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Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
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The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was one of the largest and most populous countries in 16th and 17th-century Europe, formed by a union of Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1569. It was characterized by many particularities that made it unique among contemporary states. The Commonwealth's political system, often called the Noble's democracy or Golden Freedom, was characterized by the sovereign's power being reduced by laws and the legislature (Sejm) controlled by the nobility (szlachta).
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The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was one of the largest and most populous countries in 16th and 17th-century Europe, formed by a union of Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1569. It was characterized by many particularities that made it unique among contemporary states. The Commonwealth's political system, often called the Noble's democracy or Golden Freedom, was characterized by the sovereign's power being reduced by laws and the legislature (Sejm) controlled by the nobility (szlachta). This system was a precursor of the modern concepts of broader democracy and constitutional monarchy as well as federation. The two comprising states of the Commonwealth were formally equal, although in reality Poland was a dominant partner in the union. Its population was hallmarked by a high level of ethnic and confessional diversity and the state was noted for having religious tolerance unusual for its age, although the degree of it varied with time.
After several decades of unparalleled power and greatness, the Commonwealth went by the middle of 17th century into a period of protracted political, military and economic decline that lasted into 1795, when its existence was extinguished by growing absolutist neighbors: Austria, Prussia and Russia. Shortly before its demise however, the Commonwealth underwent a massive reform effort and adopted one of the world's oldest codified national constitutions in modern history.
Name
The official name of the Commonwealth was Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania ( ). It was referred to in written sources prior to the XVIII century by its Latin name Regnum Poloniae Magnique Ducatus Lithuaniae. Since the XVII century it was usually referred as The Most Serene Commonwealth/Republic of Poland () in the international relations. Its inhabitants referred to it in Polish as Rzeczpospolita (Ruthenian: ??? ?????????, Lithuanian: Žecpospolita). Foreigners often called it simplistically Poland, applying the pars pro toto synecdoche.
Recently widespread Polish term Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów ("The Commonwealth of Both/Two Nations") was coined only in the 20th century.
History
The creation of the Commonwealth by the Union of Lublin in 1569 was one of the signal achievements of Sigismund II Augustus, last monarch of the Jagiellon dynasty, in an effort to preserve the monarchy by adopting elective monarchy. His death in 1572 was followed by a three-year interregnum during which adjustments were made to the constitutional system that effectively increased the power of the nobility (the szlachta) and established a truly elective monarchy.
The Commonwealth reached its Golden Age in the first half of the 17th century. Its powerful parliament (the Sejm) was dominated by nobles who were reluctant to get involved in the Thirty Years' War, sparing the country from the ravages of this largely religious conflict devastating most of contemporary Europe. The Commonwealth was able to hold its own against Sweden, Russia, and vassals of the Ottoman Empire, and at times launched successful expansionist offensives against its neighbors. During several invasions of Russia, which was weakened in the early 17th century by the Time of Troubles, Commonwealth troops managed to take Moscow and hold on to it from September 27, 1610 to November 4, 1612, until driven out after a siege.
Commonwealth power waned after a double blow in 1648. The first blow was history's greatest Cossack rebellion (the Khmelnytskyi Uprising, supported by Crimean Khanate Tatars, in the eastern territories of Kresy), which resulted in Cossacks asking for the protection of the Russian Tzar (1654) thus leading to Russian influence over Ukraine gradually supplanting the Polish. The other blow to the Commonwealth was the Swedish invasion in 1655 (supported by troops of Transylvanian duke George II Rakoczy and Friedrich Wilhelm I, Elector of Brandenburg), known as The Deluge, provoked by the policies of Commonwealth kings from the Swedish royal House of Vasa.
In the late 17th century, the weakened Commonwealth under King John III Sobieski in alliance with the forces of the Holy Roman emperor Leopold I dealt crushing defeats to the Ottoman Empire: In 1683, the Battle of Vienna marked the final turning point in a 250-year struggle between the forces of Christian Europe and the Islamic Ottoman Empire. For its centuries-long stance against the Muslim advances, the Commonwealth would gain the name of Antemurale Christianitatis (forefront of Christianity). Over the next 16 years (in the "Great Turkish War"), the Turks would be permanently driven south of the Danube River, never to threaten central Europe again.
