Polish Collapse

 

I agree. Poland during Sobieski's reign and just after Sobiesk's death was strong enough to survive / to defend (of course it doesn't mean that Poland was as powerfull as before 1648). Only GNW catastrofaly destroyed position of Poland.

 

Originally posted by cavalry4ever After Sobieski, whole country ended on a downward slide, which ended in Poland dispappearing. Rural nature of the country weighted heavily on military performance. Urban centers had very limited inluence and industry was not developing as fast as for its neighbors. Reliance on cavalry alone became the liability when all armies adopted more balanced view of military tactics. Heavy cavalry made sense only in the context of balanced army and advanced use of infantry and artillery. To have these, country needed industry in large urban centers. Also Counter-Reform has destroyed Polish educational system.

 

IMO, it is too big simplification.

First of all, we can't describe in the same way the period 1697-1795. IMO, we should talk about 2 periods 1700-1772 (the bigest weakness of Poland) and 1772-1792 (the recovery of Poland).

As far as this second period is concerned:

- there wasn't Polish heavy cavalry (winged hussars) any more

- In the end of this period Polish army was composed of about 70 000 soldiers (including about 50 000 infantry). It was a big change compare to previous period.

- Poland created the first Ministry of Education in Europe. The most known school created in that time was a School of Knights which taught talented commanders (like Tadeusz Kościuszko).

- And finally, Poland created a Constitution of 3rd May

 

So, Poland was on good way to recovery, but it still was too weak to defend itself. You should remember that Polish neighbour (Russia) was in that time the strongest European country and that Poland had 3 neighbours who were involved in partitions of Poland.

 

Union with Lithuania as i mentioned in several topics, was the biggest mistake ever to be made.

 

It is true, that thanks to the Union, Poland achieved a slightly faster safety on her eastern borders, and brought benefit to Polish nobles, but as one Historian put it, "It is always dangerous when a small group of people claim representation for the whole nation". The Polish magnates, who were reaching their claws already on Volhynia were now starting to press bigger claims for most Rus lands. They achieved this due to incompetence of the Anjou dynasty and the Jagiellons. More to that, they were granted vast priviledges. The funniest thing is that, under these two ridicilous dynasties, the Polish common city lost all it's meaning. The balance of rule was broken, and was picked up by the two most dangerous classes, the petty nobles and great magnates. Instead of restoring a balance in the rulership of Poland, the Jagiellons played the known corrupting handing-out-of goods and titles to achieve support of the former or the later. So whenever the Commonwealth was in trouble, the King had to beg the Magnates for money(sounds like HRE to me sadly). If he decided for a noble levy, it was disorganised and often demanding constantly new rights! Whereas Casimir III managed to stomp out both of these two dangerous classes, and bringing in order, the Jagiellons just ruined everything.