It elected its kings, tolerated every religion, and wrote Europe's first constitution — and then it voted itself out of existence. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was Europe's strangest superpower: a republic of nobles with an elected monarch, a military juggernaut run by parliament, and a liberty so absolute it became a suicide pact.
Kraków ★ Warsaw Vilnius Moscow Vienna Greatest extent — stylized map 1569 Union of Lublin 1610 Moscow taken 1683 Vienna relieved 3 May 1791 First constitution 1795 Third partition Rise · zenith · fall The rise The Commonwealth was born on 1 July 1569, when the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania signed the Union of Lublin, merging into a single republic — the Rzeczpospolita, “the common thing.” It was a marriage of necessity: Lithuania needed Polish help against Moscow, Poland wanted Lithuania's vast eastern lands. Together they formed a state stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea steppe.
