Chorographie Septentrionale du Cercle de Haute Saxe,..

Title

Chorographie Septentrionale du Cercle de Haute Saxe,..

Description

Map shows the Duchy of Pomerania and Mark Brandenburg with, for example, the city of Szczecin in today's Polish West Pomeranian Voivodeship and the city of Rathenow in Brandenburg (Germany).

c. 1771

Artist

Moithey

Historical Description

Poland is bordered by the Baltic Sea, Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast and Lithuania to the north, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and Czech Republic, to the south, and Germany to the west. The establishment of the Polish state can be traced back to AD 966, when Mieszko I ruler of the realm coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented its longstanding political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest at the end of the 18th century. Poland regained its independence in 1918 with the Treaty of Versailles. It was one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th-century Europe, with a uniquely liberal political system, which adopted Europe's first written national constitution, the Constitution of 3 May 1791.