When I lived in N.Ireland I used to play "who's country got shafted the most" with my Polish work mates. I lost. Then I tried drinking with them. I lost again. The Polish are more Irish than the Irish and I love them for it.
There was a joke I heard from my Polish relatives, vetted by their Jewish friends: "Jewish History: They attacked us, we won, let's eat! Polish History: They attacked us, we lost, let's drink!"
Accurate! I studied abroad in Poland (I have Polish ancestry) but could not pick up the language the way I could French. Also, my name is Polish and Americans always struggle to say it. Except when I'm in the Chicago area, because of the large number or Polish immigrants and their descendants there!
Love to Poland from Lithuania! Defending together against the rest of the world in max extreme difficulty geographical position since 1596. Brothers and sisters from another mother. It's a shame we were always surrounded by enemies and traitors and everyone kept invading and trying to occupy us nonstop. Chwała Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów!
Even way before 1596 we were already defending together. It's a shame we two together had to held against such strong and large countries like Russia, Tatars from Asia, also Sweden, Teutonic Order. Lithuania has only had one true ally Poland. It's a shame Lithuania couldn't manage to hold its' territories. We would be same size like Poland or both would be even bigger. Once Lithuania and Poland were one of the largest countries in Europe :/
Lithuania and Poland defended Europe from insane numbers of Tatars and other forces from Asia, east and south-east. If not Lithuania and Poland, Europe would be overrun by Tatars and Mongols. They had massive forces from across all Asia continent. Lithuania lost most of the soldiers to them and that's why we couldn't hold our once large territories anymore. We became weak after defending against massive Asian Tatar and Mongol forces. Noone is talking about that. That's why Lithuania is so small now. Lithuania and Poland today would be like France and Germany if not massive Mongolian and Asian forces attacking us from the east. Also had to defend our back from Sweden, Teotonic Order and Russia at the same time. Love to Poland but please show some love to Lithuania as well. Many Polish and Lithuanian heroes and legends died defending their ground against insane number of forces. Lithuania and Poland were holding like 300 Spartans against Persian army. If not us Europe would be Asia. Sad they are not making movies about our history. It was epic and legendary. Lithuania & Poland forever
I would like to point out that Madame Curie named one of her discovered elements in honor of her native land to draw attention to the fact that at the time the Poles were without sovereignty. To this day element 84 bears a name derived from that of a stubborn, fiercely independent nation: polonium.
One can only wish she switched the names for radium & polon though - as the former has many positive uses, while the later mostly came into public awareness due to the infamous "Putin's tea" usage...
Which is ironic because Polonium is a highly unstable element and it was mostly forgotten by people unless used for assassinations, the most recent and well known being Putin's alleged use against his enemies.
Howdy, a polish guy here. The video is great and, surprise, you did surprisingly good on pronunciation of polish words. There's just one thing that would put you on a hit list among every history teacher in our country - the fact you called Jadwiga a queen. She was a King of Poland, she was crowned and received full power as a rightful ruler... and polish szlachta would not see a queen ruling over them, so she was called a King instead and everyone was just fine with it. Other than that, all great, keey up the great work
That cracks me up. "How could we respect ourselves, or be respected, if we followed a woman?" "Nah, it's cool. She decreed herself a man." "Ah! Good thinking."
@@jean-paulaudette9246 Not exactly... it was more as a way to declare her as equal to a man as women didn't have any rights at the time. But honestly - it was one of the least confusing things that happened in that time of polish history, don't go deeper :V
@@jean-paulaudette9246 in Polish Kròlowa doesn't mean the same as Queen, at the time anyway, it was more along lines of consort. So they crowned Jadwiga the Latin Rex, as the constitution required a rex, or King, to rule the nation. It wasn't strictly grammatically correct, but it was felt that it reflected the situation better.
Poland is badass. The Battle of Britain, Siege of Vienna, the existence of Witold Pilecki, and especially the Battle of Wizna show how much Poland is willing to tell the rest of Europe that Poland won't bow down. Respect to Poland from Pennsylvania. 🇵🇱❤️🇺🇸
@@Don_Ratski Yes, at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown. This festival takes place the first week in September - it averages 25K people a year. There's a video of President Reagan landing at the festival in 1984.
*Typical fantasy writer:* "King is good, but his advisors are bad guys" *Polish Sejm:* "Bunch of aristocrats corrupted and manipulated by enemy governments chose the king that will favour their own shady businesses" *Me:* "Write that down, write that down!!!"
@@tyrant-den884 I don't think it's annoying but rather uncreative, but I understand why. Most of European countries had monarchies to some degree, so they are more relatable and easier to implement. Writing something different might be difficult
@@histhoryk2648 then check how often the evil conquerer who must be replaced with some inexperienced kid is a self-man who earned their position through (admittedly bloody) merit. The main strength of a functioning monarchy is a ruler who has been trained by birth, but no one want that when they can have some kid or Allister.
In DSA (german fantasy RPG) there's a nation that's basically a combination of medieval Russia, the baltics and Poland-Lithuania, with the commonwealth's system of government. It works surprisingly well because the nobles tend to hate outsiders slightly more than each other :P.
@@tyrant-den884 Actual republics, as opposed to autocracies masquerading as republics, tend to be boring and complicated. On rare occasions, we in the United States are not. One of them was the Civil War. The norm is better reflected in that two Presidents (Harding in 1920 and Biden in 2020) were elected largely on the belief that their Administrations would be cures for insomnia.
@@maciejrejowski4682 nou makker, ik wil best in het Nederlands reageren als je dat graag wil, maar ik heb zo'n vermoeden dat je me beter begrijpt als ik reageert in het Engels. That's why.
Couple notes: - While Jadwiga can be colloquially be referred to as a Queen, she was technically crowned *King* of Poland. - No I did not mention the Hussars, that was intentional. I promise you they're not as interesting or important as the memes make them out to be. - The Boleslaw who divided Poland in the medieval period was a *different* Boleslaw... That one's on me. Sorry. -B
They were pretty significant. Hussars were winning battles when the enemy outnumbered them heavilly, were using the finest weaponry a Polish noble could afford and many times they could change the tide of war to the point mercenaries at the time were often adding to their contracts that they won't be fighting against them. They are an iconic cavalry formation although their current depiction with two wings on their backs might be more modern creation during times Poland was developing it's national identity.
As a Pole I had to say that I'm really happy that someone is talking about our history with some empathy towards us. Showing facts, not stereotypes. I'm sure that we got many things in common with other Central and East European countries, and history is a lot more complex, definitely should not by taught only from Western perspective. Even though there are many things that I don't like in my country, I am proud of who I am and from my roots. Your pronunciation is on point. I'm impressed.
If you don't know, you should look up a band called Sabaton. They have several songs highlighting Polish history, including "40:1," "Warsaw Uprising," "Winged Hussars," "Inmate 4859," "Aces in Exile."
They also have their own history channel here on UA-cam with this historian named Indy (no, I don't think he's ever melted any Nazis with any ancient Hebrew artifacts).
Poland's anthem starts with the lyrics “Poland is not yet dead, as long as we live” This should tell you everything you need to know. Also, early gang Edit: Thanks for Konrad Klukowski for the correction
I have always loved that the Ottoman Empire, of all countries, refused to recognize the partition of an old honorable opponent. “The ambassador from Poland is unable to attend” - in your FACE, Prussia, Russia, and Austria.
In kind of the same vein the polish-japanese relations were so good pre-WW2 that the Japanese empire refused the declaration of war sent by the polish government in exile
@پیاده نظام خان Yeah as much it seems nice that the Ottomans had a hint of repsect, we shouldn't forget they would have taken a part of Poland as well if it still bordered the nation. Heck Austria took part in the annexation despite the Poles being the ones the saved them from the battle of vienna
These are the first words of the Polish national anthem, "Poland has not died yet, as long as we are alive. What foreign violence has taken from us, we will take away with a saber."
Unfortunatly we almost lost the nation now due to cultural "aggression' from the West. The indestructibleness came from preserving, adapting AND improving OUR culture. Now we start to forget about that.
"Act of reading history to cause me physical and psychological pain and yet.... Poland" As a polish person who went through 9 years of history in a formal education system... I never related to anything more in my entire life.
minor detail: Jadwiga was also "King of Poland", she never defined herself as Queen in order to assert her sovereignty over Poland and Lithuania, taking it out of Jagiełło's hands
In Yadwiga’s time, a queen couldn’t be a queen regnant (i.e. “queens” had to be the consort, not the ruler). The trick is, they never said the king had to be male.
The thing though was she wasn't really able to due to the civil war occuring in Lithuania. Vytautas fought his cousin for this exact reason knowing the Poles would try to take advantage of Lithuania. He remained Grand Duke of Lithuania and guaranteed Lithuanian sovereignty for the next hundreds of years.
But it wasn't like they plotted aganist each other in order to gain personal power - they were actually qiute happy mariage (especially for their age difference... They married when Yadviga was 10 and Yogailo was 36) and co-rulers. After Yadviga's death Yogailo named his daughter with his next wife after her, the wife was actually adviced to him by Yadviga who wanted to provide him stable future as a king of Poland after her death and from what I remember one of them had a ring which was present from the other and considered it their most important belonging (I don't remember who was the owner and who was the giver). To make things more interesting, Yadviga at first really didn't want to marry Yogailo and even, as legend said, tried to escape the castle by destroying wooden doors with an axe, and after that she supposedly went to bed with her true love Habsburg prince... And then she, at her young age, made a significant political decision, cause mariage with Habsburg would be political disaster. Another legend claims that before the decision she asked some male servant to go to bath with Yogailo and then tell her what he had seen and what she heard was supposedly another reason for marriage. She also funded a renovation of the oldest Polish University (now 600 years old) and liked color blue, and slept with Yogailo only on Tuesdays for what I've read. Her death vas really grieved. It's interesting topic.
As a polish and historician i want to say that this is probably the best brief history of Poland on YT. Why I think that? Because it's perfectly focused on its most important matters: Catholicism, parlamentarism and (multi- ->mono-) ethnicism. Good job!
I agree, especially with the part about parliamentarism, which is really impressive for the 17th century. I also do agree that it is a petty that Jan III Sobieski was missed, however, in terms of understanding the idea about Poland I do think it was a fair oversimplified interpretation of its history (especially as I studied one yeah Eastern European History, which was mainly about Poland and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). It would have been interested mentioning Adam Mickiewicz and how he is perceived in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus and why, as this represents the complex historical legacy in the region.
@@letniwiatr Although it was the last notable military victory I'd say the battle of Vienna and its outcomes meant more for the history Europe than Poland itself.
Yup, but also is "copy/paste" of most history schoolbooks. Not a single word of "Old Set of Rulers" which mentions rulers preceding Mieszko I. How in all books is all the same: Poland thx to Church, Poland thx to Germany. It is seen even now. Politics selling polish independence for german (EU) reason of state, regardless of the political side, or appropriation of moral life by Catholic Church, which leaves any Poles that don't want anything in common with it, out od margin of the social life, and then they're recruited by "progressive" West.
