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The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (or The Commonwealth of the Two Nations, Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów in Polish; Belarusian: Рэч Паспалі́тая) was a federal monarchy-republic formed by the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, between 1569 and 1795, which was governed by an elected monarch.
Since the word Poland was also commonly used to describe the whole country, the members of the commonwealth were called:
- The Crown of the Polish Kingdom (Poland proper), colloquially the Crown.
- The Grand Duchy of Lithuania, colloquially Lithuania.
- The Duchy of Ruthenia was the planned (in 1658 during the great Cosaccs in Ukraine insurection against polish rule) to be created and become a member of the Commonwealth , after it would have been reconstructed to the tripartite Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth, but it never really existed.
The Crown had approximately double the population of Lithuania and five times the income of its treasury.
In the Partitions of Poland in 1772-1795 divided the country between Russia, the Kingdom of Prussia and Austria. However, the last political movement that wanted to restore the state was active about the time of the January Uprising (1863-1864).
These lands are distributed today mostly among Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, with smaller pieces in some other neighboring countries (Estonia, Slovakia, Romania and Moldova).
The political doctrine of Polish-Lithuania was "our state is a Republic under the presidency of the King". The Commonwealth introduced the doctrine of religious tolerance, had its own parliament, the Sejm, and elected kings that were bound to the contracts "Pacta conventa" from the beginning of their reign.
The foundation stones of the Commonwealth, the so called Golden Freedoms (was "in use" after 1572), were commonly:
- free election of the king by all the nobles
- "pacta conventa" that were binding for the king and evolved from the earlier Henrician_Articles
- "rokosz" (insurrection) — a legal rebellion of citizens against the king that violated their guaranteed freedoms
- "liberum veto" — the right to express opposition to the decisions of the majority by an individual during the Sejm session leading to its nullification, during the crisis of the second half of XVII century, polish nobles could use liberum veto also on provincial assemblies and coutres
- "konfederacja" — confederatio, the military organisation of the nobles willing to achieve a common political aim.
The Golden Liberty led Poland and Lithuania to crisis and fall of their strenght.
Contour of the Commonwealth with its major subdivisions
as of 1619 superimposed on present-day national borders
History and culture
The Commonwealth was one of the most important places in development modern social and political ideas of Europe.
The article Nobles' Democracy covers this historical period in greater detail.
See also
pl:Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów
nl:Polen-Litouwen
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