- History of Warsaw
The history of
Warsaw , is mostly synonymous with the history ofPoland . Warsaw was founded in the 9th century and for many centuries coincided with the development of what is today known as theWarsaw Old Town .During this time the city has experienced numerous plagues, invasions, devastating fires and administrative restrictions on its growth. The most crucial of those events included the Deluge, the
Great Northern War (1702, 1704, 1705),War of the Polish Succession ,Warsaw Uprising (1794) , Battle of Praga and the Massacre of Praga inhabitants,November Uprising ,January Uprising ,World War I ,Siege of Warsaw (1939) and aerial bombardment,Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ,Warsaw Uprising (which in the aftermath nearly reduced all of the city to rubble).The city was a site of other, less destructive events. It was the site of election of Polish kings, meeting of Polish parliament (
Sejm ), and events such as the Polish victory over theBolsheviks at theVistula , during theBattle of Warsaw (1920) . Yet it has still grown to the multicultural capital of a modern European state and a major commercial and cultural centres ofCentral Europe .Early History
The area covered by modern Warsaw had been inhabited for at least 14000 years. Several archaeological findings date back to the times of the
Lusatian culture .The first fortified settlements on the site of today's Warsaw were
Bródno (9th/10th century) and Jazdów (12th/13th century). After Jazdów was raided, a new similar settlement was established on the site of a small fishing village called Warszowa. In the beginning of the 14th century it became one of the seats of theDukes of Masovia , becoming the capital of Masovia in 1413 . Upon the extinction of the local ducal line, the duchy was reincorporated into the Polish Crown in 1526. In 1529 Warsaw for the first time became the seat of the General Sejm, permanent since 1569. In 1573 Warsaw gave its name to the Warsaw Confederation, formally establishing religious freedom in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.Capital of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Due to its central location between the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 's capitals ofKraków andVilnius , Warsaw became the capital of the Commonwealth and at the same time of the Polish Crown in 1596, when KingSigismund III Vasa moved the court fromKraków . Warsaw remained the capital of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1795, when it was annexed by theKingdom of Prussia to become the capital of the province ofSouth Prussia . Liberated byNapoleon 's army in 1807, Warsaw was made the capital of the newly createdDuchy of Warsaw . Following theCongress of Vienna of 1815, Warsaw became the centre of theCongress Poland , a constitutional monarchy under a personal union withImperial Russia . The Royal University of Warsaw was established in 1816.Following the repeated violations of the Polish constitution by the
Russia ns, the 1830November Uprising broke out. However, the Polish-Russian war of 1831 ended in the uprising's defeat and in the curtailment of the Kingdom's autonomy. On27 February 1861 a Warsaw crowd protesting the Russian rule over Poland was fired upon by the Russian troops. Five people were killed. The Underground Polish National Government resided in Warsaw duringJanuary Uprising in 1863–4.Warsaw flourished in the late nineteenth century under Mayor
Sokrates Starynkiewicz (1875–92), a Russian-born general appointed by Tsar Alexander III. Under Starynkiewicz Warsaw saw its first water and sewer systems designed and built by the English engineerWilliam Lindley and his son,William Heerlein Lindley , as well as the expansion and modernization oftrams ,street lighting andgas works .Capital of Poland
Warsaw became the capital of the newly independent Poland in 1918. In the course of the
Polish-Bolshevik War of 1920, the huge Battle of Warsaw was fought on the Eastern outskirts of the city in which the capital was successfully defended and theRed Army defeated.World War II
