated into the Polish state, in the 15th century eastern part of the region was settled, mainly by the yeomanry. Mazovia was considered underdeveloped in comparison with Greater Poland and Lesser Poland, in the Early Modern Times Mazovia was known for exporting grain, timber, and fur. It was also distinct because there was no reformation here, Mazovia was divided into three voivodeships, each of them divided into lands, each of them divided into counties. The Polish-Lithuanian Union of Lublin established Mazovia as the region of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, with Warsaw rising to prominence as the seat of the state legislature
20.
Constitution of May 3, 1791
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The Constitution of 3 May 1791 was adopted by the Great Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a dual monarchy comprising Poland and Lithuania. Drafted over 32 months beginning on 6 October 1788, and formally adopted as the Government Act, the system of Golden Freedoms, also known as the Nobles Democracy, had conferred disproportionate rights on the nobility and over time had corrupted politics. The constitution sought to supplant the prevailing anarchy fostered by some of the magnates with a more democratic constitutional monarchy. It introduced elements of political equality between townspeople and nobility, and placed the peasants under the protection of the government, thus mitigating the worst abuses of serfdom. It banned parliamentary institutions such as the veto, which had put the Sejm at the mercy of any deputy who could revoke all the legislation that had been passed by that Sejm. The Commonwealths neighbours reacted with hostility to the adoption of the constitution, the King, a principal co-author, eventually capitulated to the Confederates. The 1791 document remained in force for less than 19 months, by 1795, the Second and Third Partitions of Poland ended the existence of the sovereign Polish state. Over the next 123 years, the Constitution of 3 May,1791, was seen as proof of successful internal reform, in the words of two of its co-authors, Ignacy Potocki and Hugo Kołłątaj, it was the last will and testament of the expiring Country. Polish constitutionalism can be traced to the 13th century, when government by consensus, the emergence of parliamentary bodies, the sejm and sejmiki, followed. This system, which benefited the Polish nobility, came to be known as the nobles democracy. In the 1590s, at the peak of the nobles democracy, as the Sejm failed to implement sufficient reforms, the state machinery became increasingly dysfunctional. A major cause of the Commonwealths downfall was the liberum veto, the threat of the liberum veto could only be overridden by the establishment of a confederated sejm, which was immune to the liberum veto. Declaring that a sejm either constituted a confederation or belonged to one was a prominently used by foreign interests in the 18th century to force a legislative outcome. By the early 18th century, the magnates of Poland and Lithuania controlled the state, the ineffective monarchs who were elected to the Commonwealth throne in the early 18th century, Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland of the House of Wettin, did not improve matters. Only 8 out of 18 Sejm sessions during the reign of Augustus II passed legislation, for 30 years during the reign of Augustus III, only one session was able to pass legislation. The government was near collapse, giving rise to the term Polish anarchy, the Enlightenment greatly influenced certain Commonwealth circles during the 1764–95 reign of its last king, Stanisław II August Poniatowski. Poniatowski was an enlightened Polish magnate who had been a deputy to several Sejms between 1750 and 1764 and had an understanding of Polish politics than previous monarchs. In part because his election was imposed by Empress Catherine the Great and these measures had already been authorized by the Convocation Sejm, more legislative and executive improvements inspired by Familia or the King were implemented during and after the 1764 Sejm
21.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
22.
Great Sejm
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The Great Sejm, also known as the Four-Year Sejm was a Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that was held in Warsaw between 1788 and 1792. Its principal aim became to restore sovereignty to, and reform, the Polish Constitution was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federative Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and its system of Golden Liberties. The Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and nobility and placed the peasants under the protection of the government, thus mitigating the worst abuses of serfdom. The May 3rd Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the countrys reactionary magnates, with a more egalitarian, in the last three decades preceding the Great Sejm, there was a rising interest among progressive thinkers in constitutional reform. Mably had submitted his recommendations in 1770–1771, Rousseau had finished his Considerations on the Government of Poland in 1772, also seen as crucial to giving the upcoming reforms their moral and political support were Ignacy Krasickis satires of the Great Sejm era. On its second day the Sejm transformed itself into a confederated sejm to make it immune to the threat of the liberum veto, Stanisław Małachowski, a statesman respected both by most factions, was elected as the Marshal of the Sejm. Many supporters of the reforms were gathered in the Patriotic Party, the Patriotic Partys centrists, including Stanisław Małachowski, wished accommodation with the King. The liberal left wing, led by Hugo Kołłątaj, looked for support to the people of Warsaw, while King Poniatowski also supported some reforms, he was initially not allied with this faction, represented by Potocki, who preferred a republican form of a government. Events in the world appeared to play into the reformers hands, due to internal Russian politics, this plan was not implemented. Spurned by Russia, Poland turned to another ally, the Triple Alliance. This line of reasoning gained support from Polish politicians such as Ignacy Potocki, with the new Polish-Prussian alliance seeming to provide security against Russian intervention, King Poniatowski drew closer to leaders of the reform-minded Patriotic Party. With the mediation of Scipione Piattoli, Potocki and Poniatowski begun to reach a consensus on a constitutional monarchy approach. Overall, the first two years of the Sejm passed with few major reforms, and it was the half of the Sejm duration that brought major changes. The elections of autumn 1790 resulted in a new group of deputies joining those already elected, a second Marshal of the Sejm was elected. As Małachowski was seen as associated with the reformers, Sapieha was initially seen as a conservative, although he would switch sides. Together with the legislation on the rights, it became incorporated into the final constitution. The new Constitution had been drafted by the king, with contributions from others, including Ignacy Potocki, the king is credited with authoring the general provisions, and Kołłątaj, with giving the work its final shape. Poniatowski aimed for a constitutional monarchy similar to the one in England, reforms were opposed by conservative elements, including the Hetmans Party
23.
