The Polish Commonwealth

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Table of Content: -1.0 Early history -1.1 Forming of the Commonwealth -1.2 Recent history -2.0 1.0 Early History: The place that today is the Polish Commonwealth was a largely Germanic area untill  the great wandering when the Germanic tribes fled to the west to avoid the Hunnic invasion. Several Slavic peoples in the east had already experienced the cruelty of the Huns and also fled to the west. They arrived in the eastern European plains and settled the areas. The Huns ravaged trough Europe but at the same time managed to integrate some Slavic peoples to their nomadic way of living. The main part of the "Slavic Huns" were made up by Estonians and Lithuanians (ooc note: In this A-H Estonians are Slavic) . They raided not only the Germanians but also East- and West Rome. During the greatest expansion of the Huns their Khanate reached from central Asia to Northern Italy. The orignial Mongolo-Asiatic Huns were everually replaced in the west by Estonians and Lithuanian tribes who continiued the Nomadic tradition. Eventually the original Huns died out in the west, some by integration but most died in the many wars. The "western Huns" then retreated from central Europe to the north-east. The Hunnic threat continiued to strike fear into the hearts of men in western Europe but the fear died out as the Slavs  gradualy were Christianized.

The Polish Commonwealth; Officialy the Polish Baltic Commonwalth(in pink):

Population: 52'000'000 Capital: Krakow Language(s): Polish, Lithuanian, Russian, Estonian Motto: The strenght of many!

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The Estonians were the most warlike of all the Slavs, but there were few of them. They got in to more trouble than they could handle and their population eventually started shrinking. They were then conquered by Peter  Boyar, a Novgorodian king. This started a long hostility between the Balto-Polish Slavs that has lasted into the modern age. The Lithuanians, still living in tribes, launched several raids into "the Orthodox lands" but they were just that, raids, not conquests. Eventually Novgorod seized parts of Lithuania but they were unable to properly hold them as the Lithuanians still kept their nomadic lifestyle alive. By this time (ca 1000 AD) over 70  different tribes in what is now Poland proper had united with, or been conquered by the Polaks and formed the Catholic Kingdom of Poland. The Poles had a firm grip on their relatively new country and sought to expand their kingdom. The Polish king Yaroslaw the Merciless invaded Lithuania and managed to capture large parts of Latvia with it in what is known as the Slavic Schism, the East- and South Slavs had been converted to Orthodoxy while the Balto-Polaks had been converted to Catholicism. The war was fough inconclusively over a 40 year period with 3 pauses each lasting a little less than half a year. A truce was signed 1055 AD giving Poland Lithuania and Latvia. The Polaks continiued fighting against the Russians and sometimes against the Kievans for centuries. 1.1 Forming of the Commonwealth: During the late 17th century Poland had reached it's peak. It had colonies in Africa and one of the larges armies in Europe. The Poles and Russians were at war again as the Polish king Tomasz the Oppirtunistic had ordered an attack against the Russian empire as it was an era of decline for the Russians. The war was fought over three years from 1688-1691 and ended in a decisive Polish victory. The Kingdom of Poland took controll over all the Russian Grand Dutchies. However the Poles soon faced the same problem as the Russians had, rebelions, starvation and civil disorder was everywhere. Tomasz tried to damp the nationalistic feelings among the Balts by forming the so called the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth and later the Polish Baltic Commonwealth. It was not enough though, not untill Tomasz's son Vladyslaw the Unionist came to the throne. He married a Lithuanian princess and admitted the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian royal families as part of the Polish Sejm (Congress). Years passed  by and the Balts no longer saw the Poles as oppressors but as allies against the oppressors, the Russians and Kievans. The forming of the Commonwealth was a success in the end.

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