History of Poland in the early modern period (1569–1795)
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The early modern era of Polish history follows the Late Middle Ages. Historians use the term early modern to refer to the period beginning in approximately 1500 AD and lasting until around 1800.
The
The Union of Lublin of 1569 constituted the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely merged continuation of the already existing personal union of the Crown of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The beginning of the Commonwealth coincided with the period of Poland's greatest territorial expansion, power, civilizational advancement and prosperity. The Polish–Lithuanian state had become an influential player in Europe and a vital cultural entity, spreading Western culture eastward.
Following the
The Commonwealth, assertive militarily under King
The situation, however, soon radically deteriorated. From 1648 the Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising engulfed the south and east, and was soon followed by a Swedish invasion, which raged through core Polish lands. Warfare with the Cossacks and Russia left Ukraine divided, with the eastern part, lost by the Commonwealth, becoming the Tsardom's dependency. John III Sobieski, fighting protracted wars with the Ottoman Empire, revived the Commonwealth's military might once more, in the process helping decisively in 1683 to deliver Vienna from a Turkish onslaught.
The Commonwealth, subjected to
The Polish-Lithuanian state was dominated by the Russian Empire from the time of Peter the Great. This foreign control reached its climax under Catherine the Great, and involved at that time also the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Habsburg monarchy. During the later part of the 18th century the Commonwealth recovered economically, developed culturally and attempted fundamental internal reforms. The reform activity provoked hostile reaction and eventually military response on the part of the neighboring powers. The royal election of 1764 resulted in the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski.
The Bar Confederation of 1768 was a szlachta rebellion directed against Russia and the Polish king. It was brought under control and followed in 1772 by the First Partition of the Commonwealth, a permanent encroachment on the outer Commonwealth provinces by Russia, Prussia and Austria.
The
The nobility's Targowica Confederation appealed to Empress Catherine for help and in May 1792 the Russian army entered the territory of the Commonwealth. The defensive war fought by the forces of the Commonwealth ended when the King, convinced of the futility of resistance, capitulated by joining the Targowica Confederation. Russia and Prussia in 1793 arranged for and executed the Second Partition of the Commonwealth, which left the country with critically reduced territory, practically incapable of independent existence.
Reformers and patriots were soon preparing for a national insurrection. Tadeusz Kościuszko, chosen as its leader, on March 24, 1794, in Cracow (Kraków) declared a national uprising. Kościuszko emancipated and enrolled in his army many peasants, but the hard-fought insurrection ended in suppression by the forces of Russia and Prussia. The third and final partition of the Commonwealth was undertaken again by all three partitioning powers, and in 1795 the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ceased to exist.
Early elective monarchy
Non-hereditary royal succession
The death of
Each king had to sign the so-called
The disappearance of the
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 ineffective or in constant debilitating conflict with the nobility. The kings of alien origin were initially unfamiliar with the internal dynamics of the Commonwealth, had remained distracted by the politics of their native countries, and often 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 king. Her 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.
Stephen Báthory (1576–1586)
The able and militarily as well as domestically assertive Transylvanian Stephen Báthory (1576–1586) counts among the few more highly regarded elective kings.
During the
The Commonwealth forces retrieved most of the lost provinces. At the end of Báthory's reign, Poland ruled two main
War of the Polish Succession
Stephen Báthory planned a
House of Vasa
Sigismund III Vasa (1587–1632)
The first few years of Sigismund's reign (until 1598) saw Poland and Sweden united in a
The
Sigismund's attempts to introduce
For ten 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 took place; the Commonwealth ceded to Sweden most of Livonia, which the Swedes had invaded in 1626.
Sigismund III Vasa failed to strengthen the Commonwealth or to solve its internal problems; he concentrated on futile attempts to regain his former Swedish throne.
Commonwealth wars with Sweden and Moscow
Sigismund desire to reclaim the Swedish throne drove him into prolonged military adventures waged against 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
As the
Poland escaped the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), which ravaged everything to the west, especially Prussia. In 1618, the Elector of Brandenburg became hereditary ruler of the Duchy of Prussia on the Baltic coast. From then on, Poland's link to the Baltic Sea was bordered on both sides by two provinces of the same German state.
