History of Poland (1569–1795)

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Main article: Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

See also: History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1648), History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1648–1764), and History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1764–1795)

The Nihil novi act adopted by the Polish Diet in 1505 transferred all legislative power from the king to the Diet. This event marked the beginning of the period known as "Nobles' Democracy" or "Nobles' Commonwealth" (Rzeczpospolita szlachecka) when the state was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility (szlachta). The Lublin Union of 1569 constituted the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as an influential player in European politics and a vital cultural entity. By the 18th century the nobles' democracy gradually declined into anarchy, making the once powerful Commonwealth vulnerable to foreign influence. Eventually the country was partitioned by its neighbors and erased from the map in 1795.

Founding of the elective monarchy

"Union of Lublin" of 1569, oil on canvas by Jan Matejko, 1869, 298 x 512 cm, National Museum in Warsaw.

"Death of Sigismund II Augustus at Knyszyn" 6 July 1572, oil on canvas, 1886, National Museum in Warsaw.

The death of Sigismund II Augustus in 1572 was followed by a three-year interregnum period during which adjustments were made to the constitutional system. The lower nobility was now included in the selection process, and the power of the monarch was further circumscribed in favor of the expanded noble class. Each king had to sign the so called Henrician Articles, which were the basis of the political system of Poland, and pacta conventa which were various personal obligations of the chosen king. From that point, the king was effectively a partner with the noble class and constantly supervised by a group of senators. Once the Jagiellons disappeared from the scene, the fragile equilibrium of the Commonwealth government began to go awry. The constitutional reforms made the monarchy electoral in fact as well as name. As more and more power went to the noble electors, it also eroded from the government's center.

"The Republic at Zenith of Power. Golden Liberty Kings election in 1573." By Jan Matejko

In its periodic opportunities to fill the throne, the szlachta exhibited a preference for foreign candidates who would not found another strong dynasty. This policy 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 (1576–1586), the kings of alien origin were inclined to subordinate the interests of the Commonwealth to those of their own country and ruling house.

Henry of Valois (1573–1574)

In April 1573, Sigismund's sister Anna, the sole heir to the crown, convinced the Sejm to elect the French prince Henry of Valois as ruler. A marriage with Henry was to further legitimize Henry's rule but less than a year after his coronation, Henry fled Poland to succeed his brother Charles IX as King of France.

Stefan Báthory (1576–1586)

Poland defeated Russia's Ivan the Terrible and retrieved most of the lost provinces, including Livland. At the end of his reign, Poland ruled two main Baltic Sea ports: Gdańsk controlling the Vistula river trade and Riga controlling Western Dvina trade. Both cities were among the largest in the country.

"Báthory at Psków", oil on canvas, 1872, 322 x 512 cm, Royal Castle, Warsaw. Siege of the city.

During the Livonian War (1558–1582), between Ivan the Terrible of Russia and Stephen Báthory of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Pskov was besieged by Polish forces. Poland failed to capture the city, but Batory, with his chancellor Jan Zamojski, led the Polish army in a brilliant decisive campaign and forced Russia to return other territories and gained Livonia and Polock. In 1582 the war ended with Commonwealth victory with the peace treaty in Jam Zapolski.

War of the Polish Succession (1587-1588)

Stephen Báthory planned a Christian alliance against the Islamic Ottomans. He proposed an anti-Ottoman alliance with Russia, which he considered a necessary step for his anti-Ottoman crusade. However, Russia was on the way to the Time of Troubles so he could not find a partner there. When Stephen Bathory died, there was a one year interregnum. Emperor Mathias's brother Maximilian III tried to claim title of King of Poland, but was defeated at Byczyna in 1588 and Sigismund III Vasa succeeded Stephen Bathory.

House of Vasa

Zygmunt III Vasa (1587–1632)

Russian Tsar Vasili IV compelled to kneel before Polish King Sigismund III Vasa in Warsaw 1611

"Sermon of Skarga" (1536-1612), oil on canvas, 1862, 224 x 397 cm, Royal Castle in Warsaw.

The first few years of Sigismund's reign, until 1598 saw Poland and Sweden united in a personal union that made the Baltic Sea an internal lake (the Polish–Swedish union). However, the rebellion in Sweden started the chain of events that would involve the Commonwealth in more than a century of warfare with Sweden.

