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Université Paris-Diderot – Paris 7UFR d'Études AnglophonesBât Olympe de Gouges5 rue Thomas Mann75205 Paris Cedex 13
The Perception of Poland in English Travel Literature through the Long Eighteenth Century
Karolina Godlewska
Master 2 Dissertation (British Civilization)Under the direction of Mr. Robert Mankin
June 2013
"When we reflect on the abject state to which a country is
reduced, where public spirit is extinct, the Crown degraded, the
Nobility enslaved or driven to wander in exile, and its fairest
provinces divided among foreign powers." (William Wraxall,
Memoirs of the courts of Berlin, Dresden, Warsaw, and Vienna)
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Robert Mankin,
my masters' thesis advisor. I am grateful to him for giving me the chance to
conduct this project, for his sincere engagements and help with the topic.
I also would like to thank my mother, brother and my whole family
for believing in me throughout the entire process. Most importantly, I would
like to thank George for giving me inspiration, being patient and
encouraging me.
Table of contents
1 . I n t r o d u c t i o n
1
Chapter I. The importance of the Grand Tour and travel literature in history
8
1 . 1 . T h e G r a n d T o u r
8
1 . 2 . R e a s o n s o p p o s i n g t r a v e l l i n g
13
1 . 3 . T r a v e l l e r s t o E a s t e r n E u r o p e
18
1 . 4 . T r a v e l l i t e r a t u r e
23
1 . 5 . T y p e s o f t r a v e l l i t e r a t u r e
23
1 . 6 . T h e i m p o r t a n c e o f t r a v e l l i t e r a t u r e i n h i s t o r y
30
C h a p t e r I I . P r o g r e s s
32
2 . 1 . P r o g r e s s – a k e y t e r m o f t h e E n l i g h t e n m e n t
32
A n n e - R o b e r t - J a c q u e s T u r g o t
34
A d a m S m i t h
35
J e a n - A n t o i n e - N i c o l a s C a r i t a t d e C o n d o r c e t
36
P r o g r e s s a s p o w e r
38
2 . 2 . ' N o b l e ' v s ' I g n o b l e S a v a g e s '
39
2 . 3 . T r a v e l l e r s o n P o l a n d
43
B e r n a r d C o n n o r , T h e H i s t o r y o f P o l a n d
43
Joseph Marshall, Travels through Holland, Flanders, Germany
46
William Wraxall, Cursory remarks made in a tour through some of the northern parts of
Europe
and Memoirs of the courts of Berlin, Dresden, Warsaw
50
William Coxe, Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark
53
2.4. Theory of primitivism and its place in travellers' accounts
56
2 . 5 . F e u d a l i s m
57
Chapter III. Cartography in the eighteenth century as an example of progress as
power 63
3.1. State of cartography in Europe in the eighteenth century
63
3 . 2 . S t a t e o f c a r t o g r a p h y i n E a s t e r n E u r o p e
66
3 . 3 . M a p s a s a l a n g u a g e o f p o w e r
71
3.4. Examples of the maps presenting Eastern Europe
78
C h a p t e r I V . R a c e a n d s l a v e r y i s s u e s
93
4.1. Problem of race in the eighteenth century
93
4 . 2 . P o l i s h e s s e n c e
95
Connor about the essence from the times before the partitions
97
M a r s h a l l o n l u x u r y a n d r e l i g i o n
98
W r a x a l l o n S a r m a t i a n t r a d i t i o n s
100
C o x e o n t h e r e l a t i o n s h i p s w i t h t h e J e w s
102
4 . 3 . S l a v e r y
105
4 . 4 . S l a v e r y i n P o l a n d
108
T h e n o b i l i t y a n d t h e p e a s a n t s
109
T h e n o b i l i t y a n d p o l i t i c s
113
F o r e i g n e r s a n d P o l a n d
114
Catherine the Great and Stanislaw August Poniatowski
116
4 . 5 . D e p o p u l a t i o n a n d r u i n
117
5 . C o n c l u s i o n s
119
B i b l i o g r a p h y
124
Table of illustrations
Figure 1 Premiere partie de la Carte d'Europe contenant la France,
l'Alemagne, l'Italie, l'Espagne & les Isles Britanniq(ue)s (1754)
81
F i g u r e 2 E u r o p e ( 1 7 5 5 )
83
F i g u r e 3 A t l a s M i n i m u s o r a N e w S e t o f P o c k e t M a p s ( 1 7 5 8 )
84
F i g u re 4 P o l o n i a e R e g n u m , D u c a t u s q M a g n a e L i t h u a n i a e ( 1 7 6 2 )
86
Figure 5 A new map of the Kingdom of Poland with its dismembered provinces (1787)
88
Figure 6 Poland, Shewing the Claims of Russia, Prussia & Austria (1795)
90
F i g u r e 7 P r u s s i a n D o m i n i o n s ( 1 8 1 0 )
92
1. Introduction
In the middle of the seventeenth century, the Grand Tour became very popular in
England; it was the fashion to travel around the continent. The most popular destinations
were France and Italy. The Grand Tour reached its peak of popularity in the eighteenth
century, mainly due to economic improvements and transport, as well as ideas from the
Enlightenment. These ideas proclaimed the development of self, progress and freedom.
They influenced many travellers to set off on a journey because these trips were, for all
participants, a practical attempt to educate and develop oneself and acquire new qualities.
It was done not from books but through real contact with people and their existence,
fulfilling ideas of empiricism.
The majority of interest in travel literature during the eighteenth century came
from the Grand Tour. The travelogues were, next to the novels, the most amusing of the
literary genres. They were significant at the time because they influenced ordinary
readers (as well as scholars, philosophers and other travellers) to give specific opinions
on different subjects. Currently, travel literature provides a great deal of information
about the past, information that is very useful to historians and anthropologists.
In the second part of the eighteenth century travels to the other parts of Europe, as
well as other continents, became more and more popular. In the epoch of the reign of
Catherine the Great (1762-1796), a new variant of the Grand Tour appeared among
travellers – the Northern Tour, guided especially towards Russia, helping to satisfy the
curiosity regarding the growing power of the Russian Empire. The war of the Austrian
Succession (1740-1748) established Austria as a significant nation in Europe. The
country was placed directly between the West and the East, hence Austria was a place
worth visiting in the East. A few decades after the war, Austria combined forces with
Russia and Prussia (with Frederic II leading the growing potential of Prussia) and
together they conducted the first partition of Poland in 1772, the second in 1792 and the
third in 1795. These events disturbed the other countries of Europe who considered them
as absolutist proceeders. These were the main political events and therefore the main
reasons why travellers could have been interested in visiting Eastern Europe.
Considering the distance between England and the East of Europe, this part of the
continent was particularly interesting for the travellers. It was due to their curiosity about
new cultures, customs, and most likely, the policies and impact of these countries on their
own. As mentioned before, the political situation in this part of the continent was
violating the most noble ideas of the Enlightenment; hence there was an interest in
exploring the state of affairs thoroughly.
Among other places, travellers very often visited Poland. The country was very
ambiguous. Many writers could not decide if Poland was the first country belonging to
Asia or if it was still a part of Europe. Another question that was being asked was one
regarding the refinements and improvements of Poland. As Poland was not a significant
country on the European political field and was not a precursor in scientific or cultural
creations, many considered it as an unimportant nation. A few of the travellers decided to
check why Poland had a negative image while the whole Europe was and meant to be
developing. It is this perception that is the main theme of this work.
