page_title: History of the Cossacks
section_title: Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Cossacks / Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
context_page_description: The history of the Cossacks spans several centuries.
context_section_description: Similar exchanges passed between Russia, the Ottomans and the Commonwealth; each of which often tried to use the Cossacks' warmongering for his own purposes. The Cossacks for their part were happy to plunder everybody more or less equally. Between the 16th to the 17th century, the Zaporoijan Cossacks became subjects first of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and later of the Union of Lublin of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
  Using small, shallow-draft, and highly manoeuvrable galleys known as chaiky, they moved swiftly across the Black Sea.  According to the Cossacks' own records, these vessels, carrying a 50- to 70-man crew, could reach the Anatolian coast of Asia Minor from the mouth of the Dnieper River in forty hours.  The chaiky were often accompanied by larger galleys that served as command and control centres.  The raids also acquired a distinct political purpose after Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny became hetman in 1613, intending to turn the host into the nucleus of a Ukrainian nation with the support of the European states.
  By 1618 the Zaporozhians were members of the Anti-Turkish League, as Schaidachny transferred his seat of power to Kiev, the Polish Crown's regional capital.
  The fighting qualities of the sea-going Cossacks were even admired in the Ottoman chronicles: "One can safely say that in the entire world one cannot find a people more careless for their lives or having less fear of death; persons versed in navigation assert that because of their skill and boldness in naval battles these bands are more dangerous than any other enemy."
  In 1615 the raiders even sailed to the walls of Tsarhorod, as they referred to the Turkish capital, plundering the ports of Mizevna and Archioca.  An attempt by the Turks to blockade the Berezan Island, and deny Cossacks access to the sea, was defeated in the spring of 1616. The raiders went on to capture Kaffa, which was burned down after all the slaves were freed.  That same year Trebizond, in eastern Anatolia, was captured and destroyed.  Sultan Ahmed I sent his fleet to the Dneiper in pursuit; but instead of going home the Cossacks once more sailed to Constantinople, where they raided at leisure, even rampaging through the Topkapı Palace, according to one account.  The city was raided four more times, once in 1620 and no fewer than three times in 1624.
  After 1624 the Zaporozhian raids gradually died out, as the Cossacks began to devote more and more of their martial energies to land-based campaigns, fighting on one side and then the other during such conflicts as the Thirty Years' War. Their numbers expanded with immigration from Poland proper and Lithuania. Szlachta failure to regard Zaporozhian Cossacks as nobles for inclusion in the registry of professional military cossacks eroded the Cossacks' loyalty towards the Commonwealth. The Cossack attempts to be recognized as equal to the szlachta were rebuffed and plans for transforming the Two-Nations Commonwealth (Polish–Lithuanian) into Three Nations (with Cossacks/Ruthenian people) were limited to a minority view. After the civil war of 1648 (or Rebellion from the Polish viewpoint) the Zaporozhian Host gained control of parts of Ukraine in 1649, although they at various time acknowledged the Polish King over the following decades.
  There were several Cossack uprisings against the Commonwealth in the early 17th century. The largest of them was the Khmelnytsky Uprising, which together with The Deluge is considered as one of the events that brought an end to the Golden Age of the Commonwealth. This uprising distanced Cossacks from the Commonwealth sphere of influence, only to make them subject to the Tsardom of Russia under the Treaty of Pereyaslav (1654), and established their realm as Left-bank Ukraine in 1667 under the Treaty of Andrusovo, and the Eternal Peace Treaty of 1686.
caption: "Bohdan Khmelnytsky with Tugay Bey at Lviv", oil on canvas, 1885, National Museum in Warsaw. Khmelnytsky Uprising 1648–1654. Painted by Jan Matejko
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