![]() Throughout the 19th century, Poles fought for freedom wherever the struggle raged, in Latin America, Greece and Italy, and on the Union side in our Civil War. And France intervened to spite Britain, not to help us.) ![]() (Paris only joined the fight when it looked like we might win. During our own revolution, our first allies were Polish freedom fighters such as Casimir Pulaski and Tadeusz Kosciusko. It was the most cynical action in European history until the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which divided Poland again in 1939.īut the Poles never gave up their belief in their country – or in freedom. Poland’s thanks for its courage? In the next century, the country was sliced up like a pie by the ungrateful Habsburgs, along with the Romanovs of Russia and the Prussian Hohenzollerns. No army from the Islamic world ever posed such a threat to the West again. A hundred thousand Turks ran for the Danube. On that fateful afternoon, the Polish cavalry struck the Turkish lines with such force that 2,000 lances shattered. But Sobieski risked his kingdom – actually a rough-and-tumble democracy – to save a continent. Many of King Jan’s nobles feared disaster. ![]() (To Louis XIV, humbling the rival Habsburgs trumped the fate of Western civilization.) The French – surprise! – had cut a deal with the sultan. Led by the valiant King Jan Sobieski, the Poles had marched to save Vienna while other Europeans looked away. Severely outnumbered Polish hussars – the finest cavalry Europe ever produced – charged into the massed Ottoman ranks with lowered lances and a wild battle cry. 12, 1683, during the last Turkish siege of Vienna. THE decisive turning point in the West’s long struggle against Islamic conquerors came on the afternoon of Sept. ![]()
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