I remember in one of my history courses we wrote a paper about an area our ancestors came from, I’m a quarter Polish so I chose them. The paper was named “Poland, aka the black Knight from Monty Python”
Én is szeretem nézni más országok történelmét, orosz, ukrán, belarusz, lengyel, német mind jöhet. De a magyar valamiért a legjobb, pedig sose szerettem a történelmünket.
It reminds me of this humorous breakdown of symbolic meaning of the colors on Polish flag - white for honor, red for sacrifice, blue for loyal allies... ;)
Yeah one king threw a ring into the sea to simbolicly "merry" it after recovering some territory there Edit:it was a general not a king, thanks for correcting me
I mean... Lithuania... Literally on the border and also literally one of the longest alliance between two nations I've ever heard of... Until y'know they kinda attacked and jacked our ancient capital but whatevs. Poor Poland >_>
A county so badass, they adopted a bear who accepted them as its brothers, fought for them in Italy, and got the rank of Corporal. Meaning a majority of the army was outranked by a bear. And no one even batted an eye.
Except Kazimierz. I've heard a lot of pronunciations (I'm named after him), his is foreign to me. Given how complicated the language is though, I'm willing to overlook that lol
@@cashkromsupernerd1193 The only mistake he made is not realising that 'zi' in Polish is pronounced like a ż, the 'rz' at the end wasn't perfect but it's fine.
@@shion3948 źi is not valid in polish orthography though, Zi is used when a vowel follows (including i which is not written twice in that case - zima for example (winter) or więzi (bonds, compare więź - bond)), and ź is used when either a consonant or nothing else follows. It's mostly an orthographic variant because when you pronounce ziemia (earth, soil, ground) and więź the Zi and ź are pronounced the same [ˈʑɛmʲä (not [ʑʲɛmʲä]) vʲɛ̃ʑ] if we're being pedantic the ź in więź becomes devoiced but eh If you pronounce Zi alone, yes it would be źi, but otherwise they're the same sound unless it's a syllable
As an American patriot, I gotta say the Polish people and culture are ones I respect the most in the European continent. Even when they lost their territory to imperials, their resolve as a national group was unshakable. I salute you Poland, for never giving up the good fight for freedom.
As a fellow American, It might interest you to know that a few polish generals showed up to help us in our fight for freedom against Britain, despite the partitions they were facing back home.
As a Pole, I have to give Blue mad respect for pronoucing the Polish names (Polish is known to be one of the hardest slav language). Also couldn't be happier to see a video that talks about the whole history of Poland and not just the tragedy of WWII. Pozdrowienia z Gdańska! (Love from Gdańsk!)
It wasn't just the Polish airmen that continued to fight in WWII. The Free Polish Navy were right in there too. One Polish destroyer [EDIT: named "Piorun" or "Lightning", thanks Raindog] continually flashed the message "I am a Pole." to the German battleship Bismarck just to let them know it was personal. One British admiral expressed surprise at how few Polish Free Navy ships he had because of how often they were reported for bravery.
Talking about Polish Free Navy you cannot forget about ORP Błyskawica (another word for lightning in polish - little bit of semantics - Piorun describes the lightning speed and Błyskawica describes its flash) the most honored ship of polish navy in WWII. This ship done so many different things - from mine sweeping, through sub hunting and troop transport to air defence platform and shore shelling - it's unbelievable it was only a destroyer. It is also oldest surviving destroyer in the world. It's docked in Gdynia and is availibile for tourists. Fun fact: There's special memorial in Cowes, England dedicated to Błyskawica and its crew for heroic defense against german air raids. One day the guns on the ship fired so many rounds the barrels got deformed and needed urgent replacement
@@syfsonkupskowicki5326 Może i racja że Błyskawica to bardziej Lightning, jako że bardziej chodzi o sam świetlny efekt wyładowania niż dźwięk. Ale jest też Grom, który bardziej pasuje do Thunder. Piorun może być oboma.
People have this weird idea that if you colour the map differently and put figurehead administrators in, then suddenly the nation evaporates. Doesn't happen until you kill all the people and raise their children as another peoples. 200 years of trying hasn't done it to Poles tho!
I actually love how romantic Poland is with Hungary, you see Hungarian and you automatically want to greet himself and befriend him, Hungarian sees someone from Poland : Long time no see my beloved internet sibling, lets kiss. And theres only one way to answer that, why so late? 😁 Been in Hungary many many times, i always leave a Hungary with even stronger feel of love towards them. Amazing country and even more amazing how tradition and legacy we have between us IS still going.
Fun Fact - Jadwiga was actually a crowned KING for some time as Poland never had a ruling queen. Then she got married and her husband took the title upon himself.
@@Lina-lq7jm Jogaila known his place, even if he was responsible for day to day operation he could not go against wishes of his wife, because his all power in Poland was due to the fact, he was married to power Jadwiga had. This is a reason why until Jadwiga lived Jogaila tried to avoid any conflict with Christian nations, because it was the wish of Jadwiga. When she died, Jogaila became the sole rule and Teutonic Order provoked he went ballistic - which would not happen when Jadwiga lived.
Fun fact: italy and poland are the only two countries on earth to call each other by name each in their national anthem. Solidarity against austrians I guess.
Well in Poland Austria is seen as the least of 3 evils, because when your other options are Russia and Prussia/Germany the Habsburgs suddenly seem rather saintly in comparison. In southern Poland that era is referred to a benign neglect. Though the Anthem is referring to the Polish soldiers that would defect to Napoleon. Unfortunately he would send the to Haiti in an attempt to crush that rebellion, but they would defect again and join the Haitians.
@@adambielen8996 not completely so. Yes, at the end of partitions, just before ww1, restrictions were really loose in austrian partition, but during the Napoleonic Era things weren't so pleasant, Austria was just as harsh as the others
Poland is great, huge respect. Just imagine, they were gone, completely, wiped out... and then they rose again. Twice! A true inspiration. From a Ukrainian in New York. We love you!
Polak, Wegier dwa bratanki! Lengyel, magyar - két jó barát, Együtt harcol s issza borát, Vitéz s bátor mindkettője, Áldás szálljon mindkettőre. Zawsze Bracia!
@Certyfikowany Przewracacz Hulajnóg Elektrycznych I am a simple german, im in a relationship for a whole decade with a polish woman and still fear to pronounce her surname.
We also were one of few countries which had pretty good relations with "Vikings". Gunhild, sister of King Boleslaw Chrobry, was married to one of the Scandinavian Kings, and her son (Cnut the Great) took part in the Viking Invasion of England, during which he lead not only his own men but also some polish warriors send with him by our king.
"And if that sounds kind of insane, that's because it was." Surely, Blue knows that Eastern Europe has lived and continues to live by the phrase, "This is going down a crazy path.... *so let's keep going and see what happens."*
China: What was whole again, was broke again. What was broke again, was whole again. Poland: What was there again, was gone again. What was gone again, was there again.
yea cause by that time... poland (or the P.L.C.)was crazy fcking strong like it was said in the Video :D Poland wasnt refered to as the sleeping Dragon of Europe for nothing:D
As an American of Anglo-Polish descent I support this video. I recently have been learning of my Polish ancestry. "Wierzbowski" meaning 'people from the willow trees' is an old noble family that occupied many high positions in government and churches during the 16th and 17th centuries. What was left of my ancestors immigrated to America (Boston, specifically) in 1913 from the Russian Empire. My father has the paperwork still in his archives. I'm also sad that my ancestors never got to live in a free and independent Poland but were spared the horror of WWI, Polish-Soviet War, WWII, and the Holocaust. I would like to go visit the region of my ancestors someday. It's an area of northeast Poland called "Kurpie" in Lomza, voivodeship.
It's always fun for me, as a Polish person, to listen to people reacting to our history :D And don't worry, Blue, your pronunciation was quite good for someone who isn't a native speaker of our szczrzdrz :)
As someone who knows a decent amount of my polish ancestors coming over to the US in 1898 I never really learned much about the history of Poland. Hell my grandma’s maiden name was Chowanski and my great Uncle has dug through our genealogy to discover there’s a book in Poland that can date my family tree all the way back to the first king of England. The fact that book has survived kinda reinforces the ideas brought in this video.
As a fellow polish person I get quite irritated when people view it as some sort of depressing tragedy. It actually still seems much better then most nations under colonial boot in Africa and Asia, but Poland is seen as more tragic, to me mostly because it is in Europe
@@taka2721 As someone from the US, it seems like both an incredible and inspiring case of resilience under the worst circumstances, and also learning some of the absolute worst possible lessons from the time spent subjugated. A heroic tragedy, if you will.
I always imagined the partition of Poland as some kind of late night phone call (terribly anachronistic, I know). Maria: "What is it, Fritz? Do you know how late.... No, I won't bother with Poland, unless you literally handed it to me on a silver platter..." Fritz: "You'll be delighted"
In the long list of entertaining polish stuff, Polish soldiers were sent to help put down the Haitian Revolution. They got there, decided, for all of the reasons the video shows, that they actually agreed with the rebelling slaves, and then started to fight beside them instead.
They were also helping the American during the USA war of independence. In fact the American Calvary was built by a polish general. His name is casmir pulaski by the way
The thing is that word królowa does not have interchangeable meaning with word queen in english, its ortography points that this specific person is not holding office of king as is nonetheless wife of one, you can use ending "owa" to make wife of any posible word refering to profession, like for example burmistrz (mayor) into burmisztrzowa (wife of a mayor) or Nowak (popular polish surname into Nowakowa (wife of a Nowak, in default one specific person).
@@wojciechficek616 Wasn't she was explicitly crowned as a "king" despite not being a man a statement to her contemporaries that she was their equal? or is that English mythologizing
There's also the -ska -ski distinction between female and male members of a family. For example, Rutkowska would be a female while Rutkowski could be her brother or other male relative.
@@ZarmothBlade The Polish-Lithuanian Sejm is arguably the best argument against nobility having any privileges.. or existing at all. Polish-Lithuanian nobles pretty much used their veto powers to sabotage the PLC, either on behalf of hostile foreign powers like Russia or simply out of selfishness. They also tended to pick foreigners as kings specifically because said candidates wouldn't be familiar at all with Polish-Lithuanian culture, language etc and therefore unable to successfully contest the Szlachta's power.
@@TitanDarwin To be honest, present day politics in Poland show clearly that the masses are no better and will happily vote against their own best interests given half a fake promise.
My favorite WWII story about a Polish soldier comes from the hunt for the Bismarck. During the fighting, one of the gunners for the British would fire in a pattern that read "I AM A POLE" in Morse code
British ship commander present in the area (HMS Cossack) reported that Polish capitan broke the formation and headed towards Bismarck, swimming so close as if he wanted to give it a few cuts with a sword xD
In the book version of "The Two Towers", Gandalf had a conversation with Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli about the relations between Isengard and Mordor. And they speculate that although Isengard and Mordor both fight the same enemies, if there weren't any countries between Isengard and Mordor, they would fight each other. Kinda like the III Reich and USSR who, having conquered the lands between them, turned on each other. And there are of course the elves who (like Britain and France) don't want to fight and have left the humans on their own.