November Uprising
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The November Uprising, Polish–Russian War 1830–31, also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress Polands military academy revolted, led by lieutenant Piotr Wysocki and they were soon joined by large segments of societies of Lithuania, Belarus, and the Right-bank Ukraine. Despite local successes, the uprising was crushed by a numerically superior Imperial Russian Army under Ivan Paskevich. Tsar Nicholas I decreed that henceforth Poland was a part of Russia, with Warsaw little more than a military garrison. After the Partitions of Poland, Poland ceased to exist as an independent political entity at the end of 1795, however, the Napoleonic Wars and Polish participation in the wars against Russia and Austria resulted in the creation the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807. The Congress of Vienna brought that states existence to an end in 1815, and essentially solidified the long-term division of Poland among Russia, Prussia, United with Russia through a personal union with the Tsar as King of Poland, the province could elect its own parliament and government. The kingdom had its own courts, army and treasury, over time, however, the freedoms granted to the Kingdom were gradually taken back and the constitution was progressively ignored by the Russian authorities. Alexander I of Russia never formally crowned himself as King of Poland, instead, in 1815, he appointed Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich as de facto viceroy, disregarding the constitution. Soon after the Congress of Vienna resolutions were signed, Russia ceased to respect them, in 1819 Alexander I abandoned liberty of the press in Congress Kingdom and introduced censorship. As a result, after 1825 sessions of Polish Sejm were conducted in secret, Nicholas I of Russia formally crowned himself as King of Poland on 24 May 1829 in Warsaw. He abolished Polish social and patriotic organizations, the opposition of the Kaliszanie faction. Although married to a Pole, he was considered as an enemy of the Polish nation. Also, his command over the Polish Army led to conflicts within the officer corps. These frictions led to various conspiracies throughout the country, most notably within the army, the final spark that ignited Warsaw was a Russian plan to use the Polish Army to suppress Frances July Revolution and the Belgian Revolution, in clear violation of the Polish constitution. The rebels managed to enter the Belweder, but Grand Duke Constantine had escaped in womens clothing, the rebels then turned to the main city arsenal, capturing it after a brief struggle. The following day, armed Polish civilians forced the Russian troops to north of Warsaw. This incident is called the Warsaw Uprising or the November Night. Taken by surprise by the unfolding of events during the night of 29 November
24.
Tsar
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Tsar /zɑːr/ or /tsɑːr/, also spelled tzar, csar, or czar, is a title used to designate certain Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, occasionally, the word could be used to designate other secular supreme rulers. Simeon II, the last Tsar of Bulgaria, is the last person to have borne the title Tsar, the title Tsar is derived from the Latin title for the Roman emperors, Caesar. In the history of the Greek language, basileus had originally meant something like potentate and it gradually approached the meaning of king in the Hellenistic Period, and it came to designate emperor after the inception in the Roman Empire. Thus, tsar was not only used as an equivalent of Latin imperator but was used to refer to Biblical rulers. From this ambiguity, the development has moved in different directions in the different Slavic languages, thus, the Bulgarian language and Russian language no longer use tsar as an equivalent of the term emperor/imperator as it exists in the West European tradition. Currently, the term refers to native sovereigns, ancient and Biblical rulers, as well as monarchs in fairy tales. The title of king is sometimes perceived as alien and is by some Russian-speakers reserved for European royalty, foreign monarchs of imperial status, both inside and outside of Europe, ancient as well as modern, are generally called imperator, rather than tsar. Biblical rulers in Serbian are called цар and in Croatian kralj, in the Polish language however tsar is always used as imperator, never as king. The term tsar is very used to refer to the Russian rulers after Peter the Great. In 705 Emperor Justinian II named Tervel of Bulgaria Caesar, the first foreigner to receive this title, the sainted Boris I is sometimes retrospectively referred to as tsar, because at his time Bulgaria was converted to Christianity. However, the tsar was actually adopted and used for the first time by his son Simeon I. Since in Byzantine political theory there was place for two emperors, Eastern and Western, the Bulgarian ruler was crowned basileus as a spiritual son of the Byzantian basileus. In Latin sources the Emperor of Bulgaria is sometimes designated Emperor of Zagora, various additional epithets and descriptions apart, the official style read Emperor and autocrat of all Bulgarians and Greeks. During the five-century period of Ottoman rule in Bulgaria, the sultan was referred to as tsar. This may be related to the fact that he had claimed the legacy of the Byzantine Empire or to the fact that the sultan was called Basileus in medieval Greek, after Bulgarias liberation from the Ottomans in 1878, its new monarchs were at first autonomous prince. With the declaration of independence, Ferdinand I of Bulgaria adopted the traditional title tsar in 1908. However, these titles were not generally perceived as equivalents of emperor any longer, in the Bulgarian as in the Greek vernacular, the meaning of the title had shifted
25.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
26.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
27.
