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Article: Poland to 1569
- Article from:
- Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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POLAND TO 1569
POLAND TO 1569.
Before the Polish state was established, many impermanent tribal states existed in the territory of present-day Poland, the most important in the ninth and tenth centuries being those of the Polanie, in Great Poland around Gniezno, and the Wi
ś
lanie, in the basin of the upper Vistula. The territorial expansion of the Polanie led to the unification of most of the neighboring tribes in the tenth century and to the foundation of a state under the hereditary rule of the Piast dynasty. The first recorded Piast ruler was Mieszko I (d. 992), who, after assuming power, probably at the beginning of the 960s, adopted the Christian faith from Bohemia in 966 ...