Other Conflicts
The Deluge was the climax of a series of wars, that took place in Poland - Lithuania in the mid-17th century. The Commonwealth was first affected by the Khmelnytsky Uprising, which began in 1648, and affected southeastern provinces of the country. In final stages of the uprising, the Russians invaded Poland - Lithuania in 1654, reaching as far west as the Vistula river near Puławy. The Commonwealth also fought forces from Transylvania and Brandenburg-Prussia, but the Duchy of Prussia gained formal Polish recognition of its independence outside of the Polish state (Treaty of Wehlau, 1657).
With the Treaty of Hadiach on September 16, 1658, the Polish Crown elevated the Cossacks and Ruthenians to a position equal to that of Poland and Lithuania in the Polish–Lithuanian Union, and in fact transformed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth into a Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Trojga Narodów, "Commonwealth of Three Nations"). Supported by Cossack Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky and the starshyna, the treaty aimed to change the face of Eastern Europe. However, its terms never came into full operation: Russia refused to recognize Hadiach, and maintained its claims to Ukraine. The Russo-Polish War (1654–1667) ended with the Treaty of Andrusovo of 13 January 1667. (Poland-Lithuania profited from Turkish participation in the Russo-Turkish War (1676–1681) due to Ottoman links with the Crimea. The peace settlement gave Moscow control over the so-called Left-bank Ukraine (left of the river Dnieper), with the Commonwealth retaining Right-bank Ukraine (right of the Dnieper). While initially the agreement stipulated that Russia would return Left-bank Ukraine to the Commonwealth in twenty years, the division became permanent with the Eternal Peace Treaty of 1686.
The Deluge brought to an end the era of Polish religious tolerance: mostly non-Catholic invaders antagonized the mostly Catholic Poles. The expulsion of the Protestant Polish Brethren from Poland in 1658 exemplified the increasing intolerance. During the Deluge, many thousands of Polish Jews also fell victim to violence carried out by the Zaporozhian Cossacks.
Read more about this topic: Deluge (history)
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