For 10 years between 1619 and 1629 the Commonwealth was at its greatest geographical extent in history. In 1619 the Russo-Polish Truce of Deulino came into effect, whereby Russia conceded Commonwealth control over Smolensk and several other border territories. In 1629 the Swedish-Polish Truce of Altmark came into effect, whereby the Commonwealth conceded Swedish control over most of Livonia, which the Swedes had invaded in 1626.

In the end, Sigismund III Vasa failed to strengthen the Commonwealth or to solve its internal problems; instead he concentrated on a futile attempt to regain his former Swedish throne.

Polish-Sweden-Muscovy Wars

Main articles: Time of Troubles, Dymitriads, Polish–Muscovite War (1605–1618), Polish–Swedish War, Smolensk War, and The Deluge (Polish history)

Sigismund desire to reclaim the throne drove Sigismund into prolonged military adventures waged against his native Sweden under Charles IX and later also Russia. In 1598 Sigismund tried to defeat Charles with a mixed army from Sweden and Poland but was defeated in the battle of Stångebro. The war continued, punctuated by many ceasefires and broken peace treaties. On occasion, these campaigns brought Poland to a nearly complete conquest of Russia and the Baltic coast during the Time of Troubles and False Dimitris, had it not been for the military burden imposed by the ongoing rivalry on multiple borders: the Ottoman Empire, the Swedes and the Russians.

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1620

The southern wars

Main articles: Magnate wars in Moldavia and Polish-Ottoman War (1633-1634)

Commonwealth-Ottomans relations were never too warm, as the Commonwealth viewed itself as the 'bulwark of the Christendom' and together with Habsburgs and Republic of Venice was the thorn in the Ottoman plans of European conquest. Since the second half of the 16th century, Polish-Ottomans relations, never too friendly, were further worsened by the escalation of Cossacks-Tatars border warfare, which turned the entire border region between the Commonwealth and Ottoman Empire into a semi-permanent warzone. A constant threat from Crimean Tatars supported the appearance of Cossackdom.^[1]

In the 1595, magnates of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth intervened in the affairs of Moldavia. This would start a series of conflicts that would soon spread to Transylvania, Wallachia and Hungary, when the Commonwealth forces clashed with the forces backed by Ottoman Empire and occasionally Habsburgs, all competing for the domination over that region.

With the Commonwealth engaged on its northern and eastern borders with near constant conflicts against Sweden and Muscovy, its armies were spread thin. Finally, the southern wars culminated in the Polish defeat at the Battle of Cecora in 1620. Eventually the Commonwealth was forced to renounce all claims to Moldavia, Transylvania, Wallachia and Hungary.

Polish Magnates 1576-1586

Religious and social tensions

The population of Poland-Lithuania was neither overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nor Polish. This circumstance resulted from the federation with Lithuania, where ethnic Poles were a distinct minority. In those days, to be Polish was much less an indication of ethnicity than of rank; it was a designation largely reserved for the landed noble class, which included members of Polish and non-Polish origin alike. Generally speaking, the ethnically non-Polish noble families of Lithuania adopted the Polish language and culture. As a result, in the eastern territories of the kingdom a Polish aristocracy dominated over a peasantry whose great majority was neither Polish nor Catholic. Moreover, the decades of peace brought huge colonization efforts to Ukraine, which heightened tensions between peasants, Jews and nobles. The tensions were aggravated by the conflicts between Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches following the Union of Brest and by several Cossack uprisings. On the West and North, cities had big German minorities, often of reformed belief. According to the Risāle-yi Tatar-i Leh (an account of the Lipka Tatars written for Süleyman the Magnificent by an anonymous Polish Muslim during a stay in Istanbul in 1557-8 on his way to Mecca) there were 100 Lipka Tatar settlements with mosques in Poland. In the year 1672, the Tatar subjects rose up in open rebellion against the Commonwealth.

