Here is a concise history of a small country with a complex history. It seems to me the authors have done their job well, despite its inherent difficulties. My interest in this book cames from curiosity about the partitions of Poland, by which the country was divided among its neighbors during the years 1772-1795 without any major war. Although I found the narrative difficult, I obtained an explanation which I augmented on my own. The book feels disorganized in places. But it is still easier to understand than the first edition.
For all of its history, Poland has been surrounded by often hostile neighbors: Germany to the West and Russia to the East, and others less hostile North and South. Therefore, protection against conquest was the most important issue. The first definitely known ruler, Mieszko I, recognized the suzerainty of the Germans during most of his reign of 960 to 992. Probably he accepted Christianity as a way to hold possible German aggression at bay by obtaining approval from the Pope and admitting Christian clergy to his country, for Germany at least was officially Christian. At a time when much of Europe was forest and and swamp, inhabited only by pagan tribes and wild animals, Christianity meant access to civilization with its technology and orderly legal structure.
Germans were continually moving from the West to settle in the Polish region since it had so much new cultivable land. There was continual movement of Germans to the East, where new cultivable lands were. Likewise Poles would move even further East. The acquisition and defense of landholdings was often a violent affair. The more stalwart came to have larger domains. The combining of small holdings into larger and larger tracts led to some chiefs having power over large areas, which led to the problem of holding a territory together.
At this time there was no real Polish nation but only a patchwork of tribal areas with the chieftain presumed to be king and his closest associates as the nobility, who were highly suspicious of royal claimants. (The first three claimants to royalty were hacked up alive.) The great event of the Polish Middle Ages was the combination of Poland and Lithuania. Casimir III (The Great) of Poland had numerous daughters but no son. He needed a son to constitute his family’s strongest claim. He died a few days after willing his territory and kingship to Louis of Hungary (of the famous Anjou family). But Louis had the same problem of daughters but no son. Louis managed to get daughter Jadwiga married to Jogaila (more often known as Jagiello), an illiterate heathen who happened to be Grand Duke of Lithuania, its neighbor to the east. He converted to Catholicism and annexed his kingdom to Poland, creating in 1386 the largest country in Europe at the time. But the fact of marriage did not combine laws and institutions.
The authors comment that because of Jogaila’s conversion, Lithuania became a Christian state, so conflict with other Christian states was less likely. But after the arrival of the Protestant reformation, commonality of faiths did not guarantee a secure defense. Poland and Lithuania would have to merge rather than remain a double monarchy. Sigismund II felt that only a new Union on terms acceptable to both the Crown and Grand Duchy would give his nobles a real stake in the survival of a reconstructed polity. When the last objections were overcome, the Treaty of Lublin created a unified state 1n 1562.
The rise of Russia provided another good reason for a completely unified nation. Russia threw off Mongol domination in 1380 and began an expansion for hundreds of years in all directions of the compass. By this time religion was a crucial factor in national unity, but it was not enough simply to be Christian. Poland was mainly Catholic, with some Protestants and Jews, while Russia was now Orthodox. (The Polish king Casimir III understood the usefulness of the Jews in expanding economic life, encouraging them to come in from other areas of Europe even though among the people the faiths did not coexist well.) Lithuania had to serve in a geo-strategic sense as a buffer against an expansionist Russia.
The military defense problem would not have been so serious if Polish government and society were socially more unified. The monarchy was elective; the electorate was the noble (szlachta) class, all members of whom were supposed to be to at least some extent landowners. Their rights came to be spelled out in a charter of “Golden Liberties”, which were mostly acts of their assembly, the Sejm. They enjoyed a monopoly of state offices. Tax increases could not be imposed without their consent. A noble’s peasants were subject to his personal jurisdiction and a peasant’s right to leave his village was limited. Compulsory military service could not be imposed on them without their general consent. They had the right to mint money. They were the only people who could serve in the Sejm. Their debates in the Sejm were at risk of the liberum veto, which meant that one member could could cancel discussion on a topic and the significance of everything said on it at will, so that many sessions were wasted. Naturally the szlachta did not like paying taxes. Armed with the liberum veto, they could keep taxation minimal, even though their country was involved in endless off-and-on wars. Soldiers mutinied for lack of pay. Poland produced at least one glorious military commander, John III Sobieski who in 1683 relieved the siege of Vienna by the Ottomans, but the authors comment: “Sobieski was always in a position of weakness ... [politically].” There was no charter of rights for burghers or peasants.
The years from the Treaty of Lublin to the Partition of 1772, 1793, and 1795 were a period of almost continual wars. As well as greed for territory, religious differences were a cause.The distinguishing mark of most of these wars is the foolishness of Poland’s behavior (although neighboring countries are equally foolish.) It is necessary only to cite one example. The Great Northern War of 1700-1721 was the result of an agreement with Russia to despoil Sweden. A Polish invasion of Livonia (then under Swedish control) was countered by a Swedish invasion of Poland successful enough to temporarily take Warsaw and Cracow. In response the wealthiest members of the szlachta dethroned Augustus II and by purchasing votes in the Sejm elected a puppet-king, Standislaw Leszczynski. Sweden was defeated in 1709, but Poland gained nothing.
The final incident before partition was a conspiracy of Catherine of Russia with Poland’s Stanislas Poniatowsky, who happened to be her lover. She nursed ambitious plans to push back the Ottomans and gain influence in the Holy Roman Empire, which meant some control over Poland. She made common cause with the Protestants in Poland, who were more important in government than their low status would suggest. Her manipulations of the Sejm set off a rebellion in Poland and caused the Ottomans to declare war on Russia and provoked aggressive behavior from France, Austria, and Turkey. At this point Frederick the Great of Prussia feared a general European conflagration. The authors comment that his warnings of a bloodbath were “disinformation of the highest order --neither Austria nor France was in any condition to fight a major war.” Frederick advised her to obtain compensation for past Polish behavior. His way to make the seizure “fair” was to propose slices of territory for Austria and Russia as well. Under the partition governments many of the old abuses were corrected, but the partition remained until World War I when the responsible governments were overthrown or defeated.
Partition seems to me the most significant aspect of Poland's history now that the Nazis and Communists are out of power. It explains why Poland joined the European Union but keeps its distance.
ISBN-13: 978-0521853323
ISBN-10: 052185332X
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A Concise History of Poland (Cambridge Concise Histories)
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Fantastic and consice book
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