Rzeczpospolita

Rzeczpospolita (Polish pronunciation: [ʐɛt͡ʂpɔsˈpɔlʲita]) is a traditional and official name of the Polish State – Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska (Latin: Respublica Poloniae, English: Republic of Poland). It comes from the words: "rzecz" (thing) and "pospolita" (common), literally, a "common thing". In terms of etymology and meaning, the closest Latin phrase is "res publica" (res "thing", publica "public, common") and the closest English term is "commonwealth" (i.e. "common wealth", "common good"), but a more modern translation is republic (a form of governance). In Poland the word Rzeczpospolita is used exclusively in relation to the Republic of Poland, and any other republic is referred to in Polish as a republika, e.g., Italian Republic – Polish: Republika Włoska.

Origins

The term "Rzeczpospolita" has been used in Poland since the beginning of the 16th century. Originally it was a generic term to denote a state or a commonness. The famous quote by Jan Zamoyski, the Lord Chancellor of the Crown, on the importance of education, is a great example of its use:

Second Polish Republic

The Second Polish Republic, also known as the Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland, refers to the country of Poland between the First and Second World Wars (1918–1939). Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska), the Polish state was recreated in 1918, in the aftermath of World War I. When, after several regional conflicts, the borders of the state were fixed in 1922, Poland's neighbours were Czechoslovakia, Germany, the Free City of Danzig, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania and the Soviet Union. It had access to the Baltic Sea via a short strip of coastline either side of the city of Gdynia. Between March and August 1939, Poland also shared a border with the then-Hungarian province of Carpathian Ruthenia. Despite internal and external pressures, it continued to exist until 1939, when Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and the Slovak Republic, marking the beginning of World War II in Europe. The Second Republic was significantly different in territory to the current Polish state. It included substantially more territory in the east and less in the west.