This video is an excerpt
from the Polish classic "Krzyzacy" produced during
the Soviet era to inspire Poles with nationalism.
For a brief historical walkthrough,
Poland is one of the oldest consistently-functioning nations
in the world, and arguably the oldest Slavic state excluding
Bulgaria, though it frequently suffered schism and collapse.
It was unified and Christianized by Mieszko I in the 9th century,
though it almost immediately went into fragmentation thereafter.
By the 13th century, the German empire stretching from southern
Denmark to Italy had begun to sponsor crusading armies to
convert heathen peoples, to gain wealth for the German government
in tribute (the Holy Roman emperor), and in part to protect
the empire (equated with Christendom itself) from invasion.
Germany and Denmark led the Northern Crusade against the pagan
Lithuanians, Estonian Finns, Prussians (not the German Prussians
we know today), and the Baltic Sea. The Teutonic Order was
one of these crusading orders formed during the Crusades alongside
the Templars, the Hospitallers, and the Order of the Dragon.
In the 13th century, the
Teutonic Order, still partly a vassal of the Holy Roman Empire
(Germany), settled with state sponsorship in Hungary before
being expelled out of fears of intrigue. The dukes of Mazovia
(today's Warsaw) in Poland, seeking to tame and annex the
nearby pagan tribes of Prussia, hired the Teutonic Order to
wage war in the name of Christ. Instead, the Germans simply
conquered the whole region, creating a massive theocracy called
the Teutonic Order Monastic State that eventually stretched
from Pommerania to Estonia. This was not intended by the Poles,
nor their new Lithuanian allies who saw more and more of their
brethren in the forests of western Lithuania fall to German
crusading conquest. Great heroes like Vytautas of Lithuania
began to retaliate with Polish assistance.
By the 15th century, the
authority of the foreign German authorities over Polish and
Baltic subjects was increasingly perceived as oppressive.
Citizens, nobles, and priests within Prussia (ruled by the
Germans) begged for intervention by the Polish-Lithuanian
empire. The eventual result was the massive Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic
War, where the German Grandmaster battled with his veteran
legions against a massive Polish-Lithuanian uprising that,
at the Battle of Grünwald, left the Germans in humiliating
defeat. The Teutonic Order Monastic State endured until a
second uprising (the 13-Years' War) that effectively placed
the whole realm into complete submission to the Polish-Lithuanian
empire.
This event is a moment of tremendous
pride for the Polish people and the Lithuanians in their nearly
500 years of shared history. Monuments to this victory can
be seen in Krakow, Warsaw, and all of Poland. The relationship
of the Lithuanians and Poles has become often hostile over
the 20th century, as the two engaged in wars over ethnic minority
populations, so many Lithuanians and Poles today can be heared
claiming that the other had absolutely nothing to do with
this victory over the invading Germans.
________________________________________
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR:
James Mayfield is a historian
and the Chairman of the European Heritage Library. I have
a Cum Laude BA in History with a Minor in Germanic Studies
(language and history), am presently working for my Masters
in History, and plan to immediately progress to my PhD Doctorate.
I have a special academic interest in Europe's diverse ethnic
identities, languages, and cultures, and the political struggles
of native European and immigrant minority identities. See
my staff entry for more information.
BIBLIOGRAPHY/SOURCES
USED:
The film "Krzyzacy",
a Polish epic produced during the Communist era for Polish
nationalism. Copyright is expired.
Copyright ongoing since 2008-,
European Heritage Library®. www.euroheritage.net.
All Rights Reserved. The European Heritage Library is a non-profit academic
organization owned by
Chairman James Mayfield.
No email addresses or personal information is redistributed. No articles
or content on this site may be redistributed without approval or a
full citation and credit to the EHL as the original source.
