The oldest democratic states in Europe are Poland, Iceland, and Norway. All have had parliaments longer than England. While it is true that Poland has piles of poor peasants, it also had a long standing middle class, and was the most industrialized nation in Europe, for perhaps 600 years, with Czechoslovakia perhaps second. Europe and France, while telling history that they were politically important, did not have the wealth and refinement that Hungary, Poland or Czechoslovakia did. Mind you, we really have to look at these areas as Poland and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The cradles of European civilization and commerce were really Kiev, Warsaw, Cracow, and Budapest throughout the middle ages into the renaissance. London was a big town, but Paris was a cow-town in comparison to eastern European centres. The arts and sciences flourished in Poland and Hungary and they became the gateway of transfer of eastern thought to the west. Poland is thought of as a Baltic nation, but in times gone by it extended from east Germany almost to Moscow.
Where the England and France took off was in the mercantile age, which is late 17 century. Prior to that their merchant fleets were not given to discovery and gave them no advantage. Even then they were no match for tiny Portugal or Spain until the 18th siecle.
Hungary and Poland are where they are in the modern mind, as second class countries, because of the Treaty of Versailles and 50 years of communist tyranny.
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