Like Poland didnt abuse its own power everytime they had the chance. Its sad, but thats just how human nations are every time they get the chance to. Poland just got forcefully robbed of its chances at some point.
I can tell you about one significant battle in Poland during the Great War: The Battle of Osawiec. It was like something straight out of a horror movie: about 7,000 German soldiers were completely routed by about 100 "dead" Russians. So terrified of these dead Russians the Germans fled across the battlefield and killed themselves on their own fortifications.
If you want to pick up a good understanding of WWI (and haven't yet) I highly recommend the channel The Great War, which did a chronological analysis of the war week by week. Quite an experience to watch that series.
@@Thomas.Wright, more specifically, these Russian soldiers were garrisoning a fort that Germany really wanted to capture, so they bombed and attacked at at least 3 different times. They all failed. Growing desperate, the Germans just decided to gas the sh*t out of Osawiec fort, and they assumed the defenders were all dead, so they adopted gas masks and went straight on in. Only to find about 100 Russians troops wearing clothes around their mouths, coughing up blood and charging at them like fucking mad lads. The Germans were so terrified of this that they ran away completely, allowing the Russians to hold onto fort Osawiec. This battle would later be known as the "Attack of the Dead Men".
Mieszko: "If I convert to Christianity the Christians will stop invading me!" Poland's Christian neighbours for the next thousand years: "About that..."
Jokes aside, he didn't do that to stop Christian invasions (he was actually doing very well against them) but to forge alliances and expand his influence.
I think big part was "If i convert i must stop raid them?" And mostly answer was "Not really". Many German attack was try to stop polish raids, and without success.
@tekinet7958 incorrect it was helped by other countries but still fought alongside them. For example the polish army escaped poland durint ww2 and became pilots for britain
“Volleyball of Europe” It’s sad how accurate this is😂 Being in the middle of the cluster fuxk called Europe is surely not fun for anyone. Respect to Poland for still existing
You know this scene in cartoons, when something runs over someone form left to right, then back to left again? The eastern fronts during 1900s be like:
There were quins, but in polish Version of this world "królowa" means king's wife. Jadwiga was the ruler of the country, so king herself, not king's wife
“But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being, nor can the dead ever be brought back to life... except for Poland lmao.” -Sun Tzu, the Art of War.
@Lahestan Russia was always a thorn in our neck even now it became more troublesome for us with their tyrannical political leaders, but what did Germany did to you? For us Germany at the very least trying to help us.
@Lahestan German did all this horrible things to us. But now the world and so is the country has changed, the policy has changed. Right now our country doesn’t suffer because of Germany, but because of tyranny of so called “president” that we didn’t choose, he’s regime already killed many people and right now the people that he imprisoned are now been tortured, raped and they even get yellow marks on their prison uniform so they would get a special ‘treatment’ (just like in WW2) and that’s just the top of the iceberg. Most importantly while all Europe acknowledged this situation and now trying to help our people including Germany. Russia on the other hand helps and supports this regime. So I hope you understand why we no longer mad at Germany.
"Poland has not yet perished, So long as we still live. What the foreign force has taken from us, We shall with sabre retrieve." Poland's National Anthem
Noch ist Polen nicht verloren - could this be the German translation of this text? It is a nearly forgotten proverb, meaning 'we shouldn't give up yet'
@@gabbyn978 Yes, it was sung by Germans in 1831, when they greeted Polish former insurgents, who were forced to leave Poland after losing to Russia. Germans back then (outside Prussia) were strongly supportive to Polish cause, but they couldn`t do much to help.
My great-grandfather was a historian In Poland and part of the team to re-catalogue Polish history. Unfortunately I never met him. My Grandfather fought in the Polish resistance during the Warsaw uprising and was in several POW camps during WWII. Unfortunately by the time I was old enough to start wondering about him and ask him questions he had a stroke and couldn't communicate well with people though you could tell he could understand things. Thank you so much Blue for helping me feel closer to my family.
Thank you so much for your amazing family! Your great-grandfather is one of the many many brave Polish people who we have to thank for our lives today. The story of the Polish people is one not to be forgotten. His legacy lives on through you. I hope that if you do not live in Poland you will make the journey there and walk in his steps. It is humbling, heart breaking and enchanting all at once.
Please do more Eastern European history! The whole region faces many unfortunate stereotypes in the West, and as you said, looking into the history helps with that.
Ouch, I knew that the entire history of poland consisted of pain from getting invaded but I didn’t expect poland to have a whole tragic hero character arc with an ultimate more or less happy ending. I seriously got invested.
I was just wondering if Poland-Lithuania inspired Sokovia given the whole "crossroads of major powers, locus of conflict, proud citizens, gets swallowed up" thing.
- Poland and Lithuania were bound together by the union "Oh, yeah. Lithuania, the little spec on the map rubbing shoulders with latvia, I know th-" _MASSIVE RED BLOT APPEARS ON THE MAP_ "Oh"
Yeah, Medieval Lithuania saw the Mongol Hordes and then beat the snot out of them and expanded massively. So they went from a small tribe to ruling one of the largest states in Europe in just a few years.
@@adambielen8996 *collection of tribes. Lithuania wasn't very centralized and different tribes, such as the Curonians, Samogaitans, Skalvians, etc. made up Lithuania with their own different languages and culture
@@compatriot852 Ah, sadly my knowledge of Lithuania and its culture and society isn't where I'd like it to be cause Lithuania just gets straight up ignored in the US unless it is attached to Poland.
Dschinghis Khan is actually very popular in poland. During communism you had to listen to what they'd allowed you to listen and Dschinghis Khan's songs were allowed. You can still hear them (especially "Moskau") at polish weddings. At least at the ones I've been to.
The UK: "Ah, I see the Hun has finally shed its civilised cloak and gone fangs agape for the Lechian throat. It saddens my heart to the Polish divided again, but, alas, 'tis the way of poles to be apart, is it not?"
I love Poland! The father of my godmother was Polish, he was like a grandfather to me, so Poland has a special place in my heart! Much love from Argentina! ❤
Eastern Europe, except Russia, has suffered from colonialism as much as any nation, but it is usually either completely neglected, or in the case of the Balkans, is portrayed in a positive light.
I mean, in case of the Balkans (and as much as one might be unwilling to agree on moral grounds, even Poland and CzS) did legit benefit from ze whacky tacky german(ic) not-yet-nazis. At least compared to the alternatives. Even within modern day poland and balkans you can still see notable differences in infrastructure and living standards resulting from the influence when comparing west to east (excluding a few places notably warsaw/warszaw/warshawa whatever your preference in language might be) and subjects of Austria vs essentially Ottoman slave states respectively.
Russia also suffered from colonialism. Mongols were constantly bothering them and Poland always tried to mess with their gov And as a Pole myself I think it's sad that we wasted so many opportunities to (more or less) peacefully connect with our Eastern neighbours. Who knows how differently history would look like. Maybe the union would provide the stability our gov needed, maybe we would drag them into our own political mess. We will never know
@@angelikaskoroszyn8495 King Władysław III Waza ruined it demanding from Russia to accept catolicism. But union with Russia create risk to make commonwealth more eastern. Going east was an mistake. In middle ages there were no diference in developlent between Poland and the rest of Europe but after union with Lithuenia we become more oriental nation.
@@Spacey_key my gf is Polish and was absolutely incensed (she told me about King Jadwiga before)... She is in all the official Polish lineups of Kings! Also as a side note when i read her your comment she said "Oh damn that is a powerful surname, it dates back to about this time actually"
German and Russia: why wouldn’t you stay down? Poland: I didn’t hear no bell. As someone who has Polish and German heritage, reading Central Europe history is quite a mixed feeling and heading banging to the wall
The summary of Poland reminds me so much of Korea for some reason. I mean: stuck between powerful states, experienced mass amounts of death from an imperialistic neighbor AND got partitioned into two? Poland and Korea feel like they have a lot in common.
@@Anonim-os7rp The USA isn't viewed as highly as it used to be in communism. The younger and more "left" a Pole is the less they look up to America. But from what I know similarities between Poland and Korea are brought up a lot in scientific discourse.
@@ilian3199 Even now, when the society is aware of flaws of American system the view is fairly good, and Poland is firm NATO member. And lefties here may indeed not be very pro-American, but tend to be very enthusiastic about EU instead. Pro-American views are common among populist (traditionalist + welfarist + authoritarian) ruling party.
It seems like politicians fear the threat of filibuster more than the actual filibuster because a filibuster is literally just a lot of talking about random stuff to fill time and avoid some bill.
@@danielsjohnson If you mean a standing filibuster, it hasn't been like that for decades... sure you might have the occasional tool (Ted Cruz) who does do that for whatever reason but they really only need 41 votes and signal an intent to filibuster.
You know that Darth Maul meme "Man literally too angry to die"? That's my country, that's us. When we fight for our independence, it's great. When we don't have to, we start fighting each other.
@@obi-wankenobi1676 what kind of excuse is that? I see Ukrainian and Iranian protests around the world. But I don’t see free russians protesting in free countries. Same mentality
Thank you so much for making this! I have struggled to find an understandable summary of pre-1900 polish history, and this was the enigma machine to decode the history for me!
I love how every poland video has supportive hungarians in the comments the bromance is strong with those two edit: yall can we *not* get overly political in the comments?
Yea we saved their asses once, now hopefuly they will do the same for us supporting us vs Israel political battle with missinformations spread by Israeli lobbyst in USA, that country want money from Poland for Polish Jews who died by a German hands on Polish land... And they wonder why there are antysemites out there...
@@kiroshki You could not write anything more stupid than this. Learn the history and think before you say/write something. PS. If your only "friends" are those who owe you, then I hope you will never REALLY need their help... They won't be with you when you need them the most. Brotherhood is about more than just owing someone a favour.
@@Unrizen XD there is not such thing as friends nation wise. We had wars with Hungarians. We are now in good relationship and that started with us helping them. Thats a fact, deal with it. We now share similar views that help to keep it good also we are not neigbours. "You could not write anything more stupid than this." yeas, I could write what you did, it would be more stupid XD. "Brotherhood" X fcuking D. 10 yo view on politics be like.
You know what? Thank you very much doing a small history lesson about Poland Blue, I’m from Poland but was raised in England so I never really understood or know my culture very well but because of you I see why my mum always shouted at me and say “We are like the Spartans in 300, won’t die that easily and definitely won’t die without a fight!” Now I’m extra proud of my heritage! Thank you again! :-)
Sad thing is, most people remember Poland the best. Lithuania is just an after-thought - not eastern enough to be as exotic as Russia and not western enough to be "modern and interesting". Nobody remembers or cares about Lithuania, even some lithuanians...
