I think we misunderstood each other a little.
After Grunwald Poland could conquer Teutonic Knights once and for all, but it was against Lithuania interests,Jagiello wanted some threat against Poland. His brother,Witold (national hero in Lithuania BTW) was plotting with Teutonic Knights against Poland. That became later Prussia,and later leading kingdom for Germans.
Prussians were solid military nation, which was energetic enough to unify Germans and create Germany we know.
Other our crisises...remember, it's in our history to be occupied and never giving up,even without hope for winning. We look at them from different perspective. We were able to overcome Swedes by ourselves. Cossacks marks big mistakes in our inner politics. Mongol's leader died before they could beat us firm and square. All that shows weaknesses Poland had and did little to nothing to overcome them.
20th century Poland should be counted for mere 20 years From WWI to WWII. After that thanks to betrayal and insufficient power of Allies we fell into satellite category,either Soviet Union or US/EU.
After Grunwald Poland could conquer Teutonic Knights once and for all, but it was against Lithuania interests,Jagiello wanted some threat against Poland. His brother,Witold (national hero in Lithuania BTW) was plotting with Teutonic Knights against Poland. That became later Prussia,and later leading kingdom for Germans.
Prussians were solid military nation, which was energetic enough to unify Germans and create Germany we know.
Other our crisises...remember, it's in our history to be occupied and never giving up,even without hope for winning. We look at them from different perspective. We were able to overcome Swedes by ourselves. Cossacks marks big mistakes in our inner politics. Mongol's leader died before they could beat us firm and square. All that shows weaknesses Poland had and did little to nothing to overcome them.
20th century Poland should be counted for mere 20 years From WWI to WWII. After that thanks to betrayal and insufficient power of Allies we fell into satellite category,either Soviet Union or US/EU.