---Poland--- 

#LEADER LIST

Chrosciszko
Boleslaw I the Brave
Casimir I the Restorer
Conrad of Mazovia
Wladyslaw I
Wladyslaw III the Short
Casimir III the Great
Sigismund I the Elder
Sigismund II Augustus
Jan Sobieski


#CITY LIST (Burak)

Warsaw
Krakow
Gniezno
Poznan
Wroclaw
Gdansk
Kalisz
Plock
Lublin
Sandomierz
Przemysl
Bydgoszcz
Kolobrzeg
Radom
Wloclawek
Sieradz
Leczyca
Opole
Glogow
Legnica
Swidnica
Bytom
Szczecin
Slupsk
Koszalin
Piotrkow
Ciechanow
Inowroclaw
Chelm
Nowy Sacz
Torun
Elblag
Olsztyn
Czestochowa
Zamosc
Leszno
Tarnow
Kielce
Rzeszow
Bialystok
Lodz
Grudziadz
Katowice
Gliwice
Sosnowiec
Zabrze
Gdynia
Bielsko-Biala
Zielona Gora
Gorzow


#CIVILOPEDIA (TETurkhan)

#RACE_POLAND
^ The Poles are $LINK<scientific and religious=GCON_Strengths>. They start the game with the discoveries
$LINK<Ceremonial Burial=TECH_Ceremonial_Burial> and $LINK<Pottery=TECH_Pottery> and build $LINK<Husaria=PRTO_Husaria> instead of normal $LINK<knights=PRTO_Knight>. 
^ 
^Polish Origins: 
^
^Most Scholars agree that the original Slav homeland lay within the boundaries of modern Poland in the Odra (Oder) and Wisla (Vistula) basins. The Slavs subsequently expanded into territories to the east, south and west and became increasingly differentiated until, by AD 800, three main geographical and linguistic divisions had arisen; the East Slavs inhabiting a large part of European Russia, the South Slavs who settled in the Balkan Peninsula, and the West Slavs who settled in what is now Poland, Czechoslovakia and East Germany. 
^ 
^The West Slavs suffered different fates; the Lusatians and Veleti were absorbed by German expansion, the Czechs and Moravians merged to form the nucleus of the Czech Kingdom, whilst the Slovaks became part of the kingdom of Hungary. The remaining tribes, including the Polanie, Wislanie, Pomorzanie and the Mazovians, joined together (in time) to form the Polish State. 
^ 
^In 1386 the marriage of Jadwiga, Queen of Poland, to Jogaila, pagan Grand-Duke of Lithuania, baptised as Wladyslaw Jagiello, initiated the Lithuanian union, inspired by the common purpose of resisting the Teutonic Order. Then, in 1410 at the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenburg), Wladyslaw Jagiello crushed the Teutonic Order. The Catholic Polish knights were a minority in an army made up of Lithuanian pagans, Orthodox Christians, Lithuanian Muslim Tartars and "heretical" Bohemian Hussites. This victory helped strengthen the bond between the Poles and the Lithuanians and, in 1413, led to the Treaty of Union at Horodlo.

#DESC_RACE_Poland
^
^In 1440 the Magyars offered Wladyslaw III (Wladyslaw Jagiello's son) the crown of Hungary; Poland's attention shifted to the plains of Hungary and the growing Turkish threat. In 1444, the combined Polish Hungarian forces were defeated by the Turks at Varna on the Black Sea and Wladyslaw was killed. Wladyslaw III's brother, Casimir IV, started a prolonged war against the Teutonic Order in order to recover Pomerania and Gdansk. The subsequent victory in 1466 led to the Peace of Torun by which the Order was humiliated and Prussia was partitioned. During the Reformation, The Grand Master split with Rome, and by becoming a vassal of the Polish King was able to turn East Prussia into a Duchy. 
^ 
^1490-1526 saw the Jagiellonian rule in Hungary, and the peak of Central European dominance. The dual realm now stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and from the borders of Silesia to within 300 miles of Moscow. It contained a rich mixture of nationalities and beliefs; Poles in the west and centre, Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians in the north, Lutheran Germans in Prussian and the western frontier, Orthodox Ukrainians, Moslem Tartars and Byelorussians in the east alongside the Karaites (a mixture of Khazar and Kiptchatska-Polovetska peoples, and practising a unique mixture of Judaism and Islam), and Jews scattered throughout. 
^ 
^This period saw some important developments in the government of Poland; in 1430 the law "Nieminem Captivabimus" (the Polish "Habeas Corpus"), in 1493 the establishment of a Parliament with two houses, the Senate (dignitaries, archbishops, and officers of the realm) and the Sejm (elected representatives). In 1505 the Statute of "Nihil Novi" enacted that nothing new could be decided without Parliament's consent. 
^ 
^This "Golden Age" saw many foreign scholars, writers, artists and architects attracted to Poland, especially from Renaissance Italy. It was also the age of $LINK<Copernicus=BLDG_Solar_System> and of the first great figures in Polish literature; Mikolaj Rey (the first to write exclusively in Polish) and Jan Kochanowski (the "father" of Polish poetry).