Władysław IV Vasa (1632–1648)

Main articles: Polish-Muscovy War (1632-1634) and Ottoman-Commonwealth War (1633-1634)

Władysław tried to achieve many military goals, including conquest of Russia, Sweden and Turkey. His reign is that of many small victories, few of them bringing anything worthwhile to the Commonwealth. For a time, he was elected a tsar, but never had any control over Russian territories. In the end, like his father, he failed to strengthen the Commonwealth or prevent the crippling events of The Deluge or Khmelnytsky Uprising, that devastated the Commonwealth in 1648.

Jan Kazimierz Vasa (1648–1668)

The reign of the last of Vasas in the Commonwealth would be dominated by the culmination in the war with Sweden, groundwork for which was laid down by the two previous Vasa kings of the Commonwealth.

In 1660 John Casimir would be forced to renounce his claims to the Swedish throne and acknowledge Swedish sovereignty over Livonia and city of Riga. He abdicated on 16 September 1668 and returned to France where he joined the Jesuit order and became an ordinary monk. He died in 1672.

Khmelnytsky Uprising, 1648–1654

"Bohdan Chmielnicki with Toğay bey (Tuhaj Bej) at Lviv", oil on canvas, 1885, National Museum in Warsaw. Chmielnicki Uprising 1648-1654

This largest of all Cossacks rebellions, led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky, proved disastrous for the Commonwealth. In the end, the Commonwealth not only lost parts of its territory to Russia, but was weakened at the moment of invasion by Sweden.

The Deluge, (1648–1667)

Although Poland-Lithuania was unaffected by the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), the following two decades would subject the nation to one of its worst trials ever. This colorful but ruinous interval, the stuff of legend and the popular historical novels of Nobel laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz, became known as the potop, or The Deluge, for the magnitude and suddenness of its hardships. The emergency began when the Ukrainian Cossacks rose in revolt and declared an independent state based around Kiev and allied with the Crimean Tatars and the Ottoman Empire. Their leader Bohdan Chmielnicki defeated two Polish armies in 1648 and 1651 and after the Cossacks concluded the Treaty of Pereyaslav with Russia in 1654, Tsar Alexis overran the entire eastern part of Poland to Lvov. Taking advantage of Poland's preoccupation and weakness, Charles X of Sweden intervened. Most of the Polish nobility along with Frederick William of Brandenberg agreed to recognize him as king after he promised to drive out the Russians. However, the Swedish troops embarked on an orgy of looting and destruction, which caused the Polish populace to rise up in revolt. Nonetheless, the Swedes overran the remainder of Poland except for Lvov and Danzig. Poland-Lithuania rallied to recover most of its losses from the Swedes. In exchange for breaking the alliance with Sweden, the ruler of Ducal Prussia was released from his vassalage and became a de facto independent sovereign, while much of the Polish Protestant nobility went over to the side of the Swedes. Under hetman Stefan Czarniecki, the Poles and Lithuanians had driven the Swedes from their territory by 1657. The armies of Frederick William of Brandenberg intervened and were also defeated. Frederick William's rule over East Prussia was recognized, although Poland retained nominal authority over the duchy until 1773.

Further complicated by dissenting nobles and wars with the Ottoman Turks, the thirteen-year struggle over control of Ukraine ended when that country reentered into union with Poland (1658) and the Russians were defeated in 1660-1662. However Russia still refused to give up its claims to the Ukraine, and when peace was concluded in 1667, it annexed the right bank of the Dnepr River. Kiev was also leased to Russia for two years, but ultimately never returned and eventually Poland recognized Russian control of the city.

Despite the improbable survival of the Commonwealth in the face of the potop, one of the most dramatic instances of the Poles' knack for prevailing in adversity, the episode inflicted irremediable damage and contributed heavily to the ultimate demise of the state. Held responsible for the greatest disaster in Polish history, John Casimir abdicated in 1668. The population of the Commonwealth had been reduced a staggering 45% (a greater percentage than in World War II) by military casualties, slave raids, plague epidemics, and mass murders of civilians. Most of Poland's cities were reduced to rubble, and the nation's economic base decimated. The war had been paid for by large-scale minting of worthless currency, causing runaway inflation. Religious feelings had also been inflamed by the conflict, ending tolerance of non-Catholic beliefs. Henceforth, the Commonwealth would be on the strategic defensive facing hostile neighbors. Not until the Polish-Soviet War of the early 20th century would Poland compete with Russia as a military equal.

