Poland

Poland 

 

Geography
Location: Central Europe, east of Germany
Area: 312,685 sq km
Area comparative: slightly smaller than New Mexico
Climate: temperate with cold, cloudy, moderately severe winters with frequent precipitation; mild summers with frequent showers and thundershowers
Terrain: mostly flat plain; mountains along southern border
Natural Resources: coal, sulfur, copper, natural gas, silver, lead, salt, amber, arable land


People
Population: 38,635,144
Age Structure: 0-14 years: 16.7%
                            15-64 years: 70.3%
                            65 years and over: 13%
Median Age:  36.43 years
Population Growth Rate: 0.03%
Birth Rate: 10.78 births/1,000 population
Death Rate: 10.01 deaths/1,000 population
Sex Ratio: at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
                     total population: 0.94 male(s)/female
Life Expectancy at Birth: total population: 74.74 years
                                                  male: 70.71 years
                                                 female: 79.03 years
Ethnic Groups: Polish 96.7%, German 0.4%, Belarusian 0.1%, Ukrainian 0.1%, other and unspecified 2.7%
Religions: Roman Catholic 89.8% (about 75% practicing), Eastern Orthodox 1.3%, Protestant 0.3%, other 0.3%, unspecified 8.3%
Language: Polish 97.8%, other and unspecified 2.2%
Literacy:  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
                   total population: 99.8%
                   male: 99.8%
                   female: 99.7%


Economy
GDP (purchasing power parity): $489.3 billion
GDP (official exchange rate): $249 billion
GDP - real growth rate: 3.3%
GDP - composition by sector:  agriculture: 2.8%
                                                            industry: 31.7%
                                                            services: 65.5%
Labor Force: 17.1 million
Unemployment Rate: 18.3%
Population Below Poverty Level: 17%
Agriculture Products: potatoes, fruits, vegetables, wheat; poultry, eggs, pork, dairy
Industries: machine building, iron and steel, coal mining, chemicals, shipbuilding, food processing, glass, beverages, textiles

Slavs in Europe

Migrated from Central Asia in 3^rd or 2^nd millenia BCE

East Slavs:  Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarussians 

West Slavs:  Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Wends, or Sorbs

South Slavs:  Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, and Macedonians (Bulgarians, of mixed origin like the Hungarians, speak a Slavic language)

 

Poland:  Ethnic Origins

W. Slavic tribe the polanie
pol means “field” in Polish
    reference to geography of Poland

Polish ethnic stock
    Mixed with Germanic tribes from the W
    E Slavs from the Russia, Belarus, Ukraine
    Scandinavians (esp. Swedes) from the N

Peasant Culture

The Polish Peasant, Thomas and Znanecki

 

  

 

Characteristics of peasant life
familial solidarity

absolute; loyalty/assistance to family demanded by degree of relation

**husband/wife unit
marriage – not based on love/sex/affection
 rather RESPECT

their behaviors reflect upon each other; do nothing that would lower the social standing of one another’s families
 
      e.g. shameful for wife to do hired labor

     dowry – received by the couple from both sides

     [still really the communal property of the family because they are part of the family]

     couple does not become individualized – a new nucleus but forever tied to the larger family network

     parental control/responsibility

LAND – SANCROSANCT
      the means of family sustenance

father retires when son becomes more able to manage the farm than he

patriarchy-boys more important than girls – they get the land

pride = familial, not individual
   likewise with shame

**collectivity/family group identity
   not indiv.

reinforced by village, community

 

Polish Political History

1st United State:
Mieszko I 966
converted to Christianity (Catholicism)
Founds the Piast Dynasty

Major competitors, invaders
Teutonic Knights
Tatars

Wladyslaw I reunites in 1320
Kazimierz the Great 1333-1370

Jadwiga marries Wladyslaw II Jagiello 1386
Jagiellonian Dynasty

Defeat the Teutons at Battle of Tannenburg in 1410

16th Century
Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania

Noble Republic 1572-1795
  Elected Monarchy

First Republic/Constitution May 3, 1791
 

The Second Republic (1918-1939)   

     Interwar Period

     General Pilsudski

WWII

     Molotov-Rippentrop Pact

     Invasion September 17, 1939

     Occupation by Nazis

     Eastern Front

     Holocaust

Communist Period 1945-1989

Solidarity Movement

     Strikes, Gdansk Shipyards

     Lech Walesa

            

    

Pope John Paul II

    

    

 

Martial Law

 

 

 

Legacies of Communism

 

Traditional bases of National Identity
  Catholicism, Marianism

Our Lady of Czestochowa (The Black Madonna)
   Poland as Christ in Europe
   nationalism (anti-Germanic, anti-Russian)
   land (the Fatherland)
   the Polish family