We still remember you. The world would be a sad place if everyone had forgotten their culture and become a mindless citizen of the world. Ps. Post a recipe for a lithuanian dish. It's always fun too try out something that's new for you
As a 4th generation Polish American (my ancestors were among the millions of immigrants you mentioned), I actually know very little about the history of my motherland, so thank you for this. Us Poles aren't given enough credit for how much crap we've pushed through. Now I know why I'm so dang stubborn and resilient. It's the Polish blood in me.
@@Guciom Well ur kinda wrong. Polish citzenship is passed down by the law of blood (aka. Ius sanguinis). So it can be said that Poland is her Motherland/fatherland if she says it is.
When I lived in N.Ireland I used to play "who's country got shafted the most" with my Polish work mates. I lost. Then I tried drinking with them. I lost again. The Polish are more Irish than the Irish and I love them for it.
There was a joke I heard from my Polish relatives, vetted by their Jewish friends: "Jewish History: They attacked us, we won, let's eat! Polish History: They attacked us, we lost, let's drink!"
One could say that Irish people are just polish people that are not polish enough :P
Funnily enough, I have ancestors from both Poland and Ireland.
@@theultimatepotatolord6619 you are the chosen one
@@theultimatepotatolord6619 your name is so beautifully appropriate
Poland had no problem cracking Enigma because the best code the Germans could create was still less complicated then reading Polish.
I mean... You are not wrong. I guess?
😂
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
😂
Accurate! I studied abroad in Poland (I have Polish ancestry) but could not pick up the language the way I could French. Also, my name is Polish and Americans always struggle to say it. Except when I'm in the Chicago area, because of the large number or Polish immigrants and their descendants there!
Love to Poland from Lithuania! Defending together against the rest of the world in max extreme difficulty geographical position since 1596. Brothers and sisters from another mother. It's a shame we were always surrounded by enemies and traitors and everyone kept invading and trying to occupy us nonstop. Chwała Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów!
Even way before 1596 we were already defending together. It's a shame we two together had to held against such strong and large countries like Russia, Tatars from Asia, also Sweden, Teutonic Order. Lithuania has only had one true ally Poland. It's a shame Lithuania couldn't manage to hold its' territories. We would be same size like Poland or both would be even bigger. Once Lithuania and Poland were one of the largest countries in Europe :/
Lithuania and Poland defended Europe from insane numbers of Tatars and other forces from Asia, east and south-east. If not Lithuania and Poland, Europe would be overrun by Tatars and Mongols. They had massive forces from across all Asia continent. Lithuania lost most of the soldiers to them and that's why we couldn't hold our once large territories anymore. We became weak after defending against massive Asian Tatar and Mongol forces. Noone is talking about that. That's why Lithuania is so small now. Lithuania and Poland today would be like France and Germany if not massive Mongolian and Asian forces attacking us from the east. Also had to defend our back from Sweden, Teotonic Order and Russia at the same time. Love to Poland but please show some love to Lithuania as well. Many Polish and Lithuanian heroes and legends died defending their ground against insane number of forces. Lithuania and Poland were holding like 300 Spartans against Persian army. If not us Europe would be Asia. Sad they are not making movies about our history. It was epic and legendary. Lithuania & Poland forever
Chwała, Panowie bracia!
@@marius7270 We Poles will never forget our common history, our common kings and that we are a family of hundreds of years
@@marius7270 Thank you for mentioning! A lot of people truly don't realise how big of a part Lithuania had in all of this!
I would like to point out that Madame Curie named one of her discovered elements in honor of her native land to draw attention to the fact that at the time the Poles were without sovereignty.
To this day element 84 bears a name derived from that of a stubborn, fiercely independent nation: polonium.
One can only wish she switched the names for radium & polon though - as the former has many positive uses, while the later mostly came into public awareness due to the infamous "Putin's tea" usage...
Which is ironic because Polonium is a highly unstable element and it was mostly forgotten by people unless used for assassinations, the most recent and well known being Putin's alleged use against his enemies.
@@Haamre You really want the element that is associated with creeping death to represent Poland?
@@BlackuKnighto Excuse me...?
@@Haamre Excuse you?
Heh, Blue researched pronunciations. He know that "w" is pronounced like "v". Poles will notice your effort.
I know, it made me so happy
Indeed, from a native Pole, those Vs are much appreciated 😁👍
I was very impressed with his pronunciation!
Good stuff, almost no mistakes in pronounciation
I’m not even polish and that made me happy
More like "Country Literally Too Angry to Die"
ehh i think "Country Literally Too Polish to Die" might be better fitting
@@Otto_Von_Beansmarck same difference
@@Otto_Von_Beansmarck is there a difference?
Country TO STUBORN TO DIE, i am from Poland and i know what im writing
@@1nekrus word
Howdy, a polish guy here. The video is great and, surprise, you did surprisingly good on pronunciation of polish words.
There's just one thing that would put you on a hit list among every history teacher in our country - the fact you called Jadwiga a queen. She was a King of Poland, she was crowned and received full power as a rightful ruler... and polish szlachta would not see a queen ruling over them, so she was called a King instead and everyone was just fine with it.
Other than that, all great, keey up the great work
That is awesome
That cracks me up. "How could we respect ourselves, or be respected, if we followed a woman?"
"Nah, it's cool. She decreed herself a man."
"Ah! Good thinking."
@@jean-paulaudette9246 Not exactly... it was more as a way to declare her as equal to a man as women didn't have any rights at the time. But honestly - it was one of the least confusing things that happened in that time of polish history, don't go deeper :V
@@jean-paulaudette9246 in Polish Kròlowa doesn't mean the same as Queen, at the time anyway, it was more along lines of consort. So they crowned Jadwiga the Latin Rex, as the constitution required a rex, or King, to rule the nation. It wasn't strictly grammatically correct, but it was felt that it reflected the situation better.
@@lucidnonsense942 Thanks! That's clear.
Poland is badass. The Battle of Britain, Siege of Vienna, the existence of Witold Pilecki, and especially the Battle of Wizna show how much Poland is willing to tell the rest of Europe that Poland won't bow down. Respect to Poland from Pennsylvania. 🇵🇱❤️🇺🇸
What part of PA are you in? I'm in Philly. The Polish festival is coming up soon.
@@jonathan6480 close to Philly. Is that a thing we have?
@@Don_Ratski Yes, at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown. This festival takes place the first week in September - it averages 25K people a year. There's a video of President Reagan landing at the festival in 1984.
@@jonathan6480 thanks for telling me. I'll have to check that out
@@jonathan6480 ended up going with a friend. Thanks again for letting me know
*Typical fantasy writer:* "King is good, but his advisors are bad guys"
*Polish Sejm:* "Bunch of aristocrats corrupted and manipulated by enemy governments chose the king that will favour their own shady businesses"
*Me:* "Write that down, write that down!!!"
I'm always annoyed by how pro-monarchist fantasy writers tend to be.
@@tyrant-den884 I don't think it's annoying but rather uncreative, but I understand why. Most of European countries had monarchies to some degree, so they are more relatable and easier to implement. Writing something different might be difficult
@@histhoryk2648 then check how often the evil conquerer who must be replaced with some inexperienced kid is a self-man who earned their position through (admittedly bloody) merit.
The main strength of a functioning monarchy is a ruler who has been trained by birth, but no one want that when they can have some kid or Allister.
In DSA (german fantasy RPG) there's a nation that's basically a combination of medieval Russia, the baltics and Poland-Lithuania, with the commonwealth's system of government. It works surprisingly well because the nobles tend to hate outsiders slightly more than each other :P.
@@tyrant-den884 Actual republics, as opposed to autocracies masquerading as republics, tend to be boring and complicated. On rare occasions, we in the United States are not. One of them was the Civil War. The norm is better reflected in that two Presidents (Harding in 1920 and Biden in 2020) were elected largely on the belief that their Administrations would be cures for insomnia.
Watching this as a Pole, rubbing my hands together waiting to judge Blue for butchering the names, only for him to do a good job. Disappointing.
Our boy Blue does his homework.
I wanted to comment that! He did a really good job!
Why are we commenting in english tho?
@@maciejrejowski4682 nou makker, ik wil best in het Nederlands reageren als je dat graag wil, maar ik heb zo'n vermoeden dat je me beter begrijpt als ik reageert in het Engels.
That's why.
@@mirjanbouma wiem, u nas mówią na to sarkazm, taki żarcik :)
Couple notes:
- While Jadwiga can be colloquially be referred to as a Queen, she was technically crowned *King* of Poland.
- No I did not mention the Hussars, that was intentional. I promise you they're not as interesting or important as the memes make them out to be.
- The Boleslaw who divided Poland in the medieval period was a *different* Boleslaw... That one's on me. Sorry.
-B
"hussars are not as interesting nor important" don't tell that to the producers of patriotic clothing or they will go mental
They're still one of our national icons.
That's fair.
Also, Blue, you did great prenouncing Polish names, probably the best of American people doing overview videos on Polish history.
Why is everyone talking about hussars but not lisowczycy (I have no idea how to make it grammarly correct)
They were pretty significant. Hussars were winning battles when the enemy outnumbered them heavilly, were using the finest weaponry a Polish noble could afford and many times they could change the tide of war to the point mercenaries at the time were often adding to their contracts that they won't be fighting against them. They are an iconic cavalry formation although their current depiction with two wings on their backs might be more modern creation during times Poland was developing it's national identity.
As a Pole I had to say that I'm really happy that someone is talking about our history with some empathy towards us. Showing facts, not stereotypes. I'm sure that we got many things in common with other Central and East European countries, and history is a lot more complex, definitely should not by taught only from Western perspective. Even though there are many things that I don't like in my country, I am proud of who I am and from my roots. Your pronunciation is on point. I'm impressed.
If you don't know, you should look up a band called Sabaton. They have several songs highlighting Polish history, including "40:1," "Warsaw Uprising," "Winged Hussars," "Inmate 4859," "Aces in Exile."
They also have their own history channel here on UA-cam with this historian named Indy (no, I don't think he's ever melted any Nazis with any ancient Hebrew artifacts).
Poland's anthem starts with the lyrics “Poland is not yet dead, as long as we live”
This should tell you everything you need to know.
Also, early gang
Edit: Thanks for Konrad Klukowski for the correction
as long as *We live
@@konradklukowski1009 thanks for the correction
Poland, the Lich of nations.
@@morganrobinson8042 yes
"Didn't you die?"
Poland: "Sadly yes, BUT I LIVED."
I have always loved that the Ottoman Empire, of all countries, refused to recognize the partition of an old honorable opponent. “The ambassador from Poland is unable to attend” - in your FACE, Prussia, Russia, and Austria.