Commonwealth after the Deluge

In the Treaty of Oliwa in 1660, John II of Poland finally renounced his claims to the Swedish Crown, which ended the feud between Sweden and the Commonwealth and the accompanying string of wars between those countries (War against Sigismund (1598–1599), Polish–Swedish War (1600–1629) and the Northern Wars (1655–1660)).

After the Treaty of Andrusovo in 1667 and the Eternal Peace Treaty of 1686, the Commonwealth lost left-bank Ukraine to Russia.

Polish culture and the Greek Catholic Church gradually advanced and by the 18th century, the population of Ducal Prussia was a mixture of Catholics and Protestants and used both the German and Polish languages. The rest of Poland and most of Lithuania remained firmly Roman Catholic, while Ukraine and some parts of Lithuania (i.e., Belarus) were Greek Orthodox. The society was split into an upper stratum (8% nobles, 1%priests), townspeople (6%), Jews (10%), Ormians/Tatars (2%), and peasants (73%Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Lithuanians and other). In the year 1772 out of the 12mln inhabitants there were: 43% Roman Catholics, 33% Greek Catholics, 10% Orthodox, 9% Jews, 4% Protestants, 1% Muslims.

Michael Korybut Wisniowiecki (King 1669–1673)

Election of Michael Korybut Wisniowiecki on Wola fields in 1669.

Following the abdication of King John Casimir Vasa and the end of The Deluge, the Polish nobility (szlachta) elected Michael Korybut Wisniowiecki as king, believing he would further the interests of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was the first monarch of Polish origin since the last of Jagiellonian dynasty, Sigismund II Augustus, died in 1572. Michael was a son of a successful but controversial military commander Jeremi Wiśniowiecki, known for his actions during the Khmelnytsky Uprising led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky.

His reign was less than successful, and the nobility was not satisfied with the House of Vasa's dynastic policies. Despite his father's military fame, Michael lost a war against the Ottoman Empire, with Turks occupying Podolia and most of Ukraine in 1672-1673. He was unable to cope with his responsibilities and with the different quarreling factions within Poland.

John III Sobieski (King 1674–1696)

"Sobieski Sending Message of Victory to the Pope, after the Battle of Vienna" 12 September 1683, oil on canvas, 1880, 58 x 100 cm, National Museum in Kraków.

John III Sobieski's most famous achievement was to deal a crushing defeat to the Ottoman Empire in 1683 at the Battle of Vienna, which marked the final turning point in a 250-year struggle between the forces of Christian Europe and the Islamic Ottoman Empire. Over the 16 years following the battle (the so-called Great Turkish War), the Turks would be permanently driven south of the Danube River, never to threaten central Europe again. When the Holy Alliance concluded peace with the Ottomans in 1699, Poland recovered Podolia and Ukraine. On other fronts, John III was less successful, including agreements with France and Sweden in a failed attempt to regain the Duchy of Prussia. Meanwhile, Kiev had been leased to the Russians for two years after 1667 and never returned. Poland formally relinquished all claims to the city in 1686.

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1701

Decay of the Commonwealth

During the 18th century the Polish crown itself became subject to the manipulations of Russia, Sweden, the Kingdom of Prussia, France and Austria. Poland's weakness was exacerbated by an unworkable constitution which allowed each noble or gentry representative in the Sejm to use his vetoing power to stop further parliamentary proceedings for the given session. This greatly weakened the central authority of Poland and paved the way for its destruction.

Most accounts of Polish history show the two centuries after the end of the Jagiellon dynasty as a time of decline leading to foreign domination.