President of Poland
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The President of the Republic of Poland is the Polish head of state. His or her rights and obligations are determined in the Constitution of Poland, the president heads the executive branch. In addition the president has a right to dissolve the parliament in certain cases, the first president of Poland, Gabriel Narutowicz, was sworn in as president of the Second Republic on 11 December 1922. He was elected by the National Assembly under the terms of the 1921 Constitution of Poland, previously Józef Piłsudski had been Chief of State under the provisional 1919 Constitution. Who was fed up with regional bickering, staged a coup deposed the president and had the National Assembly elect a new one, Ignacy Mościcki, under the thumb of Sanacja. Just before Piłsudski died, parliament passed the 1935 April Constitution of Poland which incorporated Piłsudskis ideals, Mościcki continued as president until he resigned following the German invasion of Poland in 1939. The transfer from Mościcki to Raczkiewicz was in accordance with Article 24 of the 1935 April Constitution and he served until the 1952 Constitution eliminated the office of the president. Following the 1989 amendments to the constitution restored the presidency, Wojciech Jaruzelski. In Polands first direct election, Lech Wałęsa won and was sworn in on 22 December 1990. The office of the president was continued in the Constitution of 1997, which now provides the requirements for, the duties of, the President of Poland is elected directly by the people to serve for five years and can be reelected only once. Pursuant to the provisions of the Constitution, the President is elected by an absolute majority, if no candidate succeeds in passing this threshold, a second round of voting is held with the participation of the two candidates with the largest and second largest number of votes respectively. The President has the right to initiate the legislative process, the President also makes decisions on award of highest academic titles, as well as state distinctions and orders. In addition, he has the right of clemency, viz. he can dismiss final court verdicts. The President performs his duties with the help of the offices, the Chancellery of the President, the Office of National Security. Several properties are owned by the Office of the President and are used by the Head of State as his or her official residence, the Presidential Palace in Warsaw is largest palace in Warsaw and the official seat of the President of the Republic of Poland since 1993. The first presidential tenant was Lech Wałęsa when he moved to the Palace from Belweder in 1994, the palace also serves as an official residence for heads of state on official visits to Poland and other important guests. Presidential Castle in Wisła in a built for the Habsburgs as their hunting cottage. Since 2002 it is again a property of the President, restored and opened in 2005 by the President Aleksander Kwaśniewski and it is today a recreational and conference centre for the President and a hotel
28.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
29.
Invasion of Poland
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The campaign ended on 6 October with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland under the terms of the German-Soviet Frontier Treaty. German forces invaded Poland from the north, south, and west the morning after the Gleiwitz incident, as the Wehrmacht advanced, Polish forces withdrew from their forward bases of operation close to the Polish–German border to more established lines of defence to the east. After the mid-September Polish defeat in the Battle of the Bzura, Polish forces then withdrew to the southeast where they prepared for a long defence of the Romanian Bridgehead and awaited expected support and relief from France and the United Kingdom. While those two countries had pacts with Poland and had declared war on Germany on 3 September, in the end their aid to Poland was very limited. The Soviet Red Armys invasion of Eastern Poland on 17 September, in accordance with a protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Facing a second front, the Polish government concluded the defence of the Romanian Bridgehead was no longer feasible, on 6 October, following the Polish defeat at the Battle of Kock, German and Soviet forces gained full control over Poland. The success of the invasion marked the end of the Second Polish Republic, the Soviet Union incorporated its newly acquired areas into its constituent Belarusian and Ukrainian republics, and immediately started a campaign of sovietization. In the aftermath of the invasion, a collective of underground resistance formed the Polish Underground State within the territory of the former Polish state. Many of the exiles that managed to escape Poland subsequently joined the Polish Armed Forces in the West. On 30 January 1933, the Nazi Party, under its leader Adolf Hitler, as part of this long-term policy, Hitler at first pursued a policy of rapprochement with Poland, trying to improve opinion in Germany, culminating in the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934. Earlier, Hitlers foreign policy worked to weaken ties between Poland and France, and attempted to manoeuvre Poland into the Anti-Comintern Pact, forming a front against the Soviet Union. The Poles feared that their independence would eventually be threatened altogether, the so-called Polish Corridor constituted land long disputed by Poland and Germany, and inhabited by a Polish majority. The Corridor had become a part of Poland after the Treaty of Versailles, many Germans also wanted the city of Danzig and its environs to be reincorporated into Germany. Danzig was a city with a German majority. It had been separated from Germany after Versailles and made into the nominally independent Free City of Danzig, the series of border violations, which are unbearable to a great power, prove that the Poles no longer are willing to respect the German frontier. Poland participated with Germany in the partition of Czechoslovakia that followed the Munich Agreement and it coerced Czechoslovakia to surrender the region of Český Těšín by issuing an ultimatum to that effect on 30 September 1938, which was accepted by Czechoslovakia on 1 October. This region had a Polish majority and had been disputed between Czechoslovakia and Poland in the aftermath of World War I, the Polish annexation of Slovak territory later served as the justification for the Slovak state to join the German invasion. Poland rejected this proposal, fearing that after accepting these demands, it would become subject to the will of Germany
30.
