A History of Poland From the Earliest Times to the Present Day #264877

For a hundred and twenty years Poland has ceased to figure on the map of Europe, and, indeed, the very name has come to convey but a vague geographical impression, like Wessex or Navarre. Yet the national history of Poland had been long and glorious. For a whole century it had been the warden of Europe against the Turks; it had saved Vienna and Christianity; and, so late as the seventeenth century, it was geographically one of the largest States of Europe. Even as late as 1770 Poland was a vast country extending from the Baltic almost to the Black Sea, and lying between Russia and Germany, with an area of about 280,000 square miles and a population roughly estimated at eleven and a half millions. It stood third in the list of European countries as regards extent, and fifth in population.