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lots of love to my polish brothers from lithuania

thank you for this video. Finally someone made a video on PLC and didn't just read some Wikipedia articles to source it. Thank you for calling It Poland-Lithuania and not just Poland for short. It's always sad that most people just forget the Lithuanian side of the history and of the commonwealth. The video made good observations of the structure of the state.

To me the two biggest reasons what lead to the collapse 1) geography being surrounded by very powerful neighbors, and having no natural frontiers can really do damage. 2) the Librium Vito all it takes a single bribe to mess up an entire piece of legislation of much needed reform

Every country would collapse if invaded by all its neighbours: Moscovia from east, Prussia from west, Austria from south and Sweden from north

I think this country was responsible for keeping peace and balance between the east and the west of Europe. Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - european peacekeeper of the past.

1:00 Lithuania used to be THAT big!?! Wow 😳

I strongly recommend Schwerpunkt's videos on Polish-Lithuanian warfare on the subject

Salute to polish-lithuanian Commonwealth, the protector of christendom.

Frist from Brazil, Good Bless The brave Poles and Lithuanians protected the West from the Mongols and resisted Marxism, brave warriors🇧🇷🇵🇱🇱🇹❤

So relevant plug for the plug... Through MyHeritage, I found the immigration record of my great-grandfather from Lithuania to New York. He would later marry in America my great-grandmother-- who had immigrated from Poland. (23andMe showed me as being 21.1% Lithuanian and Polish)

Poland is such a beautiful and historically rich country to visit. cannot recommend enough.

Why is Vienna called Vilnius in 0:24 lmao

In the beginning of XVII century Commonwealth was at its peak and on a way to rule east, tried to set rules in Sweden and Russia. Battle of Khotyn was the start of collapse. Even as a great succes at that time it was too expensive and affected next events. Commonwealths decline in power combined with modernizations of Gustav changed the fate of east Europe, they became the strongest player on east. Cossack uprise with support from Russia, and swedish raids was a fatal blow to Commonwealth. Wars 1648-1667 on commonwealths lands much reduced its economy and population.

At it's peak The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was 1.000.000 square meters and it was the biggest country in Europe (much more than the biggest country in Europe right now. It included today's Poland, Lithuania, Latwia, Belarus, over 80% of Ukraine, half of Estonia and a little bit of Russia. Poland and Lithuania were united in one form or another basically from 1386 till very recently. There was even a period when they had access to 3 different seas). First they were in union from 1386 (Union of Krewo) when Jadwiga (female king of Poland) married Jogaila (grand duke of Lithuania), after them the coutries always had one ruler. Then from 1569 (Union of Lublin) they truly became one country known as Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Then in 1795, as a result of the partitions, they disappeared from the maps for over 100 years. Officially they separeted in 1918 when after WW1 they came back as saparate countries. Then WW2 happened and they disappeared again, came back under Russian influence, they regained their full freedom from Russia only little over 30 years ago.

The colour of Austria makes it look like a lake

I'm pleasantly surprised by your pronunciations. They weren't as bad as in some other videos. Good effort!

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth collapsed because of the Swedish Deluge and the resulting land grabs and partitions thereof Look it up, 4 million people died....in the 1660s.

The effects of the Cossack rebellion is still felt today.

07:35 THE WORST DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY

You made a big mistake. During reing of Jadwiga and Jagiełło, teutonic order was not in Polish borders. In XVI there was also semi autonomi duchy of prussia!

A question that has caused me more stress than I want to admit.

Thanks. 🙌

This is what happened when fail to pick up absolutism

I was hoping for a more complete video. So much is missing here..

I am grateful for a Poland Lithuania video I don't think it is very accurate. I am an SME

you describe the ad with more passion than your own content.

Why is there two times Vilnus on the map, one time instead Vienna

There's not a second Vilnius near Bratislava - that's Vienna.

