Poland

Geography : 
Poland, a country the size of New Mexico is in north-central Europe. Most of the country is a plain without physical boundaries except the Carpathian Mountains in the south and the Oder and Neisse west. Other major rivers, which are important for trade, are the Vistula, Warta and Bug.
History : 

Grande ( North) Poland was founded in 966 by Mieszko I , who belonged to the Piast dynasty . The tribes of southern Poland then formed Little Poland . In 1047, the Great Poland and Little Poland Kingdom during the reign of Casimir I the Restorer . Poland merged with Lithuania by the royal wedding in 1386 . The Polish-Lithuanian state reached the height of its power between the 14th and 16th centuries , marking military successes against the Knights ( German ) of the Teutonic Order , the Russians and the Ottoman Turks.

The absence of a strong monarchy enabled Russia , Prussia and Austria to carry out a first partition of the country in 1772 , second in 1792 and third in 1795. For over a century , there was no Polish state , Austria , Prussia, and Russia sectors , but the Poles had never ceased their efforts to regain their independence. Poles rebelled against foreign rule during the 19th century. Poland was formally reconstituted in November 1918 with Marshal Josef Pilsudski as head of state . In 1919, Ignace Paderewski , the famous pianist and patriot, became the first Prime Minister. In 1926, Pilsudski took power through a full stroke and tried dictatorship until his death May 12, 1935 .

Despite a pact of non - aggression signed ten years in 1934 , Hitler attacked Poland on September 1, 1939. Soviet troops invaded east on September 17 and September 28 , a German- Soviet agreement divided Poland between the USSR and Germany. Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz formed a government in exile in France , who moved to London after the defeat of France in 1940. All Poland was occupied by Germany after the Nazi attack against the Soviet Union in June 1941. The policy of occupation of Nazi Germany in Poland was designed to eradicate Polish culture through mass executions and extermination large Jewish minority.

The Polish government in exile has been replaced by the Polish Committee Communist-dominated National Liberation by the Soviet Union in 1944. Moving to Lublin after the liberation of the city, he proclaimed the Provisional Government of Poland. Some former members of the Polish government in London joined the Lublin government to form the Polish Government of National Unity, which Britain and the United States have recognized . August 2, 1945 in Berlin, President Harry S. Truman , Joseph Stalin , and Prime Minister Clement Attlee Britain established a new de facto border west of Poland on the Oder and Neisse . ( The border was finally accepted by West Germany in a pact of non -aggression signed on 7 December 1970. ) On 16 August 1945, the Soviet Union and Poland signed a treaty delimiting the Soviet- Polish border. Under these agreements , Poland was shifted westward . In the East, it has lost 69,860 square miles ( 180,934 km ² ) to the west , he won (subject to approval of the final peace conference ) 38.986 sq mi ( 100,973 sq km)

Romania

Geography : 
Romania is in Southern Europe and is slightly smaller than Oregon. The Carpathian Mountains divide the upper half of Romania, from north to south and connect near the center of the country with the Transylvanian Alps, running east and west. North and west of these ranges lies the Transylvanian plateau, and to the south and east are the plains of Moldavia and Wallachia. In the last 190 miles (306 km), the Danube through Romania only. It enters the Black Sea in northern Dobruja, just south of the border with Ukraine.
History : 

Most of Romania was the Roman province of Dacia around AD 100-271 . From the 3rd to the 12th century , wave after wave of barbarian conquerors invaded the Daco-Roman native population. Liability for First Bulgarian Empire ( from 8 to 10 century) Eastern Orthodox Romanians . In the 11th century , Transylvania was absorbed by the Hungarian empire. By the 16th century , the main Romanian principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia had become satellites within the Ottoman Empire , but retained much of its independence. After the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829 , they became Russian protectorates . The nation became a kingdom in 1881, after the Congress of Berlin.