By the 18th century, the Commonwealth was facing many internal problems and was vulnerable to foreign influences. Destabilization of its political system brought it to the brink of anarchy. Attempts at reform, such as those made by the Four-Year Sejm of 1788–92, which culminated in the May 3rd Constitution of 1791, came too late, and the country was partitioned in three stages by the neighboring Russian Empire, Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Monarchy. By 1795, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had been completely erased from the map of Europe. Poland and Lithuania re-established their independence, as separate countries, only in 1918.
State organization and politics
Golden Liberty
The political doctrine of the Commonwealth was: our state is a republic under the presidency of the King. Chancellor Jan Zamoyski summed up this doctrine when he said that Rex regnat et non gubernat ("The King reigns but does not govern"). The Commonwealth had a parliament, the Sejm, as well as a Senat and an elected king. The king was obliged to respect citizens' rights specified in King Henry's Articles as well as in pacta conventa, negotiated at the time of his election.
The monarch's power was limited, in favor of a sizable noble class. Each new king had to subscribe to King Henry's Articles, which were the basis of Poland's political system (and included near-unprecedented guarantees of religious tolerance). Over time, King Henry's Articles were merged with the pacta conventa, specific pledges agreed to by the king-elect. From that point onwards, the king was effectively a partner with the noble class and was constantly supervised by a group of senators.
The foundation of the Commonwealth's political system, the "Golden Liberty" (a term used from 1573 on), included:
- free election of the king by all nobles wishing to participate;
- Sejm, the Commonwealth parliament which the king was required to hold every two years;
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pacta conventa (Latin), "agreed-to agreements" negotiated with the king-elect, including a bill of rights, binding on the king, derived from the earlier King Henry's Articles. rokosz (insurrection), the right of szlachta to form a legal rebellion against a king who violated their guaranteed freedoms; liberum veto (Latin), the right of an individual Sejm deputy to oppose a decision by the majority in a Sejm session; the voicing of such a "free veto" nullified all the legislation that had been passed at that session; during the crisis of the second half of the 17th century, Polish nobles could also use the liberum veto in provincial sejmiks; konfederacja (from the Latin confederatio), the right to form an organization to force through a common political aim.
The three regions (see below) of the Commonwealth enjoyed a degree of autonomy. Each voivodship had its own parliament (sejmik), which exercised serious political power, including choice of posel (deputy) to the national Sejm and charging of the deputy with specific voting instructions. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania had its own separate army, treasury and most other official institutions.
Golden Liberty created a state that was unusual for its time, although somewhat similar political systems existed in the contemporary city-states like the Republic of Venice. (Interestingly, both states were styled the "Most Serene Republic".) At a time when most European countries were headed toward centralization, absolute monarchy and religious and dynastic warfare, the Commonwealth experimented with decentralization, confederation and federation, democracy, religious tolerance, and even pacifism. Since the Sejm usually vetoed a monarch's plans for war, this constitutes a notable argument for the democratic peace theory.
This political system unusual for its time stemmed from the victories of the szlachta noble class over other social classes and over the political system of monarchy. In time, the szlachta accumulated enough privileges (such as those established by the Nihil novi Act of 1505) that no monarch could hope to break the szlachta's grip on power. The Commonwealth's political system is difficult to fit into a simple category, but it can be tentatively described as a mixture of:
- confederation and federation, with regard to the broad autonomy of its regions. It is, however, difficult to decisively call the Commonwealth either confederation or federation, as it had some qualities of both of them;
- oligarchy, as only the szlachta—around 10% of the population—had political rights;
- democracy, since all the szlachta were equal in rights and privileges, and the Sejm could veto the king on important matters, including legislation (the adoption of new laws), foreign affairs, declaration of war, and taxation (changes of existing taxes or the levying of new ones). Also, the 10% of Commonwealth population who enjoyed those political rights (the szlachta) was a substantially larger percentage than in any other European country (needs citation); note that in 1831 in France only about 1% of the population had the right to vote, and in 1867 in the United Kingdom, only about 3% (needs citation);
- elective monarchy, since the monarch, elected by the szlachta, was Head of State;
- constitutional monarchy, since the monarch was bound by pacta conventa and other laws, and the szlachta could disobey any king's decrees they deemed illegal.
