STANISŁAW STASZIC THE POLISH PIONEER OF THE IDEA OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION

Stanislaw Staszic was an educator and statesman, translator, political writer, philosopher, economic activist, philanthropist, pacifist, explorer, and geologist. Thanks to speculation and savings, he accumulated property worth millions, which he earmarked for public purposes. In a didactic poem entitled Ród ludzki (The Human Race), published in the years 1819 to 1820 (and written in the years 1791 to 1814), S. Staszic not only presented the phases of human development, but also - as the first amongst Polish scholars - the idea of a general association of nations. Although earlier attempts to unite Europe (taken by ancient Greeks, Romans, Charlemagne and Napoleon Bonaparte) had ended in fiasco, European nations had reached a point where a new political organization could be achieved. S. Staszic believed that the association of nations would ensure sustainable peace and create conditions for the development of the economy.