On September 1, 1939, German troops, ready, poured into Poland. With the help of blitzkrieg tactics, the Germans made rapid progress, and in only half a month, Poland stopped resisting. At the same time, the Soviet Red Army entered western Belarus and western Ukraine on the 17th, and according to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty, the Soviet Union and Germany divided polish territory, and the Polish government was forced to flee to London, England.
At this time, only 31 years after Poland's independence from Austria-Hungary, Poland was destroyed for the third time.
Poland's three subjugations were not innocent, and it can even be said that each time it was destroyed because of the "head iron". In the land of four wars, the land is mostly plains, but it has repeatedly died and provoked opponents who should not be provoked. In the 21st century, Poland's splendor is no longer there, and it has become a "third-rate country", but the tradition of "death" has been preserved, which is ironic. Next, let's look at how the three subjugations in polish history occurred.
The "king-electing system" laid hidden dangers and destroyed the country for the first time
In the 16th century, Poland was the "bearer" of Europe, forming the "Polish-Lithuanian Commonweal" with the brother country of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, with a territory of nearly 1 million square kilometers, a population of nearly 11 million, and the Polish wing cavalry is the peak of heavy cavalry. Looking at the whole of Europe, there are few opponents. In 1683, the Ottoman Turkish Empire approached the Holy Roman Empire under the city of Vienna, thanks to the sudden arrival of polish wing cavalry to turn the tide. This battle saved the Holy Roman Empire and gave the Polish wing cavalry a reputation for later generations. However, what the Poles did not expect was that this highlight moment became a "return to the light" of Poland.
In Poland at that time, the biggest problem came from the "choice of king". In order to balance each other, the Polish nobility chose to elect the heirs of the other European dynasties as polish kings. At this time, Prussia and the English kings were increasing their centralization, while the Polish kings had very little real power. Thus, the Polish kings, with the support of the power of the mother country, fought with the great nobles for power and profit. The contradictions between the two sides led to a series of civil wars, and their struggles laid the hidden danger for the first demise.
In 1764, when the Polish king was a Russian, in order to avoid being controlled by Tsarist Russia, the polish nobility launched a patriotic movement demanding political reform. This infuriated the Russian ruler Catherine directly, who sent troops to intervene militarily in Poland. Even though Turkey and Austria had declared war on Tsarist Russia by this time, Poland could not find an ally to fight together.
The reason is that Poland, which has turned from prosperity to decline, has been unable to reproduce the glory of the "wing cavalry", and even cannot organize a decent army, and the great powers have not regarded Poland as an equal ally or opponent. Immediately afterward, Tsarist Russia, Prussia, and Austria signed an agreement to cede one-third of Poland. In 1791, Poland finally decided to change the "elected monarchy" to a "hereditary monarchy".
More than two hundred years later, looking back, this is probably the only wise decision Poland has made. However, it was too late, and under the strong pressure of the Three Countries of Russia, Prussia and Austria, Poland could only helplessly face the fact that it had been divided again. By 1795, Poland, a country that had existed for more than 800 years, had disappeared from European soil.
Take sides with Napoleon, the second fall of the country
For 14 years, from 1795 to 1809, Europe was "devoid of Poland." It was not until Napoleon defeated Russia, Prussia and Austria that the French army entered Warsaw and established the Principality of Warsaw with Warsaw as the center. The Poles found their "liberators" and gathered together a hundred thousand troops to fight the culprits who had brought their country to ruin.
However, history proves wrong in this impatient position, first Napoleon's expedition to Russia suffered heavy losses, followed by his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, and his own exile to St. Helena. After the great powers had solved the French threat and had paid for Napoleon, Poland was miserable after the saddle, and the Principality of Warsaw was dismembered again less than six years after its establishment.
In the post-war dealings of the Principality of Warsaw, Austria and Tsarist Russia, due to the uneven distribution of interests, established a neutral city-state republic in the Krakow region of Poland. This last Polish power was renamed the Free City of Krakow and covered an area of only 327 square kilometers. In 1846, the Poles, believing that the best period of independence, launched an uprising against Russia, Prussia, and Austria, and soon the uprising was extinguished and the free city of Krakow was annexed by Austria.
"Knotted" with the Soviet Union, the third subjugation of the country
In world war I, Tsarist Russia fell, the Poles waited for their great savior Lenin, Lenin abrogated the unequal treaties that had divided Poland in the past, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had lost the war, had to spit out the land it had encroached upon. In November 1918, Poland was successfully restored for the third time and regained its new life.
After the restoration, Poland began its "death journey" to restore its territory as it had been 140 years ago. The main performance is that Poland is only a promise to Germany, and a heavy blow to Soviet Russia. At that time, Soviet Russia was busy eliminating the remnants of Tsarist Russia, and the main force of the Red Army was fighting against the White Army led by Kolchak, and the strength of the troops was very empty.
Poland's strategy of "picking up soft persimmons" was indeed successful, and the Polish army fought a beautiful defensive counterattack in the Battle of Warsaw, crushing the Russian Red Army and forcing The Soviet Union to cede Western Belarus and Western Ukraine to Poland. This also formed a bridge between the later Soviet Union and Poland.
These two areas, which were cut off by Poland, were the parts occupied by the Soviet Union in the later Soviet-German partition of Poland in World War II. The so-called "wronged have a head, the debt has a master", the Soviet Union will not be soft on the "white-eyed wolf", and Poland will spit it out as it eats it. In 1939, under Stalin's instructions, the Soviet Union and Germany reached a tacit understanding and watched the German invasion of Poland, followed by the Red Army taking over eastern Poland and Germany occupying western Poland. Poland was destroyed for the third time.
Still "jumping"
World War II ended and the Polish government-in-exile returned to its former lands. Fortunately, Poland was restored again; Unfortunately, the government-in-exile was squeezed out of the center of power, and Poland was controlled by Soviet power. Even so, Poland remained "debauched and free-loving." Thus, on the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Poland did not hesitate to jump into the Western camp and became the "anti-Russian vanguard".
In 1999, Poland joined NATO and subsequently the European Union. In order to prove its strength, Poland defeated Russia. For example, in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Poland became a transit point for NATO's military assistance to Ukraine, and even threatened to send troops into Ukraine.
If you look closely at what Poland has done for more than two hundred years, it is that the ancestors were once broad, but the family was lost in the middle of the road and did not want to admit it. This has led to Poland weighing itself up on the international stage and feeling that it is in a "great power game". However, objectively speaking, no matter what the current view of Poland, at most it is a "third-rate country", which is just a joke for everyone.