Southern wars
The Commonwealth viewed itself as the "bulwark of the Christendom" and together with the Habsburgs and the Republic of Venice stood in the way of the Ottoman plans of European conquests. Since the second half of the 16th century, the Polish-Ottomans relations were worsened by the escalation of Cossack-Tatar border warfare, which turned the entire border region between the Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire into a semi-permanent warzone. A constant threat from Crimean Tatars supported the appearance of Cossackdom.[2]
In 1595, magnates of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth intervened in the affairs of Moldavia. This started a series of conflicts that would soon spread to Transylvania, Wallachia and Hungary, when the forces of the Polish magnates clashed with the forces backed by the Ottoman Empire and occasionally the Habsburgs, all competing for the domination over that region.
With the Commonwealth engaged on its northern and eastern borders with nearly constant conflicts against Sweden and Russia, its armies were spread thin. The southern wars culminated in the Polish defeat at the Battle of Cecora in 1620. The Commonwealth was forced to renounce all claims to Moldavia, Transylvania, Wallachia and Hungary.
Religious and social tensions
The population of Poland-Lithuania was neither overwhelmingly
As a result, in the eastern territories of the Kingdom the Polish-speaking landed nobility dominated over the peasantry, whose great majority was neither Polish nor Catholic. Moreover, the decades of peace brought huge colonization efforts to
Władysław IV Vasa (1632–1648)
During the reign of Sigismund's son, Władysław IV Vasa, the Cossacks in Ukraine revolted against Poland; wars with Russia and Turkey weakened the country; and szlachta obtained new privileges, mainly exemption from income tax.
Władysław IV aimed to achieve many military goals, including conquests of Russia, Sweden and Turkey. His reign is that of many small victories, few of them bringing anything worthwhile to the Commonwealth. He was once elected a Russian tsar, but never had any control over Russian territories. Like his father, Władysław was involved in Swedish dynastic ambitions. He failed to strengthen the Commonwealth or prevent the crippling events of the Khmelnytsky Uprising and the Deluge that devastated the Commonwealth from 1648 onward.
John Casimir Vasa (1648–1668)
The reign of Władysław's brother
Under John Casimir, the Cossacks grew in power and
John Casimir, a broken, disillusioned man, abdicated the Polish throne on 16 September 1668 amid internal anarchy and strife and returned to France, where he joined the
Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648–1654)
The Khmelnytsky Uprising, by far the largest of the Cossack uprisings, proved disastrous for the Commonwealth. The Cossacks, allied with the Tatars, defeated the forces of the Commonwealth in several battles, the Commonwealth scored a major victory at Berestechko, but the Polish-Lithuanian empire ended up "fatally wounded".[3] The easternmost parts of its territory were effectively lost to Russia, which resulted in a long-term shift in the balance of power. In the short-term the country was weakened at the moment of the invasion by Sweden.
The Deluge (1648–1667)
Although Poland-Lithuania was unaffected by the
Poland-Lithuania rallied to recover most of its losses from the Swedes. In exchange for breaking the alliance with Sweden, Frederick William, 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 the Commonwealth's territory by 1657. The armies of Frederick William intervened and were also defeated. Frederick William's rule over East Prussia was recognized, although Poland retained the right of succession until 1773.
The
The potop wars 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 by a staggering 1/3,[5] 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 was 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 and increasingly more powerful neighbors.
Commonwealth after the Deluge
In the
After the
Native kings; wars with the Ottoman Empire
Michael Korybut Wiśniowiecki (1669–1673)
Following the abdication of King
His reign was not successful. Michael lost a
John III Sobieski (1674–1696)
Hetman John Sobieski was the Commonwealth's last great military commander; he was active and effective in the continuing warfare with the Ottoman Empire. Sobieski was elected as another "Piast" (of Polish family) king. John III's most famous achievement was the decisive contribution by the Commonwealth's forces led by him to the defeat of the Ottoman Empire's army in 1683, at the Battle of Vienna.
The Ottomans, if victorious, would have likely become a threat to Western Europe, but the successful battle eliminated that possibility and marked the 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 Great Turkish War), the Turks would be permanently driven south of the Danube River, never to threaten Central Europe again.
For the Commonwealth there was no big payoff for the Turkish victories and the
Decay of the Commonwealth
Beginning in the 17th century, because of the deteriorating state of internal politics and government and destructive wars, the nobles' democracy gradually declined into anarchy, making the once powerful Commonwealth vulnerable to foreign interference and intervention. In the late 17th century Poland-Lithuania had virtually ceased to function as a coherent and genuinely independent state.