The political players
The major players in the politics of the Commonwealth were:
- monarchs, who struggled to expand their power and create an absolute monarchy.
- magnates, the wealthiest of the szlachta, who wanted to rule the country as a privileged oligarchy, and to dominate both the monarch and the poorer nobles.
- szlachta, who desired a strengthening of the Sejm and rule of the country as a democracy of the szlachta.
The magnates and the szlachta were far from united, with many factions supporting either the monarch or various of the magnates.
Shortcomings of the Commonwealth
Once the Jagiellons had disappeared from the scene in 1572, the fragile equilibrium of the Commonwealth's government was disrupted. Power increasingly slipped away from the central government to the nobility.
When presented with periodic opportunities to fill the throne, the szlachta exhibited a preference for foreign candidates who would not found another strong dynasty. This policy often produced monarchs who were either totally ineffective or in constant debilitating conflict with the nobility. Furthermore, aside from notable exceptions such as the able Transylvanian Stefan Batory (1576–86), the kings of foreign origin were inclined to subordinate the interests of the Commonwealth to those of their own country and ruling house. This was especially visible in the policies and actions of the first two elected kings from the Swedish House of Vasa, whose politics brought the Commonwealth into conflict with Sweden, culminating in the war known as The Deluge (1648), one of the events that mark the end of the Commonwealth's Golden Age and the beginning of the Commonwealth's decline.
Zebrzydowski's rokosz (1606–07) marked a substantial increase in the power of the magnates, and the transformation of szlachta democracy into magnate oligarchy. The Commonwealth's political system was vulnerable to outside interference, as Sejm deputies bribed by foreign powers might use their liberum veto to block attempted reforms. This sapped the Commonwealth and plunged it into political paralysis and anarchy for over a century, from the mid-17th century to the end of the 18th, while its neighbors stabilized their internal affairs and increased their military might.
Late reforms
The Commonwealth did eventually make a serious effort to reform its political system, adopting in 1791 the May 3rd Constitution, Europe's first codified national constitution in Modern Times, and the world's second, after the United States Constitution, which had been ratified two years earlier. The revolutionary Constitution recast the erstwhile Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as a Polish–Lithuanian federal state with a hereditary monarchy and abolished many of the deleterious features of the old system. The new constitution:
These reforms came too late, however, as the Commonwealth was immediately invaded from all sides by its neighbors which were content to leave the Commonwealth alone as a weak buffer state, but reacted strongly to king Stanislaw August Poniatowski's and other reformers' attempts to strengthen the country. Russia feared the revolutionary implications of the May 3rd Constitution's political reforms and the prospect of the Commonwealth regaining its position as a European empire. Catherine the Great regarded the May constitution as fatal to her influence and declared the Polish constitution Jacobinical. Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin drafted the act for the Confederation of Targowica, referring to the constitution as the "contagion of democratic ideas". Meanwhile, Prussia and Austria, also afraid of a strengthened Poland, used it as a pretext for further territorial expansion. Prussian minister Ewald von Hertzberg called the constitution "a blow to the Prussian monarchy", fearing that strengthened Poland would once again dominate Prussia. In the end, the May 3rd Constitution was never fully implemented, and the Commonwealth entirely ceased to exist only four years after the Constitution's adoption.
Commonwealth military
Commonwealth armies were commanded by two Grand Hetmans and two Field Hetmans. The armies comprised:
Wojsko kwarciane: Regular units with wages paid from taxes (these units were later merged with the wojsko komputowe) Wojsko komputowe: Semi-regular units created for times of war (in 1652 these units were merged with the wojsko kwarciane into a new permanent army) Pospolite ruszenie: Szlachta levée en masse Piechota lanowa and piechota wybraniecka: Units based on peasant recruits Registered Cossacks: Troops made up of Cossacks, used mainly as infantry, less often as cavalry (with tabors) were recruited. Royal guard: A small unit whose primary purpose was to escort the monarch and members of his family Mercenaries: As with most other armies, hired to supplement regular units, such as Germans, Scots, Wallachians, Serbs, Hungarians, Bohemians, Moravians and Silesians. Private armies: In time of peace usually small regiments (few hundred men) were paid for and equipped by magnates or cities. However, in times of war, they were greatly augmented (to even a few thousand men) and paid by state
Some units of the Commonwealth included:
- Hussars: heavy cavalry armed with lances, koncerzes, sabers or axes, bows, maces, later pistols; their charges were extremely effective until advances in firearms in the late 17th century substantially increased infantry firepower. Members were known as
towarzysz husarski and were supported by 3-4 pocztowy's. Cossack cavalry general name for all Commonwealth units of light cavalry, even if they did not contain a single ethnic Cossack; fast and maneuverable like oriental cavalry units of Ottoman Empire vassals, but lacking the firepower of European cavalry such as the Swedish pistol-armed reiters. Tabor: military horse-drawn wagons, usually carrying army supplies. Their use for defensive formations was perfected by the Cossacks, and to a smaller extent by other Commonwealth units.
