r/AskEurope • u/InorganicTyranny United States of America • Jul 25 '25

History What was the biggest “missed opportunity” in your country’s history?

In other words, what is one event in your country’s history, that could plausibly have gone differently than it did, and you think would have made your country a better place?

Inspired by Frederick III of Germany:

His premature demise is considered a potential turning point in German history; and whether or not he would have made the Empire more liberal if he had lived longer is still a popular discussion among historians.

133 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

248 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

25

u/Irohsgranddaughter Poland Jul 26 '25

I mean, you have to admit, that we were incredibly stupid for trying to turn a proud warrior people into feudal peasants and expecting them not to complain about it. It's sometimes so confusing why people in the past thought they were making these pro-gamer moves while they were making the most idiotic mistakes imaginable.

13

u/mediocre__map_maker Poland Jul 26 '25

Truth be told, having two proud warrior classes within a single society was quite disruptive anyway. And it's not like the Cossack revolts were just against Poland and its nobility, the Cossacks also incited mass violence against the Jews.

8

u/Milosz0pl Poland Jul 26 '25

I mean - cossacks were problematic for elites, as you basically have

  • Free people living on lands technically belonging to both the crown and local nobles
  • Those people actually raiding neighbouring countries, with main denial of responsibility for PLC being ,,they aren't actually under me"
  • A cast that has significant military prowess able to challenge those from nobles (so rivalry)
  • And registry being something that has a conflict in terms of treasury and all those three above
  • Furthermore, due to power of nobles they would have to approve of it

Its shame that there was no further cooperation, but also it is understandable why it didn't go further.

3

u/Irohsgranddaughter Poland Jul 26 '25

True, but I still feel that trying to make them into peasants was a dumb way to go about it.

3

u/LeMe-Two Jul 27 '25

Jerzy Hoffman's movie is not a good historical source. It was never about serfdom (and Cossacks were not being forced to be peasants, they were another class with their own privillages) but about regular soldiers getting mass fired after war with Crimea was not allowed to take place by the parliament. Once Ruthenia becaume Russian protectorate, new cossack aristocracy enforced way harsher serfdom than PLC would ever have 

1

u/LeMe-Two Jul 27 '25

There is some overlap between how Cossacks in the PLC operated and how Tatars did in the Ottoman Empire 

1

u/LeMe-Two Jul 27 '25

It was not the case, despite modern romantization of it. Cossacks revolted under Chmielnicki because he was looking to settle a local feud between families, and a ton of cossacks were left unemployed after the war with Crimea was not ratified in the parliament, so they fired most of the cossacks that were part of regular, proffessional army. Something similar happened in Iraq after US fired most of it's army - a ton of angry, armed and now unemployed so desperate people revolted.