There are three types of primary sources used in this paper. The first group consist
of travel literature. The first important traveller, who was widely acknowledged as the
first author writing about Poland in English, was Bernard Connor. He was an English
physician who travelled to Poland in order to work as the guardian of the son of an
aristocrat. In 1694 Connor was appointed a physician to the Polish king that resulted in
him staying in Warsaw for a year. His material was an excellent source of information for
the later travellers. His two volumes of The History of Poland, in Several Letters to
Persons of Quality from 1698 was rich in details about history as well as politics of the
time. In his book Connor presented Poland mainly in a positive light, while mentioning
also that there were still some defects that were of a political nature. He saw that the
nobility was growing in their power, while other nationals were poor and deprived of
rights. The author, possibly influenced by The English Civil War (1642-1651), focused on
relationship between the Poles. Because the nobility had all the political power, it was
them who could improve the situation of a whole country. Connor therefore advocated
the idea of progress raised from political liberty.
Joseph Marshall was another traveller, who visited Poland about hundred years
later; a peculiar case for the historiography of travel literature. Many scholars suggested
that Marshall had never crossed the English border and that his accounts were fabricated.
Despite these accusations, Marshall has to be granted with an extreme talent, especially if
he indeed wrote his books without travelling. His work, Travels through Holland,
Flanders, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Lapland, Russia, the Ukraine, and Poland, in the
years 1768, 1769, and 1770, consists of three volumes containing detailed accounts of
different places. It was impossible for him to copy the work of others since Marshall
travelled before of most of the well-known travel writers. What is even more striking is
the fact that his accounts resemble a lot those of later travellers. They all decided upon
similar itineraries, visited the same places and provided similar descriptions. Marshall
offered the most focused account of the significance of economy. There is a theory that he
was a physiocrat due to his constant emphasis on agriculture, trade and commerce. His
economic beliefs, along with his strong opposition to slavery, suggest that Marshall could
have been inspired by the work of Adam Smith. However, the Wealth of Nations was
published seven years after Marshall's Travels, the influence therefore is not so straight
forward. Marshall is a truly ambiguous character for the historians, but for his
contemporaries the most essential were his opinions on other countries. He was a true
spokesman of the Enlightenment and of the idea that progress can be obtained only
through a stable economy and the freedom of people.
William Wraxall was the only traveller who visited Poland twice. He documented
his first tour in 1774 in the book Cursory remarks made in a tour through some of the
northern parts of Europe, particularly Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Petersburgh. He
came back to Poland three years later. The record of this trip can be found in Memoirs of
the courts of Berlin, Dresden, Warsaw, and Vienna, in the years 1777, 1778, and 1779.
Wraxall was the first traveller to encounter Poland in the official period of the partition.
The situation in the country must have been declining through the years, as Wraxall's first
book was a lot more optimistic than the second, although both related to the times after
the partition. In Cursory Remarks he described many places from an anthropological
point of view. Later, in Memoirs, he aimed at judging the guilty for a disgraceful situation
of the country, and innocent for their passiveness. Wraxall saw progress in social
improvements and freedom. From his accounts there are manifestations of a vision of
development focused primarily on social liberties.
William Coxe was the most well-known travel writer to his contemporaries; now
he is also very much acknowledged by the scholars. He was well-educated as a historian,
therefore his books are an example of well-constructed historical sources. Coxe is
considered to be the most objective of all the travellers due to his attention to the past as
well as present events connected with a specific story he encountered. His book Travels
into Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, interspersed with historical relations and
political inquiries was published in 1784 and each part of it provided a detailed account
on different parts of social, political and economic life. The same was the case for his
writings on Poland. Coxe created an image of the country from the past, to help the
reader understand various changes caused by the historical events. The description of an
eighteenth-century Poland is pessimistic and Coxe seems to blame for that state not only
political authorities (as was done by Connor), the government lacking in economic
decisions (as suggested by Marshall) and people being passive in regard to the declining
state of their country (reference to Wraxall), but all these individuals taken together. Coxe
adopted a holistic approach towards the improvement of Poland and hoped for refinement
in all areas of life.
The second type of the primary sources, used for the purpose of this paper, were
the books of the philosophers of the Enlightenment. Among the most significant figures
of the eighteenth-century domain of philosophy, Adam Ferguson, David Hume and Adam
Smith find a special place in this work. The strong mutual connection between the
travellers and philosophers of the Enlightenment forced them to analyse the books of the
aforementioned writers, in order to find the influences of the travellers on the writer's
perception on other countries, as well as the impact they had on the travellers.
Another kind of primary sources are maps of Europe, or most often Eastern
Europe. Maps, as an attribute of every traveller, are an example of a visual representation
of the visited countries. As travellers created literary descriptions, it is worth paying them
attention in order to compare them with their visual equivalents. Both works, literature
and maps, have to be read carefully, in between the lines, because both can carry
important details suggesting the power of one country over another. The aim of this paper
is to answer the significant question concerning power: did England enforce any kind of
power over Poland in the eighteenth century?
An attempt to answer this question can be found in the most important secondary
source of this work, a book Inventing Eastern Europe. The Map of Civilization on the
Mind of the Enlightenment by Larry Wolff. Wolff is a professor of history at Stanford
University with an interest in, above all, Eastern Europe, Poland and the Enlightenment.
In Inventing Eastern Europe he presented a thesis that the backward Eastern Europe was
invented by the ideas of the Enlightenment as a complementary part to the developed
West. Wolff's thesis about the faults of the Enlightenment and England finds its place in
other secondary sources of the historians who were also critical about the age of reason.
Such authors were, among others, Robert Brenner, Daniel Chirot, Stuart Hall and Peter
Marshall. Jeremy Black is a historian who devoted his work to the study of the Grand
Tour, therefore his books were the most essential in finding information about the
background of this specific event in history. Charles Batten in his book Pleasurable
Instruction. From the Convention in the Eighteenth-Century Travel Literature provided
significant research on travel literature that appeared to be of great importance in this
paper.
In the first chapter the general background for the Grand Tour is presented. The
Grand Tour is described in terms of people's reasons for travelling, types of travellers and
typical destinations. Among countries like France and Italy, Eastern Europe finds its place
as a new and unknown part of the continent. This novelty would discourage many people
for the set of reasons, explained in the next point of the work. Further, there is an account
of the travellers visiting Poland: Bernard Connor, Joseph Marshall, William Wraxall and
William Coxe, and their motives to travel there. The following part is discussing the
subject of travel literature, its different types and its importance in the past and its
significance for the present times.
The second chapter is an analysis of a very broad idea of the Enlightenment – the
progress. Firstly, the progress is examined through an example of the philosophers
believing in the importance of freedom in acquiring an improvement. The discussed
figures are: Anne-Robert Jacques Turgot, Adam Smith and Jean-Antoine-Nicolas Caritat
de Condorcet. In opposition to the idea of progress-as-freedom is a concept of progress-
as-power that finds its place in the next point of the work. Further, there is explained a
theory that combines the two above mentioned approaches to progress, namely a theory
of the “'Noble' vs 'Ignoble Savages'.” Later in the text, each of the travellers' accounts is
analysed in order to find out if the theory found its reception in travellers' stories. The
conclusions from this research aim to answer this well-posed question. It also leads to
another part, in which feudalism is described as a dominant system in the eighteenth-
century Poland; a system that did not let Poland become a 'noble savage'.
Chapter three gives an insight into the state of cartography in eighteenth-century
Europe. In the first part an emphasis is put on the success of this domain in the west. The
second part shows the differences in attitudes towards cartography between the countries
of Eastern Europe, Russia and Poland. The information is then followed by the
explanation of the theory of 'maps as tools for power', created by Brian John Harley. The
last part is an exemplification and a discussion on the maps created in the eighteenth
century representing Europe, with an emphasis put on Poland. The maps are in this
chapter are an example of an indirect intellectual power enforced over Poland.
The last chapter is an example of direct power that brought Poland to decline. The
first part explains the background of the issues connected with race. Afterwards, the
description of a 'Polish race' reveals a particularity of the Polish essence and of national
character. Further, each of the travellers are analysed from the point of the specific
characteristics they noticed about the Poles: Connor is examined regarding the essence
from the times before the partitions, Marshall is discussed in the context of luxury and
religion, Wraxall is analysed in regard to the Sarmatian traditions and Coxe is described
in terms of the relationships of the Poles with the Jews. This part leads to the issue of
slavery, the background of which is presented in the next part of the chapter. From the
general view on slavery, the travellers' accounts are examined once again in order to find
out specific examples of slavery in Poland: the nobility vs the peasants, the nobility vs
politics, foreigners vs Poland and Catherine the Great vs Stanislaw August Poniatowski.