Warsaw Uprising
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The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. The uprising was timed to coincide with the Soviet Unions Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces. However, the Soviet advance stopped short, enabling the Germans to regroup and demolish the city while defeating the Polish resistance, the Uprising was the largest single military effort taken by any European resistance movement during World War II. The Uprising began on 1 August 1944, as part of a plan, Operation Tempest. The main Polish objectives were to drive the Germans from the city and help with the fight against Nazi Germany. Also, short-term causes included the threat of a German round-up of able-bodied Poles, initially, the Poles established control over most of central Warsaw, but the Soviets ignored Polish attempts to establish radio contact and did not advance beyond the city limits. Intense street fighting between the Germans and Poles continued, arthur Koestler called the Soviet attitude one of the major infamies of this war which will rank for the future historian on the same ethical level with Lidice. Winston Churchill pleaded with Stalin and Franklin D. Roosevelt to help Britains Polish allies, then, without Soviet air clearance, Churchill sent over 200 low-level supply drops by the Royal Air Force, the South African Air Force, and the Polish Air Force under British High Command. Later, after gaining Soviet air clearance, the U. S. Army Air Force sent one high-level mass airdrop as part of Operation Frantic, the Soviet Union refused to allow American bombers from Western Europe to land on Soviet airfields after dropping supplies to the Poles. Although the exact number of remains unknown, it is estimated that about 16,000 members of the Polish resistance were killed. In addition, between 150,000 and 200,000 Polish civilians died, mostly from mass executions, Jews being harboured by Poles were exposed by German house-to-house clearances and mass evictions of entire neighbourhoods. German casualties totalled over 8,000 soldiers killed and missing, during the urban combat approximately 25% of Warsaws buildings were destroyed. Following the surrender of Polish forces, German troops systematically levelled another 35% of the city block by block, by July 1944, Poland had been occupied by the forces of Nazi Germany for almost five years. The Polish Home Army, which was loyal to the Polish government-in-exile, had planned some form of insurrection against the occupiers. Germany was fighting a coalition of Allied powers, led by the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the initial plan of the Home Army was to link up with the invading forces of the Western Allies as they liberated Europe from the Nazis. However, in 1943 it became apparent that the Soviets, rather than the Western Allies, in this country, we have one point from which every evil emanates. If we didnt have Warsaw in the General Government, we wouldnt have four-fifths of the difficulties with which we must contend and it became obvious that the advancing Soviet Red Army might not come to Poland as an ally but rather only as the ally of an ally. The Soviets and the Poles distrusted each other, and Soviet partisans in Poland often clashed with Polish resistance increasingly united under the Home Armys front, afterwards, Stalin created the Rudenko Commission, whose goal was to blame the Germans for the war crime at all costs
31.
Copper-Roof Palace
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The Copper-Roof Palace is an 18th-century palace in Warsaw, Poland. It takes its name from its copper roof — a rarity in the first half of the 18th century. The palace since 1989 is a branch of the Royal Castle Museum, the palace is contiguous with Warsaws Royal Castle, and down a slope from the Castle Square and Old Town. Beneath the palace, a 17th-century lodge still exists, originally a patrician house of Wawrzyniec Reffus, it was built 1651-1656. After 1657 destruction by the army of George II Rákóczi, it was remodeled in 1698-1701 for Jerzy Dominik Lubomirski. Lubomirski expanded the palace by building a wing, perpendicular to the rest of structure. Shortly after its construction the palace known as Palais Martin. In 1720 the palace was rebuilt with an addition of a northern wing. Additionally the interior was decorated with rococo paintings, under his ownership the palace became a center of Warsaws high class social scene. When Warsaw became part of Kingdom of Prussia after the Third Partition of Poland the buildings became the headquarters for the Prussian Ministry of War, the Copper-Roof Palace was burned in 1944 and reconstructed, based on paintings of Bernardo Bellotto, between 1948-1949. Currently the palace is a museum, part of Royal Castle in Warsaw, hosting, inter alia, history of the Royal Castle in Warsaw Library at the Royal Castle, Warsaw Pałac pod Blachą http, //www. zamek-krolewski. pl/. page=1212
32.
Jakub Kubicki
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Jakub Kubicki was a renowned Polish classicist architect and designer. Born in Warsaw in 1758, into a family, Jakub Kubicki graduated from the Jesuit College. In 1777, he was hired by architect Szymon Bogumił Zug to help in the construction of the Holy Trinity Church in Warsaw, in 1783, he went to study in Italy as a fellow of King Stanisław August Poniatowski, from where he returned in 1786. On his return he worked as an architect and he was the architect to the king. Around 1783, he got married and had three children, Helenę, Józefę, and Izabelę, in 1791, in recognition of his services, he was knighted and received the Winged Column. Since the possession of an estate was a symbol of belonging to the nobility, at the time of the Kościuszko Uprising, he was a judge in the Criminal Court of the Duchy of Mazovia. After the collapse of the Polish Kingdom, he was an official with the position of the Crown Chief at the Intendant Building, Jakub Kubicki also belonged to the Temple of Isis masonic lodge, of which he was an honorary member from 1811 to 1812. He was a member of the Dawn Rising masonic lodge in 1818 and he died on 13 June,1833, in Wilków. He was awarded the Order of Saint Stanislaus 2nd class, with a grant from Emperor Alexander I of Russia and he was the designer of numerous palaces. As an architect in Warsaw after 1807, he became a mediator between the pure classicism of the 18th century and the Empire style, kubickis works are characterized by use of typical design elements such as portico columns. He represented the mature phase of neo-classicism with Palladian influences and he was the designer of the typical Polish manor-palace. In addition to such as palaces in Bejsce, Białaczów, Młochów, Nadzów, Pławowice, Radziejowice, Ropczyce, Sowiniec. He designed churches in Mokobody and Radziejowice, as well as the hall in Łęczyca. A link to the revitalisation of the Kubicki Arcades
33.
