Englishman Reacts to... Why Poland's Geography is the Worst! (Or is it?)

Is Poland's geography really the worst?

Merch:

If you would like to send me anything, send me a message on robreacts @ hotmail . com

#poland #polish #geography

[RobReacts]

If you are enjoying my reactions to all things Poland, make sure you go and watch out trips to Poland on our vlog channel and subscribe! We have vlogs from Gdansk, Kraków and Wrocław.

[ivnxnvi]

War with Sweden in 1655-1660 called in our history "Potop Szwedzki" (Swedish Deluge).

It cost us...

Completely destroyed:

188 - Cities
186 - Villages
81 - Castles
136 - Churches
30 - Mills
10 - Breweries
89 - Palaces

+ stolen works of art, libraries etc. We call this "massive looting"

The Treaty of Oliwa of May 3, 1660, which ended the war, obliged the Swedes to return the stolen archives and book collections. Despite 350 years of on-and-off efforts to do so, Sweden consistently refuses to return stolen goods. Today, Polish books found in Swedish collections decorate local museums and libraries.


And the most important!

The population in Poland has decreased by 40%.!!!

You can easily rebuild houses but not populations.

[BsB]

Poland got independent on 1918 not 1919 and it is 123 years not 124...

[KqrolTV]

actually his pronunciation of GdaŃsk was perfect 😅

[przemson]

yeah Rob, in 1939 Poland also been in alliance with British and French and... but still, now is much better situation

[Inktvis_]

Fun fact. The only country that celebrates independence from Poland is: Russia.

[AngelikaCiurej]

No 124 years not exist but 123 and not regain Independent in 1919 but in 1918 😅

[blackout]

Can you make reaction to song
*Basti ft. Bzyk, Hice - "303" Prod. Tune Seeker / Album "Z Sensem"* This song is about Polish 303 squadron and they memorance after war

[MayaTheDecemberGirl]

It was an interesting video. About Swedish invading Poland - it's a very well known, difficult period of our history, so-called Swedish Deluge, in the years 1655-1660. The Swedish invaded the whole Poland, ruined greatly and plundered the country, destroyed many of the castles (there are still many ruins of these castles destroyed by Swedes in that period), they also stole a lot of important items of cultural heritage, like books, art, documents, manuscripts, maps, paintings etc., many of which are still in the Swedish museums, also in Stockholm (they never gave them back). By the way, in this time the ruling dynasty in Poland was also Swedish (the Vasa dynasty), so there was also a rivalry between members of the House of Vasa. And there are very famous, known by each Pole, books and movies about the Swedish Deluge - especially a book of Henryk Sienkiewicz (who was a Polish Noblist) and also a very well known movie, of Jerzy Hoffman, based on this book. Regarding the current situation of Poland, it's hard to predict now if it's actually so good. Because one must remember that the NATO relies severely on the USA, and only some European countries, including Poland as well as the UK, indeed do contribute to the NATO actions and financing of it (many members of the NATO actually don't, although they should). So if the USA gets involved much in other regions of the world, like Pacific (in case of potential conflict for instance about Taiwan), and decides not to be so involved in Europe, the situation may change. So we must be ready to protect our country ourselves, we cannot be counting only on the others. And in the past, before the WW II, we also had allies and treaties, but they left us alone. The situation nowadays is not so very optimistic - for instance currently, at the beginning of the 2024, many of the ministries of defence or of military, of many European countries, also Western European and members of the NATO military committees, officially started to warn the citizens that it's possible that there can actually be a war between the NATO and Russia in 3 or 5 years. So what we can observe now is the changing situation in the world and new threats, like new blocs of undemocratic countries and regimes cooperating with each other, such as Russia, Iran, China and North Korea, whose aim is to change the existing world order, with its democratic values.

[annassims]

I only partly agree with you. In terms of NATO: Yes I know NATO is strong and Europe also developed in terms of military. In my opinion the problem only problem is trust. If you look back at Poland's history also in the wars the partners of Poland also were strong military and could maybe help Poland if they wanted, but they did not help. And I know we have NATO but for me, talks about allies and so one are only theoretical, because I am not one hundred percent sure, if even with NATO history could not repeat itself, as Poland is dependant on the countries of NATO and their willingness. Don't get me wrong, but I think such dangers should be seen seriously and Poland should try to aspire to a own strong military

[newlook]

6:40 Rob, Sea trade... If you are surrounded by enemies and have only one trade route across the sea - it is important and it is very difficult. Would say - beyond comparison.

[piotrprzerwa]

How British person can not understand how important is access to the sea when it comes to trade? How did you build your power?

