Mid 17th Century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The largest and most prosperous state in Eastern Europe.
Yet 150 years later the country was no more.
All of its lands had been divided by its neighbors and its existence soon a distant memory.
So what happened?
This is the story of the Deluge - the beginning of the end of the Commonwealth.
This story began from seemingly unconnected events.
In the first half of the 16th century the Commonwealths nobles began to burden the peasants
more and more.
Many peasants sought to escape their servitude.
At the same time there was a frontier where there were no nobles to pay taxes to and free
land for everyone that could till it and that is where many of them set foot.
No, it was not the New World, it was the frontier in the steppes between the Commonwealth and
the lands of the tatars.
The steppes were a lawless place, always in danger of tatar raids so the settlers had
to be well armed and organized to survive and prosper.
They became known as the Cossacks.
Eventually the Commonwealths nobles caught up to them and wanted to bring the settlers
back into serfdom.
By that time the Cossacks had grown in number and power.
They claimed that by settling in the borderlands they were in fact protecting the Commonwealth
from tatars and they should be paid for it.
This led to a series of Cossack rebellions that were all put down and their rights were
curtailed.
By mid century the borderlands were a powderkeg for a new rebellion.
In 1648 another revolt began.
The commonwealth garrison forces moved out to suppress it.
They divided themselves into three groups in order to quell the revolt quickly.
Two of them moved forward, while one stayed back as a reserve.
However the rebellion turned out to be stronger than expected.
First the cossack contingent of the commonwealth army defected to the rebels.
Then the second force was encircled and destroyed.
The cossacks caught up with the reserve force and defeated it.The commonwealths garrison
in Ukraine was virtually wiped out.
Soon the orthodox peasants joined the Cossacks in rebellion and all of Ukraine fell to the
rebels.
But the Commonwealth had plenty of resources and sent yet another army against the Cossacks.
However, due to the political nature of the nobles democracy, military offices were often
given out according to status and not merit and here three different lords were put in
command of the commonwealth forces.
The cossacks exploited this deficiency and won another victory.
Their hold over Ukraine was secured.
During the crisis the king of the Commonwealth had died and the nobles elected his brother,
John Casimir of the house of Vasa to be the new king.
He was to be the one to take the commonwealth out of the crisis.
The king took personal command of the army.
After some inconclusive fighting the Commonwealth was able to leverage its seizable military
superiority and the Cossacks and their allies were defeated.
This put an end to their expansion.
The cossacks alone were not very formidable, but their strength was in their allies.
They had made alliances with the prince of Moldavia and the Crimean tatars.
The Commonwealth decided to deal with the allies first and then take on the Cossacks.
The Commonwealths military expedition to Moldavia failed so they resorted to diplomacy to make
neighbouring principalities invade Moldavia and depose its ruler.
Moldavia was out and it was time to deal with the tatars.
The tatars interest in the alliance with the Cossacks was the opportunity to raid the Commonwealth
for loot and slaves.
During a campaign the tatars would have to join with the Cossacks, move into the commonwealth,
defeat the commonwealths forces, capture the slaves, then get safely home with the slaves
and finally sell them on the Crimean slave markets for profit.
John Casimir offered them a better deal.
The tatars won’t support the cossacks and they get paid.
Tatars saw this as a better option and abandoned the Cossacks.
John Casimir prepared to conquer their lands for the commonwealth.
The Cossacks were now backed into a corner.
They asked help from Russia and offered the Czar to become his subjects in return for
military aid.
Russia wasn’t as strong as the Commonwealth.
It had lost several wars to the Commonwealth earlier and it didn’t seem to be a good
idea to start another.
But the opportunity to become the dominant power was too good to pass on and Russia risked
it.
If Russia committed all of its forces to the struggle, it would be able to meet the strength
of the Commonwealth, but it could afford to do that for only a few years.
If the war couldn’t be ended after the initial years, Russia was in trouble.
So the Czar put all the eggs into one basket and launched an all out attack.
In 1654 the Commonwealth sent its main force to the Ukraine against the Cossacks.
Russia dispatched some forces to make sure that the Cossacks wouldn’t be fully defeated
. At the same time the main force attacked in Lithuania.
With the Commonwealths main force in the South, Russia was able to catch them off balance
and conquer the province of Smolensk.
Meanwhile, in Sweden.
Sweden dreamt of being a great power.
In order to achieve that it saw the need to conquer all of the coastline of the baltic
sea and turn it into a Swedish lake.
By that time it had already made some good progress in its conquest.
Now, the neighbouring countries weren’t fond of this and Sweden had created the most
modern army in the region to protect its possessions.
This army was very expensive to maintain, however, and Sweden wasn’t the most prosperous
country.
So it had a habit of sending its army occasionally abroad to have their neighbours pay for it.
In 1654 the treasury was running low once again and the army needed to be sent out on
another campaign.
But the question was, where to send it.
Three countries had their possessions near the Baltic - Denmark, the Holy Roman Empire
and Commonwealth with its vassals.
The Holy Roman Empire had just been devastated by the Thirty years War, meanwhile Denmark
was small and relatively poor to sustain the Swedish army for a long time.
Meanwhile the lands of the Commonwealth were vast and had enjoyed a relative peace for
decades.
So Commonwealth it was.
In the summer of 1655 the Swedish army invaded the Commonwealth.
Local nobles gathered to meet the enemy.
However, after seeing the Swedish army, they figured that there was no way of defeating
it head on.
So they had to weigh other options.
The Commonwealth was under attack from three different sides and needed a strong army and
leadership that king John Casimir hadn’t been able to provide.
His detractors argued that the only way to save the Commonwealth was to recognize the
Swedish king Charles as their king.
With his powerful army he would surely defeat Commonwealths enemies.
So the nobles decided to bend the knee to the Swedish king and recognize him as the
king of the Commonwealth.
Other provinces followed and soon the Swedish army entered Warsaw, the capital of the Commonwealth.
The Swedes made it their goal to capture John Casimir.
He hastily gathered an army, but it was no match to the Swedish forces and was easily
defeated.
The king fled to Cracow.
But with the Swedes closely on his tail and with many of the Commonwealths nobles defecting,
he had no choice but to flee to the Holy Roman Empire.
With the Swedish invasion the Commonwealths army fell into disarray.
The resistance to Russia had collapsed.
Its forces spread out taking over large swaths of territory.
The remaining soldiers and territories attempted to save themselves by swearing allegiance
to the Swedish king.
By the end of 1655 Most of the Commonwealth found itself under foreign occupation.
The Commonwealth had lost all of its armies and its king had fled the country.
Was this the end?
Well, no because in the next episode, the Commonwealth will strike back!
See you
next time.