Make videos on history of sindh plz ❤

The maps for the later XVIIth Century are bizarrely wrong. King Władysław IV died in 1648 at the very start of the Chmielnicki Uprising, which made the Cossacks go from militant protest to open revolt. The relations between the late king and Cossacks were good and there was a chance for negotiations, but when there was no king much of the state was in turmoil and new possibilities emerged. During most of the Polish-Muscovite War and the Deluge (plus the Rakoczy attack), there was a new king: John II Casimir. He was not popular in military circles, but in the end, he won those wars. For a time Poland-Lithuania was almost completely lost, but there was no long-term occupation of the eastern part of the country (at least not up to Lviv and Vilnius!), as falsely shown on the maps. This is the farthest extent of Russian attacks combined, not an occupation zone, and most of the fights took place in what is modern Western Russia, Eastern Belarus and Eastern Ukraine. During the times of John II Casimir, there was a short-lived Commonwealth of the Three Nations (including the Ruthenian-Cossack state as a third part of the federation), which failed to properly form in the wartime conditions but won a major victory against Russians at Konotop in 1559 as such. You will find that Konotop is near Sumy in modern north-eastern Ukraine and was under Russian siege in 2022 - by 1559 the frontlines were already there.

is vilnus in austria an error in the video?

I’m not alone in naming my Civ 6 custom religion “Jadwiga’s Milkers,” right?

1st of all pronunciation of LTU names was amazing, 2nd is it me or in Austria there is 2nd Vilnius ?

Awesome

I smile every time when foreign channel touches polish history

Just wanted to note that Warsaw was the capital of the PLC since 1596 so you placing new kings in Cracow is a bit inaccurate after that time

Finally the legends at Knowledgia tell the story of the fall of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, my favorite nation.

Wonderful 😂❤thanks very informative Can dried BASIL IS AS good as fresh ???? I been using dried basail for years but lately learn that dried basail no goog at all please if possible in next video corct me. Good luck. Sirus London

Why did Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth collapes? Answer is simple - nobility democracy, i.e. de facto oligarchy; which was the cause of the unlimited power of the nobility and magnates with liberum veto and, unfortunately, the weak and symbolic power of the monarchy, which, in addition, was elected electively. To understand this better, it is enough to compare the times of splendor of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Jagiellonian dynasty in the 15th and 16th centuries. and the period of its decline in the 17th and 18th centuries. when the nobility sejms chose elective kings. Unfortunately, this model of democracy also applies today. Thus if you want have strong state you should have stable power and strong leaders.

It was an informative and wonderful historical coverage video about foundation, struggling for survival, and collapse of Lithuanian 🇱🇹 Polish 🇵🇱 commonwealth. Video clearly explained Polish Lithuanian elites' political talented weren't equivalent to neighbors assaults..

Hey man are you romanian? There were mostly romanian names in that myheritage promo

This video should be called "400 years speed run". Im disapointed

why are there 2 Vilnus in the map at 10:03?

At the start of the video you put vilnus in the place of vienna

5:59 after the union in Lublin, Poland controlled Ukraine, not Lithuania.

nice video please keep going

Ačiū už istorijos priminimą ir platinimą ! Tikrų Lietuvių liko labai mažai. Dalis Žemaičių su Latviais o kitoj pusėj dalis Jotvingių palikuonių nuo Gardino ir Naugarduko surusėję Litwinai dabar tapo Baltarusais dėl Dnepro Rusios Minsko įtakos. Toks jau likimas LITHUANIA PROPRIA AUKŠTUPYS. NEMUNO AUKŠTAITIJA.

Dates should be added to the video to help with tracking of the transitions and events. The current state doesn't reflect the span ...

This micht be completely dumm question, but for example in 3.30 if you look at the names of the citys in Europe, you can notice that in the west of Bratislava where I think should be Vienna, there reads "Vilnus". But then there also is a Vilnus in it's right place in Lithuania. Didn't know there was two Vilnuses back in the day lol.

