Szelągowski Adam- Decomposition of the Reich and Poland during the reign of Władysław IV [Krakow 1907].

Krakow 1907/Academia of Skills. Published by the Wiktor Osławski Publishing Fund/ first edition/15.5x23cm/s.IX,265/ binding, booklet/ good condition, folds in the corner of the binding, soiling of the front cover, small loss of the veneer of the spine, inside the piece is clean

In our historiography, the opinion has become established that starting from the 16th century, the entire power policy of the Republic was directed towards the East, if not to be directed there. Eastern affairs - Moscow and, above all, Turkey - this was the task that the Republic had to solve.
However, contrary to these notions, the turn of history pushed the Republic into the whirlwind of events in the north towards Inflants, then Prussia into the battles with Sweden, which continue through the entire 17th century, and which are connected with both the Moscow and Turkish wars. And it was not so much the east, ossified and moribund, as the northern state of Sweden, and in part the west - from Sweden's meddling in the affairs of the Reich - that decisively influenced the development of the history of the Republic. Here, issues accumulated, as in the early 16th century Prussia, in the early 17th century Silesia, which demanded resolution. From here, finally, at the end of this period of time, a new power emerged - the Prussian kings - who, in less than a century, managed to deal a decisive blow to the existence of the Republic.
In what position did the Republic find itself at a time when its closest neighbor to the west, the German Reich, was crumbling under the influence of religious, state, princely-territorial and power-dynastic antagonisms? The role of the Rzeczpospolita in this neighborly turmoil was already not indifferent on this account, since, according to almost statistical data, Poland's main rival and hereditary enemy of the reigning House of Vasa - Gustavus Adolphus - was able to undertake the conquest of almost all of Germany with those means provided to him by the trade of the Rzeczpospolita (sea duties, collected during the 6-year armistice).