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(詳細はPolish history follows the late Middle Ages. Historians use the term ''early modern'' to refer to the period beginning in approximately 1500 AD and lasting until around 1800. The ''Nihil novi'' act adopted by the Polish diet in 1505 transferred legislative power from the king to the diet. This event marked the beginning of the period known as the "Nobles' Democracy" or "Nobles' Commonwealth" (''Rzeczpospolita szlachecka''). The state was ruled by the "free and equal" Polish nobility or ''szlachta'', albeit in intense, and at times destabilizing, competition with the Jagiellon and then elective kings. The Union of Lublin of 1569 constituted the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely merged continuation of the already existing personal union of the Crown of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The beginning of the Commonwealth coincided with the period of Poland's greatest territorial expansion, power, civilizational advancement and prosperity. The Polish–Lithuanian state had become an influential player in Europe and a vital cultural entity, spreading Western culture eastward. Following the Reformation gains accompanied by religious toleration, the Catholic Church embarked on an ideological counter-offensive and Counter-Reformation claimed many converts from Protestant circles. The disagreements over and the difficulties with the assimilation of the eastern Ruthenian populations of the Commonwealth had become clearly discernible; an attempt to settle the issue was made in the religious Union of Brest. On the military front, a series of Cossack uprisings took place. The Commonwealth, assertive militarily under King Stephen Báthory, suffered from dynastic distractions during the reigns of the Vasa kings Sigismund III and Władysław IV. It had also become a playground of internal conflicts, in which the kings, powerful magnates and factions of nobility were the main actors. The Commonwealth fought wars with Russia, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire. The situation, however, soon radically deteriorated. From 1648 the Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising engulfed the south and east, and was soon followed by a Swedish invasion, which raged through core Polish lands. Warfare with the Cossacks and Russia left Ukraine divided, with the eastern part, lost by the Commonwealth, becoming the Tsardom's dependency. John III Sobieski, fighting protracted wars with the Ottoman Empire, revived the Commonwealth's military might once more, in the process helping decisively in 1683 to deliver Vienna from a Turkish onslaught. The Commonwealth, subjected to almost constant warfare until 1720, suffered devastating population losses, massive damage to its economy and social structure. The government became ineffective because of large scale internal conflicts (e.g. Lubomirski's Rokosz against John II Casimir and other confederations), corrupted legislative processes (''liberum veto'') and manipulation by foreign interests. The "ruling" nobility class fell under control of a handful of powerful families with established territorial domains. The reigns of two kings of the Saxon Wettin dynasty, Augustus II and Augustus III, brought the Commonwealth further disintegration. The Polish-Lithuanian state was dominated by the Russian Empire from the time of Peter the Great. This foreign control reached its climax under Catherine the Great, and involved at that time also the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy. During the later part of the 18th century the Commonwealth recovered economically, developed culturally and attempted fundamental internal reforms. The reform activity provoked hostile reaction and eventually military response on the part of the neighboring powers. The royal election of 1764 resulted in the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski. The Bar Confederation of 1768 was a ''szlachta'' rebellion directed against Russia and the Polish king. It was brought under control and followed in 1772 by the First Partition of the Commonwealth, a permanent encroachment on the outer Commonwealth provinces by Russia, Prussia and Austria. The Great, or Four-Year Sejm was convened by Stanisław August in 1788. The Sejm's landmark achievement was the passing of the Constitution of May 3, 1791, considered the first in modern Europe. The constitutional reform generated strong opposition from conservative circles in the Commonwealth's upper nobility and from Catherine II. The nobility's Targowica Confederation appealed to Empress Catherine for help and in May 1792 the Russian army entered the territory of the Commonwealth. The defensive war fought by the forces of the Commonwealth ended when the King, convinced of the futility of resistance, capitulated by joining the Targowica Confederation. Russia and Prussia in 1793 arranged for and executed the Second Partition of the Commonwealth, which left the country with critically reduced territory, practically incapable of independent existence. Reformers and patriots were soon preparing for a national insurrection. Tadeusz Kościuszko, chosen as its leader, on March 24, 1794 in Cracow (Kraków) declared a national uprising. Kościuszko emancipated and enrolled in his army many peasants, but the hard-fought insurrection ended in suppression by the forces of Russia and Prussia. The third and final partition of the Commonwealth was undertaken again by all three partitioning powers, and in 1795 the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ceased to exist. ==Early elective monarchy== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Poland in the Early Modern era (1569–1795)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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