The Rise and Fall of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
There was once a large kingdom in eastern Europe that seemingly gets little attention in history. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth lasted from 1569 to 1795. Among the reasons that made this political arrangement unusual, were religious toleration in an age of religious wars and political limits on the king’s power.
Origins
Poland and Lithuania had close political ties before the 16th century. In fact, there had been a type of union between the two states since 1386 through royal marriages.
However, the Union of Lublin agreement sealed the partnership in 1569. It became the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and that long title resulted in the unification of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Commonwealth encompassed a large geographic area. Besides Poland and Lithuania, the territory also covered modern Latvia and Belarus, as well as large swaths of Ukraine, Estonia, and western Russia.
In an age of absolute monarchies, the political system of the new Commonwealth was a radical change. Poland-Lithuania was a semi-democratic constitutional monarchy. The king’s powers were limited. He was elected and held in check by a parliament called the Sejm. The Sejm was controlled by the nobility. The two states in the federation were considered equal, though Poland was larger in size and population and the dominant partner.
The Commonwealth was also a diverse ethnic and religious federation. There were a large number of Germans, Russians, Armenians, Jews, Roman Catholics, Protestants, Eastern Orthodox, and Muslims.
Golden Age
The golden age of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth lasted until 1648. The nobles in the Sejm were reluctant to get involved in the Thirty Years War ravaging much of Europe that began in1618, giving the Commonwealth political and economic stability.
At it’s height, the Commonwealth stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea. It’s lands covered close to one million square kilometers, containing 11 million people. It was one of the largest and most powerful kingdoms in Europe. Promises of religious toleration saw many flee the excesses of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation in the rest of Europe to relative safety within the Commonwealth.
However, there were still conflicts between the Commonwealth and its powerful neighbors. This included numerous battles with the Ottoman Empire, Muscovite Russia, and Sweden.
The Commonwealth’s economy prospered. Big profits were made by kings and nobles through exporting grain, salt, wood, and cloth to Western Europe. Polish became a main language of Central and Eastern Europe, to the chagrin of some Lithuanians within the kingdom.
Uprising of 1648
A violent Cossack uprising in Ukraine shattered the stability of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1648. It was mostly a revolt against the economic dominance of the Polish nobility. Fighting quickly spread throughout Ukraine. Poles were slaughtered, as well as Jews, who acting as middlemen in transactions between nobles and Cossacks, took the brunt of Cossack rage.
A major military defeat by the Cossacks and the sudden death of king Wladyslaw IV, left the Commonwealth in a temporary leaderless vacuum. With Poland-Lithuania on the defensive, surrounding kingdoms tried to take advantage and join the Cossack attack. War continued for decades. After losing ground, the Commonwealth eventually recovered, but in a smaller and weakened state.
Decline and Partition
Famines and epidemics followed the 1648 uprising. The population fell to 7 million. Among the possible other causes of Commonwealth decline were parliamentary infighting among nobles in the Sejm, weak kings, lack of a permanent standing army, increasing friction between Poland and Lithuania, as well as growing religious intolerance within.
Wars with neighboring kingdoms continued sporadically. These neighbors also interfered in Commonwealth politics, influencing the election of new kings. Members of the Sejm were sometimes bribed to support certain kings over others. In one of the quirks of the constitution, a unanimous vote was required in the Sejm to pass motions and to elect new kings. All it took was one opposition vote to kill legislation and extend political deadlock.
It seemed only a matter of time before collapse. Taking advantage of the situation, Austria, Prussia, and Russia agreed on partitioning off parts of the Commonwealth into their own growing empires. There were three separate partitions, the final one taking place in 1795. The nations of Poland and Lithuania disappeared from maps of Europe until their restoration in 1918, following the First World War.
Sources:
Poland — The Commonwealth | Britannica
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth | New World Encyclopedia
On this Day, in 1569: the Union of Lublin established the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth | Kafkadesk
Poland — The Cossacks | Britannica
Microsoft Word File — A_Short_History_of_Poland_and_Lithuania.doc (stanford.edu)
