Polish Golden Age

The Polish Golden Age refers to the period from the late 15th century Jagiellon Poland to the death of the last of the Jagiellons, Sigismund August in 1572. Some historians claim that the Golden Age lasted until the mid-17th century, when in 1648 the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was ravaged by the Khmelnytsky Uprising, and Swedish invasion. During its Golden Age, the Commonwealth became one of the largest kingdoms of Europe, stretching from modern-day Estonia, to Moldavia and Silesia. Its army was able to defend the realm against numerous Teutonic knights, Turkish, Swedish, Russian, and Tatar invasions. The country prospered thanks to its enormous grain, wood and salt exports.

In the 16th century, the area of the Commonwealth reached almost 1 million km, with a population of 11 million. Its goods were transported to Western Europe via Baltic Sea ports of Gdańsk, Elbląg, Riga, Memel and Königsberg. The Commonwealth had several major cities, such as Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, Lviv, Vilnius, Toruń and Kiev.

During the Golden Age the Commonwealth was regarded as one of the most powerful European states. It had a unique system of government, known as the Golden Liberty, in which all nobles (szlachta), regardless of economic status, were considered to have equal legal status and enjoyed extensive legal rights and privileges. One of its features was the Liberum veto, used for the first time in 1653. Nobility, which consisted of both szlachta and magnates, made up approximately 8-10% of the population.

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