Papal legate
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A papal legate or Apostolic legate is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic Church. He is empowered on matters of Catholic Faith and for the settlement of ecclesiastical matters, the legate is appointed directly by the pope. The term legation is applied both to a mandate and to the territory concerned. In the High Middle Ages, papal legates were often used to strengthen the links between Rome and the parts of Christendom. More often than not, legates were learned men and skilled diplomats who were not from the country they were accredited to. The Italian-born Guala Bicchieri served as legate to England in the early 13th century. Papal legates often summoned legatine councils, which dealt with church government, during the Middle Ages, a legatine council was the usual means that a papal legate imposed his directives. There are several ranks of papal legates in diplomacy, some of which are no longer used, a nuncio performs the same functions as an ambassador and has the same diplomatic privileges. Under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, to which the Holy See is a party and this highest rank is normally awarded to a priest of cardinal rank. It is an investiture and can either be focused or broad in scope. The legate a latere is the ego of the Pope. The legatus natus would act as the representative in his province. Although limited in their jurisdiction compared to legati a latere, a legatus natus were not subordinate to them, literally sent legate, possessing limited powers for the purpose of completing a specific mission. This commission is normally focused in scope and of short duration, some administrative provinces of the Papal states in Italy were governed by a Papal Legate. This has been the case in Benevento, in Pontecorvo and in Viterbo, in four cases, including Bologna, this post was awarded exclusively to Cardinals, the Velletri post was created for Bartolommeo Pacca. The title could be changed to Apostolic Delegate, as happened in Frosinone in 1827, Papal diplomacy Nuncio – an envoy whose diplomatic status is recognized by the receiving state – usually a titular archbishop. Papal apocrisiarius List of papal legates to England Other Pontifical legate Catholic Encyclopedia, Legate WorldStatesmen - Italy to 1860 - Papal State Maseri, de Legatis et Nunciis Apostolicis Iudiciis Ecclesiasticis Civilibus et Criminalibus Oneribusque Civitatum Cameralibus et Communitativis. Commentatio Canoncia de Legatis et Nuntiis Pontificum, die englische Legation des Cardinals Guido Fulcodi, des spaeteren P. Clemens IV
34.
Warsaw
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Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It stands on the Vistula River in east-central Poland, roughly 260 kilometres from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population is estimated at 1.750 million residents within a metropolitan area of 3.101 million residents. The city limits cover 516.9 square kilometres, while the area covers 6,100.43 square kilometres. Once described as Paris of the East, Warsaw was believed to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world until World War II. On 9 November 1939, the city was awarded Polands highest military decoration for heroism, Warsaw is one of Europe’s most dynamic metropolitan cities. In 2012 the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Warsaw as the 32nd most liveable city in the world, in 2017 the city came 4th in the “Business-friendly” category and 8th in the “Human capital and life style”. It was also ranked as one of the most liveable cities in Central, Warsaw is considered an Alpha– global city, a major international tourist destination and a significant cultural, political and economic hub. The city is a significant centre of research and development, BPO, ITO, the Warsaw Stock Exchange is the largest and most important in Central and Eastern Europe. Frontex, the European Union agency for external security, has its headquarters in Warsaw. Together with Frankfurt, London and Paris, Warsaw is also one of the cities with the highest number of skyscrapers in the European Union, the city is the seat of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and the University of Warsaw. The historic city-centre of Warsaw with its picturesque Old Town in 1980 was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, buildings represent examples of nearly every European architectural style and historical period. Warsaw provides many examples of architecture from the gothic, renaissance, baroque, neoclassical and modern periods, furthermore, the city is positioning itself as Europes chic cultural capital with thriving art and club scenes and renowned restaurants. Folk etymology attributes the city name to a fisherman, Wars, according to legend, Sawa was a mermaid living in the Vistula River with whom Wars fell in love. In actuality, Warsz was a 12th/13th-century nobleman who owned a village located at the site of Mariensztat neighbourhood. See also the Vršovci family which had escaped to Poland, the official city name in full is miasto stołeczne Warszawa. A native or resident of Warsaw is known as a Varsovian – in Polish warszawiak, warszawianin, warszawianka, warszawiacy, other names for Warsaw include Varsovia and Varsóvia, Varsovie, Varsavia, Warschau, װאַרשע /Varshe, Варшава /Varšava /Varshava, Varšuva, Varsó. The first fortified settlements on the site of todays Warsaw were located in Bródno, after Jazdów was raided by nearby clans and dukes, a new similar settlement was established on the site of a small fishing village called Warszowa
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Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
36.
