Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Essay

The modern republics of Poland and Lithuania had been once been a single, loaded body politic known as the Polish-Lithuanian domain. This community was established in 1569. Although in that location were separate states in the commonwealth, n genius of them was as grievousish as Poland. The nation was on the wand of success when the rest of Europe was destroy in the famous thirty years war between 1618 and 1648. The Commonwealth noblemen had no desire to get involved in these wars and they were able defend the terra firma against foreign attacks from the Germans, Russians and the Ottoman Turks (TLK).However, the commonwealths success and stability did not go bad for abundant and there already were clear signs of winnow out by the mid 17th century. The chief(prenominal) cause of the decline was wars that were fought at bottom and alfresco the commonwealth. Thus, the weakened state could not withdraw itself together after these wars which ultimately light-emittin g diode to its naval division. The decline of Poland was basically evincible in the legislative body Sejm. The divergent dodgings of the parliament grew futile and inefficient at a term when the deputies went verbal asserting Liberum Veto which gave them spendthrift power over national resolutions.The soils state had decreased by big proportions as a outlet of wars. This do it practically impossible for the nation to succeed in its wars against new(prenominal) nations, though they were able to defeat the Ottomans at Vienna. This was the last success realized by the commonwealth military (Davies 24). The Szlachta (noblemen) also diminished in their ability to influence others and consequentially depreciated in military vigor. In a countless of situations they became impotent and viewed veto as the unaccompanied remaining legislative symbol within the commonwealth (25). The Decline of the CommonwealthIn 1648, the warlike Cossacks, with the support of Russia, upstaged a d isorder against Poland. Thus the Russians began to influence the affairs of the country. subsequently in 1655, the Commonwealth was involved in another war with Sweden, provoked by the policies of Commonwealth kings from the Swedish royal sept of Vasa. The Swedes instal direct Stanislaw Leszczynski as king. However, they were defeated by the Russians in 1709 and this upshoted in the reinstatement of Augustus on the throne (TLK). Augustus was at conflict with parliament and this lead to a civil war in 1717.The Russians responded by reducing the powers of the Sejm, who by now were at the centre of running Poland, came to the rescue of Augustus. This resulted in Poland being forced to cut obliterate the size of her standing army. When Augustus died in 1733, Leszyski returned to the throne. This live on was met with resistance from the Russians who forced him out and made Fredrick Augustus, a son to Augustus, king instead. some other blow to the commonwealth was the Saxon precept that lasted for sixty years. It drove the nation to the edges of lawlessness, annihilating it even much.A powerful confederacy between Russia, Prussia and Australia ensured that Polands legal system of rules and maintain ace of order was paralyzed. The leadsome nations organise the Alliance of the Three calamitous Eagles owing to the fact that all the three had eagles, black in color, on their coat-of-arms (Kjaergard 121). The crack-up of the Commonwealth By the 18th century, the Commonwealth could not handle the many sexual problems that were plaguing it and this made the fragile nation more vulnerable to external influences. The political system was in shambles and this soon culminated to the snag of the commonwealth.The country was divisioned in three stages by the neighboring Russian, Prussian, and Austrian powers (TLK) . The first partition was in 1772, when the Commonwealth lost 733, 000 squarely kilometers of land together with about quadruplet million people. Russia took most of the land eyepatch a majority of the population went to Austria. The Sejm give the sackonic the partition agreement despite much resistance from the states deputies. aft(prenominal) the first partition, there was a degree of relative stability that saw to the maturation of a better education firmament in the country. There was a annul in the number of professionals in several(a) fields.The king initialized a healing programme, which was punish by the Great Sejm. The Four twelvemonth or Great Sejm came up with a new constitution (Domar 56). Liberum Veto was abolished on a lower floor the newly formed constitution, changing how the country was governed. people were guaranteed personal freedom and more liberty was enhanced. England, France and the United States hai take the newly formed constitution. On the other hand, this step was viewed as a threat by the rulers of Austria and Russia. This led to a wide instigation of ample numbers of magnate under the leadership of Branicki Ksawery, Potocki Szczesny and Rzewuski Seweryn.This was a betrayal of the commonwealth accordingly leading to the formation of the Targowica Confedaration in negligence to the declarations of the newly formed constitution (Kjaergard 122) The turn partition was as a result of Russian invation. The troops from Russia decided to underwrite the borders and immediately war broke out. Joseph Poniatowski who was the great powers nephew together with Kosciuszko Tadeusz, a adept of the American Independence War, erected a savage resistance although all confidence was suppress after the Prussians joined the fighting. Many people, who would otherwise have been citizens, ran away to other countries.In 1793, Prussia and Russia were obliged to sign the Second sectionalisation Treaty. This led to about About This led to holding in of more than half of the entire nation with a population of about four million people. Later, there was a meeting at Grodno constitu te mainly of the Sejm which deliberated on the legal processd to reconstruct legal the process of partitioning of the country. afterward the partitioning, there was widespread discontent within the general population (Kostrowicka 34). The final partition in 1795 was the most devastating. A bargain of Poles were evicted from their country. The King was seized and taken to prison in St.Petersburg. Other people were sent to the virulent cold deserts of Siberia and thousands more fled to other lands. Conclusion Although Polands history is one full of turmoil, a lot can be learnt from it. It is clear that good governing body policies should be in place for a country to run smoothly. The heads of state should at the fore front providing the much require leadership to citizens of their countries. If the Polish constitution had had good policies, and if the leaders were competent enough, then mayhap the history of the Poles would be much assorted and better than it is.