It is actually really lovely detail. And they maintained the embassy building and gvie back the keys to the first Polish ambassador after the WW I
Kinda Ironic, because Poland beat the crap out of Ottomans
In kind of the same vein the polish-japanese relations were so good pre-WW2 that the Japanese empire refused the declaration of war sent by the polish government in exile
@پیاده نظام خان Yeah as much it seems nice that the Ottomans had a hint of repsect, we shouldn't forget they would have taken a part of Poland as well if it still bordered the nation. Heck Austria took part in the annexation despite the Poles being the ones the saved them from the battle of vienna
As it said, old favours are soon forgotten…
"Poland will not die" Rome wants what Poland has.
Man, forget the USA, Poland is the real land of the Free.
Its actually funny because something along this lines is in Polish anthem
@@carlosroo5460 I wouldn’t call Poland the land of the free, but it’s definitely the land of the brave.
*laughs in Armenian-Polish*
Just like our anthem says. Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła kiedy my żyjemy.
Poland 🇵🇱 Poland ❤ Forever! Much love from South Korea 🇰🇷
❤❤❤
Thx
My history teacher once described Poland as “a nation with an indestructible people, and even when they don’t have a nation, they will make it so”
We had a nation but we hadn't country
These are the first words of the Polish national anthem, "Poland has not died yet, as long as we are alive. What foreign violence has taken from us, we will take away with a saber."
Aaww, that's nice.
Unfortunatly we almost lost the nation now due to cultural "aggression' from the West. The indestructibleness came from preserving, adapting AND improving OUR culture. Now we start to forget about that.
@@kiroshki The day might come when we become again a satellite state of one of our neighbors.
Poland throughout it's history: TIS BUT A SCRATCH
A scratch!? Your arms off!!!
@@nulolove tis but a flesh wound
We are waitin for Robute to show up.
Only a flesh wound!
@@nulolove Poland: Do i look like i give a fuck?
"Act of reading history to cause me physical and psychological pain and yet.... Poland" As a polish person who went through 9 years of history in a formal education system... I never related to anything more in my entire life.
The borders! They keep shifting!
@@ahmedamine24
The Poles are the second easiest people to move.
Same
@@Enchie The Poles are the first hardest people to move.
Kazimierz's the Great Poland is my fav Poland, change my mind.
minor detail: Jadwiga was also "King of Poland", she never defined herself as Queen in order to assert her sovereignty over Poland and Lithuania, taking it out of Jagiełło's hands
In Yadwiga’s time, a queen couldn’t be a queen regnant (i.e. “queens” had to be the consort, not the ruler).
The trick is, they never said the king had to be male.
The thing though was she wasn't really able to due to the civil war occuring in Lithuania. Vytautas fought his cousin for this exact reason knowing the Poles would try to take advantage of Lithuania.
He remained Grand Duke of Lithuania and guaranteed Lithuanian sovereignty for the next hundreds of years.
Go read some books
Yup, Jadwiga and Jagiełło was the first openly gay royal marriage in history :D
But it wasn't like they plotted aganist each other in order to gain personal power - they were actually qiute happy mariage (especially for their age difference... They married when Yadviga was 10 and Yogailo was 36) and co-rulers. After Yadviga's death Yogailo named his daughter with his next wife after her, the wife was actually adviced to him by Yadviga who wanted to provide him stable future as a king of Poland after her death and from what I remember one of them had a ring which was present from the other and considered it their most important belonging (I don't remember who was the owner and who was the giver).
To make things more interesting, Yadviga at first really didn't want to marry Yogailo and even, as legend said, tried to escape the castle by destroying wooden doors with an axe, and after that she supposedly went to bed with her true love Habsburg prince... And then she, at her young age, made a significant political decision, cause mariage with Habsburg would be political disaster. Another legend claims that before the decision she asked some male servant to go to bath with Yogailo and then tell her what he had seen and what she heard was supposedly another reason for marriage.
She also funded a renovation of the oldest Polish University (now 600 years old) and liked color blue, and slept with Yogailo only on Tuesdays for what I've read.
Her death vas really grieved.
It's interesting topic.
As a polish and historician i want to say that this is probably the best brief history of Poland on YT. Why I think that? Because it's perfectly focused on its most important matters: Catholicism, parlamentarism and (multi- ->mono-) ethnicism. Good job!
I agree, especially with the part about parliamentarism, which is really impressive for the 17th century. I also do agree that it is a petty that Jan III Sobieski was missed, however, in terms of understanding the idea about Poland I do think it was a fair oversimplified interpretation of its history (especially as I studied one yeah Eastern European History, which was mainly about Poland and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). It would have been interested mentioning Adam Mickiewicz and how he is perceived in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus and why, as this represents the complex historical legacy in the region.
@@letniwiatr Although it was the last notable military victory I'd say the battle of Vienna and its outcomes meant more for the history Europe than Poland itself.
@@MM-yj7yt Yes. You are right
Yeah, it's good, there are some really minor mistakes like calling Bolesław V king and Jadwiga queen
Yup, but also is "copy/paste" of most history schoolbooks. Not a single word of "Old Set of Rulers" which mentions rulers preceding Mieszko I.
How in all books is all the same: Poland thx to Church, Poland thx to Germany. It is seen even now. Politics selling polish independence for german (EU) reason of state, regardless of the political side, or appropriation of moral life by Catholic Church, which leaves any Poles that don't want anything in common with it, out od margin of the social life, and then they're recruited by "progressive" West.
I remember in one of my history courses we wrote a paper about an area our ancestors came from, I’m a quarter Polish so I chose them. The paper was named “Poland, aka the black Knight from Monty Python”
Haha! That's a good one :D
More like Deadpool. You can cut it to pieces or kill it, but it keeps coming back.
Nice
Nazi Germany: You've got no army left! Surrender!
Poland: Tis a flesh wound
Tis only flesh wound! 😆 Greetings from Poland! 😉
I'm a simple Hungarian. I see Poland, I like.
As a simple Pole:I like back
❤
Én is szeretem nézni más országok történelmét, orosz, ukrán, belarusz, lengyel, német mind jöhet. De a magyar valamiért a legjobb, pedig sose szerettem a történelmünket.
Thx
as a simple Pole: I always appreciate Hungarians, love you guys
Poland’s most trustworthy neighbour seems to be the sea.
It reminds me of this humorous breakdown of symbolic meaning of the colors on Polish flag - white for honor, red for sacrifice, blue for loyal allies... ;)
Yeah one king threw a ring into the sea to simbolicly "merry" it after recovering some territory there
Edit:it was a general not a king, thanks for correcting me
Bruh I literally can see that sea from the window
I mean... Lithuania... Literally on the border and also literally one of the longest alliance between two nations I've ever heard of... Until y'know they kinda attacked and jacked our ancient capital but whatevs. Poor Poland >_>
best comment
A county so badass, they adopted a bear who accepted them as its brothers, fought for them in Italy, and got the rank of Corporal. Meaning a majority of the army was outranked by a bear.
And no one even batted an eye.
Wojtek the bear :)
Wojtek !!!!!
We also have polar bear in our army.
@@Copronomicon polar Bear??
@@Jas111ld Baśka Murmańska.
How does he prenouces everything so well. He even said "szlachta" correctly.
Except Kazimierz. I've heard a lot of pronunciations (I'm named after him), his is foreign to me. Given how complicated the language is though, I'm willing to overlook that lol
@@cashkromsupernerd1193 The only mistake he made is not realising that 'zi' in Polish is pronounced like a ż, the 'rz' at the end wasn't perfect but it's fine.
@@IronBranchEnjoyer Zi isn't pronounced the same as ż - it's the same as ź
@@JamieDNGN I'd say zi is pronounced the same as źi
@@shion3948 źi is not valid in polish orthography though, Zi is used when a vowel follows (including i which is not written twice in that case - zima for example (winter) or więzi (bonds, compare więź - bond)), and ź is used when either a consonant or nothing else follows.
It's mostly an orthographic variant because when you pronounce ziemia (earth, soil, ground) and więź the Zi and ź are pronounced the same [ˈʑɛmʲä (not [ʑʲɛmʲä]) vʲɛ̃ʑ] if we're being pedantic the ź in więź becomes devoiced but eh
If you pronounce Zi alone, yes it would be źi, but otherwise they're the same sound unless it's a syllable
As an American patriot, I gotta say the Polish people and culture are ones I respect the most in the European continent. Even when they lost their territory to imperials, their resolve as a national group was unshakable. I salute you Poland, for never giving up the good fight for freedom.
As a fellow American, It might interest you to know that a few polish generals showed up to help us in our fight for freedom against Britain, despite the partitions they were facing back home.
As Poles, we should change the coat of arms. From a white eagle to a phoenix.
@@bratbrata4974 It really IS and was a phoenix ARISEN!
As a proud American Patriot whose descendant emigrated here from Poland in the 20's, I feel the Rebel Yell.
Thanks from Poland. God bless America
As a Pole, I have to give Blue mad respect for pronoucing the Polish names (Polish is known to be one of the hardest slav language). Also couldn't be happier to see a video that talks about the whole history of Poland and not just the tragedy of WWII. Pozdrowienia z Gdańska! (Love from Gdańsk!)
It wasn't just the Polish airmen that continued to fight in WWII. The Free Polish Navy were right in there too. One Polish destroyer [EDIT: named "Piorun" or "Lightning", thanks Raindog] continually flashed the message "I am a Pole." to the German battleship Bismarck just to let them know it was personal. One British admiral expressed surprise at how few Polish Free Navy ships he had because of how often they were reported for bravery.
This destroyer's name was "Piorun" (Lightning).
Talking about Polish Free Navy you cannot forget about ORP Błyskawica (another word for lightning in polish - little bit of semantics - Piorun describes the lightning speed and Błyskawica describes its flash) the most honored ship of polish navy in WWII. This ship done so many different things - from mine sweeping, through sub hunting and troop transport to air defence platform and shore shelling - it's unbelievable it was only a destroyer. It is also oldest surviving destroyer in the world. It's docked in Gdynia and is availibile for tourists.
Fun fact: There's special memorial in Cowes, England dedicated to Błyskawica and its crew for heroic defense against german air raids. One day the guns on the ship fired so many rounds the barrels got deformed and needed urgent replacement
@@raindog6852 ORP Błyskawica. Technically same as Piorun, but not really.
@@Diveyl myślę, że Thunder będzie lepszym tłumaczeniem Pioruna,zaś Lightning zostawmy Błyskawicy
@@syfsonkupskowicki5326 Może i racja że Błyskawica to bardziej Lightning, jako że bardziej chodzi o sam świetlny efekt wyładowania niż dźwięk. Ale jest też Grom, który bardziej pasuje do Thunder. Piorun może być oboma.
I am a simple Hungarian. I see Poland. I click. I like.
Love to our brothers on the other side of the Carphatians ♥️
Cheers Bro.
same here bro, same here
I'm a simple Pole. I see Hungarian comment. I click "Like" ;)
I was waiting for this comment.
Magyar, lengyel - két jó barát! Cheers from Poland, friend!
“Poland will have its borders, even if it’s on the last map humanity ever draws!”
Poland: *gets invaded or partitioned
Europe: Were you killed?
