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The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (or The Commonwealth of the Two Nations) 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 described the whole country, the members of the commonwealth were called:
- crown of the Polish Kingdom, popularly the Crown.
- Grand Duchy of Lithuania, popularly the Lithuania.
- Duchy of Ruthenia was the planned member of the Commonwealth, after the reconstruction to triple state of Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth, that was never applied in practise.
In the Partitions_of_Poland in 1772-1795 divided among Russia, Kingdom of Prussia and Austria. However, that last politcal movement, that wanted to restore the triple state, was active around January Uprising 1863-1864.
These lands are distributed today among Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Belarus, and partly Russia.
The term "Commonwealth" is a close translation of the Polish word "Rzeczpospolita", which derives from latin res publica, see "Poland".
The contemprorary political doctrine of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, "our state is a Republic under 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 the reign.
The foundation stones of the Commonwealth, the so called Golden Freedoms, were commonly:
- free election of the king
- "pacta conventa" that were binding for the king
- "rokosz""" the legal rebellion of citizens against the king, that violeted freedom
- "liberum veto" the right to express opposition to the decisions of majority by individual
- "confederatio" the military organisation of the citizens, willing to achieve common political aim.
See also: The Noble Republic, List of Polish rulers