POLAND. 



243 



successors soon lost most of his conquests, but a century later Bolislas III. evan- 

 gelized the Pomorianians (Pomeranians), who, cut off by the impassable marshes 

 of the Netze, had long formed a world apart grouped round "Wollin, or Vineta. 

 Still the internal dissensions of the Slavs and the " Germanisation " of a great part 

 of their domain prevented Poland from retaining her western conquests. Towards 

 the end of the thirteenth century the kingdom had lost half of the original Polish 

 lands in the Oder basin. By invitation the Duke of Mazovia and the Teutonic 

 Knights established themselves in the Prusso-Lithuanian lands on the Baltic, 



Fig. 116. — Shifting of the Polish State East and West. 

 According to Dragomanov. Scale 1 : 20,000,000. 



E Of G. 



Dini n 



Limits of the Terntory Kinprdom 

 Western Slavs, actually of 



Tenth Century. occu))ied by Bolislas I. 

 Poles. 



Conquests 



of 



Bolislas III. 



Prussia 

 Vassal 



of 

 Poland. 



Livonia 



first Polish, 



then 



Swedish. 



Polish 

 Livonia 



and 

 Kurland. 



Cf 



Present 

 Kingdom. 



200 Miles. 



whence they commanded the Niémen and Vistula basins. Thus began one of the 

 political elements destined one day to share in the fall of Poland. 



After the definite renunciation of Polish Silesia by Casimir the Great in the 

 middle of the fourteenth century, the state seems to have turned its attention 

 entirely towards the east. Through the spread of Christianity and the marriage 

 of the Polish queen with the pagan Prince Jagello, Lithuania was annexed, and 

 the whole of Western Russia thrown open. Even in the seventeenth century 

 Sigismund III. could still aspire to become monarch of all East and North Europe. 

 Claiming at once the throne of Sweden and Poland, he also aimed at the sove- 

 reignty of Muscovy. Under Sobieski the Polish nation, brave and heroic above 

 all others, seemed to have definitely become the champion of the West against the 