Poland: Sadly, yes. But I lived!
Epoka lodowcowa 3 złoty to cytat
People have this weird idea that if you colour the map differently and put figurehead administrators in, then suddenly the nation evaporates. Doesn't happen until you kill all the people and raise their children as another peoples. 200 years of trying hasn't done it to Poles tho!
Yes but we resurrect !
@@BartekPll XD prawda
Yay
Stay strong Polish brothers and sisters! Love from Hungary!
😍
Love from Poland :D ♥️
LOVE U
Fuck, I love Polish-Hungarian relations trough history.
@@cieplydran1 same
Polish history can be defined by the phrase: "And then it got worse."
Dont worry
It gets worse
Trochę racja. Ale obecnie jest w Polsce nieźle. :D
@@omikron2811 Spokojnie, zaraz będzie gorzej.
@@smiglo112 "And then it got worse."
"The worst day of your life, so far"
I actually love how romantic Poland is with Hungary, you see Hungarian and you automatically want to greet himself and befriend him, Hungarian sees someone from Poland : Long time no see my beloved internet sibling, lets kiss.
And theres only one way to answer that, why so late? 😁 Been in Hungary many many times, i always leave a Hungary with even stronger feel of love towards them. Amazing country and even more amazing how tradition and legacy we have between us IS still going.
"Poland would not die" is a oddly hilarious sentence I didn't know I needed to hear
The wrecker Decepticon of Transformers 2 has nothing on Poland's.
Look up the Wikipedia article for the Polish national anthem and look at the English name of the song.
@@elimcclellan8139 you were not kidding. It translates to Poland is not yet lost. If any nation deserves that title it's damn sure Poland.
@@razorflossrazor2937 It's more literally translates into "Poland is not yet /dead/." For the last few centuries our history was, essentially, that.
Fun Fact - Jadwiga was actually a crowned KING for some time as Poland never had a ruling queen. Then she got married and her husband took the title upon himself.
It’s a common mistake indeed to call her Queen. Jadwiga was the King of Poland when she ascended to the throne.
That is correct in English. After all Queen Elizabeth is also a monarch, not a wife of a monarch.
@Arkadiusz Kapa And yet... she didnt really rule all that much. Jogaila did!
@@Lina-lq7jm Yes, sadly she died at 25 year old due to complications of giving birth
@@Lina-lq7jm Jogaila known his place, even if he was responsible for day to day operation he could not go against wishes of his wife, because his all power in Poland was due to the fact, he was married to power Jadwiga had. This is a reason why until Jadwiga lived Jogaila tried to avoid any conflict with Christian nations, because it was the wish of Jadwiga. When she died, Jogaila became the sole rule and Teutonic Order provoked he went ballistic - which would not happen when Jadwiga lived.
Fun fact: italy and poland are the only two countries on earth to call each other by name each in their national anthem.
Solidarity against austrians I guess.
Really? Didn't know about the Italian one.. I think I need to some some foreign anthems...
@@witoldtadeusz Check the lyrics on both they are there :D + Weirdly enough Mussolini wanted an Alliance with Poland before WW2 O_o
Well in Poland Austria is seen as the least of 3 evils, because when your other options are Russia and Prussia/Germany the Habsburgs suddenly seem rather saintly in comparison. In southern Poland that era is referred to a benign neglect.
Though the Anthem is referring to the Polish soldiers that would defect to Napoleon. Unfortunately he would send the to Haiti in an attempt to crush that rebellion, but they would defect again and join the Haitians.
@@adambielen8996 not completely so. Yes, at the end of partitions, just before ww1, restrictions were really loose in austrian partition, but during the Napoleonic Era things weren't so pleasant, Austria was just as harsh as the others
Yeah of course in Italy nobody hates austrians anymore, it was a joke ahahaha
Poland is just Phoenix among countries!
Btw you did very good job reading polish names, they're really accurate
Poland is great, huge respect. Just imagine, they were gone, completely, wiped out... and then they rose again. Twice! A true inspiration. From a Ukrainian in New York. We love you!
I’m a simple Hungarian. I see Poland, I click, I like.
Good luck to you, sir!
I see Hungarians, I scream: "LOVE YOU GUYS, LET'S DRINK AND EAT TOGETHER AND THEN LET'S LAUGH AT THE ABSURDITY OF OUR LANGUAGES"
Polak, Wegier dwa bratanki! Lengyel, magyar - két jó barát, Együtt harcol s issza borát,
Vitéz s bátor mindkettője, Áldás szálljon mindkettőre.
Zawsze Bracia!
@Certyfikowany Przewracacz Hulajnóg Elektrycznych I am a simple german, im in a relationship for a whole decade with a polish woman and still fear to pronounce her surname.
@@wolfi9933 I'm Pole and I challenge you to reading username of guy you answered
Poland-Lithuania in 1610: *Occupied Moscow*
Russia after that: oh how the turns have tabled
It's still something to be proud of. None done that again
HELP!!! Everybody at my school cyberbullies me because they say my videos are extremely BAD!!! Please help me, dear lol
@cak01vej sheeeeeeeeeeeeeesh, i think u killed him
Actually it was done by a few private landowners from Poland...
Like really. It was PRIVATE buisness.
@@aro480_ nazis done it? They didn't have them on the ropes though. One stupid decision from the monarch and it was all lost😔
...and that kids is why you don’t let an eagle choose the geographic starting point for your kingdom
After it make a cool story to say
Worked better for the Aztecs at least.
Merritt Animation I think Charles V had something to say about that
What the frick I thought you were ruling the Spanish and Holy Roman Empire why are you here don't you have a country to run?
@@CardiniPanini Wasn't the geography that defeated them.
We also were one of few countries which had pretty good relations with "Vikings". Gunhild, sister of King Boleslaw Chrobry, was married to one of the Scandinavian Kings, and her son (Cnut the Great) took part in the Viking Invasion of England, during which he lead not only his own men but also some polish warriors send with him by our king.
And her name was Świętosława 😉 it's also said that she changed her name to Sigrid after the marriage and her new people called her Sigrid Storrada
"And if that sounds kind of insane, that's because it was."
Surely, Blue knows that Eastern Europe has lived and continues to live by the phrase, "This is going down a crazy path.... *so let's keep going and see what happens."*
Surely Blue knows to never say Poland is eastern Europe. We don't like that - we don't want to be in the same basket as Russia. Ever. Russia is yucky.
@@lukasz1kier Blue definitely knows. Russia is not yucky, but we, the Poles, strongly do not want to be mistaken for other nations.
"If youre going trough hell.keep on walking" winston churchill
.
Ahem... CENTRAL EUROPE.
China: What was whole again, was broke again. What was broke again, was whole again.
Poland: What was there again, was gone again. What was gone again, was there again.
Isn't that quote from the Romance of the three kingdoms
I like the bill wurtz reference
Ah, here we go again
there and gone (and back) again: a Polish tale
You needed 3 empires at the same time from 3 different directions to destroy Mighty Poland. Amazing.
Aaand it still will come back. So you probably need more than that
@Абдульзефир ah, russians hahahahhaha, typical ^^
@Абдульзефир Trust me it would
yea cause by that time... poland (or the P.L.C.)was crazy fcking strong like it was said in the Video :D Poland wasnt refered to as the sleeping Dragon of Europe for nothing:D
+ Targowica (V columne)
As an American of Anglo-Polish descent I support this video. I recently have been learning of my Polish ancestry. "Wierzbowski" meaning 'people from the willow trees' is an old noble family that occupied many high positions in government and churches during the 16th and 17th centuries. What was left of my ancestors immigrated to America (Boston, specifically) in 1913 from the Russian Empire. My father has the paperwork still in his archives. I'm also sad that my ancestors never got to live in a free and independent Poland but were spared the horror of WWI, Polish-Soviet War, WWII, and the Holocaust. I would like to go visit the region of my ancestors someday. It's an area of northeast Poland called "Kurpie" in Lomza, voivodeship.
Wierzbowski it’s the guy who KIA in „Aliens” movie 😅
Come on I can host you :)
As an Australian with Anglo-Polish descent - I love this video and comment :)
It's always fun for me, as a Polish person, to listen to people reacting to our history :D
And don't worry, Blue, your pronunciation was quite good for someone who isn't a native speaker of our szczrzdrz :)
As someone who knows a decent amount of my polish ancestors coming over to the US in 1898 I never really learned much about the history of Poland. Hell my grandma’s maiden name was Chowanski and my great Uncle has dug through our genealogy to discover there’s a book in Poland that can date my family tree all the way back to the first king of England. The fact that book has survived kinda reinforces the ideas brought in this video.
My faborite video on youtubeiis still Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz
As a fellow polish person I get quite irritated when people view it as some sort of depressing tragedy. It actually still seems much better then most nations under colonial boot in Africa and Asia, but Poland is seen as more tragic, to me mostly because it is in Europe
@@taka2721 As someone from the US, it seems like both an incredible and inspiring case of resilience under the worst circumstances, and also learning some of the absolute worst possible lessons from the time spent subjugated. A heroic tragedy, if you will.
Poland : *Exist*
Russia, Prussia and Austria : It's free real estate!
A few hundred years later
Poland : IS THAT ALL THAT YOU GOT?
Poland: I didn't hear no bell!
They can do this all day.
oh harder daddy
I always imagined the partition of Poland as some kind of late night phone call (terribly anachronistic, I know).
Maria: "What is it, Fritz? Do you know how late.... No, I won't bother with Poland, unless you literally handed it to me on a silver platter..."
Fritz: "You'll be delighted"
Poland. If Rocky Balboa was a country.
In the long list of entertaining polish stuff, Polish soldiers were sent to help put down the Haitian Revolution. They got there, decided, for all of the reasons the video shows, that they actually agreed with the rebelling slaves, and then started to fight beside them instead.
They were also helping the American during the USA war of independence. In fact the American Calvary was built by a polish general. His name is casmir pulaski by the way
@@starmaker75 And that makes sense, because the Poles have quite a reputation for cavalry.
Neat! Class consciousness leading to a coalition of marginalized persons coming together to fight alongside one another for their liberation, awesome!
@@Thomas.Wright and the winged hussars arrived
I didn't even know that. I wish I'd known that. It seems like such an interesting detail to be brought up during history classes on Napoleon Wars.
Nothing but praise for Poland. Thank you for taking over 2 million Ukrainian refugees.
.... five and half as for now
We’re taking in our own cousins whose home was destroyed. We’re both descendants of Lech.
Out of several mistakes, I'll point an interesting one: Jadwiga wasn't a queen of Poland - she was crowned as a king of Poland (król, not królowa).
Jee, too much Machismo?
I've seen this one in so many different comment sections whenever Jadwiga is mentioned. It's getting a bit wearing at this point.
The thing is that word królowa does not have interchangeable meaning with word queen in english, its ortography points that this specific person is not holding office of king as is nonetheless wife of one, you can use ending "owa" to make wife of any posible word refering to profession, like for example burmistrz (mayor) into burmisztrzowa (wife of a mayor) or Nowak (popular polish surname into Nowakowa (wife of a Nowak, in default one specific person).
