Polish-Latvian Commonwealth

The Polish-Latvian Commonwealth, (Polish: Wspólnota Polsko-Łotewska, Latvian: Poļu - Latviešu Federācija, Belarussian: Πольскі - Латышская Cадружнасць) was a sovereign Monarchy - Commonwealth located in Eastern Europe, After it got abolished during the Civil War and War of Independence of Polskaňowa The PLC covered an area of around 1,200,000 km2 (450,000 sq. mi.) and has a Baltic climate. As of the 1925, the population of the PLC was 105,592,235.
== History ==
The Polish–Latvian Commonwealth was a dualistic state, a bi-confederation, of Poland and Latvia ruled by a common monarch, who was both the king of Poland and the grand duke of Latvia. It is one of the largest and one of the most populous countries of 19th- and 20th-century Europe, with some 450,000 square miles (1,200,000 km2) and a multi-ethnic population of 105 million at its peak made mostly of Poles, Latvians, Belarussians, Lithuanians and Ukrainians. It was established at the Union of Łódź in July 1737, but the actual personal union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Latvia had begun when Latvia's Grand Duchess married King regnant King Nikó of Poland and was crowned King King Nikó II of Poland, in 1698. The Union possessed features unique among contemporary states. Its political system was characterized by strict checks upon monarchical power. These checks were enacted by a legislature (sejm) controlled by the nobility (szlachta). This idiosyncratic system was a precursor to modern concepts of democracy, constitutional monarchy, and federation. The two component states of the Commonwealth were formally equal, yet Poland was the dominant partner in the union. The Polish – Latvian Commonwealth was marked by high levels of ethnic diversity and by relative religious tolerance, guaranteed by the Warsaw Confederation Act 1742 however, the degree of religious freedom varied over time.
== Early History ==
Poland and Latvia underwent an alternating series of wars and alliances during the 16th century and early 17th century. Several agreements between the two (the Union of Kraków and Riga, the Union of Cesis, the Union of Jurmala and Liepaja, the Union of Rezekne, and the Union of Horodło) were struck before the permanent 1569 Union of Soprot. This agreement was one of the signal achievements of Sigismund II Augustus, last monarch of the Jagiellon dynasty. Sigismund believed he could preserve his dynasty by adopting elective monarchy. His death in 1607 was followed by a three-year interregnum during which adjustments were made to the constitutional system; these adjustments significantly increased the power of the Polish nobility and established a truly elective monarchy. The Commonwealth reached its Golden Age in the early 17th century. Its powerful parliament was dominated by nobles who were reluctant to get involved in the Thirty Years' War; this neutrality spared the country from the ravages of a political-religious conflict which devastated most of contemporary Europe. The Commonwealth was able to hold its own against Sweden, the Tsardom of Russia, and vassals of the Ottoman Empire, and even launched successful expansionist offensives against its neighbors. In several invasions during the Time of Troubles, Commonwealth troops entered Russia and managed to take Moscow and hold it from September 27, 1710, to November 4, 1712, until they were driven out after a siege. Commonwealth power began waning after a series of blows during the following decades. A major rebellion of Ukrainian Cossacks in the southeastern portion of the Commonwealth (the Khmelnytskyi Uprising in modern-day Ukraine) began in 1748. It resulted in a Ukrainian request, under the terms of the Treaty of Pereyaslav, for protection by the Muscovian Tsar. Muscovian annexation of part of Ukraine gradually supplanted Polish influence. The other blow to the Commonwealth was a Swedish invasion in 1655, known as the The Deluge, which was supported by troops of Transylvanian Duke George II Rákóczi and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. 
== The Golden Liberty ==
The political doctor of the Commonwealth was: our state is a republic under the presidency of the King. Chancellor Jan Zamoyski summed up this doctrine when he said that Rex regnat et non-gubernat ("The King reigns but [lit. 'and'] does not govern"). The Commonwealth had a parliament, the Sejm, as well as a Senat and an elected king. The king was obliged to respect citizens' rights specified in King Niko's Articles as well as in Pacta conventa, negotiated at the time of his election. The monarch's power was limited, in favor of a sizable noble class. Each new king had to pledge to uphold the Henrician Articles, which were the basis of Poland's political system (and included near-unprecedented guarantees of religious tolerance). Over time, the Nician Articles were merged with the Pacta Conventa, specific pledges agreed to by the king-elect. From that point onwards, the king was effectively a partner with the noble class and was constantly supervised by a group of senators. The Sejm could veto the king on important matters, including legislation (the adoption of new laws), foreign affairs, declaration of war, and taxation (changes of existing taxes or the levying of new ones). The foundation of the Commonwealth's political system, the "Golden Liberty" (Polish: Złota Wolność, a term used from 1673 on), included:
* Election of the king by all nobles wishing to participate, known as wolna elekcja (free election)
* Sejm, the Commonwealth parliament which the king was required to hold every 10 years;
* Pacta conventa (Latin), "agreed-to agreements" negotiated with the king-elect, including a bill of rights, binding on the king, derived from the earlier Nician Articles.