The conclusion of this part leads to the negative opinion of the country, namely
depopulation and ruin, that find their place in the last part of the work.
This paper is different from existing works because it gives an overall view on the
historical situation in Poland and its perception by the English travellers. The local
perception on slavery and race is strongly connected with issues concerning England at
the time. There are many other common points between English visitors and the Poles
that are not that obvious at once. The discrepancy found in the Enlightenment was one of
them. Philosophers and travellers advocated freedom, understanding and objective
knowledge, while they also accepted slavery, judgmental attitudes and the creation of the
false images of different places. For the purpose of this paper, the Enlightenment was
studied in an unconventional way. Its idealistic character was accepted, but only the
inconsistency of some of the ideals, was closely examined. Moreover, the paper aims to
create a representation of social relationships between Poland and England in the
eighteenth century. In a historical context, both countries had not much in common.
Nevertheless, over the period of one hundred years four travellers decided to examine the
country and write extensive accounts about it. There are a few interesting questions to be
asked that will hopefully be answered by the end of this work. Why Poland was such an
interesting destination? What kind of country did travellers encounter there – a European
or Asian country, civilized or barbaric, free or enslaved, progressing or regressing? What
issues emerged from their visits? How did their perception influence the country? How
did this perception change the relationships between England and Poland?
Chapter 1. The importance of the Grand Tour and travel literature in history
1.1. The Grand Tour
In general, the Grand Tour was predominantly an aristocratic usage. Among these
aristocrats there were different groups of people who were particularly interested in
setting out on a journey. In the beginning, the group consisted mostly of young men, who
were sent out in pursuit of knowledge concerning different parts of the world. Jeremy
Black believes that it was educational reasons that triggered an interest in the Grand Tour.
The principal arguments advanced in favour of foreign travel were that it equipped the traveller socially and provided him with useful knowledge and attainments. It was partly for this reason that many had part of their formal education, at school, academy or university, abroad […]. Education has been a central theme in British travel abroad from
the outset.1
The main advantage of the Grand Tour for a young traveller was the possibility for him to
obtain empirical knowledge, that he could not have found in books. Education at foreign
universities combined theoretical accomplishments with practical skills. This seemed like
the highest of all achievements, so many families decided to provide such educational
opportunities for their children.
The aristocratic boys were only one part of the larger group of travellers. Others
were setting off mainly to do work. These travellers were usually of an upper-class origin
politicians or ambassadors, also tutors, writers or children guardians. Usually, the lower
class of travellers, working abroad, had patrons or respectable friends who financially
sponsored their trips. This resulted in them writing letters with accounts of their
reflections on the places they visited. This correspondence could also have been due to
the need for the reporting of the progress of a journey and of a proof of the money spent.
Travelling for practical purposes was slowly transformed into tourism for pleasure
more than work or education. Tourists in this sense, travelled around the continent,
visited different places, enjoyed works of arts and explored new cultures. Their
discoveries resulted in many written accounts of their travels, in which the descriptions of
new experiences mingled with their own reflections. Due to the existence of a new
literary genre, travel literature, more people had access to discovering new lands through
travellers' books. Also, many writers, philosophers and anthropologists decided to visit
the continent in the footsteps of their favourite travellers, with their books as travel
guides. Readers in England became especially interested in the new literary genre,
making it one of the most recognizable of the century. People at the time already knew
the importance of travelling, proven by the conclusion of Richard Steele stated in 1712:
Certainly the true end of visiting foreign parts, is to look into their customs and policies, and observe in what particulars they excel or come short of your own; to unlearn some of the peculiarities in our manners, and wear off such awkward stiffnesses and affectations in our behaviour, as may possibly have been contracted from constantly associating with one nation of men, by a more free, general, and mixed conversation.2
Richard Steele was an Irish writer and politician, a friend of the traveller Joseph Addison.
In the excerpt from his essay for the magazine The Spectator he noticed the importance
of an anthropological approach towards newly explored lands and people. He focused his
attention on the comparison of the experiences of people from the visited places with
those of the travellers, in order to improve general manners and behaviour. Steele
believed that this improvement was the most positive aspect of travelling for the society.
Historians tried to focus on other, not necessarily historical or ideological, reasons
for setting off on a tour. Interestingly, Michael Mewshaw turned his attention towards
psychology and used the theory of Sigmund Freud.
The good doctor Sigmund Freud speculated that 'a great part of the pleasure of travel lies in the fulfilment of these early wishes to escape the family and especially the father'. In that sense, travel may be viewed as a rebellious, even a subversive act, part of the process of self-actualization. I travel to define and assert my existential identity. I
travel. Therefore I am.3
Mewshaw concluded that one can travel for his or her4 own satisfaction and a feeling of
self-accomplishment. Similarly, Paul Fussell in his book Abroad: British literary
traveling between the wars, stated that travel has a big impact on the state of arts, culture
and society in general; “Without travel, Fussell claims, there's inevitably 'a loss of
amplitude, a decay of imagination and intellectual possibility corresponding to the literal
loss of physical freedom'.”5 Thence, travelling at the time not only helped in developing
geographic and anthropological studies, but also, and perhaps most importantly, formed
people's lives. Moreover, experience of travelling was essential in traveller's lives and
developed their attitudes. Their presence in different countries also had an impact on the
citizens. In addition, the literature they produced, built the attitudes of the readers. These
examples exhibit the versatile role of travelling.
The Enlightenment was also an influence in travelling. The notion of freedom,
that was essential in the Enlightenment as well as eighteenth-century travelling, can be
divided into two issues. The first was due to the rise of colonialism in the sixteenth
century. Colonialism meant increased contact with other cultures, mainly on other
continents, so the need to explore the countries in Europe also needed to be satisfied.
Secondly, due to the importance of the Enlightenment's ideas of freedom and
independence, the problem of subordination of people and authoritarian power,
happening in the neighbouring countries, was a big issue that was questioned by many.
As in the 1770s. the political positions of countries such as Russia, Prussia and Austria
was rising, detrimental to Poland, British travellers desired to examine the situation of
subordination from one country to another.
Travellers' accounts are considered by contemporary scholars as anthropological
sources. As anthropology is a fairly new scientific discipline, travel literature serves as a
perfect genre for obtaining information about human life in the past. The travellers were
often influenced by their own history and experiences, when encountering new situations
abroad. This led to mental shortcuts that were distributed in the travel accounts and
therefore reinforced all over the world. One example of a mental shortcut is the
association of an ancient state of affairs in the world with contemporary (eighteenth
century) Poland; an association made often by the travellers. Wolff noticed the same
phenomenon and explained it as the use of travel literature for scientific source material.
He did this in the example of Claude-Charles de Peyssonnel's and Louis-Philippe de
Ségur's accounts (French diplomats and writers).
The juxtaposition of Peyssonell and Ségur, their analogous discoveries of ancient barbarians in contemporary Eastern Europe, suggests that the line between literary evocation and anthropological observation was not an emphatic one. Eastern Europe was precisely that part of Europe where such vestiges were in evidence, where ancient history met anthropology. The categories of ancient history that identified the barbarians of Eastern Europe, […] not only corresponded to the impressions of contemporary travelers, but also entered directly into the emerging social science of anthropology […]. For although the Slavs
were only one barbarian people among many in the enumerations of Peyssonell and Ségur, they were to become the essential ethnographic key to the modern idea of Eastern Europe.6
Wolff explained that experiences in the past, such as travels, created a particular type of
data; data that was highly subjective and marked with personal experience. The spread of
this information, due to popularity of travel literature, transferred these materials into the
scientific domain. It then started to be treated as objective knowledge. Therefore,
travelling was very strongly connected with anthropological practices. Even if the
travellers were not aware of it, every time they observed a specific situation and
described it with respect to the traditions and customs, they were adopting the role of an
anthropologist. Moreover, if travellers and contemporary anthropologists should be
compared, their tasks and methods of work would look very similar. It may mean that
travellers were in fact the first anthropologists.