@@wojciechficek616 Wasn't she was explicitly crowned as a "king" despite not being a man a statement to her contemporaries that she was their equal? or is that English mythologizing
There's also the -ska -ski distinction between female and male members of a family. For example, Rutkowska would be a female while Rutkowski could be her brother or other male relative.
"hmm i like this law. I kinda wanna pass this."
"Sejm"
Lmao
"This law will literally help everyone"
"I stubbed my toe today, therefore Veto!"
@@ZarmothBlade The Polish-Lithuanian Sejm is arguably the best argument against nobility having any privileges.. or existing at all. Polish-Lithuanian nobles pretty much used their veto powers to sabotage the PLC, either on behalf of hostile foreign powers like Russia or simply out of selfishness. They also tended to pick foreigners as kings specifically because said candidates wouldn't be familiar at all with Polish-Lithuanian culture, language etc and therefore unable to successfully contest the Szlachta's power.
@@TitanDarwin To be honest, present day politics in Poland show clearly that the masses are no better and will happily vote against their own best interests given half a fake promise.
@@MoraFermi are the masses in power in Poland today? If the promises being made to them are not being honored it doesn't sound like they're in power
I'm a simple Hungarian: I see Poland, I press like.
eyyy
Eyyyy
Hungarian+Polish= Friendship forever❤
yes same love
I'm a simple Pole, i see Hungarians i smile
My favorite WWII story about a Polish soldier comes from the hunt for the Bismarck. During the fighting, one of the gunners for the British would fire in a pattern that read "I AM A POLE" in Morse code
British ship commander present in the area (HMS Cossack) reported that Polish capitan broke the formation and headed towards Bismarck, swimming so close as if he wanted to give it a few cuts with a sword xD
Also sygnalist was signaling ”kurwa" not "I am a Pole" .
Swear words which kurwa is barely make it into history books
Can you imagine having on your west border Galactic Empire, and on your east border Mordor? Poland doesn't have to.
This comment wins!
You actually have a point, both are not that good.
In the book version of "The Two Towers", Gandalf had a conversation with Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli about the relations between Isengard and Mordor. And they speculate that although Isengard and Mordor both fight the same enemies, if there weren't any countries between Isengard and Mordor, they would fight each other. Kinda like the III Reich and USSR who, having conquered the lands between them, turned on each other. And there are of course the elves who (like Britain and France) don't want to fight and have left the humans on their own.
I find your comment highly offensive.
Like Poland didnt abuse its own power everytime they had the chance. Its sad, but thats just how human nations are every time they get the chance to. Poland just got forcefully robbed of its chances at some point.
"As we get into World War I"
All my Elementary School Teachers who skipped straight to WWII and left me confused for five years: I vote we don't.
You might will to veto their idea.
I can tell you about one significant battle in Poland during the Great War: The Battle of Osawiec. It was like something straight out of a horror movie: about 7,000 German soldiers were completely routed by about 100 "dead" Russians. So terrified of these dead Russians the Germans fled across the battlefield and killed themselves on their own fortifications.
mine never got to WW2 in any sort of school
If you want to pick up a good understanding of WWI (and haven't yet) I highly recommend the channel The Great War, which did a chronological analysis of the war week by week. Quite an experience to watch that series.
@@Thomas.Wright, more specifically, these Russian soldiers were garrisoning a fort that Germany really wanted to capture, so they bombed and attacked at at least 3 different times. They all failed. Growing desperate, the Germans just decided to gas the sh*t out of Osawiec fort, and they assumed the defenders were all dead, so they adopted gas masks and went straight on in. Only to find about 100 Russians troops wearing clothes around their mouths, coughing up blood and charging at them like fucking mad lads. The Germans were so terrified of this that they ran away completely, allowing the Russians to hold onto fort Osawiec. This battle would later be known as the "Attack of the Dead Men".
Mieszko: "If I convert to Christianity the Christians will stop invading me!"
Poland's Christian neighbours for the next thousand years: "About that..."
Accurate
Jokes aside, he didn't do that to stop Christian invasions (he was actually doing very well against them) but to forge alliances and expand his influence.
Well yes, but actually no
I think big part was "If i convert i must stop raid them?" And mostly answer was "Not really". Many German attack was try to stop polish raids, and without success.
hahahahaha good point mate ;D
Poland is a country that refused to die, it went off the face of the planet then came back then died again then came back. poland is immortal
It had to be saved by other countries
We're basically a honeybadger of nations
@tekinet7958 incorrect it was helped by other countries but still fought alongside them. For example the polish army escaped poland durint ww2 and became pilots for britain
Poland's History: Being eaten and then being regurgitated out again. Repeat.
oh so Poland has a vore fetish,INtResTING
@@aestheticswim3397 hold my beer time to draw it
@@aestheticswim3397 no, the rest of Europe has a vore fetish, Poland is just their unwilling chew toy.
Poland is the Orc race from Elder Scrolls as a country and little can change my mind.
These replies are cursed
"But a Kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being" - sun-tzu
Meanwhile, Poland: "HOLD MY VODKA!"
BAPTIZED IN FIRE, FORTY TO ONE!
SPIRIT OF SPARTANS, DEATH AND GLORY!
Poland; Sory master, I'm stubborn.
Poland be like: Wellll... Define "Destroyed"
@@nihili4196 Sun: Not on the map, saltier than carthage.. clensed technically.. Every term you use to describe destroying a nation...
@@KamikazeMedias poland: yeaaaah... But ive just asked God and hes cool with me so im just gonna gonna restore the country thank you very much
“Volleyball of Europe”
It’s sad how accurate this is😂 Being in the middle of the cluster fuxk called Europe is surely not fun for anyone. Respect to Poland for still existing
i prefer to call them the "superpowers punching bag" but that works too
You know this scene in cartoons, when something runs over someone form left to right, then back to left again?
The eastern fronts during 1900s be like:
@@witoldtadeusz you mean this? /watch?v=-UL8MCgwTlk
As it happens we are the reigning world champions in volleyball. I think there might be some truth to that.
you can say the same thing about the Baltics having Russia and Germany for neighbors is brutal
I have small correction:
Jadwiga didn't became queen, but king. In those times there wasn't something like queens in Poland.
Otherwise great video bro
There were quins, but in polish Version of this world "królowa" means king's wife. Jadwiga was the ruler of the country, so king herself, not king's wife
“It’s rare for for the act of reading history to bring me physical, and psychological pain,”
Me half polish: It is?
I didn't expect you to be here.
Me Full Polish: I was born in pain 🤣
Only half what’s the other half? German I know it’s German
100% or not Poles stronk together
iz curious..
other half...?
Me full polish: *got third dose of morphine today* Something needs to bring you pain?
"I used to think Polish history was a tragedy. But now I realize, it's a triumph."
Generał Kenobi.
@@VaeSapiens Hetman would be the correct term. But I do like the cheeky dark L.
@@adambielen8996 In the Polish dub of the Revange of the Siths he is called Generał not hetman.
@@Alaryk111 Ah, well fair enough then. Carry on good sir.
@@VaeSapiens Generał Pierogi
Repeat after me: Jadwiga was the KING.
Jadwiga was the KING.
Jadwiga was the KING
Jadwiga była Królem zanim stało się to modne. Ano :)
Jadwiga was the KING.
Kings cannot be female. Jadwiga was the queen because Jadwiga was male, not female.
“But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being, nor can the dead ever be brought back to life... except for Poland lmao.” -Sun Tzu, the Art of War.
I am Belarusian, I see our brother Poland, I click. 🤍❤️🤍
@PL what the what
Love you guys. Still remember my traveling to Belarus and your hospitality.
@Lahestan yes indeed! We are brothers!
@Lahestan Russia was always a thorn in our neck even now it became more troublesome for us with their tyrannical political leaders, but what did Germany did to you? For us Germany at the very least trying to help us.
@Lahestan German did all this horrible things to us. But now the world and so is the country has changed, the policy has changed. Right now our country doesn’t suffer because of Germany, but because of tyranny of so called “president” that we didn’t choose, he’s regime already killed many people and right now the people that he imprisoned are now been tortured, raped and they even get yellow marks on their prison uniform so they would get a special ‘treatment’ (just like in WW2) and that’s just the top of the iceberg. Most importantly while all Europe acknowledged this situation and now trying to help our people including Germany. Russia on the other hand helps and supports this regime. So I hope you understand why we no longer mad at Germany.
"Poland has not yet perished,
So long as we still live.
What the foreign force has taken from us,
We shall with sabre retrieve."
Poland's National Anthem
Fucking amazing. Now THAT is something to be proud of.
That that right their is why I love Poland and I’m American 🇺🇸.
Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła! It was true in the 1900s, the 1920s, the 1940s, and the times of the Iron Curtain. And it is true today.
Noch ist Polen nicht verloren - could this be the German translation of this text? It is a nearly forgotten proverb, meaning 'we shouldn't give up yet'
@@gabbyn978 Yes, it was sung by Germans in 1831, when they greeted Polish former insurgents, who were forced to leave Poland after losing to Russia. Germans back then (outside Prussia) were strongly supportive to Polish cause, but they couldn`t do much to help.
My great-grandfather was a historian In Poland and part of the team to re-catalogue Polish history. Unfortunately I never met him. My Grandfather fought in the Polish resistance during the Warsaw uprising and was in several POW camps during WWII. Unfortunately by the time I was old enough to start wondering about him and ask him questions he had a stroke and couldn't communicate well with people though you could tell he could understand things. Thank you so much Blue for helping me feel closer to my family.
Thank you so much for your amazing family! Your great-grandfather is one of the many many brave Polish people who we have to thank for our lives today. The story of the Polish people is one not to be forgotten. His legacy lives on through you. I hope that if you do not live in Poland you will make the journey there and walk in his steps. It is humbling, heart breaking and enchanting all at once.
Polish history is literally what every universum with superhoeroes use. Oh he died, but he Got back, and.. There he goes again, oh hi, you back!
a brief villain arc is mandatory
Please do more Eastern European history! The whole region faces many unfortunate stereotypes in the West, and as you said, looking into the history helps with that.
What do you mean by more "Eastern" European History?
*Angry Central-European noises*
@@kamilkrupinski1793 ahaha
People from the West, in my experience, look down on the East so it would definitely help
@@kamilkrupinski1793 yeah, poland is partially in central Europe!
@@eybaza6018 Partially?!
Well, as a Pole, I have to admit, you pronounced Polish names EXTREMELY WELL for someone who is a non-native speaker! Congrats!
Oh boy, Poland. The stomping ground of Europe.
But with legos
Twinned with Belgium?
A God's playground, as Norman Davies said.
Ouch, I knew that the entire history of poland consisted of pain from getting invaded but I didn’t expect poland to have a whole tragic hero character arc with an ultimate more or less happy ending.
I seriously got invested.