The Commonwealth Navy was small and played a relatively minor role in the history of the Commonwealth, but won the very important naval battle of Oliwa, breaking Swedish sea blockade in 1627. On the Black Sea, Cossacks with their small boats (czajka) were known for their plundering raids against the Ottoman Empire and its vassals. They even burned suburbs of the Ottoman capital of Constantinople.
Economy
The economy of the Commonwealth was dominated by feudal agriculture based on exploitation of agricultural workforce (serfs). Slavery in Poland was forbidden in the 15th century; in Lithuania, slavery was formally abolished in 1588. They were replaced by the second enserfment. Typically a nobleman's landholding comprised a folwark, a large farm worked by serfs to produce surpluses for internal and external trade. This economic arrangement worked well for the ruling classes in the early era of the Commonwealth, which was one of the most prosperous eras of the grain trade. However the country's situation worsened from the late 17th century on, when the landed szlachta sought to compensate for falling grain prices by increasing the peasants' workload, thus leading to the creation of second serfdom, a phenomenon common throughout contemporary Eastern Europe.
The Commonwealth's preoccupation with agriculture, coupled with the szlachta's dominance over the bourgeoisie, resulted in a fairly slow process of urbanization and thus a fairly slow development of industries. While similar conflicts among social classes may be found all over Europe, nowhere were the nobility as dominant at the time as in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. There is, however, much debate among historians as to which processes most affected those developments, since until the wars and crises of the mid-17th century the cities of the Commonwealth had not markedly lagged in size and wealth behind their western counterparts. The Commonwealth did have numerous towns and cities, commonly founded on Magdeburg rights. Some of the largest trade fairs in the Commonwealth were held at Lublin. See the geography section, below, for a list of major cities in the Commonwealth (commonly capitals of voivodships).
Although the Commonwealth was Europe's largest grain producer, the bulk of her grain was consumed domestically. Estimated grain consumption in the Polish Crown (Poland proper) and Prussia in 1560–70 was some 113,000 tons of wheat (or 226,000 laszt (a laszt, or "last", being a large bulk measure; in the case of grain, about half a ton). Average yearly production of grain in the Commonwealth in the 16th century was 120,000 tons, 6% of which was exported, while cities consumed some 19% and the remainder was consumed by the villages. The exports probably satisfied about 2% of the demand for grain in Western Europe, feeding 750,000 people there. Commonwealth grain achieved far more importance in poor crop years, as in the early 1590s and the 1620s, when governments throughout southern Europe arranged for large grain imports to cover shortfalls in their jurisdictions.
Still, grain was the largest export commodity of the Commonwealth. The owner of a folwark usually signed a contract with merchants of Gdansk (German Danzig), who controlled 80% of this inland trade, to ship the grain north to that seaport on the Baltic Sea. Many rivers in the Commonwealth were used for shipping purposes: the Vistula, Pilica, Western Bug, San, Nida, Wieprz, Niemen. The rivers had relatively developed infrastructure, with river ports and granaries. Most of the river shipping moved north, southward transport being less profitable, and barges and rafts were often sold off in Gdansk for lumber.
From Gdansk, ships, mostly from the Netherlands and Flanders, carried the grain to ports such as Antwerp and Amsterdam. Gdansk ships accounted for only 2–10% of this maritime trade. Besides grain, other seaborne exports included lumber and wood-related products such as tar and ash.