"The doctrine of the balance of power supplied the pretext, for it had been happily discovered that that doctrine, originally invented to assure the existence of the weak states against the strong to combinations of the strong states to destroy the weak, providing the robbers divided the booty evenly among themselves. But while the dismemberments of Poland fitted in with the whole spirit and tendencies of the politics of that age, there was also something new in them. The First Partition was novel in that this was the first occasion when foreign Powers had dismembered a state without having first gone to war with it or without bloodshed among themselves. If this was taking a long step forward towards making the ' droit de convenance ' the sole law in international relations, the Second Partition went even further. In 1793 the partitioning Powers did not even trouble themselves, as they had done in 1772, to invoke some kind of historic titles, drawn from the archives, as at least a formal satisfaction to the public law of Europe. The only excuses which they proffered for their usurpations were: the necessity they were under of exercising a sort of sanitary police over their corner of the Continent to prevent the contagious spread of dangerous ideas - a plea the like of which Europe had not heard, at least since the time of the Wars of Religion ; and then their right to ' indemnify ' themselves for their beneficent exertions. If the brazen falseness and cynicism of this were fitted to shock even eighteenth century Europe, the violation by both the partitioning Powers of very recent promises and obligations to the Poles was also more open and shameless than at the time of the First Partition". Hence with right the Second Partition of Poland has always been held up as the supreme manifestation of the tendencies of the ' cabinet policy ' of the eighteenth century; the classic example of the moral degeneracy and rottenness of the old monarchical Europe. One cannot better sum up the moral aspects and not the least of the political consequences of the Partition than in the words of an old writer who declared: " It was the kings themselves who, on the eve of the insurrec- tion of peoples, taught them that no right existed for them except that of the strongest, and that when they invoked liberty, it was an ignoble sacrilege; they taught them that they were not to be believed even when they spoke of the public tranquillity the respect due to the hereditary power of princes; for these same monarchs who constituted themselves the defenders of monarchy in France, dismembered Poland while appealing to the mostv"' anarchical liberty! In short, there was only one law for them, only one principle, that of interest and the glory of their dynasties. The peoples have profited by the lesson." Lord Howard, American historian.

It was murdered.

Liberum Veto is a problem even today for the EU.

Why is Vienna labeled as Vilnius lol

I think there's some confusion about Louis I, King of Hungary-Poland, and Louis of Anjou, the son of French King John II and younger brother (so close!) to his father's successor Charles V. The confusion is understandable because both Louises I (Louis the Firsts? Not sure how the plural works here) were Capetian royals of the House Anjou. Nevertheless the king of Hungary-Poland who died in 1382 was not called Louis of Anjou; that honor, if it is one, went to the French Duke who died in 1384 during a failed bid to claim the throne of Naples. Now, it is important to note that *I am not an expert* .... _AT ALL_ However, when I googled "Louis of Anjou", there were no links on the horizon for the King, just the Duke and his French descendants. Took me a while to unravel everything. Medieval Europe was one sloppy joseph, boy howdy. FYI and thanks for putting this together.

Litus, Litava, Litau, Leiten emerged as a corporation for the land travels in 12-13 cen. in order to trade furs from the North. Most likely initiated by the Venice the same as Gold Horde took over silk trade in China.

You have 2 Vilnuses on the map. There should be Vienna in Austria

There is more tjan just one issue with city names on those maps.

...Prussia ... shows up at the end... BUT... what happened before?... From the beginning of the video through to at least half of it... there is an area around GDANSK... that is NOT part of POLAND... Who controlled that area?... Good video... We need more!...

The problem was the geographical location, that's all. Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was pretty strong but it literally had enemies from all of the sides.

How much of its rise was due to the Black Death not being that lethal there?

Check pronounciation of Khmelnytsky. Also one there are quite a few worrying parallels between the fall of Commonwealth and current Ukraine and the UE: 1. utilization of Liberum Veto to block the Commonwealth seems not unlike Russia-friendly Orban's actions to block EU policies - with bribery, political corruption and propaganda 2. Yanukovych Russian puppet seems similar to Sas kings and then, when one is removed and replaced by pro-western one - Russian invasion and annexation in phases - 2014 like 1st partition of Poland, 2022 like attempt at 2nd/3rd one

Just realized that in the video Vienna is labeled as Vilnius lmao

why are there 2 Vilnuses i think you meant Viena

Wow Lithuania 🇱🇹 was larger than Poland back than comprising current parts of Ukrainian, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia and Western Russia.