Poland be like “I can do this all century.”
More like "I can do this all millenium".
It's staggering and wonderful how much that *isn't* a joke.
I was just wondering if Poland-Lithuania inspired Sokovia given the whole "crossroads of major powers, locus of conflict, proud citizens, gets swallowed up" thing.
Just about a millennium of guttural, bloody lipped "I didn't hear no bell..."
Poland be like "I didn't hear no bell!"
- Poland and Lithuania were bound together by the union
"Oh, yeah. Lithuania, the little spec on the map rubbing shoulders with latvia, I know th-"
_MASSIVE RED BLOT APPEARS ON THE MAP_
"Oh"
ya Lithuania use to be a nice chunky boy
Yeah, Medieval Lithuania saw the Mongol Hordes and then beat the snot out of them and expanded massively. So they went from a small tribe to ruling one of the largest states in Europe in just a few years.
Back when Lithuania was one of the heftiest boys of Europe
@@adambielen8996 *collection of tribes. Lithuania wasn't very centralized and different tribes, such as the Curonians, Samogaitans, Skalvians, etc. made up Lithuania with their own different languages and culture
@@compatriot852 Ah, sadly my knowledge of Lithuania and its culture and society isn't where I'd like it to be cause Lithuania just gets straight up ignored in the US unless it is attached to Poland.
Dschinghis Khan: A German group dressed up as Mongols singing about Russia
Poland: *Oh no, oh no, oh no no no no no*
I see you at every history and every reptile video lol
Dschinghis Khan is actually very popular in poland. During communism you had to listen to what they'd allowed you to listen and Dschinghis Khan's songs were allowed. You can still hear them (especially "Moskau") at polish weddings. At least at the ones I've been to.
The UK: "Ah, I see the Hun has finally shed its civilised cloak and gone fangs agape for the Lechian throat. It saddens my heart to the Polish divided again, but, alas, 'tis the way of poles to be apart, is it not?"
@@marcinrybinski4423 they fuckin what. Damn I get controlling political crap but music? Damn. S'takin it too far.
hi avery
I love Poland! The father of my godmother was Polish, he was like a grandfather to me, so Poland has a special place in my heart! Much love from Argentina! ❤
Eastern Europe, except Russia, has suffered from colonialism as much as any nation, but it is usually either completely neglected, or in the case of the Balkans, is portrayed in a positive light.
I mean, in case of the Balkans (and as much as one might be unwilling to agree on moral grounds, even Poland and CzS) did legit benefit from ze whacky tacky german(ic) not-yet-nazis. At least compared to the alternatives. Even within modern day poland and balkans you can still see notable differences in infrastructure and living standards resulting from the influence when comparing west to east (excluding a few places notably warsaw/warszaw/warshawa whatever your preference in language might be) and subjects of Austria vs essentially Ottoman slave states respectively.
Russia is also suffering from colonialism. From the begining of this state rulers treat citizens as colony to exploate.
recently had history class about Balkan situation and so not in Poland, we know colonialism is shit
Russia also suffered from colonialism. Mongols were constantly bothering them and Poland always tried to mess with their gov
And as a Pole myself I think it's sad that we wasted so many opportunities to (more or less) peacefully connect with our Eastern neighbours. Who knows how differently history would look like. Maybe the union would provide the stability our gov needed, maybe we would drag them into our own political mess. We will never know
@@angelikaskoroszyn8495 King Władysław III Waza ruined it demanding from Russia to accept catolicism. But union with Russia create risk to make commonwealth more eastern. Going east was an mistake. In middle ages there were no diference in developlent between Poland and the rest of Europe but after union with Lithuenia we become more oriental nation.
"after him, his daugter jadwiga became QUEEN" *F U R I O U S T Y P I N G I N S U I N G*
First of all, I won't allow anyone to say "Jadwiga" without the title "king".
@@kacper7970 yeah! We know what title we gave her
@@Spacey_key my gf is Polish and was absolutely incensed (she told me about King Jadwiga before)... She is in all the official Polish lineups of Kings! Also as a side note when i read her your comment she said "Oh damn that is a powerful surname, it dates back to about this time actually"
@@helixcheerleader there's actually another female king in polish lineup of kings. Her name is Anna Jagielonka
She was a king!
German and Russia: why wouldn’t you stay down?
Poland: I didn’t hear no bell.
As someone who has Polish and German heritage, reading Central Europe history is quite a mixed feeling and heading banging to the wall
Oh! I'm 2nd generation polish and German!
@@Bleepnopboopbeep I’m third generation.
"I don't like Poland. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere"
Frederick the Great
So if I say the words, "BAPTIZED IN FIRE, FORTY TO ONE!"
I would make a Winged Hussars reference, but UA-cam keeps deleting them for some weird reason.
I love that you start the video by putting a giant sign "Eastern Europe" on the exact middle of the continent :D
The summary of Poland reminds me so much of Korea for some reason. I mean: stuck between powerful states, experienced mass amounts of death from an imperialistic neighbor AND got partitioned into two?
Poland and Korea feel like they have a lot in common.
USA is viewed highly positively in both SK and Poland too
@@Anonim-os7rp The USA isn't viewed as highly as it used to be in communism. The younger and more "left" a Pole is the less they look up to America.
But from what I know similarities between Poland and Korea are brought up a lot in scientific discourse.
@@ilian3199 Even now, when the society is aware of flaws of American system the view is fairly good, and Poland is firm NATO member.
And lefties here may indeed not be very pro-American, but tend to be very enthusiastic about EU instead.
Pro-American views are common among populist (traditionalist + welfarist + authoritarian) ruling party.
Poland was an empire as well, beat both Russians and Germans many times, conquered Moscow, beat Ottoman Empire into ground
We should invite the Irish folks and go for a drink.
"A single bribe could throw a critical reform right out the window!"
Why does that sound so familiar? *Ponders in USA*
Seriously, the filibuster has turned into the Liberum Veto
@@janmelantu7490 The European Union also suffers from the Veto right.
It seems like politicians fear the threat of filibuster more than the actual filibuster because a filibuster is literally just a lot of talking about random stuff to fill time and avoid some bill.
@@danielsjohnson If you mean a standing filibuster, it hasn't been like that for decades... sure you might have the occasional tool (Ted Cruz) who does do that for whatever reason but they really only need 41 votes and signal an intent to filibuster.
Same.
You know that Darth Maul meme "Man literally too angry to die"? That's my country, that's us. When we fight for our independence, it's great. When we don't have to, we start fighting each other.
Yeah that's true...
Poland and Hungary stands strong together , love from Székelyföld 🇭🇺❤️🇵🇱
Stop supporting putin then
@@marek7641 who said I'm supporting Putin
@@obi-wankenobi1676 your government is and you don’t protest. Being silent is supporting
@@marek7641 I ain't living in Hungary , I'm not even a Hungarian citizen yet
@@obi-wankenobi1676 what kind of excuse is that? I see Ukrainian and Iranian protests around the world. But I don’t see free russians protesting in free countries. Same mentality
As a Pole i salute your pronaunciations, might be the best i have seen on youtube so far!
At least from a non-native speaker.
@@HenshinFanatic I mean duh XD
The Polish national anthem goes:
"Poland did not yet disappear as long as we're alive"
Poetic
I really appreciate researched pronunciations, "Bolesław" was perfect
Thank you so much for making this! I have struggled to find an understandable summary of pre-1900 polish history, and this was the enigma machine to decode the history for me!
I love how every poland video has supportive hungarians in the comments
the bromance is strong with those two
edit: yall can we *not* get overly political in the comments?
Yea we saved their asses once, now hopefuly they will do the same for us supporting us vs Israel political battle with missinformations spread by Israeli lobbyst in USA, that country want money from Poland for Polish Jews who died by a German hands on Polish land... And they wonder why there are antysemites out there...
@@kiroshki You could not write anything more stupid than this. Learn the history and think before you say/write something.
PS. If your only "friends" are those who owe you, then I hope you will never REALLY need their help... They won't be with you when you need them the most. Brotherhood is about more than just owing someone a favour.
@@Unrizen XD there is not such thing as friends nation wise. We had wars with Hungarians. We are now in good relationship and that started with us helping them. Thats a fact, deal with it. We now share similar views that help to keep it good also we are not neigbours.
"You could not write anything more stupid than this." yeas, I could write what you did, it would be more stupid XD. "Brotherhood" X fcuking D. 10 yo view on politics be like.
@@kiroshki jesteś idiotą?
What makes you say it's a bromance? I love them romantically and we're very sexy together
You know what? Thank you very much doing a small history lesson about Poland Blue, I’m from Poland but was raised in England so I never really understood or know my culture very well but because of you I see why my mum always shouted at me and say “We are like the Spartans in 300, won’t die that easily and definitely won’t die without a fight!” Now I’m extra proud of my heritage! Thank you again! :-)
Your mom did the right thing. Hope she is doing well.
We do not Beg for freedom. We fight for it.
Your Mom is a HERO, polish blood running through her veins.
THIS ! IS! WARSAW!
Sad thing is, most people remember Poland the best. Lithuania is just an after-thought - not eastern enough to be as exotic as Russia and not western enough to be "modern and interesting". Nobody remembers or cares about Lithuania, even some lithuanians...
*Sad Vytis noises*
We still remember you. The world would be a sad place if everyone had forgotten their culture and become a mindless citizen of the world. Ps. Post a recipe for a lithuanian dish. It's always fun too try out something that's new for you
Check out Eastory it's a channel done by a Estonia and covers various aspects of history from the area...
Hey, some Belarusians care, cause we both were in Grand Duchy of Lithuania! 🤜🤛
Never forget your litvanian bros
Also in 2014 Poland formed it's own space agency. Poland CAN into space!
Rome: We have a Senate😎
Poland: lol, Sejm😂
Well, the Senate (polish - Senat) was the upper house of the parliament (still is), though yeah, pretty much so
Love to the Polish from a Belarusian!
Love back to you sister 🙋🏼♂️
Czekamy na Was.
Make him (Lukashenko) down
Greets from Poland. My grandma lived in Belarus and she had to leave her house when the war has ended.
We love you to guys.. and we are waiting for you to be free finally!
As a 4th generation Polish American (my ancestors were among the millions of immigrants you mentioned), I actually know very little about the history of my motherland, so thank you for this. Us Poles aren't given enough credit for how much crap we've pushed through.
Now I know why I'm so dang stubborn and resilient. It's the Polish blood in me.
I had never seen the word "motherland" used in any context outside of Russia. Fatherland is used more widely, even in Poland.
Typical Polish character traits can be a blessing but also a curse 😂 God Bless you still remember that you are Polish 😊
It's not your motherland. You are an American.
@@cblka there is no reason not to use it, it sounds quite natural.
@@Guciom Well ur kinda wrong. Polish citzenship is passed down by the law of blood (aka. Ius sanguinis). So it can be said that Poland is her Motherland/fatherland if she says it is.
I am from Poland and I am proud of my country 😊😸