Nathaniel Wraxall, one of the travellers in the eighteenth century, reduced the
reasons for travelling into a few statements: “the survey of nations and view of foreign
and dissimilar modes of acting and thinking to our own, is not only formed to enlarge the
human mind, and correct its early prejudices, but is calculated to charm and delight in a
supreme degree.”7 For him, travelling was a source of intellectual development,
reflection on the state of one's country and pleasure. Other travellers shared the same
opinion about travelling, at least, according to what they have written in their accounts.
Yet, current historians try to find different reasons for the same journeys. Most of these
journeys are ascribed, on the one hand, to natural curiosity of different political systems
and social life and, on the other hand, to the search for similarities and differences
between traveller's experiences and those of foreigners. The latter of these claims
suggests also that travel literature could have been often politicized.
There were different variations in the travelling, however, in the beginning of the
eighteenth century, the most common destinations from England were Italy and France,
sometimes also the Low Countries. All these places were associated with high culture,
good education, art and philosophy. The aforementioned reasons for travelling: curiosity,
knowledge, education, could all be satisfied only in this part of the continent. “Around
these bases a variety of possible itineraries could be devised. Personal preference,
fashion, convenience and the impact of external factors – war, political disorder and
disease – were all of importance.”8 There were people who decided to choose
destinations other than the most common ones. They were driven by different kind of
reasons in choosing their stops. Some of them, rejecting the fear of remote places and
lands unadapted to travel, chose Eastern Europe as the perfect place to be explored. This
new variant of the Grand Tour was soon named the Northern Tour. The possibility to
travel to Eastern Europe appeared to be very interesting to the travellers. These places
were attractive as they were a part of Europe, but at the same time, they were distant in
many possible ways. However, the idea of travelling there was appealing only to those
who were not afraid to face the difficulties of travelling and experience a reality that was
often unusual for them.
1.2. Reasons opposing travelling
Alongside the popular destinations such as Russia or Sweden, Poland was one
country usually visited simply due to its proximity to these places. Either that or the
mental connection between Poland and Russia. There were a few reasons why travellers
were not interested in this itinerary. Firstly, as Jeremy Black concluded, it was not an
interesting place to be, compared to the refinements of Italy or Paris. Moreover, it was
not on the way to any other popular destination, which resulted in it being forgotten by
travellers.9
Secondly, the country was underdeveloped and not prepared for tourists. The
roads and sleeping facilities were in a poor condition scaring off possible visitors. Such
criticising accounts can be found in all written travelogues. Wraxall had to continue his
trip overnight due to unbearable conditions in one of his inns:
The landlord endeavored to persuade me to stay till morning, as I had five-and-twenty miles to Konitz, through continued forests of sir, and deep sands. I would have accepted his advice, as, to say the truth, I was not totally without apprehensions in these woods by night, in an unfrequented part of Polish Prussia; but the horrid nastiness and pestilential smell resulting from it, in the cabins, for they cannot be called houses, at every village where I stopped, made it impossible to lie down or breathe in them. I therefore proceeded, as soon as horses could be procured, and about nine Sunday morning I got to Konitz.10
The travellers who decided to visit Poland, such as Wraxall, were prepared to face great
difficulties in order to get any information about the country. Others preferred to follow
the footsteps of travellers to Italy or France, knowing what to expect there.
As the roads were sometimes impassable, British travellers usually visited only
important places in Poland, like the economically significant port in Danzig; “Danzig, a
German Protestant fief or protectorate of Poland, contained a British colony and
monopolised almost the whole of Anglo-Polish trade and curiosity.”11 The concentration
of trade in one place, close to the sea border, was only one part of a lack of the bonds
between the two countries. The second was the lack of interest the Polish customers had
in English export goods. The information from the Foreign Office in 1765 stated that “the
Poles consumed no more than some £ 15,000 worth of British textiles, cutlery and other
products every year.”12 Also Marshall in his Travels mentioned that the goods were
mainly imported from Holland and France, not so much from England.13 Although a
number of 15,000 pounds, stated by the Foreign Office, may seem like a big amount of
money, it was still considerably smaller comparing to all the other goods imported to
Poland. When Coxe explained that the economic struggle of Poland was caused by a lack
of balance in trade, he stated specific numbers that depicted the difference between the
number of all imported products and those of English origin (worth £15,000):
As the Poles are obliged to draw from foreign countries the greatest part of the manufactured goods necessary for their interior consumption, the specie that is exported exceeds the imported more than 20,000,000 Polish florins, or £555,555.14
Considering that Coxe used genuine information, British imported commodities
constituted only one fourth of the surplus of all the imports. This meant that, indeed,
Polish consumers were not that interested in English goods, another reason for the lack of
a strong connection between the two countries.
The problem of the separation between England and Poland may have also been
language. While in Western Europe French or Latin were common languages, further east
it was difficult to communicate. In between the courts or aristocratic households, the
traveller struggled with simple tasks important to his journey, such as fetching horses or
asking for directions.
Poland, as a strongly Catholic country, was considered by a Protestant
Englishman, as a backward place. The situation of non-catholics was difficult at the time:
“Neither government thirsted for the blood of heretics, but each made heretics
uncomfortable. The British representative in Warsaw marvelled at the folly of a nation
which brought in foreign craftsmen only to prosecute them, so that hundreds left at a
time.”15 Poland was considered as the bulwark of Catholicism, with harsh opinions on
dissenters, so it is not surprising there was a lack of interest in this place among the
Protestant British travellers.
Another reason for weak contacts between England and Poland was the mixture
of history and political decisions. In the time of partitions16, Great Britain adopted a
passive policy towards Poland, condemning the dismemberment without any visible
actions: “The statesmen […] during those years realised one and all that Poland lay
beyond their sphere of action. Poland, as one of them bluntly declared, was the least
important to Britain of all Europe.”17 Considering all the aforementioned reasons, Great
Britain did not feel the need to kindle the fire of interest in Poland among British citizens.
The country was seen as a weak political ally (“Britain thought only of the Poles as a
persecuting race with an idiotic constitution.”) and an intellectually poor nation –
“Characters, natural history, inventions, antiquities, essays, poetry – in all these, […]
Poland offered nothing worthy of their attention.”18 Britain, as one of the biggest
colonial powers, was never interested in Poland as a political ally, considering the
country to be too weak to offer them any kind of support. This lack of political alliance
led to the rare appearance of Poland in the British field of play. Consequently, this
resulted in the creation of a scanty representation of the Poles and their achievements.
There exists another idea of why the Eastern part of Europe was not an interesting
destination for the travellers in the eighteenth century. Larry Wolff, a professor of history
at Stanford University, in his book Inventing Eastern Europe. The Map of Civilization on
the Mind of the Enlightenment argued that, primarily, in the Renaissance, the division of
Europe was based on the cultivated South and the barbaric North. Over time, the interest
in the southern cities of Rome, Venice or Florence was fading much to the benefit of
developing (economically and as political powers) cities like London, Paris and
Amsterdam. The philosophers noticed a changing Europe and they enriched this new
image, enforcing the transition between the old and the new division.
