An excerpt from the introductory: ONE THOUSAND YEARS OF HISTORY
Poland, that today is being reborn to an independent life, is a country of ancient and noble traditions. Powerful and independent as early as the tenth century, Poland (at that time situated between the Vistula, the Oder and the Warthe Rivers) developed into a mighty State under the dynasty of the Jagellons, surpassing the other European states in area. From then on Poland extended from the Carpathian mountains to the Dwina River and from the Black sea to the Baltic. Under the successive reign of forty Kings, through the space of more than a thousand years, Poland developed her strength, placing it many times at the service of other countries and earning again and again titles of eternal glory.
Poland, situated on what was then the border of Eastern Europe—separating two different worlds—was the rampart that for hundreds of years safeguarded Europe and Christianity from the invasions of the Turks and the Mongols.
The long struggle against these barbarians, who menaced Europe, was begun in 1241 by King Henry the Pious at the battle of Lignica. Jan Sobieski, in 1683, struck the decisive blow to Turkish power under the walls of Vienna.
Europe could never have developed as it did, had not the barbarian invaders who had overrun Eastern Europe for five hundred years been checked by the victorious resistance of the Poles. In the middle ages the Lithuanians, the last pagan people of Europe, were converted to Christianity by the Poles who introduced the Bible and western civilization into their country.