Poland-Lithuania

Poland-Lithuania, officially the Kingdom and Grand Duchy of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, is a federal constitutional-parliamentary monarchy in Europe. It is bordered on the east by the Russian Empire, on the south by Austria-Hungary, and on the west by the German Empire and the Baltic Sea. It covers 815,000 square kilometres and has an estimated population of 78.6 million people. It is comprised of 9 provinces and 3 territories.

Poland-Lithuania was established by the Union of Lublin in July 1568, but the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania had been in a de facto personal union since 1299 with the marriage of the Polish monarchy and Lithuania's Grand Duchy.

The Commonwealth is marked by high levels of ethnic diversity and by relative religious tolerance, guaranteed by the Polish-Lithuanian Constitution; however, the degree of religious freedom has varied over time. The Constitution of 1791 acknowledged Catholicism as the "dominant religion", unlike the current Constitution, but freedom of religion was still granted with it.

Etymology
The name "Poland-Lithuania" comes from the names of the two nations that merged to create the nation. Those nations were The Kingdom of Poland and The Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The standard way to refer to a citizen of The Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth is as a "Polish-Lithuanian."

Alternate names for the country are "Poland-Lithuanian Commonwealth" or the "PLC".

History
Due to its vast size comprising of many different cultures, the history of Poland-Lithuania is very rich and diverse. Its modern history spans from the 11th century to the modern day, with many periods of rising and falling.

Geography
Poland-Lithuania's territory extends across several geographical regions. In the north-west is the Baltic seacoast, which extends from the Northern Estonia to the Gulf of Gdańsk. This coast is marked by several spits, coastal lakes (former bays that have been cut off from the sea), and dunes. The coastline is indented by the Szczecin Lagoon, the Bay of Puck, and the Vistula Lagoon.

The centre of the country lies within the North European Plain. Rising above these lowlands is a geographical region comprising four hilly districts of moraines and moraine-dammed lakes formed during and after the Pleistocene ice age. These lake districts are the Pomeranian Lake District, the Greater Masovia Lake District, the Kashubian Lake District, and the Masurian Lake District. The Masurian Lake District is the largest of the four and covers much of north-eastern Masovia. The lake districts form part of the Baltic Ridge, a series of moraine belts along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.

South of the Northern European Plain are central Silesia and Masovia, which are marked by broad ice-age river valleys. Further south is a mountainous region, including the Sudetes, the Kraków-Częstochowa Uplands, the Świętokrzyskie Mountains, and the Carpathian Mountains, including the Beskids. The highest part of the Carpathians is the Tatra Mountains, along Poland-Lithuania's southern border.

Climate
The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north and west and becomes gradually warmer and continental towards the south and east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between 18 and 30 °C depending on the region. Estonia, Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, and Åland tend to have cooler summers compared to the rest of the country. Winters are rather cold, with average temperatures around 3°C in the northwest and −6°C in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east, winter is drier than summer.

The warmest province in Poland-Lithuania is Silesia, where temperatures in the summer average between 26 and 32°C but can go as high as 34 to 39°C on some days in the warmest months of July and August. The warmest cities in Poland are Tarnów and Wrocław in Silesia. The average temperatures in Wrocław are 20°C in the summer and 0 °C in the winter, but Tarnów has the longest summer in all of Poland-Lithuania, which lasts for 115 days, from mid-May to mid-September. The coldest province of Poland-Lithuania is in the northeast in Estonia. The climate is affected by cold fronts which come from Scandinavia and Siberia. The biggest impact of the oceanic climate is observed in Świnoujście and Baltic Sea seashore area from Police to Słupsk.

Economy
Poland-Lithuania is the world's fifth-largest economy as of 2018, with a nominal GDP of approximately ż3.9 trillion. It is a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Group of Seven (G7), and is one of the world's top ten trading nations, with a highly globalised economy. Poland-Lithuania is a mixed economy, ranking above Canada and most other European nations on The Heritage Foundation's index of economic freedom, and experiencing a very low level of income disparity. The country's average household disposable income per capita is "well above" the OECD average. Furthermore, the Warsaw Stock Exchange is the third-largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalisation, listing over 100,500 companies with a combined market capitalization of over ż18 trillion as of 2015.

In 2014, Poland-Lithuania's exports totalled over ż824 billion, while its imported goods were worth over ż525 billion. The country's 2014 trade surplus totalled ż299 billion, compared with a ż176 billion surplus in 2008.

Since the early 20th century, the growth of Poland-Lithuania's manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy to an urbanised, industrial one. Like many other developed countries, the Polish-Lithuanian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three-quarters of the country's workforce.

Poland-Lithuania is one of the few developed nations that are net exporters of energy. Poland-Lithuania is additionally one of the world's largest suppliers of agricultural products; the provinces of Pomerania and Ukraine are one of the most important global producers of wheat, canola, and other grains. The country is also a leading exporter of zinc, thorium, gold, aluminum, steel, and iron ore. Many towns in northern Poland-Lithuania, where agriculture is difficult, are sustainable because of nearby mines or sources of timber. Poland-Lithuania also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in Masovia and Belarus, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries.

Poland-Lithuania's economic integration with Germany has increased significantly since the Great War. The Automotive Products Trade Agreement of 1965 opened Poland-Lithuania's borders to trade in the automobile manufacturing industry.

Poland-Lithuania has a very strong cooperative banking sector, with the world's highest per capita membership in credit unions.

Science, and Technology
Over the course of history, the Polish-Lithuanian people have made considerable contributions in the fields of science, technology and mathematics. Perhaps the most renowned Polish-Lithuanian to support this theory was Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikołaj Kopernik), who triggered the Copernican Revolution by placing the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. He also derived a quantity theory of money, which made him a pioneer of economics. Copernicus' achievements and discoveries are considered the basis of Polish-Lithuanian culture and cultural identity.

Poland-Lithuania's tertiary education institutions as well as technical, medical, and economic institutions, employ around 619,000 researchers and members of staff. There are around 3,560 research and development institutes, with about 247,000 researchers. In total, there are around 198,000 scientists in Poland-Lithuania today.

In 2018, Poland-Lithuania spent approximately ż105.7 billion on domestic research and development, of which around ż65 billion was provided by the federal and provincial governments. As of 2017, the country has produced 45 Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry, and medicine, and was ranked second worldwide for scientific research quality in a major 2009 survey of international scientists. It is furthermore home to the headquarters of a number of global technology firms. Poland-Lithuania also has the highest levels of Internet access in the world, with over 78 million users, equivalent to around 99.3 percent of its total 2018 population.

The Royal Polish-Lithuanian Space Agency operates a highly active space program, conducting deep-space, planetary, and aviation research, and developing rockets and satellites. Poland-Lithuania was the second country to design and construct a satellite, after Canada, with the 1954 Discovery I launch. Poland-Lithuania and Canada also worked together to put the first human on the moon in 1963 with the Voyage IX mission. Poland-Lithuania is a participant in the International Space Station (ISS), and is a pioneer in space robotics, having constructed numerous devices used on the ISS. ISS is a collaboration between the space agencies of Poland-Lithuania, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and China (rep. of). Since the 1960s, Poland-Lithuania's aerospace industry has designed and built numerous marques of satellite, Poland-Lithuania has also produced one of the world's most successful and widely used sounding rockets, the Observant II; over 15,000 Observant IIs have been launched since the rocket's introduction in 1972.