Jestem presidentem Polski!!!

LoopMpWe are on our way to Poland!!!!!!!!
Homeland of many of my friends here in Sweden, not to mention the priests at the Catholic Church in Jönköping!  And, javisst, Pope John Paul II!  We are actually on the bus heading towards the airport now, but the other two are asleep or very close, so I thought I would do some research on Poland!
Here is the history lesson, but read by me.  I hope I do it justice,
The West Slavs were in the area of Poland and in 966AD Mieczyslaw I, through a Christian marriage (1000AD), formed an independent Poland that was tied directly to the pope and not through Germany.  They were being attacked from the east and asked the Teutonic order to come and help (1226AD).  This did not end up so well and they turned on the poles and there was wars between them for many years. During this time though, Poland became known as one of the most tolerant nations in Europe and many came to live there, including many Jews.
Casimir the Great, 1333-1370, built Poland into a major power in central Europe with 270000 km^2 area (104250 miles^2: about the same size as Colorado).  It is said about him that 'he found Poland built of wood, and left her in stone'.
There was then a series of joint kingdoms, with the largest being 1490-1526 under the Jagiellonian rule.  This time brought many new things, such as a two house parliament system (1493) and later, there could be nothing decided without parliament consent (1505).  Besides this, this was about the time of Copernicus!
Poland continued to be seen as tolerant of many different people, and under rulers like Zygmunt August, who said 'I am king of the people, not the judge of their consciences', when asked to pick religious sides.  From at least 1574, Poland also had elected kings.
Problems started in 1609 when Poland was starting to be attacked from nearly every side, but the war was helped (and started to shift), when in Czstochowa, a group of monks defected a Swedish army!
Jan III Sobicoki, a military leader became a well noted king and used the Polish husaria (hussar) to great effect.
They started to to be correction in the system as they abused the power of unanimous voting in vetoing.  Poland also joined with Russia to fight the Swedish from 1700-1721, but the polish ended up losing.  Russia came and beat the swedes and put the old king back.  But the king started to fight with the parliament and Russia came in with a 'solution' that basically made Poland a state of Russia.  Then more dirty tricks!  Russia, Austria, and Prussia made a pact, 'Alliance of the three Black Eagles', and annexed parts of Poland in 1732.
In response to the Russian 'ruling' there was a rebellion called the Confederation of Bar, but it was defected (1769-1772), but made such men as Kazimierz Pulaski.  Then more was annexed in 1772.
In light of this Poland had the first ministry of education, this increased the availability of education and increased quality.
Russia was involved in a war with Turkey, so Poland took this as a chance to write a constitution in 1792.  The "Constitution of the Third of May".  But Russia was not happy and pulled sneaky tricks to steal more land and Poland was forced into partitions and eventually to not even being on a map by 1795.  Many poles fought with Napoleon if hopes of freeing Poland, and this is when the Polish National Anthem was written.
(You can read about the Polish in the French army here, it is an interesting story).