After Austria-Hungary collapsed following the first world war, in 1918 western Ukrainians declared an independent state that was conquered and absorbed by Poland in 1919. This dramatically widened the scope of the Ukrainian cooperative movement. No longer merely a tool for economic progress, cooperatives came to be seen as a school for self-government and a method of economic self-defence against the Polish occupiers. The movement was particularly supported by western Ukrainians' largest and most significant political party, the Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance. Many western Ukrainian veterans took part in the movement, claiming that "by working in the cooperatives we are once again the nation's soldiers." Every bit of capital that stayed in Ukrainian hands was seen as a victory against the Polish enemy. The cooperative organization grew and became elaborately organized. Credit Unions were united into the "Tsentrobank" ("Central Bank"). "Narodnia Torhivlia" (People's Trade") brought together urban retailers. Dairy cooperatives united to form "Maslosoyuz", which included dairies supplied by over 200,000 farms. It dominated the western Ukrainian and even much of the central Polish market, and exported to Austria and Czechoslovakia. Women had their own cooperative, which by 1936 included 36,000 members. It taught women how to operate cooperatives and nursing schools, and established a cooperative that helped to popularize and sell folk art made at home.