Casimir III the Great
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Casimir III the Great reigned as the King of Poland from 1333 to 1370. He was the son of King Władysław I and Duchess Hedwig of Kalisz, Kazimierz inherited a kingdom weakened by war and made it prosperous and wealthy. He reformed the Polish army and doubled the size of the kingdom and he reformed the judicial system and introduced a legal code, gaining the title the Polish Justinian. Kazimierz built extensively and founded the University of Kraków, the oldest Polish university and he also confirmed privileges and protections previously granted to Jews and encouraged them to settle in Poland in great numbers. Kazimierz left no male heir to his throne, producing only daughters. When Kazimierz died in 1370 from an injury received while hunting, his nephew, King Louis I of Hungary, when Kazimierz attained the throne in 1333, his position was in danger, as his neighbours did not recognise his title and instead called him king of Kraków. The kingdom was depopulated and exhausted by war, and the economy was ruined, in 1335, in the Treaty of Trentschin, Casimir was forced to relinquish his claims to Silesia in perpetuity. Kazimierz rebuilt and his kingdom prosperous and wealthy, with great prospects for the future. He waged many wars and doubled the size of the kingdom. He founded the University of Kraków, the oldest Polish University, Kazimierz is the only king in Polish history to both receive and retain the title of Great. In 1355, in Buda, Kazimierz designated his nephew Louis I of Hungary as his successor should he produce no male heir, in exchange Kazimierz gained Hungarian favourable attitude, needed in disputes with the hostile Teutonic Order and Kingdom of Bohemia. Kazimierz at the time was still in his years and having a son did not seem to be a problem. Kazimierz left no son, however, bearing five daughters instead. He tried to adopt his grandson, Casimir IV, Duke of Pomerania, the child had been born to his second daughter, Elisabeth, Duchess of Pomerania, in 1351. This part of the testament was invalidated by Louis I of Hungary, however, thus King Louis I of Hungary became successor in Poland. Louis was proclaimed king upon Kazimierzs death in 1370, though Kazimierzs sister Elisabeth held much of the power until her death in 1380. Casimir was facetiously named the Peasants King and he introduced the codes of law of Greater and Lesser Poland as an attempt to end the overwhelming superiority of the nobility. During his reign all three major classes — the nobility, priesthood, and bourgeoisie — were more or less counterbalanced and he was known for siding with the weak when the law did not protect them from nobles and clergymen
37.
Teutonic Order
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The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious order founded as a military order in the 12th century in Acre. Purely religious since 1929, it still confers limited honorary knighthoods, the order was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals. Formed in the year 1190 in Acre, in the Levant, after Christian forces were defeated in the Middle East, the Order moved to Transylvania in 1211 to help defend the South-Eastern borders of the Kingdom of Hungary against the Kipchaks. Starting from there, the Order created the independent Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights, adding continuously the conquered Prussians territory, the Order theoretically lost its main purpose in Europe with the Christianization of Lithuania. However, it initiated numerous campaigns against its Christian neighbours, the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Novgorod Republic. The Teutonic Knights had an economic base, and so hired mercenaries from throughout Europe to augment their feudal levies. In 1410, a Polish-Lithuanian army decisively defeated the Order and broke its military power at the Battle of Grunwald, however, the capital of the Teutonic Knights was successfully defended in the following Siege of Marienburg and the Order was saved from collapse. In 1515, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I made an alliance with Sigismund I of Poland-Lithuania. Thereafter, the empire did not support the Order against Poland, in 1525, Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg resigned and converted to Lutheranism, becoming Duke of Prussia as a vassal of Poland. Soon after, the Order lost Livonia and its holdings in the Protestant areas of Germany, the Order did keep its considerable holdings in Catholic areas of Germany until 1809, when Napoleon Bonaparte ordered its dissolution and the Order lost its last secular holdings. However, the Order continued to exist as a charitable and ceremonial body and it was outlawed by Adolf Hitler in 1938, but re-established in 1945. Today it operates primarily with charitable aims in Central Europe, the Knights wore white surcoats with a black cross. A cross pattée was sometimes used as their coat of arms, the motto of the Order was, Helfen, Wehren, Heilen. The full name of the Order in German is Orden der Brüder vom Deutschen Haus St. Mariens in Jerusalem or in Latin Ordo domus Sanctæ Mariæ Theutonicorum Hierosolymitanorum, thus, the term Teutonic refers to the German origins of the order in Latin. It is commonly known in German as the Deutscher Orden, historically also as Deutscher Ritterorden, Deutschherrenorden, Deutschritterorden or Die Herren im weißen Mantel. However, based on the model of the Knights Templar, it was transformed into an order in 1198. It received papal orders for crusades to take and hold Jerusalem for Christianity, during the rule of Grand Master Hermann von Salza the Order changed from being a hospice brotherhood for pilgrims to primarily a military order. The Order was founded in Acre, and the Knights purchased Montfort, northeast of Acre, the Order also had a castle at Amouda in Armenia Minor
38.
