Polish Golden Age

King Sigismund II Augustus and Queen Barbara Radziwiłł in Vilnius by Jan Matejko

The Polish Golden Age (Polish: Złoty Wiek Polski [ˈzwɔ.tɘ ˈvjɛk ˈpɔl.ski] ⓘ) was the Renaissance period in the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, roughly corresponding to the period of the Jagiellonian dynasty (1386-1572).[1][2] Some historians argue that the Polish Golden Age continued into the mid-17th century, when the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was ravaged by the Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648–57) and by the Swedish and Russian invasion. During its Golden Age, the Commonwealth became one of the largest kingdoms of Europe and at its peak stretched from modern-day Estonia in the north to Moldavia in the south and from Moscow in the east to Brandenburg in the west.

In the 16th century the Commonwealth grew to 1 million km2, with a population of 11 million. It prospered from its enormous grain, wood, salt, and cloth trade with Western Europe via the Baltic Sea ports of Gdańsk, Elbląg, Riga, Memel, and Königsberg. The Commonwealth's major cities also included Poznań, Kraków, Warsaw, Lwów, Wilno, Toruń, and, for a time, Kyiv and Smolensk. The Commonwealth army was able to defend the realm from foreign invasion, and also participated in aggressive campaigns against Poland's neighbors.[3] As voluntary Polonization followed in unified territories. The Polish language became the lingua franca of Central and Eastern Europe.[4][5][6]

During its Golden Age, the Commonwealth was regarded as one of the most powerful states in Europe.[7] It had a unique system of government, known as Golden Liberty, in which all the nobility (szlachta), regardless of economic status, were considered equal and enjoyed extensive legal rights and privileges. One of the system's features was the liberum veto, used for the first time in 1669.[8] The nobility, comprising szlachta and magnates, made up 6-8% of the Commonwealth's population.[9]

  1. ^ "Poland - The states of the Jagiellonians". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  2. ^ Jokubauskas, Vytautas. "Lietuvos aukso amžius – vienas sprendimas galėjo pakeisti visą istoriją" [The Lithuanian Golden Age – one decision could have changed the whole history]. DELFI (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  3. ^ Vago, Mike. "Long before Stalin invaded it, Poland tried putting one false tsar after another on Russia's throne". AUX.
  4. ^ "Poland Didn't Always Speak Polish: The Lost Linguistic Diversity of Europe". Culture.pl.
  5. ^ Marácz, László; Rosello, Mireille, eds. (1 January 2012). "Multilingual Europe, Multilingual Europeans". BRILL. p. 25. ISBN 978-94-012-0803-1. Retrieved 28 November 2018 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ Koyama, Satoshi (2007). "Chapter 8: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as a Political Space: Its Unity and Complexity" (PDF). In Hayashi, Tadayuki; Fukuda, Hiroshi (eds.). Regions in Central and Eastern Europe: Past and Present. Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University. pp. 137–153. ISBN 978-4-938637-43-9.
  7. ^ "Poland - The "Golden Age" of the Sixteenth Century". countrystudies.us.
  8. ^ "Liberum veto | Polish government". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  9. ^ "Szlachta | Polish social class". Encyclopedia Britannica.