At the beginning of the First World War , Romania proclaimed its neutrality, but then joined the Allies , and in 1916 , declared war on the Central Powers. The armistice of 11 November 1918 , gave Romania vast territories of Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire , doubling its size. Acquired areas included Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania . Banat , a Hungarian region was divided with Yugoslavia. King Carol II was crowned in 1930 and transformed the throne in a royal dictatorship. In 1938, he abolished the democratic Constitution of 1923. In 1940 , the country was reorganized along Fascist lines and the fascist Iron Guard became the nucleus of the new totalitarian party . On June 27 , the Soviet Union occupied Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina . King Carol II dissolved parliament , gave the new prime minister Ion Antonescu , full power, abdicated his throne and went into exile.

Romania then signed the Axis Pact November 23, 1940 , and joined in June following the German attack against the Soviet Union reoccupied Bessarabia . About 270,000 Jews were massacred in fascist Romania. After the invasion of Romania by the Red Army in August 1944, King Michael led a coup that overthrew Antonescu government. An armistice with the Soviet Union was signed in Moscow on 12 September 1944. Block government dominated by the Communists won the elections in 1946 , Michael abdicated December 30, 1947 , and 1955 , Romania joined the Warsaw Treaty Organization and the United Nations.

Running a neo- Stalinist police state from 1967-1989 , Nicolae Ceausescu wound curtain tightly around Romania iron , transforming a relatively prosperous country in the brink of starvation. To repay its foreign debt of 10 billion dollars in 1982, he ransacked the Romanian economy of everything that could be exported , leaving the country with desperate shortages of food, fuel and other essential commodities. Assisted armed rebellion in December 1989 led to the overthrow , trial and execution of Ceausescu.

Portugal

Geography : 
Portugal occupies the western part of the Iberian Peninsula and is slightly smaller than Indiana. The country is crossed by three large rivers that rise in Spain, flow into the Atlantic, and divide the country into three geographic areas. The Minho River, part of the northern border, through a mountainous area that extends south from the vicinity of the Douro River. South of the Douro, the slope of the mountains to the plains around the Tejo River. The remaining division is the southern Alentejo. The Azores stretch over 340 km (547 km) in the Atlantic and consists of nine islands with a total area of 902 square miles (2,335 square kilometers). Madeira, consisting of two inhabited islands, Madeira and Porto Santo, and two groups of uninhabited islands, lie in the Atlantic 535 km (861 km) southwest of Lisbon.
History : 

An early Celtic tribe , the Lusitanians , are believed to have been the first inhabitants of Portugal. The Roman Empire conquered about 140 BC By the end of the Roman Empire in the region, the Visigoths invaded the Iberian Peninsula.

Portugal won its independence from Moorish Spain in 1143 . King John I (1385-1433) unified the country at the expense of the Castilians and the Moors of Morocco . The expansion of Portugal was brilliantly coordinated by John's son , Prince Henry the Navigator. In 1488 , Bartolomeu Dias reached the Cape of Good Hope , proving that Asia was accessible by sea. In 1498 , Vasco da Gama reached the west coast of India . By the mid 16th century , the Portuguese empire extended to West and East Africa , Brazil , Persia , Indochina and the Malay Peninsula.

In 1581 , Philip II of Spain invaded Portugal and held for 60 years, precipitating a catastrophic decline in Portuguese commerce. Fine and brave explorers, the Portuguese colonizers proved to be inefficient and corrupt . When the Portuguese monarchy was restored in 1640, the Dutch, English and French competitors had begun to enter the lion's share of the settlements and trade of the world. Portugal retained Angola and Mozambique in Africa and Brazil ( until 1822 ) .

MOROCCO

Geography : 
Morocco, about a tenth the size of California, is located across the Strait of Gibraltar on the Mediterranean, overlooking the Atlantic northwest shoulder of Africa. Algeria is to the east and Mauritania to the south. On the Atlantic coast there is a fertile plain. The Mediterranean coast is mountainous. The Atlas Mountains, running north from the southern Algerian border, average 11,000 feet (3,353 m) above sea level.
History : 

Morocco has been the home of the Berbers since the second millennium BC In AD 46 , Morocco was annexed by Rome as part of the province of Mauritania until the Vandals invaded this part of the empire decline in the 5th century. The Arabs invaded about 685 , bringing Islam. The Berbers joined them in invading Spain in 711, but then they revolted against the Arabs , feeling their secondary status . In 1086 , Berbers took control of large areas of Moorish Spain until they were expelled in the 13th century.

