Poland was a minor factor within the Allies of World War II after the country's defeat.
In 1926, the May Coup, led by the hero of the Polish independence campaign Marshal Jzef Pisudski, turned rule of the Second Polish Republic over to the nonpartisan Sanacja (Healing) movement to prevent radical political organisations on both the left and the right from destabilising the country
 During the European Spring of Nations, Poles took up arms in the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848 to resist Germanisation, but its failure saw duchy's status reduced to a mere province; and subsequent integration into the German Empire in 1871

