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The 1791 Constitution was a response to the increasingly perilous situation in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, [5] which had been a major European power only a century earlier and was still the largest state on the continent. [6]
Great, or Four-Year, Sejm (1788–92) and Senate adopt Constitution of 3 May 1791 at the Royal Castle in Warsaw.. The Great Sejm, also known as the Four-Year Sejm (Polish: Sejm Wielki or Sejm Czteroletni; Lithuanian: Didysis seimas or Ketverių metų seimas) was a Sejm (parliament) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that was held in Warsaw between 1788 and 1792.
The Polish Constitution of 3 May 1791 (Polish: Konstytucja Trzeciego Maja) is called the first constitution in Europe by historian Norman Davies. [4] It was instituted by the Government Act (Polish: Ustawa rządowa) adopted on that date by the Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The "free election" was abolished by the Constitution of 3 May 1791, ... Poland's Jagiellon dynasty ... The elections played a major role in curtailing the power of ...
4.3.2 The Great Sejm of 1788–1791 and the Constitution of 3 May 1791. ... illusions of Poland's status as a great power. He alienated most of Poland's neighbors ...
The Constitution of 3 May 1791 is considered one of the most important achievements in the history of Poland, despite being in effect for only a year, until the Russo-Polish War of 1792. Historian Norman Davies calls it "the first constitution of its type in Europe"; other scholars also refer to it as the world's second oldest constitution.
Prior to the May 3 Constitution, in Poland the term "constitution" (Polish: konstytucja) had denoted all the legislation, of whatever character, that had been passed at a sejm. [34] Only with the adoption of the May 3 Constitution did konstytucja assume its modern sense of a fundamental document of governance. [35]
The ideas of the Polish Enlightenment also had a significant impact abroad. From the Bar Confederation (1768) through the period of the Great Sejm and until the aftermath of the Constitution of May 3, 1791, Poland experienced a large output of political, particularly constitutional, writing.