Topic: The new place of Poland and Lithuania in Europe

Target group

5th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

5th‑grade students of elementary school.

VII. Poland in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Pupil:

1 ) describes the territorial development of the Polish state in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries;

4 ) explains the causes and evaluates the consequences of the Polish union with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania;

5) characterizes achievements in the field of internal and foreign policy of the Jagiellonians in the fifteenth century;

6 ) organizes and puts in time the most important events related to Polish‑Teutonic relations in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

General aim of education

Students learn about the threats Poland and Lithuania had to face in the 15th century.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• define what foreign policy the Jagiellonians were leading;

• exchange with which threats the rulers of Poland and Lithuania had to face;

• explain how it happened that the ruler of Poland once again sat on the throne of Hungary;

• describe why the myth of Poland was born as a bulwark of Christianity.

Methods/techniques

• activating

  • discussion.

• expository

  • talk.

• exposing

  • film.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. The students recall the history of the Polish‑Teutonic struggles and the rule of Władysław Jagiełło.

Introduction

1. The teacher gives the students the subject, the purpose of the lesson and the criteria for success.

2. Then he explains that today's topic is a difficult subject, but its internalizing will allow students to understand events in Europe and Poland more easily in subsequent centuries.

Realization

1. The teacher begins the discussion by asking students how they would describe Poland under the rule of Władysław Jagiełło? What place did Poland have in union with Lithuania? What threats and opportunities do you see during his reign?.

2. Then the teacher asks students to familiarize with the interactive map from Task 1 and consider the question contained in it. He makes sure that it has been correctly made and gives feedback and outlines the international situation of Poland and Lithuania in the 15th‑16th centuries. The teacher focuses primarily on showing threats.

3. The teacher divides the students into 4 groups and each one is assigned a different threat (1 - the state of the Teutonic Order, 2 - the Grand Duchy of Moscow, 3 - the Golden Horde and Crimean Khanate, 4 - the Ottoman Empire) and then asks them to prepare information on the relations that Poland and Lithuania had over the centuries with these countries. Additionally, the lecturer can create a group that will prepare relations with the Kingdoms of Hungary and the Czech Republic.

4. The students present the effects of their work - in the presentations they should focus on showing the growing power of neighbors and the threats that in the years to come they created to the states of the Union.

5. Students look at the illustrations depicting the seals of the rulers of the time (Exercise 1 and Exercise 2) and do their tasks on their basis. Based on the map showing the development of the Ottoman Empire, they answer the question from Exercise 3. The teacher makes sure that the tasks have been correctly done and gives feedback.

Summary

1. The teacher explains that Poland under the Jagiellonian rule has become one of the largest and strongest countries in Central Europe, but many times poorly conducted foreign policy brought damage, contributing even to the deaths of the Jagiellonian dynasty members (Władysław Warneńczyk).

2. Students do Exercise 4 - they mark the duties of Moldovan hospodars towards the ruler of the Republic. Then - after getting acquainted with the Jagiellon family tree (Task 2) - they solve Exercise 5.

3. The teacher assesses the students' work during the lesson, taking into account their input and commitment. For this purpose, he may prepare an evaluation questionnaire for self‑assessment and evaluation of the teacher's work and other students.

Homework

1. The teacher sets homework (it is not an obligatory part of the script): Consider what the Jagiellonian dynasty policy in the fifteenth century looked like? Did they use all the opportunities they had to take power?.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

The new place of Poland and Lithuania in Europe

Entering the 15th century, Poland was a stable state. Its position was strengthened by the unions with Lithuania – the Union of Krewo (1385) and the Union of Horodło (1413). The political alliance of the two countries, despite the separateness of lands and societies, brought not only benefits, but also challenges and problems.

The defeat of the common enemy – the State of the Teutonic Order in the Great War (1409–1411), and in subsequent clashes, ensured relative peace at the northern borders. Nevertheless, relations between the two countries remained tense. A new conflict broke out in 1454, when there were anti‑Teutonic riots and when an act was issued on the incorporation of Prussia and Pomerania into the Crown (the Kingdom of Poland). The war, which lasted 13 years, ended in the victory of the king of Poland and conclusion of the Second Peace of Toruń Treaty (1466), which incorporated Pomerelia, Żuławy, and Warmia into the Polish state. Obtaining free access to the sea was of the greatest importance for Poland. Subsequent years were marked by disputes over the observance of the provisions of the peace treaty and attempts to regain the former power by the Teutonic Order. However, the defeat of the Order in the war with Poland in 1519–1525 finally resulted in Grand Master Albert of Prussia paying homage to the Polish king Sigismund I the Old, and, soon afterwards, Albert’s conversion to Protestantism and transformation of the monastic state into the secular Duchy of Prussia.

Back when fights against the Teutonic Order were still being waged, a new power began to emerge on the eastern borders of Lithuania, which soon became a threat not only to Lithuania, but also to the whole union. That was the Grand Duchy of Moscow. The growing position of Moscow was already visible in the middle of the century, but the real breakthrough occurred during the reign of Ivan III the Great (1462–1505). Given the passivity of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, he began the process of ‘gathering Russian lands’ and creating a centralized state. By defeating the army of the Golden Horde in 1480, he became independent from the Mongols and began conquests of the surrounding duchies. It was only the cooperation of Polish‑Lithuanian forces that stopped the march of the Moscow troops and led to making peace.

Another threat that the Polish‑Lithuanian army had to address in the east were the Mongols, whose plundering expeditions affected the southern lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the late 14th century, these old enemies plunged into internal struggles for power. Vytautas made an attempt to use this situation to his advantage. Unfortunately, his expedition ended in a defeat in the Battle of the Vorskla River of 1399. Relations with the Tatars became even more complicated when, after the disintegration of the Golden Horde, a new state was created – the Crimean Khanate (1427), which began plundering raids in Podolia that lasted nearly until the 18th century.

On the other hand, the Ottoman Empire did not threaten the Polish‑Lithuanian lands for a long time. This situation changed only after the engagement of the king of Poland and Hungary – Władysław of Varna – in the crusade against the Turks. The Turks defeated his troops at Varna (1444), and Władysław died in battle. In 1485, a new war with the Turks broke out, which lasted until 1503 and ended in the Polish Crown losing control over Moldova.