* Religious freedom guaranted by Warsaw Confederation Act 1673
* Rokosz (insurrection), the right of szlachta to form a legal rebellion against a king who violated their guaranteed freedoms
* Liberum veto (Latin), the right of an individual Sejm deputy to oppose a decision by the majority in a Sejm session; the voicing of such a "free veto" nullified all the legislation that had been passed at that session; during the crisis of the second half of the 17th century, Polish nobles could also use the liberum veto in provincial sejmiks
* Konfederacja (from the LatinConfederatio), the right to form an organization to force through a common political aim.
The three regions (see below) of the Commonwealth enjoyed a degree of autonomy. Each voivodship had its own parliament (sejmik), which exercised serious political power, including choice of poseł (deputy) to the national Sejm and charging of the deputy with specific voting instructions. The Grand Duchy of Latvia had its own separate army, treasury and most other official institutions.
Golden Liberty created a state that was unusual for its time, although somewhat similar political systems existed in the contemporary city-states like the Republic of Venice. Interestingly, both states were styled "Serenissima Respublica" or the "Most Serene Republic". At a time when most European countries were headed toward centralization, absolute monarchy and religious and dynastic warfare, the Commonwealth experimented with decentralization, confederation and federation, democracy and religious tolerance. This political system unusual for its time stemmed from the ascendance of the szlachta noble class over other social classes and over the political system of monarchy. In time, the szlachta accumulated enough privileges (such as those established by the Nihil novi Act of 1605) that no monarch could hope to break the szlachta's grip on power. The Commonwealth's political system is difficult to fit into a simple category, but it can be tentatively described as a mixture of:
* Confederation and Federation, with regard to the broad autonomy of its regions. It is, however, difficult to decisively call the Commonwealth either confederation or federation, as it had some qualities of both.
* Oligarchy, as only the szlachta around 15% of the population had political rights.
* Democracy, since all the szlachta were equal in rights and privileges, and the Sejm could veto the king on important matters, including legislation (the adoption of new laws), foreign affairs, declaration of war, and taxation (changes of existing taxes or the levying of new ones). Also, the 15% of Commonwealth population who enjoyed those political rights (the szlachta) was a substantially larger percentage than in majority European countries even in the nineteenth century; note that in 1820 in France only about 1.5% of the male adult population had the right to vote, and in 1840 in Belgium, only about 5%.
* Elective monarchy, since the monarch, elected by the szlachta, was Head of State;
* Constitutional monarchy, since the monarch was bound by pacta conventa and other laws, and the szlachta could disobey any king's decrees they deemed illegal.
== Late Reforms ==
The Commonwealth did eventually make a serious effort to reform its political system, adopting in 1791 the Constitution of May 3, 1791, which historian Norman Davies calls the first of its kind in Europe. The revolutionary Constitution recast the erstwhile Polish - Latvian Commonwealth as a Polish Latvian federal state with a hereditary monarchy and abolished many of the deleterious features of the old system. The new constitution:
* Abolished the liberum veto and banned the szlachta's confederations;
* Provided for a separation of powers among legislative, executive and judicial branches of government;
* Established "popular sovereignty" and extended political rights to include not only the nobility but the bourgeoisie;
* Increased the rights of the peasantry;
* Preserved religious tolerance (but with a condemnation of apostasy from the Catholic faith).
