American Reacts History of Poland: Parts 1 & 2 - The Deluge I 1648-1655 

Look up the painting of 'Tåget över Bält' for an amazing depiction of the Swedish troops crossing the straits on the ice. In English the event is called 'The March Across the Belts' ;)

yo please react to more Polish history! they have had such an interesting history

In those times takes place action of adventure book serries commonly known as "Trilogy" by Henryk Sienkiewicz (Ogniem i Mieczem, Potop, Pan Wołodyjowski) They get filmed and are considered classic.

Merry Christmas from the UK.

Originally, (East) Prussia had been the core territory of the Teutonic Order. After the Order was defeated by Poland-Lithuania at Tannenberg, only this territory remained in their possession. During the protestant reformation, the then High Master of the Order (coincidentally a member of the Hohenzollern dynasty) Albrecht of Brandenburg transformed the Order's last holdings into a" normal" feudal state, the Duchy of Prussia, which then became vassal (a medieval fiefdom) of the Commonwealth. However by 1650, the Brandenburg line of the Hohenzollern family had inherited the Duchy of Prussia, which placed them in an awkward position. Elector Frederick William was Margrave of Brandenburg and Prince Elector of the Holy Roman Empire and thus he was a vassal of the Emperor. However in his capacity as Duke of Prussia, he was simultaniously a vassal of the King of Poland-Lithuania. This dilemma was solved during the Deluge, when King John Casimir released the Duchy of Prussia from its vassal bonds in return for peace. (A fiefdom was officially a "loan" of territory from the ruler to his vassal. The vasall ruled it on behalf of the sovereign, but did not formally own it. In practice, most vasalls acted as if the land was theirs of course, but legally, it wasn't and they were still inferior in rank to their sovereign.) This meant that Frederick William was still a vassal of the Emperor as Elector of Brandenburg, but in his capacity as Duke of Prussia, he was now a sovereign ruler, subject to no one. This made it possible for his son Frederick I. to crown himself as "King in Prussia" later. This was the origin of the Kingdom of Prussia that his Grand-Nephew Frederick II. "The Great" would eventually establish as a great european power.

Taras Bulba ... movie starring Yul Brynner and Tony Curtis, covers this first period. A few years back, I worked with a young immigrant from Russia. His last name sounded Russian, but not his first name. He was Cossack!

Connor, in answer to your question, there wasn't really a 'British' at this time, mainly England and Wales. It was the era of Cromwell and our Commonwealth. We would have been, in no specific order: Sorting out the Scots; subduing the Irish and the Royalist supporting aristocracy over there and siding with the French against the Spanish and English Royalists in the Netherlands (See the Battle of the Dunes, 1658, etc.....) I suppose the French, although mainly Catholic, would have been viewed as the lesser of two evils'?

The conquest of Skåne (Scania) blekinge and halland from Denmark is the only conquests that remain from Swedens greatpower era. Its also the best land Sweden ever conquered. After 50 years Skåne had become fully integrated in to the Krown lands of Sweden and all partisans had been dealth whit.During the great northen war the Scanians fought and kicked out the Danish invaders when they tried to get the county back. Skåne had been Danish since the birth of the Danish kingdom and was the most populated part of Denmark.

went to home ec they appear to be making stuff from brussel sprouts cold turkey and lumpy cold mash ,,,will try and learn about poland instead

re eastern prussia - you can think of it as a flat - Poland was the owner (landlord), while Branderburg was renting it. The deal was that Poland will hand over the ownership of the flat to Branderburg

If you want to know more about what the Dutch were doing at the time, you should react to DefraggedHistory's series on the 80 Years War.

14:00 Cossack were held down by the Russians at that time. You see they gave their sovereignty away in the Pereyeslavl agreement 1653. The Tsar wanted to see what happens in the struggle between Charles and John Casimir and didn't want to commit.

6:15 My friend, you have just learnt the power of "maskirovka" - deceit. 6;46 Still is, thanks God

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-90L5qnUGZ9w.html - If You like sweedish army, You should like this scene.

You can't call it a "nobility democracy." That's an aristocratic oligarchy of electors. It's only a democracy if everyone gets to vote and anyone from any class can win office, otherwise the Demos aren't the -cracy. Poland should have made a deal with the Cossacks instead of oppressing them. Also with this history it makes sense that the Cossacks served as the Tsar's guards and internal security force up until 1917. The Tsar's had helped them get free of Poland, so they liked that alliance. They weren't Russian so the only way they'd be in the Russian military was as an elite, and as non-Russian they have no problem killing Russians for the Tsar.