During the
85% of buildings in Warsaw were destroyedSecond World War central Poland, including Warsaw, came under the rule of theGeneral Government , a Nazi colonial administration. All higher education institutions were immediately closed and Warsaw's entire Jewish population — several hundred thousand, some 30% of the city — herded into theWarsaw Ghetto . When the order came to annihilate the Ghetto as part ofHitler 's "final solution ", Jewish fighters launched theWarsaw Ghetto Uprising . Despite being heavily outgunned and outnumbered, the Ghetto held out for almost a month. When the fighting ended, almost all survivors were massacred, only a few managed to escape or hide.By July 1944 the
Red Army was deep into the Polish territory, pursuing the Germans toward Warsaw. Knowing thatStalin was hostile to the idea of an independent Poland, thePolish government-in-exile based inLondon gave orders to the underground Home Army (AK) to try to seize the control of Warsaw from theNazi s just before theRed Army arrives. Thus, on1 August 1944 , as the Soviet army was nearing the city very fast, theHome Army and the civilian population started theWarsaw Uprising .The armed struggle, planned to last 48 hours, went on for 63 days, and eventually the Home Army fighters were forced to capitulate. They were transported to thePOW camps in Germany, while the entire civilian population was expelled. Hitler, ignoring the agreed terms of the capitulation, ordered the entire city to be razed to the ground, and the library and museum collections taken to Germany or burned. About 85% of the city had been destroyed, including the historic Old Town and the Royal Castle.Modern Times
After the war, large
prefabricated housing project s were erected in Warsaw to address the housing shortage. The city resumed its role as the capital of Poland and the country's centre of political and economic life. Many of the historic streets, buildings, and churches were restored to their original form. In 1980, Warsaw's historic Old Town was inscribed ontoUNESCO 'sWorld Heritage list.In 1995 the
Warsaw Metro opened, and with the entry of Poland into theEuropean Union in 2004, Warsaw is currently experiencing the biggest economic boom of its history.
=Historicalee also
*
Warsaw Confederation
*Free election atWola
*Warsaw Uprising (1794)
*Duchy of Warsaw
*Siege of Warsaw (1939)
*Warsaw concentration camp
*Warsaw Ghetto
*Warsaw Uprising
*Warsaw Pact
*List of presidents of Warsaw External links
* [http://www.mhw.pl/mhw/homeen.jsp?place=Menu02&news_cat_id=78&layout=0&lang=en Historical Museum of Warsaw]
* [http://free.polbox.pl/p/psbor/ehistor.htm History of Warsaw]
* [http://www.e-warsaw.pl/miasto/historia.htm Warsaw's history]
* The Virtual Jewish History Tour, [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Warsaw.html Warsaw]
* [http://francik.tripod.com/prah.html Prahistoria Warszawy]
* [http://www.warszawa1939.pl/index.php Zdjęcia i historia Warszawy na przestrzeni dziejów]
* [http://www.stalus.iq.pl/show.php/ Przewodnik po Warszawie (do 1944 r.)]
* [http://www.starawarszawa.pl/index.html Stara Warszawa – przedwojenne pocztówki + zdjęcia współczesne]
* [http://gnu.univ.gda.pl/~emcz/nazwywa3.html Nazwy miejscowe Warszawy]
* [http://gnu.univ.gda.pl/~emcz/nazwywa4.html Kilka nieznanych etymologii nazw miejscowych z obszaru obecnej Warszawy]
* [http://www.waw.net.pl/~wituszynski/kids/isia/zabytki/solec.htm Słona ulica czyli pochodzenie nazwy "Solec"]
* [http://www.herder-institut.de/warschau/ "Warszawa – ostatnie spojrzenie" – niemieckie fotografie lotnicze sprzed sierpnia 1944]
* [http://www.lwowska.w.pl/ Ulica Lwowska w Warszawie - najpiękniejsza spośród ocalałych]
* [http://www.trasbus.com/planywarszawy.htm Plany Warszawy z lat 1908, 1924, 1935, 1939, 1946]
* [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=gdc3&fileName=scd0001_20020611001wapage.db&recNum=4 "Spis Abonentów Warszawskiej Sieci Telefonów Polskiej Akcyjnej Spółki Telefonicznej i Rządowej Warszawskiej Sieci Okręgowej Rok 1938/39"]
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