>>8790610I'm sorry for citing a shitty source (wikipedia, of all things), but it reflects my opinion on the subject pretty well:
"A country is a geographical region considered to be the physical territory of a sovereign state, or of a smaller, or former, political division within a geographical region. Usually, but not always, a country coincides with a sovereign territory and is associated with a state, nation or government."
>Polish people lived in Eastern Europe all along. They were a people, with a language, a culture, traditions, and so on, even when they had no state of their own. They were a nation from 1918 onwards. And they were also a nation before 1795. At all times, or maybe only when they have their own state, they are a country?Ok, I'll start from the... well, start:
Polish nation never ceased to exist from the moment it was formed. Polish COUNTRY, a sovereign Polish state populated and governed by Poles, did.
Also, allow me to introduce the term "STATE", which reflects more what you want to focus on. While the Polish state changed over the years (said X c. - XVIII c. span) dramatically, the country itself didn't, still retaining its borders (more or less), still being populated by ethnic Poles etc.
Now, after 1795, both the Polish country (a social entity) and the Polish state (a political institution) ceased to exist, while the Polish nation (a group of people) continued to exist.