By land routes, the Commonwealth exported hides, furs, hemp, cotton (mostly from Wielkopolska) and linen to the German lands of the Holy Roman Empire, including cities like Leipzig and Nuremberg. Large herds (of around 50,000 head) of cattle were driven south through Silesia.
The Commonwealth imported spices, luxury goods, clothing, fish, beer and industrial products like steel and tools. A few riverboats carried south imports from Gdansk like wine, fruit, spices and herring. Somewhere between the 16th and 17th centuries, the Commonwealth's trade balance shifted from positive to negative.
With the advent of the Age of Exploration, many old trading routes such as the Amber Road lost importance as new ones were created. Poland's importance as a caravan route between Asia and Europe diminished, while new local trading routes were created between the Commonwealth and Russia. But even with improvements in shipping technology the Commonwealth remained an important link between Occident and Orient, as many goods and cultural artifacts passed from one region to another via the Commonwealth. For example, Isfahan rugs imported from Persia to the Commonwealth were actually known in the West as "Polish rugs".
Commonwealth currency included the zloty and the grosz. The City of Gdansk had the privilege of minting its own coinage.
Image:StefanBatory.jpg|Commonwealth coin minted during the reign of King Stefan Batory
Image:RegiaCivitatisGedanensis.jpg|Royal City of Gdansk coin of 1589 (Sigismund III Vasa period)
Image:Lublin Kamienica Konopniców.jpg|Konopnica's tenement house in Lublin, rebuilt 1575
Image:Oboz flisakow nad Wisla.jpg|Rivermen's camp at the Wisla (Vistula), 1858, by Wilhelm August Stryowski
Culture
The Commonwealth was an important European center for the development of modern social and political ideas. It was famous for its rare quasi-democratic political system, praised by philosophers such as Erasmus; and, during the Counter-Reformation, was known for near-unparalleled religious tolerance, with peacefully coexisting Catholic, Jewish, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant and Muslim communities. The Commonwealth gave rise to the famous Christian sect of the Polish Brethren, antecedents of British and American Unitarianism.
With its political system, the Commonwealth gave birth to political philosophers such as Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski (1503–72), Wawrzyniec Grzymala Goslicki (1530–1607) and Piotr Skarga (1536–1612). Later, works by Stanislaw Staszic (1755–1826) and Hugo Kollataj (1750–1812) helped pave the way for the Constitution of May 3, 1791, the first modern codified national constitution in Europe, which enacted revolutionary political principles for the first time on that continent.
Kraków's Jagiellonian University is one of the oldest universities in the world. Vilnius University and the Jagiellonian University were the major scholarly and scientific centers in the Commonwealth. The Komisja Edukacji Narodowej, (Polish for Commission for National Education), formed in 1773, was the world's first national Ministry of Education. Commonwealth scientists included:
- Martin Kromer (1512–89), historian and cartographer,
- Michal Sedziwój (1566–1636), alchemist and chemist,
- Krzysztof Arciszewski (1592 – 1656) military officer, engineer and ethnographer.
- Kazimierz Siemienowicz (1600–51), military engineer, artillery specialist and a founder of rocketry,
- Johannes Hevelius (1611–87), astronomer, founder of lunar topography,
- Michal Boym (??? in Chinese) (1612–1659), orientalist, cartographer, naturalist and diplomat in Ming Dynasty's service.
- Adam Adamandy Kochanski (1631–1700) mathematician and engineer.
The many classics of Commonwealth literature include:
- Jan Kochanowski, (1530–84), writer, dramatist and poet;
- Waclaw Potocki, (1621–96), writer, poet;
- Ignacy Krasicki, (1735–1801), writer, poet, fabulist, author of the first Polish novel;
- Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, (1758–1841), writer, dramatist and poet.
Many szlachta members wrote memoirs and diaries. Perhaps the most famous are the Memoirs of Polish History by Albrycht Stanislaw Radziwill (1595–1656) and the Memoirs of Jan Chryzostom Pasek (ca. 1636–ca. 1701).
Magnates often undertook construction projects as monuments to themselves: churches, cathedrals, and palaces like the present-day Presidential Palace in Warsaw and Pidhirtsi Castle built by Grand Hetman Stanislaw Koniecpolski herbu Pobóg. He also constructed a Brody Castle (1630-1635) designed by the French military engineer Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan.