The travellers were significant to this process. Visiting Eastern Europe they
carried “a mental map”19 of this place, connecting the diverse countries into one group,
setting it into contradiction with the West and therefore creating differences. Wolff
provided hegemonic reasons for travelling. He connected voyagers with map-makers and
stated that the latter created the new images of unknown parts of Europe to expose “the
cartographical ambition of Western Europe to master Eastern Europe in the eighteenth
century.”20 This was a long-term process and “not a natural distinction, or even an
innocent one, for it was produced as a work of: cultural creation, of intellectual artifice,
of ideological self-interest, and self-promotion.”21 According to Wolff, generation of
such contrast was carried on in order to show the superiority of the West. Western Europe
had a lower status than that of the other parts of Europe, for a long period of time and in
just as many areas of social and political life. As a result, they achieved the creation of
mental association between backwardness of Eastern Europe in opposition to the progress
of Western Europe.
The result of backwardness “was formulated as an intellectual problem of
unresolved contrast.”22 The difficulty, which may have made 'mental mapping' easier,
was the lack of real borders in Europe in the east, in the eighteenth century. People were
not sure where Europe ended and often identified Eastern Europe with the Orient. It is
essential to remember that not all scholars share the same negative opinion about the
Enlightenment. Nevertheless, for the purpose of this paper, it is important to notice the
positive as well as negative outputs of the Enlightenment that resulted in travelling to the
East of Europe.
The feeling of searching for the opposite of the positive West is also explained
through the example of the economy. According to Wolff, the Eastern European economy
was focused on the export of grain to the countries in the West. This reflected the creation
of a kind of periphery, where the centre was the West while the outside, the periphery,
was the East. Such state of affairs organized existing earlier economical models of
backwardness for the East. This idea was explained in the example of the theory of
Immanuel Wallerstein:
Immanuel Wallerstein, in his economic history of the Origins of the
European World-Economy, assigns to the sixteenth century the emergence of a capitalist 'core' in Western Europe, exercising its economic hegemony over a 'periphery' in Eastern Europe (and Hispanic America), creating a 'complementary divergence' out of an initially minimal economic disparity. […] The identification of Eastern Europe as economic periphery involves, to a certain extent, taking the culturally constructed unity of the eighteenth century and projecting it backward to organize an earlier economic model.23
After the period of economic backwardness in Eastern Europe in the sixteenth century,
the region began to develop. The agenda of superiority led the West to represent the other
part of Europe as economically weak. This resulted in return to the old model of the
sixteenth century, when commerce between the West and the East was based on the
centre of trade in the first place that exercised its economic power over the latter. Eastern
Europe economically depended on the West while the West had the ability to direct the
trade in order to obtain the most benefits.
Larry Wolff provided significant evidence for this in his book. In his thesis, Wolff
partly blamed the West, or the Enlightenment, for the backwardness of the East.
The Enlightenment’s accounts were not flatly false or fictitious; on the contrary, in an age of increasingly ambitious traveling and more critical observation, those lands were more frequently visited and thoroughly studied than ever before. The work of invention lay in the synthetic association of lands, which drew upon both fact and fiction, to produce the general rubric of Eastern Europe. That rubric represented an aggregation of general and associative observations over a diverse domain of lands and peoples. It is in that sense that Eastern Europe is a cultural construction, and intellectual invention, of the Enlightenment.24
Wolff argued that the intellectual ideas of the Enlightenment started this false and
ignorant construction. Travels and a quest for knowledge were examples of a refined part
of the ideology propagating travelling. Then, the invention of facts and false realities
distorted the image of Eastern Europe. This suggests a withdrawal from the ideology of
reason and truth. This conflict between the theory (noble ideology) and practice
(inventive stories distorting reality), presented on the example of East and West,
undermines the idea of the Enlightenment.
1.3. Travellers to Eastern Europe
Despite negative reasons against visiting Eastern Europe, there were still people
who decided to devote their time to exploring this part of the continent, especially
Poland. Bernard Connor lived in the years 1666-1698 and was born in Ireland. He was an
author who focused his interest entirely on Poland. He was a physician who received his
education in France, where he was appointed by the crown chancellor of Poland, Jan
Wielopolski, to take care of his sons. He travelled with them from France to Poland,
where he spent twelve months in Warsaw and got appointed to be the personal physician
to King Jan III Sobieski.25 The time spent in the capital gave Connor a basis for his
future scientific work as well as his book The History of Poland in Several Letters to
Persons of Quality, which is a detailed account of the country in the seventeenth century
as well as before. The author divided his work into two volumes. The first deals with the
Ancient state of Poland, where he recounted the history of the first kings, their reigns,
particularities of their life or even their legends, until the times of Frederic August; he
also described the state of commerce and cities in the past. In the second volume Connor
commented on the Present state of the country. His book became a reliable source of
information about politics in Poland throughout the seventeenth century. Connor devoted
room in his accounts to the fear and predictions about the regression of the country,
caused by the ruling class. He saw progress and development in the appropriate
management of the state and believed that political responsibilities should be performed
for the benefit of the state not individuals. Therefore, Connor was a spokesman of
political liberties leading to development.
It is difficult to find information on another British traveller, Joseph Marshall,
who in 1772 published his travel accounts entitled Travels through Holland, Flanders,
Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Lapland, Russia, the Ukraine, and Poland, in the years
1768, 1769, and 1770. What is known from his books is that he focused his visit on the
Central-Eastern part of Europe. He devoted the first volume of his book to Holland, the
second to Flanders, Germany, Denmark and Sweden, and the third to Lapland, Russia,
Poland and Bohemia. In his observations he adopted the attitude of an anthropologist.
Also, contrary to Connor, he didn't focus on past events but the present state of the
countries he visited. He devoted most of his reflections to Holland. Nevertheless Poland
was widely described by him too. Although it is arduous to get hold of his biography, his
name occurs often in the books of the travel historians. In British Residents and Visitors
in Russia during the Reign of Catherine the Great Anthony G. Cross mentioned the
Annual Register whose authors were sceptical about Marshall's travels and “another
writer noted that 'Marshall has published travels through various parts of Europe without
once having crossed the channel'.”26 Also Larry Wolff commented on the same question
of the authenticity of Marshall's trip, thus providing some more information about the
man himself –
If indeed Marshall's travels were a fraud and a fiction, his case clearly suggests that Eastern Europe offered fertile soil to the inventive imagination. Soil, in fact, was his chief preoccupation for he presented himself as an English landowner with an interest in scientific agricultural improvement, touring Europe to make comparative observations.27
It is true that Marshall devoted a lot of space in his accounts to agriculture. This
attachment may prove the point of Marshall being a physiocrat, which is the additional
information about the man. Moreover, this constant emphasis on the importance of trade,
commerce and agriculture shows that Marshall saw the progress of a country in its
economic liberty. He advocated this commercial freedom as the first step to a larger
development.
Sir Nathaniel William Wraxall was born in Bristol in 1751. He was educated, then
he worked abroad, and then he decided to become a professional travel writer. He
travelled all over Europe, especially Portugal and Scandinavia.28 He wrote his first book
concerning the North-East part of Europe in 1775 (Cursory remarks made in a tour
through some of the Northern parts of Europe, particularly Copenhagen, Stockholm and
Petersburg) and although Poland is not found in the title, the author devoted three letters
to describe what he found out on the way through the country. In his next book, about his
journey undertaken four years later, published in 1799 (Memoirs of the courts of Berlin,
Dresden, Warsaw, and Vienna), he had already written six letters about the state of affairs
in Poland. Wraxall is considered by historians as a reliable and interesting source of
information:
Nathaniel Wraxall when composing his Cursory Remarks judiciously directed his steps away from the grand tour to those regions 'where the greatest novelties were to be expected.' Wraxall's accounts of Sweden, Russia, and the less-traveled areas of France aim at exciting among readers novelty and admiration – those two powers most conductive to pleasure – by studiously avoiding 'the ground usually trodden by the English, in their passage from Calais into Italy,' it being 'too well known to afford... any information.'29
Wraxall's works are considered to be written in a sophisticated language and this is the
case for both of the books stated above. Wraxall, when describing reality, told a story to
the reader almost as a poet or a painter. His commentaries are full of picturesque details
that are used for anthropological explanations of the matters. The author decided to write
mainly about customs, people and culture. His accounts consist of a description of his
journey with the emphasis on cities, buildings, people and important events. Although
Wraxall placed different events in their historical context, his books are more a source of
knowledge about culture and social life than history itself. Therefore, Wraxall became an
author who, through his accounts, expressed a requirement of social liberties; general
happiness of people, minimal wealth for all, good infrastructure, proper relationships
among citizens. It seems like these elements were the most important for him on the way
to the growth of Poland and its progress.