Louis (Lajos, Ludwik, Ludovik) I the Great was Roman Catholic King of Hungary, Croatia, and Poland (17 November 1370 - 10 September 1382).

it's funny when you have 2x Vilnius on the map :P one in now day Lithuania and second in Austria

Good video, but Krakow was not the capital of the Commonwealth during many of the times you said, it was Warsaw.

You said short lived? Didnt span from. 2nd quarter/mid 1500s to 3 quarter 1700s? Ruffly 250 years. Thst doesnt seem short lived to me.

As long as Poland-Lithuania existed there were no wars between the east and the west. After the partitions we saw Napoleonic wars, the Great War and II WW. Europe need a strong country in this part of Europe again.

This is a question that polish people debate for centuries

Please anderstand that: Romania is part of Ottoman Empire by 1711, not before

@3:28 The regaining of Pomerania and other lands taken by Teutonic Order took much longer time and was accomplished 80 years after the marriage. The map should not have changed with Jadwiga and Władysław still in central position. @4:12 Lublin was and still is located between Warsaw and Lwów (as the town was called than) / Lviv (as it is called now). Again: map is imprecise. @5:43 Century after the formation would be 1669 - so past the Cossack Wars, the Deluge ( both Muscovite and Swedish invasions). In reality the Commonwealth was already severely weakened and lost much territory. @6:00 What is this line??? Certainly it is not the line of division between Korona Królestwa Polskiego - Crown of Polish Kingdom (proper name of what Westerners call Kingdom of Poland) and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, even at the time of signing the Union of Lublin. Before the union, Sigismund Augustus Grand Duke of Lithuania, passed certain lands to Sigismund Augustus King of Poland (the same person in reality, but two legal persons): Podlasie / Podlachie, Wołyń/ Volhynia, Ziemię Kijowską, Kiev and Ziemię Bracławską / Braclav. The division line was in reality completely different! @6:24 Zaporizhzhia lies, as the name suggests "behind the porohs". Literally it means "land behind the Dnieper rapids". It started well over 200 km to the south of Kiev and stretched along the border with Ottoman Empire and Crimean Khanate (so called Dzikie Pola - Wild Fields). WHY is your map showing Kiev as part of it?!? @8:03 Khmelnitsky had no choice but to sign the Treaty of Pereyeslav as after years of secret negotiations with Muscovite Tsar while allied with Tatars, the secret came out in late 1653. Tatars who were mortal enemies of Muscovy, were outraged and broke the alliance with Cossacks. On their own Cossacks stood no chance against Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Another fact is that roughly half of Cossack starzhina (regiment leaders) refused to sign the Treaty of Pereyeslav, and the head of Kievan Orthodox church, Metropolitan Sylvester Kosiv protested against it not once, but twice before his sudden death in 1657. @8:40 WHY is the map not changing to state not only after mentioned Treaty of Oliva 1660 but also Truce of Andrusovo 1667??? Polish Lithuanian lost territory (most notalby Prussia became independant and left bank Ukraine was ceded to Muscovy which also kept Kiev against the term of the Truce) but Polock, Vitebsk, Msciclav or Braclaw (not to mention Vilnus, Minsk or Lviv) were still in Polish hands. I'll be blunt: this is RIDICULOUS travesty of actual history! BTW, the destruction of Polish ability to produce crops was just the one of problems. After Cossack, Tatar, Muscovite, Swedish, and Hungarian (Transsylvanian) military marches and occupation some regions of Poland lost 80% of population, Grand Duchy of Lithuania was in no better shape. Some estimates claim that Commonwealth lost 40% of population during those times (to war, famine that followed and migration), and over 50% of material wealth. The people who survived had to depend on support of the richest class - the magnates, and they did as they pleased, because the usual bulwark against their despotism - the middle class nobility was either dead or too poor and weak to oppose them. On the subject of religious tollerance: both Swedes and Muscivite Russians claimed to "come to protect" the Protestants and Orthodox Christians, respectively. A lot of non-catholic population actually colaborated with the occupants, althogh a lot did not. But the negative always is more memorable and so after the wars Catholics reacted to the negative picture. Regretable, but actually a common occurance in history. @10:04 So the map changes only for a new King ... Years after possession did in reality ... Plus WHY IS VIENNA NAMED "VILNUS"?!!!!? Fire whomever made maps for this video! Sobieski alliance with Austria was, in the end, his greatest mistake, from purely strategical point of view. Seeking alliance againt Ottomans preparing another invasion was prudent, coming to the aid of Vienna 1683 was correct decision, but maintaining the alliance was a mistake, especially since right after the Battle of Vienna Austrians stopped providing food for Sobieski's troops, and refused to allow the burial of Polish fallen in their cemeteries. Those were sufficeint reasons to break camp and return home, but Sobieski did continue the campaign (against initial Austrian voices, mind) in order to destroy Ottoman troops that did not present a threat to Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but kept in check Austrian troops, protecting ottoman held fortress of Buda and city of Pest. He wanted to place his son on the Hungarian throne. Sobieski suffered heavy casualties from malnutrition and disease, but the rewards in form of occupying large parts of modern Hungary and Serbia were reaped by the Austrians few years later. Polish-Lithuanian military has not fully recovered from this war, even after reforms made almost a century later (from 1776 to the time or preparation and Signing the Constitution of 3rd May 1791).