The magnates throughout Poland competed with the kings. The monumental castle Krzyztopór, built in the style palazzo in fortezza between 1627 and 1644, had several courtyards surrounded by massive star-shaped fortifications. Due to efforts of powerful Radziwill family, the town of Nesvizh in today's Belarus came to exercise great influence in the sciences, arts, crafts and architecture. The complex consists of the residential castle and the mausoleum Church of Corpus Christi with their setting.
The largest projects involved entire towns, although in time many of them would lapse into obscurity or be totally abandoned. Usually they were named after the sponsoring magnate. Among the most famous is the town of Zamosc, founded by Jan Zamoyski and designed by the Italian architect Bernardo Morando.
Image:Zamosc pierzeja polnocna.jpg|City Hall and Armenian tenements in Zamosc, 16th century
Image:Ossolinski Kazanowski Palace.jpg|Kazanowski Palace (right) and Ossolinski Palace (left) in Warsaw
Image:Pazaislis.jpg|Pažaislis Monastery, built 1674
Image:Palac Branickich pn-wsch.jpg|Branicki Palace, Bialystok, built 1726
Szlachta and Sarmatism
The prevalent ideology of the szlachta became "Sarmatism", named after the Sarmatians, alleged ancestors of the Poles. This belief system was an important part of the szlachta's culture, penetrating all aspects of its life. Sarmatism enshrined equality among szlachta, horseback riding, tradition, provincial rural life, peace and pacifism; championed oriental-inspired attire (zupan, kontusz, sukmana, pas kontuszowy, delia, szabla); and served to integrate the multi-ethnic nobility by creating an almost nationalistic sense of unity and of pride in the szlachta's Golden Freedoms.
In its early, idealistic form, Sarmatism represented a positive cultural movement: it supported religious belief, honesty, national pride, courage, equality and freedom. In time, however, it became distorted. Late extreme Sarmatism turned belief into bigotry, honesty into political naďveté, pride into arrogance, courage into stubbornness and freedom into anarchy. The faults of Sarmatism were blamed for the demise of the country from the late 18th century onwards. Criticism, often one-sided and exaggerated, was used by the Polish reformists to push for radical changes. This self-deprecation was accompanied by works of Prussian, Russian and Austrian historians, who tried to prove that it was Poland itself that was to blame for its fall.
Demographics and religion
The population of the Commonwealth was never overwhelmingly either Roman Catholic or Polish. This circumstance resulted from Poland's possession of Ukraine and confederation with Lithuania, in both of which countries ethnic Poles were a distinct minority. The Commonwealth comprised primarily four nations: Lithuanians, Poles, Belarusians and Ukrainians; the latter two usually referred to as the Ruthenians. Sometimes inhabitants of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were called Litvins, a Slavic term for Lithuanians, despite being of different ethnicities. Shortly after the Union of Lublin, the Commonwealth population was around 7 million, with a rough breakdown of 4.5 m Poles, 0.75 m Lithuanians, 0.7 m Jews and 2 m Ruthenians. In 1618, after the Truce of Deulino, the Commonwealth population increased together with its territory, reaching 11.5 million people, which was composed roughly of 4.5 m Poles, 3.5 m Ukrainians, 1.5 m Belarusians, 0.75 m Lithuanians, 0.75 m Prussians, 0.5 m Jews, and 0.5 m Livonians. At that time nobility was 10% of the population, and burghers were 15%. In the period from 1648–57, populations losses are estimated at 4 m. Coupled with further population and territorial losses, in 1717 the Commonwealth population had fallen to 9 m, with roughly 4.5 m Poles, 1.5 m Ukrainians, 1.2 m Belarusians, 0.8 m Lithuanians, 0.5 m Jews, and 0.5 m others.
To be Polish, in the non-Polish lands of the Commonwealth, was then much less an index of ethnicity than of religion and rank; it was a designation largely reserved for the landed noble class (szlachta), which included Poles but also many members of non-Polish origin who converted to Catholicism in increasing numbers with each following generation. For the non-Polish noble such conversion meant a final step of Polonization that followed the adoption of the Polish language and culture. Poland, as the culturally most advanced part of the Commonwealth, with the royal court, the capital, the largest cities, the second-oldest university in Central Europe (after Prague), and the more liberal and democratic social institutions had proven an irresistible magnet for the non-Polish nobility in the Commonwealth. Many referred to themselves as "gente Ruthenus, natione Polonus" (Ruthenian by blood, Polish by nationality) since 16th century onwards.