During the 18th century, the Polish-Lithuanian federation became subject to manipulations by
The decline leading to foreign domination had begun in earnest several decades after the end of the
The nobles or szlachta became increasingly focused on guarding their own "liberties" and blocked any policies designed to strengthen the nation or build a powerful army. Beginning in 1652, the fatal practice of liberum veto was their basic tool. It required unanimity in sejm and permitted even a single deputy not only to block any measure but to cause dissolution of a sejm and submission of all measures already passed to the next sejm. Foreign diplomats, using bribery or persuasion, routinely caused the dissolution of inconvenient sessions of sejm. Of the 37 sejms in 1674–96, only 12 were able to enact any legislation. The others were dissolved by the liberum veto of one person or another.
The Commonwealth's last martial triumph occurred in 1683 when King John III 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 Podolia by the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699). This partial 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
In the 18th century, the powers of the monarchy and the central administration became mostly formal. Kings were denied opportunity to provide for elementary requirements of defense and finance, and aristocratic clans made treaties directly with foreign sovereigns. Attempts at reform were stymied by the determination of 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 the 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 18th century Poland-Lithuania had been made a virtual protectorate of its eastern neighbor, retaining only a theoretical right to self-rule.
By the 18th century, outside commentators routinely ridiculed the ineffectiveness of sejms, blaming the liberum veto. Throughout Europe political commentators unanimously called it a terrible failure.[6] Many Polish nobles regarded the veto as a constructive instrument, to be used as a weapon against the presumably tyrannical aspirations of the monarchy. The long-term result was a weak state that could not compete with its neighbors, especially Prussia and Russia. Inevitably Poland was partitioned among them and the nobles lost all their political rights as well as their nation state.
Several decades before the loss independence, intellectuals began to reconsider the role of the veto and the nature of Polish liberty, arguing that Poland had not been progressing as fast as the rest of Europe because of a lack of political stability. The exposure to Enlightenment ideas gave Poles further reason to reconsider concepts such as society and equality, and this led to discovery of the idea of the naród, or nation; a nation in which all people, not just the nobility, should enjoy the rights of political liberty. The reform movement came too late to save the state, but helped to form the coherent nation, able to survive the long period of Partitioned Poland.
Commonwealth–Saxony personal union
After John III Sobieski's death, the Polish-Lithuanian throne was occupied for seven decades by the German Prince-elector of Saxony, Augustus II the Strong, and his son, Augustus III, of the House of Wettin.
Augustus II the Strong (1697–1706, 1709–1733)
Augustus II the Strong, also known as Frederick Augustus I, was an over-ambitious ruler. In the contest for the crown of the Commonwealth he defeated his main rival,
In alliance with Peter the Great of Russia, Augustus won back Podolia and western Ukraine and concluded the long series of Polish-Turkish wars by the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699). A Cossack revolt that had begun in 1699 was suppressed by the Russians. Augustus tried unsuccessfully to regain the Baltic coast from Charles XII of Sweden. He allied with Denmark and Russia, provoking a war with Sweden. After Augustus' allies were defeated, Sweden's king Charles XII marched from Livonia into Poland, using it then as the base of his operations. Installing a puppet ruler (King Stanisław Leszczyński) in Warsaw, he occupied Saxony and drove Augustus II from the throne. Augustus was forced to cede the crown from 1704 to 1709, but regained it when Tsar Peter defeated Charles XII at the Battle of Poltava (1709). Poland, which after having suffered extensive damages from wars 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. After the Swedish defeat Augustus II regained the throne with Russian backing, but the Russians proceeded to annex Livonia after driving the Swedes from it.
Augustus II was helpless when, in 1701, the Elector of Brandenburg proclaimed himself sovereign "King in Prussia," as Frederick I and founded the aggressive, militaristic Prussian state, which would eventually form nucleus of a united Germany. The victor from Poltava, Tsar Peter the Great declared Russia to be the guardian of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic's territorial integrity. This effectively meant that the Commonwealth became a Russian protectorate; it had remained in this condition for the duration of its existence (until 1795). The policy of Russia was to exercise political control over Poland in cooperation with Austria and Prussia.