So many mistakes here, I don t even have enough strenght to list them all, almost all maps and rulers portrayed on them were not correct, many other bigger mistakes. BUT as I said it s too much to point them all

kodel apie siuos europai svarbius ivikius tyli HISTORI CHANEL, DISKAVERYM, ir taip toliau

Is It just me, or is Vienna also labeled Vilnus

Because it got into a business of democracy.

Vienna becoming vilnus on the map makes me feel bad for austrian's once

Come on. Everybody in the world is either Gordon or MacGregor.

Cossacks strike again

02:21 Even at its peak, the Polish - German border was still way east of where it moved after WW2

👏👏

Poland's problem in the war with the Cossacks was that the Cossacks were previously an important element of the army in Poland and served as infantry and they have good tactic fight in camp with firearms while Poland had world-class cavalry. When the Cossacks rebelled, they entered into an alliance with the Tatars and received support from the Tatars' cavalry and joined forces to fight with the Tartar cavalry. This tactic was a big surprise for the Polish leaders, which led to a series of defeats which finally ended with the victory at Berestechko where army of Cossacks were defeated unfortunately other powers noticed that Poland was bleeding heavily in this war and soon the war with Sweden etc. began.

Its our fault entirely this country had multiple chances to dodge it's tragic fate but everytime the greedy and selfish nobility rebelled against the kings that tried to change at least minor things in the system like electing the next king before the death of the previous one for him to inspect the election process and recommend a good candidate. If there would be a large united native entity in the area maybe this land could avoid the fate it met in the world wars

Hard to believe that Poland began finally breaking up in 1775, though longer process, of course, with very deep social causes.