As a result, in the eastern territories a Polish (or Polonized) aristocracy dominated a peasantry whose great majority was neither Polish nor Roman Catholic. Moreover, the decades of peace brought huge colonization efforts to Ukraine, heightening the tensions among nobles, Jews, Cossacks (traditionally Orthodox), Polish and Ruthenian peasants. The latter, deprived of their native protectors among the Ruthenian nobility, turned for protection to cossacks that facilitated violence that in the end broke the Commonwealth. The tensions were aggravated by conflicts between Eastern Orthodoxy and the Greek Catholic Church following the Union of Brest, overall discrimination of Orthodox religions by dominant Catholicism, and several Cossack uprisings. In the west and north, many cities had sizable German minorities, often belonging to Reformed churches. The Commonwealth had also one of the largest Jewish diasporas in the world - by the mid-16th century 80% of the world's Jews lived in Poland.
Until the Reformation, the szlachta were mostly Catholic or Eastern Orthodox. However, many families quickly adopted the Reformed religion. After the Counter-Reformation, when the Roman Catholic Church regained power in Poland, the szlachta became almost exclusively Roman Catholic, despite the fact that Roman Catholicism was not a majority religion (the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches counted approximately 40% of the population each, while the remaining 20% were Jews and members of various Protestant churches). It should be noted that the Counter-Reformation in Poland, influenced by the Commonwealth tradition of religious tolerance, was based mostly on Jesuit propaganda and was very peaceful when compared to excesses such as the Thirty Years' War elsewhere in Europe.
The Crown had about double the population of Lithuania and five times the income of the latter's treasury. As with other countries, the borders, area and population of the Commonwealth varied over time. After the Peace of Jam Zapolski (1582), the Commonwealth had approximately 815,000 km˛ area and a population of 6.5 million. After the Truce of Deulino (1618), the Commonwealth had an area of some 1 million km˛ (990,000 km˛) and a population of 10–11 million (including some 4 million Poles).
Languages of the Commonwealth
- Polish (officially recognized; dominant language, used by most of Commonwealth nobility and by peasantry in the Crown province; official language in Crown chancellery and since 1697 in Grand Duchy chancellery) Dominant language in the towns.
- Latin (off. recog.; commonly used in foreign relations and popular as second language among the nobility)
- Ruthenian (also known as Chancery Slavonic; off. recog.; official language in Grand Duchy chancellery until 1697; used in some foreign relations its dialects were widely used in Grand Duchy and eastern parts of the Crown as spoken language)
- Lithuanian (not off. recog. but used in some official documents in Grand Duchy and, mostly, used as a spoken language in the northwest part of Grand Duchy (in Lithuania Proper) and the northern part of Royal Prussia (see Lithuania Minor).
- German (off. recog.; used in some foreign relations, in Royal Prussia and by minorities in cities,)
- Hebrew (off. recog.; used by the Jews; Yiddish was also used but not recognized as official language)
- Armenian (off. recog. used by Armenian minority)
Legacy
The Duchy of Warsaw, established in 1807, traced its origins to the Commonwealth. Other revival movements appeared during the November Uprising (1830–31), the January Uprising (1863–64) and in the 1920s, with Józef Pilsudski's failed attempt to create a Polish-led Miedzymorze ("Between-Seas") federation that would have included Lithuania and Ukraine. Today's Republic of Poland considers itself a successor to the Commonwealth, whereas the Republic of Lithuania, re-established at the end of World War I, saw the participation of the Lithuanian state in the old Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth mostly in a negative light at the early stages of regaining its independence, although this attitude has been changing recently.
Administrative division
While the term "Poland" was also commonly used to denote this whole polity, Poland was in fact only part of a greater whole—the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which comprised primarily two parts:
The Commonwealth was further divided into smaller administrative units known as voivodships (województwa). Each voivodship was governed by a voivod (wojewoda, governor). Voivodships were further divided into starostwa, each starostwo being governed by a starosta. Cities were governed by castellans. There were frequent exceptions to these rules, often involving the ziemia subunit of administration.
