Commowealth/Rzeczypospolita (Two Whites Eagles)

## Commowealth/Rzeczypospolita

The flag is common for all countries of the Commonwealth, and on the white stripe there is a coat of arms of a given country.

### Motto

Pro Fide, Lege et Rege (For Faith, Law and King)

### Language

Polish Latin Polonian German Ruthenian Russian

### Capital

Cracow (Crown, Royal) Warsaw (Administrative)

### Location

EarthEastern Europe, Northern Asia, Northwestern North America, Madagascar, Cameroon (Formerly)

Arkadia On east of the Roderius Continent

### Currency

Commowealth Zloty (ZLR)

The Commowealth (Polish: *Rzeczypospolita*) is one of two deuteragonist states in TWO, coming from an alternate Earth in which Poland successfully imposed its ruler Sigismund III Vasa as the new Tsar during the Great Smuta in the Grand Duchy of Moscow, thus securing its path to power.

The name Commowealth, or a direct carbon copy from Polish, is just an abbreviation of the really long official name, which is: The Commonwealth Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and its Colonies, the Grand Duchies of Lithuania, Ruthenia, Moscow, Karelia and Perm, the Duchies of Prussia, Livonia and Curonian Colonies and Duchy of Belarus, the Free Siberian Lands, the Hetmanate of the Don, the Khanates of the Crimea and Kazan (Polish: Rzeczypospolita Korony Królestwa Polskiego i jej Kolonii, Wielkich Księstw Litwy, Rusi, Moskwy, Karelii oraz Permy, Księstw Prus, Inflant oraz kolonii Kurońskich i Księstwa Białorusi, Wolnych Ziem Syberyjskich, Hetmanatu Donu oraz Chanatów Krymu i Astrachaniu)

## System

The Commonwealth is the most bizarre thing in the world, for it is both a monarchy that is a republic and a republic that is a monarchy at the same time.

The king of Poland is elected in a free election by the general assembly of those entitled to vote, i.e., the general assembly of nobles, the envoys of all the cities, and special deputies elected from among the non-nobles but not living in the cities.

He is appointed for life without the possibility of recall, only the King himself can abdicate. Within the framework of the Constitution of May III which reorganized the political system, the King, within the framework of the tri-partition of power, fulfills only the executive role, and is deprived of the judicial and legislative roles in any form. Instead, within the framework of the constitution and laws established by the Sejm, he can act according to his own wishes, de facto answering only to God and history.

It was a significant strengthening of the royal power in relation to the Sejm, which as a result of the reform lost a significant part of its capabilities, including the decision of declaring war, which from now on Polish kings could again declare and accept on their own. It was a necessary action to end the period of disorder that prevailed from the end of the mid-seventeenth century to the second half of the eighteenth century, during which the Sejm ceased to function properly.

In return the Seym's resolutions became de facto absolute and binding on everyone, including the King, which allowed the Sejm sometimes, within the framework of the Constitution, to prevent the King from taking any action by prohibiting it by an appropriate law. Although in theory there is a free election to the throne of Poland, since the memorable election of King Casimir V of the Czartoryski family in 1766, the power of this dynasty has been unbroken. Although they never lacked rivals who were sometimes close to winning the election.

Another distinguishing feature of Commowealth is that it is more than a confederation but less than a federation. States that are part of it are still separate entities with their own armies, treasuries, laws and sometimes even their own colonies which are first subject to them and then to the rest of the Commowealth. Apart from the ruler the only thing they have in common is foreign policy, although even this has loopholes that allow them to wage war on only one of their constituent parts and not on the whole Commowealth.

## Military

Unlike a country like the US, the Commowealth does not have a single joint army at the federal level. Instead, it has a bizarre system in which each constituent state of the Commonwealth organizes and funds its own armed forces out of its own pocket, with its own regional staff that is autonomous but subordinate to a centrally funded General Staff led by the Grand Hetman of the Commonwealth.

The only thing that happens at the central level is the coordination of activities, partial unification of uniforms and armaments and funding of developmental research according to the completely different needs of each of the constituent countries.

One of the advantages of such a division is that each country can specialize in the necessary formations in a number appropriate for its level of development and adapt all its equipment to fight only for one purpose.

For example the Crown (i.e. Poland proper) concentrates on cavalry units, Prussia for such a small piece of land puts up more than half of the Commonwealth's naval forces, Moscow puts up a lot of very numerous heavy infantry units and Ruthenia for a change puts up less numerous but very good fighting light and medium infantry units. Siberia and Alaska focus on winter units only. And so on according to this system.

And one of the disadvantages of this system is that units are relatively inflexible and, what is worse, have different combat values. It is not a secret that one soldier from the Crown is worth ten soldiers from Moscow. Of course, an efficient Polish commander mixes these different formations into one very hard to stop fighting force, but in order to achieve this, the requirements for an average Polish officer are much higher than in other countries which makes the Polish command staff much less numerous than the one in America when having a comparable number of privates and NCOs.