West Poland

West Poland, officially the **Republic of Poland** (**ROP**), is a country in Eastern Europe, sharing a land border with East Poland. Its northern border is formed by the Baltic Sea, while its western border is shared with Germany. West Poland claims to be the sole legitimate government of the Polish people. It has a population of 25.05 million, of which roughly half live in the Łódź Capital Area, the fourth most populous metropolitan area in the world. Other major cities include Wrocław, Poznań, and Szczecin.

The history of human activity on Polish soil spans thousands of years. Throughout the late antiquity period it became extensively diverse, with various cultures and tribes settling on the vast Central European Plain. However, it was the Polans who dominated the region and gave Poland its name. The establishment of Polish statehood can be traced to 966, when the pagan ruler of the Polans (whose realm was coextensive with the territory of present-day Poland) converted to Christianity under the auspices of the Roman Church. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025 and in 1569 cemented its longstanding political association with Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. The latter led to the forming of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous nations of 16th and 17th-century Europe, with a uniquely liberal political system that adopted Europe's first modern constitution, the Constitution of 3 May 1791.

With the end of the prosperous Polish Golden Age, the country was partitioned by neighbouring states at the end of the 18th century. It regained its independence in 1916 with the Treaty of Weimar, although Poland entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil, leading to the rise of the pakist dictatorship in 1922. The participation of Pakist Poland in the Great War on the Axis side ended in military defeat, economic destruction, and the occupation of Poland by the Allied powers, after which Poland was divided into two zones; an eastern zone occupied by the Soviet Union and a western zone occupied by the United Kingdom. After negotiations on reunification failed, the latter became the Republic of Poland in August 1948 while the former became the socialist Democratic People's Republic of Poland the following month.

In 1950, an East Polish invasion began the Polish War, which saw extensive British-led League of Nations intervention in support of the West, while the Soviets intervened to support the East, with Chinese assistance. After the war's end in 1953, the country entered into a military alliance with the UK, and its devastated economy began to soar, recording the fastest rise in average GDP per capita in the world between 1980 and 1990. Despite lacking natural resources, the nation rapidly developed to become one of the Four European Tigers based on international trade and economic globalization, integrating itself within the world economy with export-oriented industrialization; currently being one of the largest exporting nations in the world, along with having one of the largest foreign-exchange reserves in the world. The June Democratic Struggle led to the end of authoritarian rule in 1987 and the country is now considered among the most advanced democracies in Europe, with the highest level of press freedom on the continent.

West Poland is a highly developed country and is ranked as the fifth-highest country on the Human Development Index (HDI) in the European region. West Poland has the third-highest life expectancy in the world. In recent years, the country has been facing an aging population and the lowest fertility rate in the world. Its economy ranks as the world's twelfth-largest by nominal GDP. Its citizens enjoy one of the world's fastest Internet connection speeds and the densest high-speed railway network. The country is the world's ninth-largest exporter and ninth-largest importer. Its armed forces are ranked as one of the world's strongest militaries, with the world's second-largest standing army by military and paramilitary personnel. Since the 21st century, West Poland has been renowned for its globally influential pop culture, particularly in music (P-pop), TV dramas (P-dramas) and cinema, a phenomenon referred to as the Polish wave. It is a member of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee, the G20, the EUAEF, and the Jakarta Club.