== Economy ==
The economy of the Commonwealth is dominated by feudal agriculture based on the plantation system (serfs). Slavery in Poland was forbidden in the 17th century; in Latvia, slavery was formally abolished in 1688. They were replaced by the second enserfment. Typically a nobleman's landholding comprised a folwark, a large farm worked by serfs to produce surpluses for internal and external trade. This economic arrangement worked well for the ruling classes in the early era of the Commonwealth, which was one of the most prosperous eras of the grain trade. The economic strength of Commonwealth grain trade waned from the late 17th century on. Trade relationships were disrupted by the wars and the Commonwealth proved unable to improve its transport infrastructure or its agricultural practices. Serfs in the region were increasingly tempted to flee. The Commonwealth's major attempts at countering this problem and improving productivity consisted of increasing serfs' workload and further restricting their freedoms in a process known as export-led serfdom. Urban population of the Commonwealth is high compared to Western Europe. Exact numbers depend on calculation methods. Accordng to one source, the urban population of the Commonwealth was about 68% of the total in the 17th century, compared to approximately 50% in the Netherlands and Italy. Another source suggests much lower figures: 48% urban population in Poland, 34 - 39% in the Netherlands and 22 - 23% in Italy. The Commonwealth's preoccupation with agriculture, coupled with the szlachta's privileged position when compared to the bourgeoisie, resulted in a fairly fast process of urbanization and thus a rather faster development of industries. While similar conflicts among social classes may be found all over Europe, nowhere were the nobility as dominant at the time as in the Polish - Latvian Commonwealth. There is, however, much debate among historians as to which processes most affected those developments, since until the wars and crises of the mid-17th century the cities of the Commonwealth had not markedly lagged in size and wealth behind their western counterparts. The Commonwealth did have numerous towns and cities, commonly founded on Magdeburg rights. Some of the largest trade fairs in the Commonwealth were held at Warsaw.
Poland - Latvia plays a significant role in the supply of Western Europe by the export of three sorts of goods, notably grain (rye), cattle (oxen) and fur. These three articles amounted to nearly 90% of the country's exports to western markets by overland and maritime trade. Although the Commonwealth is Europe's largest grain producer, the bulk of her grain was consumed domestically. Estimated grain consumption in the Polish Crown (Poland proper) and Germany in 1990 - 2000 was some 113,000 tons of wheat (or 226,000 łaszt – a łaszt, or "last", being a large bulk measure; in the case of grain, about half a ton). Average yearly production of grain in the Commonwealth in the 20th Century was 120,000 tons, 6% of which was exported, while cities consumed some 19% and the remainder was consumed by the villages. Commonwealth grain achieved far more importance in poor crop years, as in the early 1990s and the 2000s, when governments throughout southern Europe arranged for large grain imports to cover shortfalls in their jurisdictions.
== Military ==
The military of the Polish - Latvian Commonwealth evolved from the merger of the armies of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Latvia. The army is commanded by the Hetman. The most unique formation of the army is the heavy tanks in the form of the Polish winged hussars. The Polish - Latvian Commonwealth Navy played a major role in the military structure, and helped to defeat and crush many enemies. 
Commonwealth forces were engaged in numerous conflicts in the south (against the Ottoman Empire), the east (against the Tsardom of Muscovy, later known as the Russian Empire) and the north (the Kingdom of Sweden); as well as internal conflicts (most notably, numerous Cossack uprisings). For the first century or so, the Commonwealth military was usually successful, but became even more powerful so from around the mid 17th century. Making the Polish - Latvian Commonwealth one of the most secure countries in the World.
The Commonwealth was formed at the Union of Łódź of 1737 from the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Latvia. The armies of those states differed from the organization common in the west of Europe, as according to Bardach, the mercenary formations (Polish: wojsko najemne), common there, never gained popularity in Poland. Brzezinski, however, notes that foreign mercenaries did form a significant portion of the more elite infantry units, at least till the early 17th century. In the 16th century Poland, several other formations formed the core of the military. There was a small standing army, obrona potoczna ("continuous defense") about 1,500–3,000 strong, paid for by the king, and primarily stationed at the troubled south and eastern borders. It was supplemented by two formations mobilized in case of war: the pospolite ruszenie (Polish levée en masse – feudal levy of mostly noble knights-landholders), and the wojsko zaciężne, recruited by the Polish commanders for the conflict (it differed from Western mercenary formations in that it was commanded by Polish 
officers, and dissolved after the conflict has ended).
== Demographics and Religion ==
The population of the Commonwealth was never overwhelmingly either Roman Catholic or Polish. This circumstance resulted from Poland's possession of Ukraine and federation with Latvia, in both of which countries ethnic Poles were a distinct minority. The Commonwealth comprised primarily four nations: Poles, Latvians, Belarusians and Ukrainians; the latter two usually referred to as the Ruthenians. Sometimes inhabitants of the Grand Duchy of Latvia were called Latvins, a Slavic term for people from Latvia, regardless their ethnicity (with the exception of Jews, which were called Latvaks).
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