[piotrsodel]

I will try to explain it all to you briefly because the whole thing is more complicated than it is presented in this video. For centuries, Poland was a wedge between Asia and Europe and defended it and access to it, which is why European countries could develop. The Balkans and Spain were less fortunate. But when it bled to death, the countries that Poland defended attacked it and deprived it of its independence. These are our brothers. Turkey respected Poland so much for these wars that it left a place for the Polish ambassador and waited for him for a century. The same thing, as you see, happened many years later. The idea of ​​communism did not originate in Russia but in Germany. Lenin came to Russia from Germany. The communists did not need to attack Poland, they only wanted to go and unite with the German nation to spread communism throughout Europe. Well, they died on their way through Poland in 1920. Joseph Stalin took part in this war. He did not forget the insult and that is why he murdered Polish officers in Katyn. Russia is also traumatized by Poles - it never won a war with Poland alone and Poland occupied Russia. It always attacked Poland, looking for allies for these wars. What you see in these videos are mental shortcuts.

[TMio-fjsr]

I would not agree that the situation is any different than one before WWII. At the time Poland had a military alliance with the UK and France and none of them supported Poland by any means. Furthermore after the war where millions of Polish soldiers were fitting in Allies armies it was sold to the Soviet Union by Churchill and Roosevelt. Alliances are worth nothing if you cannot force them to work. Ukraine gave up their nuclear arsenal in exchange for an independence guarantee from the US, UK and Russia only 20 years ago. And now the Russians are trying to annexe them and I have not heard of British or American soldiers fighting to fulfill the guarantees...

[HEN-Huzar]

It wasn't that the Soviets gave Poland🇵🇱 German lands in exchange for those taken from the east. These were Polish 🇵🇱 lands during the times of Bolesław the Brave.(Bolesław Chrobry)

[emilwho]

6:40 But look, from one side, there's Germany, from the other Russia, from the south there are mountains, so our only trade route is through Baltic Sea, so this is also problem for your argument about flat terrain.

Nowadays, the flat land is really helpful, the trade can go from Poland and west to Baltic countries, and possibly in future to Finland, when the FinEst tunnel will be built, and the other way.

[Rubeus]

1:24 Free movement through the Danish Straits is guaranteed by international treaties. Until the Treaty of Copenhagen, which was signed in 1857, Denmark had been charging fees for their passage for over 400 years.

[biao-czerwony]

We rarely had problems with the Turks, but we NEED TO THANK THEM for the fact that the Ottoman Empire, as the only country apart from Switzerland, never recognized the partitions of Poland in 1772. Thanks Turks👍👍👍

[paulinarapicka]

The war with Sweden is called the "Swedish Deluge", or "Russo-Swedish Deluge"; it happened in the XVII century as a part of the Second Northern War (1654-1667). "In a wider sense, it applies to the period between the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648 and the Truce of Andrusovo in 1667, comprising the Polish theatres of the Russo-Polish and Second Northern Wars."
No, I too don't think Putin is stupid, BUT let's assume Russia attacks a NATO country, and occupies some part of it, for obvious reasons that country will not be France, Italy, or Switzerland (yes, yes, it is not technically a NATO country), but some "easter" one, which isn't that "important", "big", "influential", or whatever. Does anyone think the rest of the world will risk going to war???? I don't think so- ppl became too comfortable, and they will not risk their lives, if there is even a smidge of a chance to just give a "small" plot of land to the aggressor, and HOPE he will not be hungry for more. Will he???

[hazi]

Rob, with all the respect, I think your take on current situation is very naive. In 1939 Poland have pretty much identical treaty with UK and France as now with NATO: if one of those countries get attacked, other two will go to war with the attacker. Yet when Germany attacked Poland in 1939, both UK and France didn’t do a thing about it, which was exactly what Hitler expected, as Germany weren’t ready for war at two fronts. That’s why he got in alliance with Stalin, so after invading Poland he could focus all his army on Wester front, without risk of getting attacked from East. And if UK and France attacked Germany back then in 1939 from the back, like they supposed to do, the WW2 would be over very quickly. But no, why should we be sending our boys to die for some far away country they said. Sounds familiar? Instead, they were dying on their own soil, not much later, in much greater number, with their cities in ruins.
So please don’t be surprised that Poles are very reserved about that kind of guarantees. Especially that, so far, NATO never proved they would fulfill their promise (fortunately never had to). If history teaches as anything, is that people don’t learn and make the same mistakes over and over. Like we say in Poland paper will accept everything.