Poland history timeline
This chart puts 9 Polish states on one timeline in order, from Duchy of Poland (c. 960 to 1025 CE) to Poland (1989 CE to the present).
See it on the interactive chart
- Duchy of Polandc. 960 to 1025 CE
- Kingdom of Poland (Piast)1025 to 1370 CE
- Kingdom of Poland (Jagiellonian)1386 to 1569 CE
- Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth1569 to 1795 CE
- Duchy of Warsaw1807 to 1815 CE
- Congress Poland1815 to 1915 CE
- Second Polish Republic1918 to 1939 CE
- Polish People's Republic1947 to 1989 CE
- Poland1989 CE to the present
- Slavic
In order
Duchy of Poland
Mieszko I, ruler of the Polans, accepted Christianity in 966. His son Boleslaw the Brave was crowned the first king of Poland in 1025.
Kingdom of Poland (Piast)
The Piast realm split into duchies after 1138 and suffered Mongol invasions from 1240. Wladyslaw the Elbow-high restored the kingdom in 1320, and his son Casimir the Great strengthened and expanded it.
Kingdom of Poland (Jagiellonian)
Queen Jadwiga married Jogaila of Lithuania in 1386, joining the two realms. Their army crushed the Teutonic Knights at Grunwald in 1410, and Copernicus studied in Krakow.
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Union of Lublin created one of Europe's largest states, a noble republic with an elected king and the liberum veto. Russia, Prussia and Austria partitioned it out of existence by 1795.
Duchy of Warsaw
A Polish state that Napoleon created from Prussian and Austrian partition lands. After his fall the Congress of Vienna handed most of it to Russia as a kingdom under the tsar.
Congress Poland
A semi-autonomous Polish state created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 from parts of Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw, in personal union with Russia. It gradually lost its autonomy after the uprisings of 1830 and 1863, and Russian rule effectively ended with the withdrawal of 1915.
Second Polish Republic
Reborn in November 1918, Poland beat the Red Army before Warsaw in 1920. Germany and the Soviet Union invaded and divided it in September 1939.
Polish People's Republic
A Soviet-bloc state moved west to the Oder-Neisse line after the war. Pressure from the Solidarity union, founded in 1980, led to semi-free elections in June 1989 and a Solidarity-aligned prime minister.
Poland
A democratic republic since 1989 that joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004, and has the sixth-largest economy in the EU by nominal GDP.
Major events
- Siege of Vienna. Imperial German and Polish forces under King John III Sobieski defeat the Ottoman army besieging Vienna. In the war that follows, to 1699, most of Ottoman Hungary passes to the Habsburg emperor.
- Second World War begins. Germany invades Poland on 1 September. The war in Europe kills tens of millions, including six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, before Germany surrenders in May 1945.
Questions
What is the order of Polish states?
By start date: Duchy of Poland, Kingdom of Poland (Piast), Kingdom of Poland (Jagiellonian), Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Duchy of Warsaw, Congress Poland, Second Polish Republic, Polish People's Republic and Poland.
How many Polish states were there?
This timeline shows 9. Other lists count differently, depending on how they treat rival states and periods of division.
Which came first?
Duchy of Poland, c. 960 to 1025 CE, is the earliest on this timeline.
Where do these dates come from?
Each row's dates were checked against the sources listed on that row's own page, mostly English Wikipedia articles, which cite the underlying scholarship. Dates that are uncertain are marked c.