Before another hundred years have elapsed, Poland-Lithuania had virtually ceased to function as a coherent and genuinely independent state. The commonwealth's last martial triumph occurred in 1683 when King John Sobieski drove the Turks from the gates of Vienna with a heavy cavalry charge. Poland's important role in aiding the European alliance to roll back the Ottoman Empire was rewarded with some territory in Podole by the Treaty of Karlowicz (1699). Nonetheless, this isolated success did little to mask the internal weakness and paralysis of the Polish–Lithuanian political system. For the next quarter century, Poland was often a pawn in Russia's campaigns against other powers. When John III died in 1697, 18 candidates vied for the throne, which ultimately went to Frederick Augustus of Saxony, who then converted to Catholicism. Ruling as Augustus II, his reign presented the opportunity to unite Saxony (an industrialized area) with Poland, a country rich in mineral resources. However, the king lacked any skill in foreign policy and so became entangled in a war with Sweden. His allies the Russians and Danes were repelled by Charles XII of Sweden, beginning the Great Northern War. Charles installed a puppet ruler in Poland and marched on Saxony, compelling Augustus to give up his crown and making Poland into a base for the Swedish army. Poland was again devastated by the armies of Sweden, Russia, and Saxony. Its major cities were destroyed and a third of the population killed by the war and a plague outbreak in 1709. The Swedes finally withdrew from Poland and invaded Ukraine, where they were defeated by the Russians at Poltava. Augustus was able to reclaim his throne with Russian support, but Peter the Great decided to annex Livonia in 1710. He also suppressed the Cossacks, who had been in revolt against Poland since 1699. Later on, the tsar frustrated an attempt by Prussia to regain territory from Poland (despite Augustus' approval of this). After the Great Northern War, Poland became an effective protectorate of Russia for the rest of the 18th century.

In the eighteenth century, the powers of the monarchy and the central administration became purely formal. Kings were denied permission to provide for the elementary requirements of defense and finance, and aristocratic clans made treaties directly with foreign sovereigns. Attempts at reform were stymied by the determination of the szlachta to preserve their "golden freedoms" most notably the liberum veto. Because of the chaos sown by the veto provision, under Augustus III (1733–63) only one of thirteen Sejm sessions ran to an orderly adjournment.

Unlike Spain and Sweden, great powers that were allowed to settle peacefully into secondary status at the periphery of Europe at the end of their time of glory, Poland endured its decline at the strategic crossroads of the continent. Lacking central leadership and impotent in foreign relations, Poland-Lithuania became a chattel of the ambitious kingdoms that surrounded it, an immense but feeble buffer state. During the reign of Peter the Great (1682–1725), the commonwealth fell under the dominance of Russia, and by the middle of the eighteenth century Poland-Lithuania had been made a virtual protectorate of its eastern neighbor, retaining only the theoretical right to self-rule.

The War of the Polish Succession was fought from 1733–1735.

Augustus II the Strong (Wettin) (King 1697–1706, 1709–1733)

Augustus II the Strong, also known as Frederick Augustus I, Prince-Elector of Saxony, was an over-ambitious ruler. He defeated his biggest rival, François Louis, Prince of Conti, supported by France, and Sobieski's son, Jakub. To ensure his success for the crown of Poland he decided to convert to Roman Catholicism from Lutheranism. Augustus hoped to make the Polish throne hereditary within his family, and to use his resources as Elector of Saxony to impose some order on the chaotic Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. However, he was soon distracted from his internal reform projects by the possibility of external conquest. He allied with Denmark and Russia, provoking war with Sweden. After the former were defeated, the latter's king Charles XII marched from Livonia into Poland, using it as his base of operations. Installing a puppet ruler in Warsaw, he occupied Saxony and drove Augustus II from the throne. Poland, which had only recently returned to its 1650 population level, was once again completely razed to the ground by the armies of Sweden, Saxony, and Russia. Two million people died as a result of the war and disease epidemics. Cities were reduced to rubble, and cultural losses were immense. The Swedish armies eventually left Poland and turned east into Russia. Augustus II regained the throne with Russian backing, but the latter proceeded to annex Livonia after driving the Swedes from it. Meanwhile, a Cossack revolt that had begun in 1699 was suppressed by the Russians, and Tsar Peter the Great declared Russia to be the guardian of the Polish Republic's territorial integrity. This effectively meant that Poland became a Russian protectorate for the remainder of the 18th century.

Stanisław Leszczyński (King 1706–1709, 1733–1736)

Seen as a puppet of Sweden during his first stint on the throne, Stanisław Leszczyński ruled in times of turmoil, and Augustus soon recovered the throne, forcing him into exile. He was elected king following the death of Augustus in 1733, with the support of France and Polish nobles, but not that of Poland's neighbors. After the military intervention of Russian and Saxon troops, he was besieged in Danzig, and forced to leave the country once again, becoming a successful and popular ruler in the Duchy of Lorraine.

