ABSTRACT
In modern times Poland has been renowned for the openness and vulnerability of its frontiers. On the broad North European Plain quite minor shifts in the balance of power have frequently resulted in remarkably large territorial changes. Here ‘states could expand or contract faster and further than anywhere else in Europe’ (Davies 1981:23). Indeed, the scale and frequency of Poland’s territorial shifts have made it the archetypal European state. This prompted the philosopher Michael Oakeshott to remark: ‘The history of modern Europe is the history of Poland, only a little more so’ (Oakeshott 1975:186).