Stanisław Leszczyński (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 II soon recovered the throne, forcing him into exile. He was elected king again following the death of Augustus in 1733, with the support of France and Polish nobles, but not of Poland's neighbors. After the military intervention by Russian and Saxon troops, he was besieged in Danzig (Gdańsk), and again forced to leave the country. For the rest of his life Leszczyński became a successful and popular ruler in the Duchy of Lorraine.
August III (1733–1763)
Also Elector of Saxony (as Frederick Augustus II), Augustus III inherited Saxony after his father's death, and was elected King of Poland by a minority sejm with the support of Russian troops. Augustus III was a puppet of Russia, and during his reign foreign armies criss-crossed the land. He was uninterested in the affairs of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, 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. Augustus III's uninvolved reign facilitated political anarchy and further weakened the Commonwealth, while the neighboring Prussia, Austria and especially Russia were becoming increasingly dominant in its affairs.
Reforms and partitions during the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski (1764–1795)
From the early years of the reign of Empress Catherine the Great (1762–1796), Russia intensified its manipulation of Polish affairs. Prussia and Austria, the other powers surrounding the Republic, also took advantage of internal religious and political bickering. The neighboring states divided up the country in three partition stages. The third one in 1795 wiped Poland-Lithuania from the map of Europe.
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First Partition of Poland (1772)
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Second Partition of Poland (1793)
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Third Partition of Poland (1795)
Russian protectorate and First Partition
More enlightened Poles realized by now that reforms were necessary.
Under heavy Russian pressure, the unhappy sejm introduced religious toleration and Orthodox and Protestant equality with Catholics in 1767. Through the Polish nobles that Russia controlled (the
This situation provoked in 1768 a Catholic uprising and civil war known as the
National revival
The first partition in 1772 did not directly threaten the stability of the Polish-Lithuanian state. Poland still retained extensive territory that included the Polish heartlands. Moreover, 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 Stanisław August supported the progressive elements in the government and promoted the ideas of foreign political figures such as Edmund Burke and George Washington.
Polish intellectuals studied and discussed Enlightenment philosophers such as
Stanisław August's process of renovation reached its climax when, after three years of intense debate, the "
Destruction of Poland-Lithuania
Passage of the constitution alarmed many nobles, some of whom would lose considerable stature under the new order. In autocratic states such as Russia, the democratic ideals of the new constitution also threatened the existing order, and the prospect of Polish recovery threatened to end domination of Polish affairs by Poland's neighbors. In 1792, Polish conservative factions formed the
The Second Partition was far more injurious than the first. Russia received a vast area of eastern Poland, extending southward nearly to the
The Kościuszko Uprising, a great Polish revolt, broke out in 1794 under the leadership of Tadeusz Kościuszko, a military officer who had rendered notable service in the American Revolution. Kościuszko'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 to never allow its 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 final 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 powerful 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 for well over a century.
See also
- 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 of Polish nobles
- Ambassadors and envoys from Russia to Poland (1763–1794)
References
- ^ Peter K. Gessner, The reign of the Vasa dynasty (1587-1668), State University of New York at Buffalo [1] Archived 2010-06-24 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Soldier Khan
- ISBN 978-0-300-10586-5
- ISBN 83-01-03732-6, p. 239
- ^ Józef Andrzej Gierowski – Historia Polski 1505–1764 (History of Poland 1505–1764), p. 192-193
- ^ "Browse | Cornell University Library Making of America Collection".
- ISBN 0-19-820171-0.
- This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Country Studies. Federal Research Division. - Poland.
Further reading
- The Cambridge History of Poland (two vols., 1941–1950) online edition vol 1 to 1696
- Butterwick, Richard, ed. The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, c. 1500-1795. Palgrave, 2001. 249 pp. online edition
- Davies, Norman. Heart of Europe: A Short History of Poland. Oxford University Press, 1984. 511 pp. excerpt and text search
- Davies, Norman. God's Playground: A History of Poland. 2 vol. Columbia U. Press, 1982. 1,189 pp.; highly detailed, well-written narrative but criticized by some specialists online excerpts and search at Amazon.com; vol 1 to 1795
- Pogonowski, Iwo Cyprian. Poland: A Historical Atlas. Hippocrene, 1987. 321 pp.
- Sanford, George. Historical Dictionary of Poland. Scarecrow Press, 2003. 291 pp.
- Stone, Daniel. The Polish-Lithuanian State, 1386-1795. U. of Washington Press, 2001. 374 pp.