The land was rarely unified and was usually ruled by small tribal states. Conflicts between Berbers and Arabs were chronic . Portugal and Spain began invading Morocco, which helped unify the country 's defense . In 1660 , Morocco came under the control of the Alawite dynasty. It is a sherif dynasty descended from the Prophet Muhammad and rules Morocco to this day.

Spain

Geography: 
Spain occupies 85% of the Iberian Peninsula, which it shares with Portugal, in the southeast Europe. Africa is less than 10 mi (16 km) south of the Strait of Gibraltar. A broad central plateau slopes to the south and east, crossed by a series of mountain ranges and river valleys. Main rivers are the Ebro in the northeast, the Tajo in the central region, and the Guadalquivir River in the south. Off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean are the Balearic Islands (1,936 square miles 5.014 km ²), the largest of which is Majorca. Sixty mi (97 km) west of Africa are the Canary Islands (2,808 sq mi, 7.273 km ²).
History :

Spain , originally inhabited by the Celts, Iberians and Basques, became part of the Roman Empire in 206 BC , when it was conquered by Scipio Africanus . In AD 412 , the barbarian Visigothic leader Ataulf crossed the Pyrenees and ruled Spain , first in the name of the Roman emperor , and then independently. In 711 , the Muslims under Tariq entered Spain from Africa and some completed years subjugation of the country. In 732 , the Franks , led by Charles Martel defeated the Muslims near Poitiers , thus preventing the further spread of Islam in Southeast Europe . Internal dissension of Spanish Islam invited a steady Christian conquest from the north.

Aragon and Castile were the most important Spanish states from the 12th to the 15th century , consolidated by the marriage of Ferdinand II and Isabella I in 1469 . In 1478 , they created the Inquisition to root out heresy and uncover Jews and Muslims who had not sincerely converted to Christianity. Torquemada , the most famous grand inquisitors , embodies the harshness and cruelty of the Inquisition. The last Muslim stronghold , Granada , was captured in 1492. Roman Catholicism was established as the official religion of the state and most of the Jews ( 1492 ) and Muslim ( 1502 ) were expelled . In the era of exploration, discovery and colonization , Spain amassed enormous wealth and a huge colonial empire through the conquest of Mexico by Cortés (1519-1521) and Peru by Pizarro (1532-1533) . The Spanish Hapsburg monarchy became for the world's most powerful time . In 1588 , Philip II sent his invincible Armada to invade England, but its destruction cost Spain its supremacy on the seas and paved the way for the colonization of America from England . Spain then sank rapidly to the status of second-rate power under the rule of weak Hapsburg kings , and he has never played a major role in European politics . The War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714) resulted in the loss of Belgium , Luxembourg, Milan , Sardinia and Naples to Spain. Its colonial empire in the Americas and the Philippines vanished in wars and revolutions in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Turkey

Geography :

Turkey is at the north end of the Mediterranean Sea in Europe and Southeast Asia is south-west. North of the Black Sea and to the west is the Aegean Sea. Its neighbors are Greece and Bulgaria to the west, Russia, Ukraine and Romania to the north and northwest (through the Black Sea), Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran to the east, and Syria and Iraq to the south. The Dardanelles, the Sea of ​​Marmara and the Bosporus divide the country. Turkey in Europe comprises an area about equal to the state of Massachusetts. Turkey in Asia is about the size of Texas. Its center is a plateau bordered by mountains without trees.

History : 

Anatolia (Turkey in Asia) was occupied in about 1900 B.C. by the Indo-European Hittites and, after the Hittite empire's collapse in 1200 B.C. , by Phrygians and Lydians. The Persian Empire occupied the area in the 6th century B.C. , giving way to the Roman Empire, then later the Byzantine Empire. The Ottoman Turks first appeared in the early 13th century, subjugating Turkish and Mongol bands pressing against the eastern borders of Byzantium and making the Christian Balkan states their vassals. They gradually spread through the Near East and Balkans, capturing Constantinople in 1453 and storming the gates of Vienna two centuries later. At its height, the Ottoman Empire stretched from the Persian Gulf to western Algeria. Lasting for 600 years, the Ottoman Empire was not only one of the most powerful empires in the history of the Mediterranean region, but it generated a great cultural outpouring of Islamic art, architecture, and literature.