Pomerania
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Pomerania is a region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Germany and Poland. The name derives from the Slavic po more, meaning by the sea, Pomerania stretches roughly from the Recknitz river in the west to the Vistula river in the east. The largest Pomeranian islands are Rügen, Usedom/Uznam and Wolin, the largest Pomeranian city is Gdańsk, or, when using a narrower definition of the region, Szczecin. Outside its urban areas, Pomerania is characterized by farmland, dotted with lakes, forests. The region was affected by post–World War I and II border and population shifts. Pomerania is the area along the Bay of Pomerania of the Baltic Sea between the rivers Recknitz in the west and Vistula in the east and it formerly reached perhaps as far south as the Noteć river, but since the 13th century its southern boundary has been placed further north. Most of the region is coastal lowland, being part of the North European Plain, but its southern, hilly parts belong to the Baltic Ridge, within this ridge, a chain of moraine-dammed lakes constitutes the Pomeranian Lake District. The soil is rather poor, sometimes sandy or marshy. The western coastline is jagged, with many peninsulas and islands enclosing numerous bays, Łebsko and several other lakes were formerly bays, but have been cut off from the sea. The easternmost coastline along the Gdańsk Bay and Vistula Lagoon, has the Hel peninsula, the Pomeranian region has the following administrative divisions, Hither Pomerania in northeastern Germany, stretching from the Recknitz river to the Oder–Neisse line. This region is part of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The southernmost part of historical Vorpommern is now in Brandenburg, while its eastern parts are now in Poland. Vorpommern comprises the regions inhabited by Slavic tribes Rugians and Volinians, otherwise the Principality of Rügen. The West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland, stretching from the Oder–Neisse line to the Wieprza river, the Pomeranian Voivodeship, with similar borders to Pomerelia, stretching from the Wieprza river to the Vistula delta in the vicinity of Gdańsk. The northern half of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, comprising most of Chełmno Land, the bulk of Farther Pomerania is included within the modern West Pomeranian Voivodeship, but its easternmost parts now constitute the northwest of Pomeranian Voivodeship. Parts of Pomerania and surrounding regions have constituted a euroregion since 1995, the Pomerania euroregion comprises Hither Pomerania and Uckermark in Germany, West Pomerania in Poland, and Scania in Sweden. Pomerania was first mentioned in a document of 1046, referring to a Zemuzil dux Bomeranorum. Pomerania is mentioned repeatedly in the chronicles of Adam of Bremen, the term West Pomerania is ambiguous, since it may refer to either Hither Pomerania or to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship
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Kuyavia
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Kujawy (, sometimes referred to as Kuyavia or Cuyavia, is a historical region in north-central Poland, situated on the left bank of Vistula, as well as east from Noteć River and Lake Gopło. It is divided into three parts, north-eastern, central, and south-eastern. The name Kujawy first appeared in sources in the 1136 Bull of Gniezno issued by Pope Innocent II. It is also mentioned in the chronicles of Wincenty Kadłubek, the borders of Kujawy stretch out on the left bank of Vistula River, from the mouth of Skrwa Lewa in the south-east, almost to the mouth of the Wda River to the north. The borders also enclose Brdowski Lake, Przedecz and Lubień Kujawski through the Skrwa Lewa, in Kujawy there are black fertile soils, thanks to which Kujawy is called “the granary of Poland”. The episcopal see of Kujawy was probably Kruszwica, and later Włocławek, today, the biggest center of Kujawy is Bydgoszcz, however it is often considered non-kujavian. The other cities are Włocławek and Inowrocław, also the southern part of Toruń lies in the historical region of Kujawy. Some ethnographers and historians, for example Oskar Kolberg and Zygmunt Gloger, count the lands of Dobrzyń, bachorza Białe Kujawy Kujawy borowe Kujawy czarne Kujawy garbate Kujawy leśne Kujawy nadwiślańskie Kujawy zagoplańskie The Linear Pottery culture existed in the area. The earliest solid evidence of cheese-making, dating to 5,500 BC, was found in Kujawy, the beginnings of the state in Kujawy are connected with the tribal state of the West Slavic Goplans. According to some sources, during the war with the Goplans, as a result of occupation of the Goplans’ territory, the lands of Kujawy were under the strong influence of the Pannonian culture and they lost their primary Masovian spirit. When the name Cuiavia arose for the first time in the 1136 Bull of Gniezno, it referred to the lands east of Greater Poland around Kruszwica and Włocławek, the bull confirmed the position of the Bishopric of Kujawy at Włocławek as a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Gniezno. Casimirs son Duke Konrad I of Masovia in 1233 created the Duchy of Kujawy for his second son Casimir I. When Casimirs elder brother Duke Bolesław I of Masovia died in 1248, he took the occasion and took Dobrzyń Land east of the Vistula River from the heritage of his younger brother Siemowit I. Upon Casimirs death 1267, the Duchy of Kujawy was divided by his sons Leszek II the Black, Ziemomysł, in 1306 Ziemomysłs son Casimir II swore allegiance to his uncle Władysław I, who began to re-unite the Lands of the Polish Crown under his rule. The duchy was devastated during the Polish–Teutonic War of 1326–32, culminating in the 1331 Battle of Płowce, with the death of Casimirs son Władysław the White in 1388, the Kujawy line of the Piast dynasty became extinct. After the union of Polish lands in the 14th century, the division into provinces and counties was introduced and that division finalized in the 15th century, existed until the dissolution of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795. Kujawy was divided into the two divisions of Brześć Kujawski Voivodeship and Inowrocław Voivodeship. As a result of the First Partition of Poland in 1772 the Kingdom of Prussia took a part of Inowrocław
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Defensive wall
