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| GoPoland!: History of Poland: Rise from Ashes: Second Republic |
Poland landed back on the map of Europe when the three empires destroyed one another in World War I. Following the war, its borders shifted somewhat over the next few years, but one early decision proved fatal 20 years later. Given the strongly German population of Danzig and the surrounding Pomeranian region, the Treaty of Versailles established Danzig as a 'free city' and east Pomerania as German. But Poland required access to the sea, and was granted it as a thin sliver which isolated these German lands from the Fatherland. Reclaiming them in 1939, Hitler ignited World War Two.
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But in the interim, Poland forged full-steam ahead to make up for lost time. With a great deal of energy and desire, Poland went about rebuilding its industries and its military. Headed by Jozef Pilsduski, its army successfully repelled the ever-ambitious Soviet Union in 1920 and at the same time expanded its borders eastward to encompass parts of Lithuania and Ukraine. Yet the considerable advances were not enough. Poland resisted but could not repel the dual-pronged invasion of Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939. Once again, it fell prey to the ambitions of its powerful neighbors at a cost higher than any paid previously.
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