The soil is mostly a light fertile loam, though there are large barren tracts of sand, heath, and swamp, especially in the east. Much of the fertile soil is rich pasture land, and much is occupied with forests of pine, birch, oak, etc. Rye, wheat, barley, and other cereals, hemp, timber, honey, and wax, cattle, sheep, and horses, vast mines of salt and coal, some silver, iron, copper, and lead constitute the natural riches of the country.
People.—The present population of the provinces, included in the Poland of former days, consists chiefly of Poles, Lithuanians, Germans, Jews, Malo-Russians, Roumanians and Gypsies. The Poles, who number 10,000,000, form the bulk of the population; the Lithuanians, 2,100,000 in number, inhabit the northeast of the country; the Germans, of whom there are 2,000,000, live mostly in the towns; the Jews are very numerous being estimated, at 2,200,000.
Roman Catholics preponderate; then come in order the Greek Church, Protestants, Jews, and Armenians.
Cities.—The following are the populations of the chief cities: Capital, Warsaw, 800,000; Lodz, 400,000; Lemberg, 225,000; Cracow, 160,000; Przemysl, 60,000.
Warsaw (Polish Warszawa), the capital of Poland, stands on the Vistula’s left bank, three hundred and thirty miles east of Berlin by rail and seven hundred miles southwest of Petrograd. Two iron bridges lead to the suburb of Prague, on the opposite bank. Standing on a navigable river, with great railway lines to Moscow, Petrograd, Vienna, Danzig, and Berlin, Warsaw is one of the most important cities of eastern Europe, being smaller only than Petrograd and Moscow. Corn and flax are largely exported, and coal and manufactured goods imported. Warsaw itself manufactures electroplate, machinery, boots, woolens, pianos, carriages, tobacco, sugar, chemicals, beer, and spirits.
Of over one hundred Catholic churches the cathedral of St. John is the most notable; there are also several Greek churches, two Lutheran ones, and many synagogues. The castle is an imposing building, and there are many fine private palaces. The university, suppressed at various times, was reopened in 1915, and has seventy-five professors who now teach in Polish.
History.—The early history of Poland is legendary and obscure. The Poles, like the Russians, are a Slavonic race, and are first spoken of as the Polani, a tribe or people between the Vistula and Oder. The country was divided into small communities until the reign of Mieczyslaw I. (962-992) of the Piast dynasty, who renounced paganism in favor of Christianity, and was a vassal of the German emperor.
He was succeeded by Boleslaw the Great (992-1025), who raised Poland into an independent kingdom and increased its territories. In succeeding reigns the country was involved in war with Germany, the Prussians, the Teutonic knights, and with Russia. The last of the Piast dynasty was Casimir the Great (1364-1370), during whose reign the material prosperity of Poland greatly increased. He was succeeded by his nephew, Louis of Anjou, king of Hungary, whose daughter, Hedwig, was recognized as “king” in 1384, and having married Jagello, prince of Lithuania, thus established the dynasty of the Jagellons, which lasted from 1386 to 1572.
During this period Poland attained its most powerful and flourishing condition. In 1572 the Jagellon dynasty became extinct in the male line, and the monarchy, hitherto elective in theory, now became so in fact. The more important of the elective kings were Sigismund III. (1587-1637), Wladislaw or Ladislaus IV. (1632-1648), John Casimir, (1648-1669), and the Polish general Sobieski, who became king under the title of John III. (1674-1696). He was succeeded by Augustus II., Elector of Saxony, who got entangled in the war of Russia with Charles XII., and had as a rival in the kingdom Stanislaus Lesczynski. Augustus III. (1733-1763) followed, and by the end of his reign internal dissensions and other causes had brought the country into a state of helplessness.