After the reign of Sultan Süleyman I the Magnificent (1494–1566), the Ottoman Empire began to decline politically, administratively, and economically. By the 18th century, Russia was seeking to establish itself as the protector of Christians in Turkey's Balkan territories. Russian ambitions were checked by Britain and France in the Crimean War (1854–1856), but the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) gave Bulgaria virtual independence and Romania and Serbia liberation from their nominal allegiance to the sultan. Turkish weakness stimulated a revolt of young liberals known as the Young Turks in 1909. They forced Sultan Abdul Hamid to grant a constitution and install a liberal government. However, reforms were no barrier to further defeats in a war with Italy (1911–1912) and the Balkan Wars (1912–1913). Turkey sided with Germany in World War I, and, as a result, lost territory at the conclusion of the war.

Brazil

Geography :

Brazil covers almost half of South America and is the nation's largest continent. It covers 2.965 km (4772 km) north-south, 2.691 km (4331 km) east-west, and borders every nation on the continent except Chile and Ecuador. Brazil can be divided into the Brazilian Highlands, or plateau, in the south and the Amazon River basin in the north. Over a third of Brazil is drained by the Amazon and its more than 200 tributaries. The Amazon is navigable for ocean-going vessels in Iquitos, Peru, 2,300 kilometers (3,700 miles) upstream. Southern Brazil is drained by the system Plata Paraguay, Uruguay and Parana rivers.

History : 

Brazil is the only Latin American nation that derives its language and culture of Portugal. The native inhabitants consist mainly of nomadic Tupi -Guarani Indians. Adm. Pedro Alvares Cabral claimed the territory of Portugal in 1500. Early explorers brought back a wood that produced a red dye , pau -brasil , from which the country has received its name. Portugal began colonization in 1532 and has made ​​the area a royal colony in 1549.

During the Napoleonic Wars , King João VI , fearing the advancing French armies, fled to Portugal in 1808 and set up his court in Rio de Janeiro. João was drawn home in 1820 by a revolution , leaving his son as regent . When Portugal tried to reimpose colonial rule , the prince declared the independence of Brazil September 7, 1822 , becoming Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil . Harassed by his parliament, Pedro I abdicated in 1831 in favor of his five year old son , who became emperor in 1840 ( Pedro II). The son was a popular monarch, but accumulated , and in 1889 , following a military revolt discontent , he abdicated . Although the republic was proclaimed , Brazil was ruled by military dictatorships until a revolt permitted a gradual return to stability under civilian presidents .

President Wenceslau Braz cooperated with the Allies and declared war on Germany during World War I World War II , Brazil again cooperated with the Allies , welcoming Allied air bases , patrolling the South Atlantic , and participate in the invasion of Italy after declaring war on the Axis powers .

After a military coup in 1964 , Brazil had a series of military governments. General João Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo became president in 1979 and promised a return to democracy in 1985. The election of Tancredo Neves , 15 January 1985, the first civilian president since 1964 , has brought a wave of national optimism , but when Neves died a few months later, the vice-president José Sarney became president. Collor de Mello won the elections in late 1989 , pledging to lower market economy hyperinflation. When Collor faced impeachment by Congress because of a corruption scandal in December 1992 and resigned , Vice President Itamar Franco assumed the presidency .

A former finance minister , Fernando Cardoso, won the presidency in an election in October 1994 with 54 % of votes. Cardoso sold belonging to inefficient government monopolies in telecommunications , electricity , port, mines, railways, and banking industries.

In January 1999, the Asian economic crisis spread to Brazil. Rather than support the currency through financial markets, Brazil chose to float the currency , which sent the real fall, at a time as much as 40%. Cardoso was highly appreciated by the international community to quickly turn around the economic crisis in his country. Despite his efforts, however, the economy remained weak throughout 2001, the country also faces an energy crisis . The IMF offered Brazil a supplementary aid package in August 2001. And in August 2002 , to ensure that Brazil would not be hindered by neighboring catastrophic economic problems of Argentina , the IMF agreed to lend Brazil a phenomenal 30 billion over fifteen months.