Central and Eastern Europe• Economy was agrarian or agricultural• Fewer cities and more larger estates with serfs

– Peasants labored the land for nobility• Military conflict usually over land borders

– Boundaries constantly changing during 17th and 18th centuries due to warfare amongst nations

• Nobility unwilling to submit to central authority• Cultural diversity made it almost impossible for national

unity• Austria, Prussia, and Russia will begin to consolidate

power during 17th and 18th centuries• Sweden, Poland, and the Ottoman Empire begin to decay

Poland with no Central Authority

• 1683 King John III Sobieski (r. 1674—1696) turned Poland into a great power by defeating the invading Turks in SE Europe– The death of King Sobieski

will begin the decline of Poland as a major power

• Nobles would not submit to the monarch’s power

Polish Government• Was a republic but most Polish monarchs were

foreigners and tools for foreign powers– The monarch was elective, but deep distrust amongst nobles

prevented them from electing a king from amongst themselves

• had a central legislative body called the Sejm or diet, but it had no real power as any single veto, liberum veto, could stop a Sejm– Membership was open only to nobles– Stagnation became major stumbling block

• Poland disappears from map in 18th century as a result of the partition of Poland by Austria, Prussia, and Russia