William Coxe was born in London in 1748 and later in his life became one of the
most important travellers of the Enlightenment. He was a historian and a clergyman of
the Church of England. After his education he became a tutor to Lord Blandford, the
future eleventh earl of Pembroke. For four years Coxe travelled with his student around
Europe, which resulted in his three-volume book Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden,
and Denmark, interspersed with historical relations and political inquiries published in
1784.30 This work is considered as a well structured and informative piece, mainly
because Coxe used to rewrite his accounts by adding important details and basing them
on the geographic, economic and scientific accounts he could get hold of. Anthony G.
Cross mentioned how highly recognised Coxe was in his times – “Coxe became more or
less the Baedeker of the eighteenth century; people would take his bulky volumes on their
own travels; travellers would test their own impressions against his; mothers, indeed,
would follow from afar their sons' progress by reference to his work.”31
Coxe wrote a rich account on the countries he visited and tried to focus his
attention equally on various parts of social, political and economic life. He studied the
history of the countries, observed people of different classes and backgrounds, took part
in important events and presented it all in the form of his detailed books. When
describing the Polish army, he took into consideration all the details, such as the origins
of people, their clothing and even breed of their horses!32 His descriptions, contrary to
Wraxall, consisted of stories from his journeys but also of a historical account. Coxe was
versatile, not only in his writing but also in his mode of thinking. Through his books, he
advocated an all-embracing idea of progress. He was a supporter of political freedom as
well as economic improvements and social advantages. He adopted a holistic vision of
progress in which every positive element of life could work for a benefit of the society.
Some of the authors adopted the anthropological methods of research and
described how people lived in society, how the community shaped them, what were the
origins of their customs, what impact a place had on their lives and other similar topics.
Others tried to create a rich source of knowledge about the country they visited by
explaining every domain of life in detail. Therefore, they looked for reasons of specific
policies and customs in the detailed histories of countries, rulers and the impact they had
on the current state of affairs. Although the accounts varied according to the writers,
many of them displayed similar modes of thinking, similar reflections or philosophies
about Poland.
1.4. Travel literature
In the eighteenth century the genre of travel journals, travel narratives and travel
memoirs – in short, travel literature – became one of the most popular in England. They
were widely read by the ordinary people, becoming an education for those who could
afford the price of a book.33 Travelogues were also highly considered by philosophers,
scholars and even other travellers: “travel accounts found honored places on the shelves
of Addison, Locke, Johnson, Hume, Gibbon, and Jefferson, influencing their ideas about
geography, science, and human nature.”34 The most important writers at the time were
attracted by travel literature, so the big success of this genre is usually ascribed to them.
They wrote their own accounts, as well as rewriting others, trying to fit them all into this
specific literary form. Valerie Wheeler sharply stated that “The traveller, a stranger who
for the most part remained 'raw' since he rarely visited any place twice, wrote of his
travels to sell books”35 which instantly takes away the Enlightenment's noble ideas of
travel as a quest for knowledge and new experiences.
1.5. Types of travel literature
There are few characteristics that distinguish travel literature from other kinds of
literature:
In distinguishing between fictional and nonfictional travel books and in describing the 'literary' nature of travel accounts, we have assumed these works are easily distinguishable from such literary genres as the novel, the biography, and the descriptive geography. The travel book's autobiographically determined narrative, however, suggests that it is merely a specialized form of biography describing the events in an author's life during a trip. […] Yet travel books also bear a striking resemblance to descriptive geographies in their treatment of such objects as the physical appearance, customs, commerce, history, and laws of specific areas. […] Despite these similarities to other conventional genres, the travel book seemed an easily distinguishable literary form to eighteenth-century readers.36
The main features of travel literature that it can be identify by are: autobiographical
narrative, descriptive style and a detailed style of writing. Although these characteristics
could have been found in other literary genres of the period, the readers were still able to
distinguish the travel literature from other types. They are significant characteristics as
they make it possible to find out if an author was subjective or objective in his opinions.
They also help one to find the influences that could have affected the travellers' accounts.
Travel literature in the eighteenth century always carried some kind of message; a
message distributed to many people due to travel literature's success. Therefore, it is
important to analyse travel accounts in a technical manner, in order to be able to analyse
them properly in terms of their impact, influences and consequences of specific details.
Batten in his book Pleasurable Instruction. Form and Convention in Eighteenth-
Century Travel Literature went into depth describing the history of travel writing in the
eighteenth century: the motives for writing this kind of literature, its conventions and
uses. In his opinion, the books firstly differed in their destination. Some accounts were
meant to be published and sold, others were written to relatives or friends and meant to
stay private. Naturally, the outcome would vary according to the recipient. If the book
had to meet a wider audience and be a success in the bookstores, the writers often needed
to mix fiction with facts to make their work interesting enough to ensure its triumph. An
example of such book can be seen in the Marshall's accounts concerning Poland; often
considered as being written without travelling abroad. There were many reasons why
Marshall could have decided on the action of writing about a topic that he did not master.
One of the most obvious reasons seems to be the fame and fortune of doing so. Travel
literature was very successful at the time so involvement in such an activity must have
been tempting even for Marshall. The books prepared for selling were polished in their
language and well organized. On the contrary, private accounts could expose a poorer or
easier style of writing, simply because they were not expected to be read by anybody else
other than the writer himself.
Batten focused his attention on finding the features of a perfect style of travel
accounts, which should “aim at 'a kind of middle rank between the solidity of studied
discourse and the freedom of colloquial conversation.'”37 According to Batten, the main
feature of a successful narration is a simple style, expressing the honesty of a writer,
without specialized definitions and sophisticated language. Such were the books of Coxe,
Wraxall or Richardson, whose well-written essays on history, politics, economy or culture
provided the information in a comprehensive and poetic fashion. This does not mean that
all private accounts were not appropriate for readers. Anthony G. Cross in his essay cited
an example of Letters from the Continent: Describing the Manners and Customs of
Germany, Poland, Russia, and Switzerland, in the Years 1790, 1791, and 1792; to a
Friend Residing in England published anonymously but attributed to Lionel Colmore.
This book, as the title suggests, was intended to reach only a friend but was published and
widely appreciated. Unusually, the author of this book moved the emphasis of his stories
from the descriptions of a country to those of people, which was a novelty at the time.38
Cross paid much attention to the unpublished accounts, which in his opinion reflect
mostly the immediate reaction to places, people and anecdotes. These observations
usually find their source in private diaries and manuscripts which for a historian are the
origin of a detailed account.
Another step in defining travel literature can be the differentiation of the literary
patterns. Batten made a primary comparison between journal and essay:
After undertaking a journey, an author may publish either a register of the journey itself or a description of the results of the trip: 'In the former case, it is a diary, under which head are to be classed all those books of travels written in the form of letters. The latter usually falls into the shape of essays on distinct subjects.'39
A writer of a diary is usually more believable in his stories but the threat for him is a one-
dimensional narrative. A traveller describes what he observes at the time but does not
match his stories with historical, scientific or cultural backgrounds to thoroughly
understand the cases. A writer of an essay has more advantages because his work can be
more complete and consistent. The travellers of the first kind could have been Marshall
and Wraxall who described their adventures in the journey focusing on realistic depiction
of reality. Connor and Coxe seem to have put more work in their accounts because they
were very well organized.