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A defensive wall is a fortification used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. In ancient to modern times, they were used to enclose settlements, beyond their defensive utility, many walls also had important symbolic functions – representing the status and independence of the communities they embraced. Existing ancient walls are almost always masonry structures, although brick, depending on the topography of the area surrounding the city or the settlement the wall is intended to protect, elements of the terrain may be incorporated in order to make the wall more effective. Walls may only be crossed by entering the city gate and are often supplemented with towers. Simpler defensive walls of earth or stone, thrown up around hillforts, ringworks, early castles, from very early history to modern times, walls have been a near necessity for every city. Uruk in ancient Sumer is one of the worlds oldest known walled cities, before that, the city of Jericho in what is now the West Bank had a wall surrounding it as early as the 8th millennium BC. The Assyrians deployed large labour forces to build new palaces, temples, some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were also fortified. By about 3500 B. C. hundreds of small farming villages dotted the Indus floodplain, many of these settlements had fortifications and planned streets. Mundigak in present-day south-east Afghanistan has defensive walls and square bastions of sun dried bricks, babylon was one of the most famous cities of the ancient world, especially as a result of the building program of Nebuchadnezzar, who expanded the walls and built the Ishtar Gate. Exceptions were few — notably, ancient Sparta and ancient Rome did not have walls for a long time, initially, these fortifications were simple constructions of wood and earth, which were later replaced by mixed constructions of stones piled on top of each other without mortar. In Central Europe, the Celts built large fortified settlements which the Romans called oppida, the fortifications were continuously expanded and improved. In ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, in classical era Greece, the city of Athens built a long set of parallel stone walls called the Long Walls that reached their guarded seaport at Piraeus. Large tempered earth walls were built in ancient China since the Shang Dynasty, although stone walls were built in China during the Warring States, mass conversion to stone architecture did not begin in earnest until the Tang Dynasty. The large walls of Pingyao serve as one example, likewise, the famous walls of the Forbidden City in Beijing were established in the early 15th century by the Yongle Emperor. The Romans fortified their cities with massive, mortar-bound stone walls, the most famous of these are the largely extant Aurelian Walls of Rome and the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople, together with partial remains elsewhere. These are mostly city gates, like the Porta Nigra in Trier or Newport Arch in Lincoln, apart from these, the early Middle Ages also saw the creation of some towns built around castles. These cities were only protected by simple stone walls and more usually by a combination of both walls and ditches. From the 12th century AD hundreds of settlements of all sizes were founded all across Europe and these cities are easy to recognise due to their regular layout and large market spaces
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Duke of Masovia
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Duke of Masovia was a title born by the sons and descendants of the Polish Duke Bolesław III Wrymouth. This was known as the fragmentation of Poland, subsequent developments lead to further splintering of the duchies. The following is a list of all rulers of the Duchy of Masovia, although not all incumbents listed here had titular rights to the title of Duke of Masovia, they are all listed as such for simplicitys sake. Also take note that some of the dates are merely approximate, finally, this table does not include lands ruled by dukes of other parts of partitioned Poland or Wenceslaus II and Wenceslaus III. The Duchy went through various changes in the coming years, sometimes losing. Duchy of Masovia In 1233, the Duchy of Kujavia emerged from Masovia, Duchy of Kujavia In 1313, Masovia is divided in the Duchies of Płock, Czersk and Rawa. The same happens with Płock in 1495, konrad III reunites Czersk and Warsaw, to recreate the Duchy of Masovia, annexed by Poland in1526. Media related to Dukes of Masovia at Wikimedia Commons
42.
Gord (archaeology)
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A gord is a medieval Slavonic fortified wooden settlement, sometimes known as a burgwall after the German term for such sites. Gords were built during the late Bronze and early Iron Ages by the Lusatian culture (c, 1300–500 BCE, and later in the 8th–7th centuries BCE, in what are now Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, eastern Germany, and India. These settlements were founded on strategic sites such as hills, riverbanks, lake islands. A typical gord was a group of houses built either in rows or in circles, surrounded by one or more rings of walls made of earth and wood. Some gords were ring-shaped, with a round, oval, or occasionally polygonal fence or wall surrounding a hollow, others, built on a natural hill or a man-made mound, were cone-shaped. Those with a defense on one side, such as a river or lake, were usually horseshoe-shaped. Most gords were built in densely populated areas on sites that offered particular natural advantages, as Slavic tribes united to form states, gords were also built for defensive purposes in less-populated border areas. Gords in which rulers resided or that lay on trade routes quickly expanded, near the gord, or below it in elevation, there formed small communities of servants, merchants, artisans, and others who served the higher-ranked inhabitants of the gord. Each such community was known as a suburbium and its residents could shelter within the walls of the gord in the event of danger. Eventually the suburbium acquired its own fence or wall, in the High Middle Ages, the gord usual evolved into a castle or citadel and the suburbium into a town. Some gords did not stand the test of time and were abandoned or destroyed, notable archeological sites include Biskupin, Poland, and Bilsk, Ukraine. The term ultimately descends from the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root ǵʰortós, enclosure, from this same root come the Germanic word elements *gard and *gart, and likely also the names of Graz, Austria and Gartz, Germany. Cognate to these are English words such as yard, garth, girdle, also cognate but less closely related are Latin hortus, a garden, and its English descendants horticulture and orchard. Further afield, in ancient Iran, a fortified settlement was called a gerd. Burugerd or Borujerd is a city in the West of Iran, the Indian suffix -garh, meaning a fort in Hindi, Sanskrit, and other Indo-Iranian languages, appears in many Indian place names. The Proto-Slavic word gordъ later differentiated into grad and gorod, etc and it is the root of various words in modern Slavic languages pertaining to fences and fenced areas. Some of them are in countries which once were but no longer are mainly inhabited by Slavic-speaking peoples, the word survives in the names of several villages and town districts, as well as in the names of the German municipalities Puttgarden, Wagria and Putgarten, Rügen. Garðaríki - Varangian name for Kievan Rus, interpreted as cities Biskupin, fortified settlements in other cultures, Kraal, Motte-and-bailey
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