User:MadameEphrais/sandbox
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The Commonwealth Wars (Polish: Wojny Rzeczypospolitej; 8 December 1932 — 17 May 1937)[note 1] also referred by contemporaries as the War on the Vistula was a multi-party civil war in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth sparked by the rising tide of Nationalist movements in Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, and others, Republican opposition to the Monarchy, and the failure of the moderate government to maintain stability following the Depression of 1924 and the dissolution of their domestic institutions following the assassination of King Karol I, whose death culminated in the beginning of the civil war. The finale of the war culminated in the end of monarchical rule in Poland, tensions between Austria and the new Polish state, and cementing Russia's dominance in Eastern Europe permanently.
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The mid to late 1880's marked a drastic decline for the monarchy, as the Commonwealth struggled to keep afloat amidst the growing tides of nationalist movements in the eastern parts of the country, alongside the desire for reform which was sidelined during the reign of Karol II, with the country being led into managed decline by Karol III. With the elective monarchy, on which the Commonwealth was established, practically controlled and dominated only by the Habsburg dynasty, the political flux of the country left many of the citizens leaning towards both political extremes and the nascent Republican movement which gained popularity around the beginning of 1900.
In 1932, with the assassination of King Karol and subsequent turbulent regency of his son, Karol IV, sparked nation-wide protests and riots, which culminated in the storming of the Sejm in Warsaw, that was followed by the renowned "Tide of People's" speech spoken by Ignacy Daszyński, held in the Polish Sejm, which ushered first in the history of Poland, a Republic. The Habsburg loyalists fled south to the city of Kraków, and took up the banner of Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, consolidating territory around the southern portion of the country, against the Provisional Council, which controlled most of the north. With the escalation of the war prompted further national secession on the Polish pogranicze, causing the secession of Ukraine and the creation of a socialist republic soon thereafter, the retreat of the loyalists leaving Belarus free to proclaim a sovereign republic, and a civil war followed between the Poniatowskis and their loyalists and a nascent republic in Lithuania that was inspired by the Sejm's "December Proclamation", and the General Jewish Labour Bund which would establish a revolutionary commune in the city of Wilno, which served as the cultural capital of Eastern Europe during the late nineteenth century.
By 1934, the Commonwealth had bled itself dry and the devastation of the region led to one of the most disastrous humanitarian crises in the region, followed by famine and refugee crossings between East Prussia and the Gdansk area, all the more whilst the political scales of Karol IV's government shifted further right, leading to the institution of a nationalist, military dictatorship spearheaded by Edward Rydz-Śmigły, Roman Dmowski, and former foreign-minister Józef Beck, that gradually sidelined Karol's ability to dictate political decisions to his government, with a series of gruesome persecutions and pogroms known as the White Terror, whilst the Republic gradually encroached on the Kingdom their advances would be heavily hampered by the reinforcements provided by the Emperor of Austria, Franz II. Though initially holding a tepid line of passive support towards the monarchy, it become evident to the Russian Empire that the Loyalists were standing on their last legs and prepared for a forceful entry into the war, whilst France and Germany held divisive views on the resolution of the conflict with British Commonwealth's vocal support of the Republicans.
As a last ditch effort to not prolong the suffering caused by the war, the President of the Swedish Republic, Axel Rubbestad, convened a diplomatic conference in the capital city of Stockholm and calling for a resolution to the conflict, with all the major European empires partaking in the summit. Though successful in brokering a temporary truce between both the Loyalists and Republicans, and allowing for the Republic to focus on the Black Brigadiers which were terrorizing the Ostpreußen corridor, the war would drag on for another year before it could come to a close. In the time of brief peace that both sides were given, a military plan was developed by Marshal Józef Piłsudski and General Józef Olszyna-Wilczyński, that would lead a forceful mechanized assault towards Gleiwitz, cutting the Loyalist forces into two and disconnecting them from vital communication lines, and though bloody, it achieved all of its tactical goals and the capture of Kraków, which would formally end the war, with continued resistance from nationalist militias, and the Russian annexation of the pogranicze nations, such as Ukraine and Belarus, and the defeat of the monarchy in Lithuania, marking an end to three-hundered-sixty-eight years of monarchical rule in both countries.