Another distinction can be seen based on the idea of organizing the accounts as
narratives. Firstly, there are journals that are labelled by dates. An example of this kind of
organisation is the work of Joseph Marshall who, in his Travels, placed his stories into
separate chapters and kept a proof of dates in every single part. The reader can easily
keep track of him and see how long the specific parts of the trip took him. There is also
an epistolary form that can be found in the accounts of Bernard Connor in his book The
History of Poland. Connor wrote letters to his patron, Lord William Dartmouth, and in
each of these letters he maintained detailed information about different areas of interest
concerning Poland. According to Batten, there is also a difference between the two ways
in which organising the writing can become unclear. This finds its example in the work of
Nathaniel Wraxall. In Cursory Remarks Wraxall wrote in the form of letters, to Lord
Viscount Clare, yet, he used headlines in the form of dates. Therefore, this distinction
may be important for some authors, but for others it was simply a means by which they
could keep track of their adventures as well as to write strictly to their reader(s). For
contemporary readers such details are significant in matching specific events with dates
and finding historical context for the incidents.
Although tourism was becoming more and more popular, most of the travellers
chose to write anthropological books from their voyages rather than travel guides. Travel
guides were refused as literature simply because of the lack of entertainment on their
part. Although travel literature answered the need for pleasure, it also sometimes focused
on a more utilitarian purpose. It was due to the changes in the reasons why people
travelled at this particular time as well as the changing fashions in travel literature. In the
beginning, apart from educational purposes, people travelled for pleasure and curiosity.
After the first wave of these travel accounts, others were being produced to complete or
replace the old ones, especially those of romantic writers who easily mixed facts with
fiction. At the end of the eighteenth century the books became more autobiographical
than before, memoirs were more often produced, and the impact was put on the creation
of a general judgment in the end of the reading. Another important feature at the time was
an encyclopaedic style of some to some books. The quest for knowledge in the eighteenth
century explains this educational idea that can be found in many respectable accounts:
When Smollett advises readers to look at Keyssler's Travels for a description of 'every thing worth seeing at Florence,' he recommends what might be called an encyclopedic travel book. Keyssler attempts in his almost two thousand pages to describe every object of interest not only to the reader who sits at home, but also to the traveler who needs practical advice while on the road and in the principal cities of Europe. […] Filled with such a large store of useful information, Keyssler's Travels understandably became a handbook for tourists like Gibbon while on the Continent.40
At the same time, the motive of a palimpsest text became popular among the
writers. The account was meant to reflect the idea of a text within text; conveying themes
from literature, philosophy and all that was connected with the story:
La littérature de voyage constitue ainsi une généalogie dense et complexe, accompagnée de figures obligées comme l'hommage aux plus vénérables des 'philosophes péripatéticiens', Montaigne, Bacon - en fait toute une méta-bibliothèque, un texte-palimpseste, une chaîne d'échos textuels, de reprises et de dénégations.41
Naturally, after an interest as such and the popularization of travel literature,
writers were in pursuit of a new subject, or rather new places, to entertain their readers
who had already heard a lot about the traditional Grand Tour destinations such as Italy
and France. Therefore, some travellers decided to explore new countries and regions,
Eastern Europe was one of them. In his book, Batten seems to be raising a question that is
connected to the transition between the reasons of writing travel literature: 'what is more
important in the travel accounts: pleasure or utility?'. He answers it by saying: “the travel
account directed to the general reader, the one in search of something more than
assistance in preparing for his own travels, always aimed at blending pleasure with
instruction in order to achieve an artistically pleasing literary experience.”42
Out of all the analysed travellers, it was Coxe who created an account that was the
most rich in literary sources. He worked on public and private letters, political documents
and decrees, books regarding the subject of his interest and other travellers' narratives. A
story of an assassination of the king was told to Coxe by Wraxall, of whom Coxe wrote
with extreme fondness:
The following circumstantial account of this singular occurrence was communicated to me by my ingenious friend Nathaniel Wraxal, Esq; whose name is well known in the literary world; and who, during his residence at Warsaw, obtained the most authentic information upon so interesting a transaction: as he has obligingly permitted me to enrich my work with this narration, I am happy to lay it before the reader in his own words.43
This excerpt shows how intertwined the literary world became in the eighteenth century.
Coxe knew Wraxall very well; so much that he chose to call him a friend. He also paid
Wraxall a compliment by saying that he was a famous writer. Coxe was a very accurate
author. Nevertheless, he trusted Wraxall so much that he decided to write his story and
even did it in his own words. Moreover, the books of both authors resemble each other in
their choice of depicted events from history. Wraxall and Coxe decided to visit Poland in
a similar way, saw the same places and described the same stories. Among others, the
descriptions that strike one with similarity are, that of the castle in Cracow, that of the
story of the Jewess Ester and representation of Warsaw. The travellers must have based
their stories on each others' but, most importantly, they also based their private opinions,
regarding the state of a country, on other accounts.
Coxe used Connor's History of Poland in writing the first part of his accounts.44
Connor's work was also very respected among the travellers as it consisted of a great deal
of reliable information about the political and historical state of the country. The man
resided for a few months in Warsaw, where he had access to the court documents as well
as other official papers that were not available to everybody. His book is rich in
information: statistics, the number of residents of each province and in particular the
characteristics of each of the members' of the diet. His account, although sometimes not
stated as such, must have been a primary source for many travellers in discovering the
historical background of Poland.
The traveller who probably worked on Connor's book, although did not declare it,
was Wraxall. His accounts are missing any footnotes or endnotes but considering
Connor's fame it can be assumed that Wraxall indeed based some of his accounts on The
History of Poland. Wraxall did not give out the names of the people that enriched his
book. One of the few was Mr. Wroughton, the English minister in Warsaw. Wraxall
mentioned him very often, as a helpful and very well-informed person at court.
The close relationships between the travellers may lead to the conclusion that they
influenced each other not only through their books but also in life. It seems like Wraxall
influenced Coxe in choosing a similar route through Poland because both men have
chosen to visit the country from the south to the north. Yet, the first of Wraxall's trips, the
one described in Cursory Remarks, was carried on in an opposite direction, from the
north to the south. Moreover, the same journey was undertaken by Marshall in his
Travels. Comparing the four books, two of Wraxall and one each of Coxe and Marshall,
there appear two patterns of journeys. Wraxall in Cursory Remarks and Marshall have
chosen the same route, while Wraxall in Memoirs and Coxe's different one. Probably,
Wraxall, seeing Poland from one side, decided to discover it from another. Still, although
the general plan of visiting Eastern Europe differed in both cases, Coxe and Wraxall seem
like two travellers who had a great impact on each other's books.
1.6. The importance of travel literature in history
The British travellers, visiting the countries of Eastern Europe, made harsh
criticisms towards these places. Such reflections were extremely important in travel
literature, especially that this genre had a great audience back in England. Nevertheless,
the writers had to be careful about their observations, especially ones considering the
political or economic state of affairs in the country they visited.
