Postby Goldstein » Fri Mar 09, 2018 9:18 am
Hi madej -
Here a quick overview of the "Polish History"- to understand why the title of your thread is total wrong:
Polish history from the beginning to the restoration of statehood in 1918
The beginnings of the Polish state
Electoral Kings, Nobility Democracy, Magnate Oligarchy, Reforms and Decline (1572-1795-1815)
The decision to establish an electoral monarchy after the extinction of the Jagiellonians in the male line (1572) and to allow the entire nobility to vote led to a further weakening of the royal power, strengthened the influence of the magnates and accelerated the expression of an extremely noble republican form of government. The right of every land courier, respected since 1652, to make the Reichstag incapable of voting with its objection (Liberum veto) made it easier for the neighboring powers interested in weakening Poland to intervene directly. Neither Stefan IV Batory (1575-86) nor the three kings from the Swedish house Wasa (1587-1668) and the "Turkish Winner" Jan III. Sobieski (1674-96) was able to put a stop to this fateful development, which contributed to the further paralysis of the state leadership among the Wettiners (August II the Strong, 1697-1706, 1709-33, August III 1733-63).
While Moscow was able to achieve some territorial gains by 1619, and even the takeover of the throne of tsars was possible in 1610-12, the annexation of the Cossack state founded by Bogdan Khmelnitsky to Russia (1654) led to the loss of Ukraine on the left of the Dnieper and Kiev from Smolensk (truce of Andrussowo 1667). The loss-making war against Sweden, which had been staged dynastic since 1601, culminated in 1655 in the First Northern War, which ended in the Peace of Oliwa (1660). In the frequent battles with the Ottoman Empire until 1699 at least the ownership was preserved. The Second Northern War (1700-21) offered Tsar Peter I the opportunity to extend Russian influence to once again severely affected Poland, which became a plaything for the policies of the major powers.
The recognition of the inevitability of fundamental reforms triggered after the election of Stanislaw II August Poniatowski (1764-95) initial reform measures, which were fought by the supported by Russia and Prussia opponents in the Confederation of Bar (1768-72). This civil war in 1772 provided the occasion for the first partition of Poland by Prussia, Austria and Russia. The pressure for internal reform grew. With the "Perpetual Council" (1775) and the "National Education Commission" (1773) Poland received exemplary administrative and educational institutions. A "Four-Year Sejm" (1788-92) adopted on May 3, 1791 - two years before the adoption of the French Constitution - the first written constitution of Europe, with the abolition of the free royal election and the Liberum veto the landowning nobility and the city political Conferred rights of participation.
Czarina, on the other hand, supported the noble reaction of Catherine II, which in 1792 merged with the Targowica Confederation and forced the Reform Party to withdraw the May constitution with Russian aid. Their intervention was rewarded by Russia and Prussia in the 2nd partition of Poland in 1793 with Lithuanian, Belarusian and Ukrainian voivodeships or Greater Poland, Danzig and Thorn. A general popular uprising led by Tadeusz Kościuszko collapsed after the defeat of Maciejowice in October 1794. The rest of Poland was divided in the 3rd division of Poland in 1795 under Russia, Prussia and Austria and disappeared from the political map of Europe. For Poland, the emergence of Europe into the national age, as the 19th century has repeatedly been described, began with the painful experience of losing state independence.
The brief hope of inducing the restoration of Polish statehood through the deployment of a legion of Emperor Napoleon I, set up by Jan Dąbrowski in Italy, quickly vanished. At the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15, the great neighboring powers prevented the restoration of an independent Poland. A "Kingdom of Poland" formed from the Polish central regions (Congress Poland) was placed under personal Russian control.
Nation without state
The ensuing Russian arbitrariness triggered uprisings in Congress Poland in the course of the 19th century (1830/31, 1863). The occupying forces responded with rigorous punitive measures and a policy of Russification, which almost completely abolished the special position of the kingdom until 1874. After the founding of the empire in 1871, the Prussian authorities tightened the Kulturkampf against Polishism in Posen / West Prussia. The confrontation of the partitioning powers in the First World War and the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917 placed the "Polish question", the reestablishment of a Polish state system, on the agenda of European politics. On November 5, 1916, the emperors of Germany and Austria-Hungary announced in Warsaw the establishment of a Reigning Kingdom of Poland. His territory remained limited to the will of the Central Powers on the Russian division ("Congress Poland"). Instead of a king, a three-headed regency council functioned in the non-sovereign territory. While US President Woodrow Wilson pleaded before the US Senate on 22 January 1917 for a united, independent and independent Poland, Russia, under the leadership of the Bolsheviks, refused to recognize the new reign monarchy on the grounds that the Polish state was not independent and its government not lawful. The defeat of the German Empire and the Habsburg Empire finally paved the way for an independent Polish state. After the German surrender, the Council of Regency thanked Józef Piłsudski (1867-1935). The leader of the moderate socialists was able to take over the executive power on November 11, 1918, at the same time politically supported by the Western powers, as "Provisional Head of State" in Warsaw, which until then had been occupied by German troops. Poland had regained its independence after 123 years of foreign rule.
Regards
Goldstein
