Close
Description
This course charts the meanings of 鈥楶oland鈥� and 鈥楶olish鈥�, and of 鈥楲ithuania鈥� and 鈥楲ithuanian鈥�, over an extended period. It seeks to explain the rise, protracted decline and fall of one Polish-Lithuanian political community - the Commonwealth - and the extended struggle to resurrect another. It also explores the social and cultural transformations of the people who were at various times considered to constitute the 鈥榥ation鈥�. It does so in the context of changing Jewish, Prussian, Ruthenian, Ukrainian and Belarusian identities, whose threads intertwined with, and were later painfully disentangled from, those of 鈥楶oland鈥� and 鈥楲ithuania鈥�. The course begins with an introduction to the Polish-Lithuanian union and a survey of its diverse lands, peoples and faiths . It will then examine the privileges, bonds and limits of citizenship provide a triple lens through which students will gain a sense of how and why the Commonwealth and its institutions functioned. Next it looks at the impact of seven disastrous decades from 1648, before studying the efforts at reform that culminated with the Constitution of 3 May 1791, before the Commonwealth was finally partitioned in 1795. In term 2, it will examine the efforts to resurrect the state under the Napoleonic aegis, and later by insurrection, as well as the efforts to spread of Polish and Lithuanian culture. The final part of the course examines rival ideologies on the eve of the First World War and the effects of the collapse of the partitioning empires. It seeks to understand why Poland and Lithuania were reborn as separate and hostile republics in 1918-23.
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 8th April 2024.
听