The Constitution of May 3, 1791 - British historian Norman Davies described the document as the first constitution of its type in Europe; other historians call it the worlds second-oldest codified national constitution after the 1789 U.S. - (Polish: Konstytucja Trzeciego Maja; Belarusian: Канстытуцыя трэцяга мая; Lithuanian: Gegužės trečiosios Konstitucija) was adopted by the Great Sejm (parliament) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a dualistic state comprising Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. Drafted over 32 months since October 6, 1788 and adopted as a Government Act (Ustawa rządowa), the document was designed to redress political defects of the Commonwealth; the system of Golden Liberty had conferred disproportionate rights on the nobility (szlachta). The adoption of the Constitution was preceded by a period of agitation for—and gradual introduction of—reforms beginning with the Convocation Sejm of 1764 and the election of Stanisław August Poniatowski as the Commonwealths king. The constitution sought to supplant the prevailing anarchy fostered by some of the countrys magnates with a more democratic constitutional monarchy. It introduced elements of political equality between townspeople and nobility, and placed the peasants under the protection of the government, thus mitigating the worst abuses of serfdom. It banned pernicious parliamentary institutions such as the liberum veto, which had put the Sejm at the mercy of any deputy who could revoke all the legislation that had been passed by that Sejm. The constitutions adoption met with hostile political and military responses from the Commonwealths neighbors. In the War in Defense of the Constitution, the Frederick William IIs Prussia broke its alliance with the Commonwealth, which was defeated by Catherine the Greats Imperial Russia that was allied with the Targowica Confederation of anti-reform Polish magnates and landless nobility. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_May_3,_1791
Posted on: Sat, 03 May 2014 10:16:07 +0000
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