The lands that once belonged to the Commonwealth are now largely distributed among several Central and East European countries:
Poland, Ukraine, Moldova (Transnistria), Belarus, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Also some small towns in Slovakia, then within the Kingdom of Hungary, became a part of Poland in the Treaty of Lubowla.
Other notable parts of the Commonwealth often referred to, without respect to region or voivodship divisions, include:
- Lesser Poland , southern Poland, with its capital at Kraków (Cracow);
- Greater Poland , west–central Poland around Poznan and the Warta River system;
- Masovia , central Poland, with its capital at Warszawa (Warsaw);
- Lithuania Proper, the catholic, or, perhaps, in some cases ethnically Lithuanian, part of Grand Duchy in the northwest of it.
- Samogitia (), an autonomous area of Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the westernmost part of it, the western part of Lithuania Proper.
- Royal Prussia , at the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, was an autonomous area since the Second Peace of Thorn (1466), incorporated into the Crown in 1569 with the Commonwealth's formation;
- Ruthenia , the eastern Commonwealth, adjoining Russia;
- Duchy of Livonia , a joint domain of the Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Parts lost to Sweden in the 1620s and in 1660;
- Duchy of Courland , a northern fief of the Commonwealth. It established a colony in Tobago in 1637 and on St. Andrews Island at the Gambia River in 1651 (see Courland colonization);
-
Silesia was not within the Commonwealth, but small parts belonged to various Commonwealth kings; in particular, the Vasa kings were dukes of Opole from 1645 to 1666.
Commonwealth borders shifted with wars and treaties, sometimes several times in a decade, especially in the eastern and southern parts. After the Peace of Jam Zapolski (1582), the Commonwealth had approximately 815,000 km˛ area and a population of 6.5 million. After the Truce of Deulino (1618), the Commonwealth had an area of some 990,000 km˛ and a population of 10–11 million (including some 4 million Poles).
Geography
In the 16th century, the Polish bishop and cartographer Martin Kromer published a Latin atlas, entitled Poland: about Its Location, People, Culture, Offices and the Polish Commonwealth, which was regarded as the most comprehensive guide to the country.
Kromer's works and other contemporary maps, such as those of Gerardus Mercator, show the Commonwealth as mostly plains. The Commonwealth's southeastern part, the Kresy, was famous for its steppes. The Carpathian Mountains formed part of the southern border, with the Tatra Mountain chain the highest, and the Baltic Sea formed the Commonwealth's northern border. As with most European countries at the time, the Commonwealth had extensive forest cover, especially in the east. Today, what remains of the Bialowieza Forest constitutes the last largely intact primeval forest in Europe.
See also
Further reading
God's Playground, ISBN 0-231-05353-3 and ISBN 0-231-05351-7 (two volumes). Jan Chryzostom Pasek, Memoirs of the Polish Baroque: The Writings of Jan Chryzostom Pasek, a Squire of the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania, ISBN 0-520-02752-3. Adam Zamoyski, The Polish Way: a Thousand-Year History of the Poles and Their Culture, ISBN 0-7818-0200-8. Pawel Jasienica, Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów (Commonwealth of the Two Nations), ISBN 83-06-01093-0. Zdzislaw Kowalewski, Rzeczpospolita nie doceniona: Kultura naukowa i polityczna Polski przedrozbiorowej (Commonwealth not valued: Science and political culture of the pre-partition Poland), ISBN 83-211-0312-X. Teresa Chynczewska-Hennel, Rzeczpospolita XVII wieku w oczach cudzoziemców (Commonwealth of the 17th century in the eyes of the foreigners), ISBN 83-04-04107-3. Albrycht Stanislaw Radziwill, Pamietnik o dziejach w Polsce (Memoires on the Polish history). ISBN 83-06-00092-7 Lukowski, Jerzy Tadeusz, Liberty's Folly: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Eighteenth Century, 1697–1795. Routledge, 1991 (ISBN 0-415-03228-8). Snyder, Timothy. "The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999", New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2003 (ISBN 0-300-10586-X). Stone, Daniel Z. The Polish-Lithuanian State, 1386–1795 (A History of East Central Europe; 4). Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2001 (hardcover, ISBN 0-295-98093-1).
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