August III Wettin (King 1733–1763)

Also Elector of Saxony (as Frederick Augustus II), August III, inherited Saxony after his father's death, and was elected king of Poland by a minority sejm with the support of Russian troops. August III was uninterested in the affairs of his Polish dominion, which he viewed mostly as a source of funds and resources for strengthening his power in Saxony. During his 30-year reign, he spent less than 3 years in Poland, delegating most of his powers and responsibilities to Count Heinrich von Brühl. Thirty years of August III's uninterested reign festered the political anarchy and further weakened the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, while neighboring Prussia, Austria and Russia finalized plans for the partitions of Poland.

The three partitions (1764–1795)

Partitions:

• 

  The First Partition (1772)

• 

  The Second Partition (1793)

• 

  The Third Partition (1795)

During the reign of Empress Catherine the Great (1762–1796), Russia intensified its manipulation in Polish affairs. The Kingdom of Prussia and Austria, the other powers surrounding the republic, also took advantage of internal religious and political bickering to divide up the country in three partition stages. After two partitions, the third one in 1795 eventually wiped Poland-Lithuania from the map of Europe.

Stanisław August Poniatowski (King 1764–1795)

Russian protectorate and First Partition

Poland-Lithuania: Physical, 1686-1770

Election of Stanisław August Poniatowski, painted by Bernardo Bellotto (fragment)

In 1764 Catherine dictated the election of her former favorite and lover, Stanisław August Poniatowski, as king of Poland-Lithuania. Confounding expectations that he would be an obedient servant of his mistress, Stanislaw August encouraged the modernization of his realm's ramshackle political system and achieved a temporary moratorium on use of the individual veto in the Sejm (1764–1766). This turnabout threatened to renew the strength of the monarchy and brought displeasure in the foreign capitals that preferred an inert, pliable Poland. Catherine, being among the most displeased by Poniatowski's independence, encouraged religious dissension in Poland-Lithuania's substantial Eastern Orthodox population, which earlier in the eighteenth century had lost the rights enjoyed during the Jagiellon Dynasty.

Under heavy Russian pressure, the Sejm introduced Orthodox and Protestant equality in 1767. Through the Polish nobles that Russia controlled and Russian Minister to Warsaw Prince Nikolai Repnin, Czarina Catherine the Great forced a constitution, which undid the reforms of 1764 under Stanislaw II, on Poland in 1767. The liberum veto and all the old abuses of the last one and a quarter centuries were guaranteed as unalterable parts of this new constitution. Poland was compelled to sign Treaty of Guarantee with Russia, where Catherine was imposed as protector of Polish political system. After that Poland became de facto a Russian protectorate. The real power in Poland lay with the Russian ambassadors, and the Polish king became only an executor of their will. This action provoked a Catholic uprising by the Confederation of Bar, a league of Polish nobles that fought with Russian intervention until 1772 to revoke Catherine's mandate.

The defeat of the Confederation of Bar again left Poland exposed to the ambitions of its neighbors. Although Catherine initially opposed partition, Frederick the Great of Prussia profited from Austria's threatening military position to the southwest by pressing a long-standing proposal to carve territory from the commonwealth. Catherine, persuaded that Russia did not have the resources to continue its unilateral domination of Poland, agreed. In 1772 Russia, Prussia, and Austria forced terms of partition upon the helpless commonwealth under the pretext of restoring order in the anarchic conditions of the country.

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as a protectorate of Russian Empire in 1772

National revival

The first partition in 1772 did not directly threaten the stability of Poland-Lithuania. Poland still retained extensive territory that included the Polish heartlands. In fact, the shock of the annexations made clear the dangers of decay in government institutions, creating a body of opinion favorable to reform along the lines of the European Enlightenment. King Stanislaw August supported the progressive elements in the government and promoted the ideas of foreign political figures such as Edmund Burke and George Washington. At the same time, Polish intellectuals discussed Enlightenment philosophers such as Montesquieu and Rousseau. During the period of Polish Enlightenment, the concept of democratic institutions for all classes was accepted in Polish society. Education reform included establishment of the first ministry of education in Europe (the Komisja Edukacji Narodowej). Taxation and the army underwent thorough reform, and government again was centralized in the Permanent Council. Landholders emancipated large numbers of peasants, although there was no official government decree. Polish cities, in decline for many decades, were revived by the influence of the Industrial Revolution, especially in mining and textiles.

