Poland (Chaos)

The savaging of Poland by the never took place in TTL. Thus, the competent prince of, Heinrich / Henryk the Pious managed not only to live longer, but also getting crowned king , first one since 1079. Although many Piast princes continued to reign in other parts of Poland, his family could keep the king's title. In 1293, Poland attacked the Russian princedom of, taking about one third of the latter's territory. But now, Poland felt increasingly threatened by the Germans and the Przemyslids. The king tried to fight them in 1301 to break free, but this only lead to a coalition of the, , and the HRE under king  formed against him. The war between Germans and Poles ended in 1308, not to the latter's favor. The Teutonic Order acquires Pommerellen (OTL West Prussia, the Poles also call it Eastern Pomerania), Silesia became a German fief; the western third went to, which earlier had acquired the Lower Lausitz / Lusatia, the rest was divided between the two Przemyslid lands, Bohemia and Moravia. In 1363, when the Anjou dynasty in Hungary died out, the nobles elect new king. But in 1371 already, this influence ended with the death of incompetent king.

Rise to power
In 1394/95, the hit Central Europe. Although Poland was also affected, by imposing a quarantine it was mostly saved and didn't have to pay such a high toll as its neighbors. Many persecuted Jews fled to Poland. This proved to be a great advantage: In 1404 Poland attacked the Teutonic Order, won the ; Pommerellen became Polish again, thus gaining an important access to the sea. 1426, and  Eriksson allied against the Teutonic Order. 1432 they were victorious again; Poland kept its conquests from the last war and also gets, Sweden got Estonia (that's only the northern half of OTL Estonia, though). In another war 1432-35, Poland conquered the princedom of.

In the 2nd half of the 15th century however, the power of the Polish kings shrunk, and in 1470 the young king had to accept a new constitution, which gave every noble (15% of the Polish population!) the right to vote in the parliament, and introduced separation of powers. 1472-76, the took place; after the death of king  the Mad, the Poles had hoped for an easy victory, but the new king  lead the Czech armies surprisingly well and drove the Poles back. OTOH, in 1503 the n estates made an alliance with Poland, after Hungary was conquered by the.

King and his successor  now started a policy with the aim of strengthening the power of Poland and themselves: They built many printing presses and several universities, founded colonies (in 1539, Poland took OTL Trinidad and Tobago; and when in 1544 in, the (almost) last colony of , chaos ensued after the mother country had fallen into civil war, Poland sent soldiers to the city, occupying it) and reformed Poland in various ways. 1533-35, they fought of the Russians in the former princedom of Smolensk who had asked the Grand Prince for help against Poland. In 1538, Poland secularized church property, which helped them gain money for the reforms.

The elected kings
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