ABSTRACT
The very fact that Poland is situated in the geopolitical centre of Europe has exposed it to both Eastern and Western influences. While on some occasions Poles have been given the historical opportunity to choose the path they would like to follow, as at the beginning of the Polish state (in the year 966) it was determined to be rooted in Roman Christianity and Latin culture (rather than in ~e Byzantine East), on other occasions the country was subject to imposition of foreign control and way of life, as in the case of the Partitions (in the nineteenth century), and the Yalta and Potsdam Conference Agreements (in 1945). Thus, the Polish state, nation, and national identity have been developing, during the thousand years of their history, at the crossroads of the European West and the European East. This chapter outlines the milestones of this history.