Quite good video, but have some smaller and bigger mistakes, as well as some important facts are missed. 1. 0:24 - there is some minor mistake - it wasn't the polish nobility which chose Jadwiga. During lifetime of Louis of Anjou polish and hungarian nobiles agreed that Mary will become king of Poland and Jadwiga - king of Hungary, That's why she married duke of Austria, and that's why Mary married elector of Brandenburg. After death of Louis his widow Elisabeth of Bosnia tried to change his will and place one of her daughter on both thrones - to achieve that she managed to get Mary crowned as king of Hungary. At the moment union with Hungary wasn't diserable for polish nobility, so after the negotiations Jadwiga was chosen for kingdom of Poland. 2. 4:50 - Such comparitions doesn't tell much about situation within commonwealth. Both Poland and Lithuania were more like administrative divisions within the commonwealth. Lithuanian and Ruthenian magnates (such families as Radziwiłł, Sapieha, Wiśniowiecki, Czartoryski, etc.) had strong impact on history of this state. Union was actually succesful and nobiles from whole state eventually shared common identity. The reason of modern division on seperate states of Poland and Lithuania is full democracy - nobility could consider themselves as one nation, but lower classes was very different from each other. 3. 5:50 - Border drawn in this moment is pre-union border. After union of Lublin Poland annexed Ruthenia and Grand Duchy of Lithuania was restricted only to modern day Lithuania and Belarus. 4. 6:18 - *Zaporizhya, and it is historical name, not modern one. Conflict between nobility and the cossaks was more complicated than stated in this video. Cossaks were good fighters but with very low discipline. Cossaks very often raided Ottoman Empire without considering consequenses. Such raids provoked some wars with Ottoman Empire. What is the most important fact is that many cossaks were peasants that escaped from work for their overlords. Commonwealth sanctioned existance of Cossaks by creating "Cossak register" - every cossak who was in register could legally fight in the name of Commonwealth. The most problematic issue was number of cossaks allowed to be written in the register. In the war time this number was increased, and after the war - decreased. Those cosasks, that was no longer in register were supposed to return to farm and became peasant, which many of them didn't want to do. Because of that there was many Cossak revolts begining in the end of XVI c. In 1638 whole Ukraine was pacificated and for long time there was peace, but tentions was still rising. This ultimatelly lead to Khmelnytsky uprising in 1648. Also spelling of the name "Khmelnytsky" is wrong in this video. 5. 7:16 Władysław IV died shortly after uprising was started and information about the uprising reached Warsaw after his death. As Commonwealth was elective monarchy this lead to the interregnum until new election, what only made situation worse. 6. 8:04 This wasn't stated clearly in this video, but Sweden and Russia fougth Poland independently. They also fought each other. The treaty of Oliwa was only between Poland and Sweden. War with Russia ended 6 years later. 7. 13:06 - As for some time Commonwealth was de facto russian puppet some nobiles rebelled against the king and russian influence creating Confederation of Bar. After defeat of the confederation Russia acknowledged that Commonwealth is too strong and it has to be weakend. Also Prussians wanted to connect their western and eastern lands. That was the reason of the first partition. As foreign influence within Commonwealth was so strong, ceasion of land was approved in parliament, as well as second and third partition. 8: 13:29 - The writing od the Constitution was a direct reason of II partition. Constitution get rid of Liberum Veto and finaly reformed the commonwealth. Reformed Commonwealth could be dangerous for Russia. After second partition Koścuszko rebelled against foreign influence in Poland and his defeat directly lead to the third partition.

Vienna is called second Vilnus? Really?

Stop overexaggerating Lithuania was still a huge chunk of the commonwealth after 1569. Lithuania , Belarus , and Smolensk. 300,000 km².

They were surrounded by emerging great powers

Is it time for Poland-Lithuania to come back again?

Poland's geography favors power or weakness. There is no place for a weak state in our place on earth. Let all the nations of good old Sarmatia understand this.

I would add that Cossacks wanted to ally with Russia to elevate their position. Very quickly they realised in how deep shit they got, but it was too late. All their freedoms were eliminated and they were treated as serves of Tsar. That's why current war in Ukraine is so iconic - after 400 years they do exaclty opposite and try to be together with Poland as they experienced themselves (Poles too) what it means to "not-have" PLC.

Lwów, not "Lviv".

The polish nobles didn't help themselves with anarchic veto power..also, their neighbors just got stronger, more centralized

Doesn't Congress Poland during the Napoleonic era count as an instantiation of Poland?

The colaps of Poland begins in 1620 after Sweden was able to tax Gdańsk and took Riga. It was long term proces with ups and downs

tl;dr, the commonwealth never formed a standing, modern army and still relied on outdated, feudal structure, solidified by the empowered nobility

You're showing map of PLC in 1619, so in 6:03 it should show that Ukraine was within thr borders of the Crown, not Lithuania

Ukraine looks soo nice on this map .

Because they didn't like each other, next question.