1. Poland

2. Poland was part of Europe's biggest kingdom ~1600-1700 - it was called Poland-Lithuania

3. - It encompassed many different nations and ethnic groups

4. - Stretched from Poland to Ukraine and the 3 Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia, & Estonia)

5. - Weak kings and fighting within the nobility led to its decline - (monarchical confederation)

6. But as Poland grew weak, its neighbors (Russia, Austria, and Prussia) grew economically and militarily.

7. In the 1700s, they partitioned Poland 3 times, invading it and dividing up its land.

8. From 1795 until 1918, the country didn't exist, but Polish culture and people lived on...

9. Like Marie Curie, who won 2 Nobel science prizes for her work with radiation But since no one knew radiation was dangerous, she died of cancer

10. Or Frederic Chopin, master of Romantic piano music

11. After WWI, Poland was “reconstituted” (brought back), but it was invaded by both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during WWII

12. Poland is mostly flat farmland – very easy for tanks to drive across

13. 6 million Poles, including 3 million Jews, were executed by the Nazis (This is called Genocide)

14. After WWII, the USSR annexed land in Eastern Poland, pushing ethnic Poles West.

15. Poland’s border with Germany was moved West, and this land was ethnically cleansed of Germans

16. Thus, today Poland is a… Nation-state

18. After WWII, Poland was under a Communist government controlled by the Soviet Union