Kryzys, rozpad i odrodzenie I Rzeczypospolitej w okresie II wojny północnej (1655-1660)

ENIn the mid-seventeenth century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was hit by a severe and multi-dimensional crisis, which had demographic, economic, political and military aspects. The crisis led, fi rst, to the collapse of the state in 1655, and then to the attempt at its division in December 1656, often called an attempt at its fi rst partition. There were several factors that precipitated the crisis and the downfall of the state: those of fate, such as King Władysław IV’s death in the early stage of the Khmelnytsky uprising in 1648; external ones: the attack on the Commonwealth by Moscow, Sweden, Transylvania, Brandenburg, and - initially - the Tatars; internal ones: the Zaporozhian Cossacks, the attitude of part of the magnates, a moral crisis manifesting itself in the lack of the will to fi ght in the fi rst half of 1655. The factors that made it possible to ease the crisis were the still considerable potential of the state, both military and economic. Besides this, a signifi cant role was played by internal aspects: the overcoming of moral breakdown and regaining of the will to fi ght against enemies, the introduction of some changes into the political system (albeit short-lived: a convocation of the Senate and nobility instead of the Sejm, the vivente rege election of the tsar as successor, special summary military units, so-called wyprawy dymowe, from all landed estates, head tax, etc.), and external ones, such as the attitude of neighbours who did not consent to the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: the Tatars, the Habsburgs, Denmark, and for some time even Moscow.Were there cases of collapsed statehood in the early modern period and its reconstruction? In the long-term perspective, it was Hungary that suff ered the decay of the state under the Habsburgs. As to the revival of the statehood, Portugal could be mentioned, which regained its independence from Spain in 1640 under the national dynasty of Bragança. There was also a failed attempt at reactivation of the Kingdom of Aragon in 1640 (the fi ght continued for twelve years).