Stanislaw August's process of renovation reached its climax when, after three years of intense debate, the "Four Years' Sejm" produced the Constitution of May 3, 1791, which historian Norman Davies calls "the first constitution of its kind in Europe".^[2] Conceived in the liberal spirit of the contemporaneous document in the United States, the constitution recast Poland-Lithuania as a hereditary monarchy and abolished many of the eccentricities and antiquated features of the old system. The new constitution abolished the individual veto in parliament; provided a separation of powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government; and established "people's sovereignty" (for the noble and bourgeois classes). Although never fully implemented, the Constitution of May 3rd gained an honored position in the Polish political heritage; tradition marks the anniversary of its passage as the country's most important civic holiday.

Destruction of Poland-Lithuania

"Rejtan - The Fall of Poland", oil on canvas, 1866, 282 x 487 cm, Royal Castle in Warsaw. In September 1773 Rejtan tried to prevent the legalization of the first partition of Poland. The dramatic events in the Polish Sejm are depicted on the painting

Passage of the constitution alarmed nobles who would lose considerable stature under the new order. In autocratic states such as Russia, the democratic ideals of the constitution also threatened the existing order, and the prospect of Polish recovery threatened to end domination of Polish affairs by its neighbors. In 1792, Polish factions formed the Confederation of Targowica and appealed for Russian assistance in restoring the status quo. Catherine was happy to use this opportunity; enlisting Prussian support, she invaded Poland under the pretext of defending Poland's ancient liberties. The irresolute Stanislaw August capitulated, defecting to the Targowica faction. Arguing that Poland had fallen prey to the radical Jacobinism then at high tide in France, Russia and Prussia abrogated the Constitution of May 3, 1791, carried out a second partition of Poland in 1793, and placed the remainder of the country under occupation by Russian troops.

The second partition was far more injurious than the first. Russia received a vast area of eastern Poland, extending southward from its gains in the first partition nearly to the Black Sea. To the west, Prussia received an area known as South Prussia, nearly twice the size of its first-partition gains along the Baltic, as well as the port of Gdańsk. Thus, Poland's neighbors reduced the commonwealth to a rump state and plainly signaled their designs to abolish it altogether at their convenience.

"Battle of Racławice", oil on canvas, 1888, National Museum in Kraków. 4 April 1794, Kościuszko Uprising

In a gesture of defiance, a general Polish revolt broke out in 1794 under the leadership of Tadeusz Kościuszko (Kościuszko Uprising), a military officer who had rendered notable service in the American Revolution. Kosciuszko's ragtag insurgent armies won some initial successes, but they eventually fell before the superior forces of Russian General Alexander Suvorov. In the wake of the insurrection of 1794, Russia, Prussia, and Austria carried out the third and final partition of Poland-Lithuania in 1795, erasing the Commonwealth of Two Nations from the map and pledging never to let it return.

Much of Europe condemned the dismemberment as an international crime without historical parallel. Amid the distractions of the French Revolution and its attendant wars, however, no state actively opposed the annexations. In the long term, the dissolution of Poland-Lithuania upset the traditional European balance of power, dramatically magnifying the influence of Russia and paving the way for the Germany that would emerge in the nineteenth century with Prussia at its core. For the Poles, the third partition began a period of continuous foreign rule that would endure well over a century.

See also

• Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
• History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1648)
• History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1648–1764)
• History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1764–1795)
• List of Polish rulers
• List Noblemen
• Ambassadors and envoys from Russia to Poland (1763–1794)

External links

• Commonwealth of Diverse Cultures: Poland's Heritage
• 300 maps of Poland and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

References

1. ^ Soldier Khan
2. ^ Davies, Norman (1996). Europe: A History. Oxford University Press. p. 699. ISBN 0198201710. http://books.google.com/books?id=jrVW9W9eiYMC&pg=PA699. 

•  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Library of Congress Country Studies. - Poland.