The traveler who chose to include reflections usually strove for four essential qualities: his opinions should not be too numerous, they should arise naturally out of the places described, they should be original, and they should not prejudicially conflict with accepted moral or political opinions.45
Although British travellers were taking notice of all such clues, it seems that sometimes
they felt like they were more entitled to the criticism than other people. Valerie Wheeler,
on the basis of the book of Paul Fussell, tried to find out why the criticism in travel
accounts was important and for what reasons the British felt more at ease with criticising:
The traveler expresses judgments about phenomena that violate the values of traveler and audience and thus entertain, stimulate, and by contrast reaffirm those values. Fussell speaks of the “unique British ability to spot anomalies and make a travel book by accumulating a great number of them” because of “a supreme confidence that one knows what is 'normal' and can gauge an anomaly by its distance from the socially expected”, an “unquestioned understanding of the norm and an unapologetic loyalty to it.” Without anomaly there is no travel book, no story to tell, and the more wondrous the anomalies the better the account – thus the tendency of earlier travel books to find cannibals and
dog-headed men, to tell tall stories and weird tales.46
The importance of travel literature in history, as well as geography, anthropology,
ethnography, social studies, etc., is immense. This essential nature was noticed by the
Scottish philosophers at the end of the eighteenth century. Both Adam Ferguson in the
second part of An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767) and John Millar in The
Origin of the Distinction of Ranks (1771) agreed on the use of travel accounts in
understanding the past of human civilization. Ferguson believed that travellers were the
link that provided the information about the past that would not be achieved if it was not
for them: “Yet these particulars are a part in the description which is delivered by those
who have had opportunities of seeing mankind in their rudest condition: and beyond the
reach of such testimony, we can neither safely take, nor pretend to give, information on
the subject.”47 Millar was even more sure about the essential role history owes to travel
accounts:
[…] the reader, who is conversant in history, will readily perceive the difficulty of obtaining proper materials for speculations of this nature. […] Our information, therefore, with regard to the state of mankind in the rude parts of the world, is chiefly derived from the relations of travellers, whose character and situation in life, neither set them above the suspicion of being easily deceived, nor of endeavouring to misrepresent the facts which they have. From the number, however, and the variety of those relations, they acquire, in many cases, a degree of authority, upon which we may depend with security, and to which the narration of any single person, how respectable soever, can have no pretension.48
According to Millar, working with travel accounts is an accumulative process; once one
has many accounts, he can be sure to draw the right conclusion. Both Millar and
Ferguson agreed that the use of conjectures, or even the scholarly works of contemporary
authors, cannot be used as facts about history, simply because they were created by the
current standards. These standards are completely different than ones held by people in
the past thence historians should not work with a subjective, modern approach towards
history. Although scholars have few historical facts about some regions in the world, they
should still work on travel accounts about those places; travel literature can provide even
more information on the subject. The conclusions from travel literature are more reliable
than historical facts because they describe the sentiments, the positions and feelings of
people rather than specific stories. In general history, written from a distance, there is not
much written about the man.
Although Enlightenment's philosophers focused their attention on the rude
civilizations and state of mankind in ancient times, their philosophy of exaltation of travel
literature is still popular among the historians nowadays. Although any encyclopaedia
provides all of the organised information, it is the real perception of countries and people,
as seen through the eyes of a traveller, that exposes the most interesting ideas about the
human being.
Chapter 2 Progress
2.1. Progress – a key term of the Enlightenment
The period of the Enlightenment was characterized by noble and cultivated
theories of social order, human happiness and the development of civilization. One of
these theories, namely the idea of progress, appeared to be one of the most important, if
not the dominant. This was mainly because progress could have been linked with all the
other ideas or could become a context for them; explaining their success (progress,
development in a wanted direction) or failure. The eighteenth-century idea of progress
was new compared to the term that was widely used before. Formerly people connected
progress with the work of the divine power, explaining the improvements in society and
human life as decisions of God. The scientific spirit of the Enlightenment influenced and
secularized the idea of progress. Philosophers started to focus on a historical approach to
this idea, emphasizing the importance of natural causes and human experience in
opposition to unnatural acts of God. There were also other contexts in which the idea of
progress was noticed throughout the ages and which influenced it:
The Judeo-Christian tradition, with its linear view that history was aiming at something (redemption), offered one such intellectual context, while the traditional Greco-Roman notion of a repeating cycle of golden, silver, bronze, and leaden ages offered another. […] From the early Renaissance, humanists envisioned a history in which they themselves appeared as the worthy successors to classical antiquity, following a long period of decay and even darkness. The Protestants of the Reformation echoed this assessment in their criticism of medieval Roman Catholicism and their desire to restore essential elements of the early church. By the sixteenth century, the tripartite division of Western history into ancient, medieval, and modern eras was beginning to
emerge.49
These different historical contexts persuaded philosophers to study the term of progress
and especially its effects on different kinds of societies and civilizations. These context
also demonstrated the long existence of various types of development, something that
impelled eighteenth-century scholars to set forth the question of the state of nature. On
the one hand, the relationship between progress and different stages of development, and
on the other hand, the possibility of applying the idea of progress in various scientific and
social disciplines, resulted in different philosophical approaches towards progress. An
interesting approach for this paper is a differentiation between progress as freedom and
progress as power. The progress seen as different kind of liberties was being advocated
by the travellers (Connor – political freedom, Marshall – economic, Wraxall – social,
Coxe – holistic approach to freedom). Progress understood as power will be the best
observed on the example of cartography later on the text. Yet, the travellers, promoting
different ideas of progress, partly fulfilled the category of power too. They felt confident
in encouraging various actions and criticising possible mistakes but they never justified a
single failure. They usually based the opinions of the superiority of England on the
underdevelopment of other countries, that only enforced the idea of progress as an
ideological power. Before analysing this dual approach of the writers, it is important to
understand the philosophical foundations for the idea of progress seen as freedom. The
most recognized authors of the eighteenth-century working on this theme were, among
others, Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Adam Smith and Marquis de Condorcet.
Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot He was one of the philosophers who strongly emphasized
the close connection between the idea of progress and freedom:
He saw strong evidence in the record of the past for the inevitability of future advances in science, technology, and moral behavior. […] He thought indefinite progress was a central characteristic of life, and he considered the human species capable of perfectibility – not perfection
itself, but an ever nearer approach to perfection.50
Through his universal observations Turgot understood progress as a scientific, not
religious, process. Nevertheless, his reflections on perfectibility were often identified
with those of very religious philosophers at the time, namely Joseph Priestley and
Edmund Law; these men associated progress with Providence. Also Turgot used to
believe in the idea of a progress that is connected with spirituality. Only a few months
before his famous secularized speech, A Philosophical Review of the Successive
Advances of the Human Mind, delivered in Paris in 1750, Turgot was strongly connected
with the Catholic Church. His previous works were influenced by religious beliefs.
Although he added a few details on Providence in A Philosophical Review, this work
completely differed from the ones before. Robert Nisbet in his book explained the shift
into secular philosophy from a religious approach. He emphasized the fact that the
change of Turgot's beliefs fitted perfectly into philosophical trends of the Enlightenment.
Many philosophers and writers at the time had to face secularization of science and social
reality. They had to find a common point between the two realities that were so crucial to
people's lives. Moreover, even the transition itself was a proof of progress, development
and improvement of the human mind.
With respect to the idea of progress, Turgot, without abandoning the structure of framework of his first address at the Sorbonne, secularized
it. He was not the first, nor would he be the last, to put rationalist-naturalist content into a framework born of Christian dogma. […] Turgot's experience within a single year can be seen as the very epitome of the process of intellectual development we have been concerned with: processes which take us, as it were, from Providence-as-progress to progress-as-Providence.51
The most important idea of Turgot's work Universal History, from 1751, is the
four-stage evolution theory. In this story of universal human experience he presented four
stages that have been acquired by civilization in the pursuit of development: hunting,
pasturage, agriculture and navigation and commerce. “He deals with the rise of the first
governments, uniformly despotic and monarchical, and the beginnings of human
liberation from political despotism”52 and on this basis he concluded that freedom is a
necessity in any kind of human development. In the eighteenth-century there was a
tendency to be negative towards government, be in opposition to authoritarian power and
subjection. People with these attitudes were in favour of liberty more than power; when
the idea of freedom leading to progress appeared, they quickly approved it and embraced
it. Freedom and progress became the key terms of the Enlightenment's noble theories of
development.
Adam Smith The Scottish philosopher Adam Smith was also in favour of representing
mankind's development through a stadial model. According to him, analysis of each one
of the stages would present different approaches towards economy and property, allowing
people to recognize these patterns and understanding the history of the present
civilization.
Before we consider exactly this or any of the other methods by which property is acquired it will be proper to observe that the regulations concerning them must vary considerably according to the state or age society is in at that time. There are four distinct states which mankind
pass thro: – 1st, the Age of Hunters; 2ndly, the Age of Shepherds; 3dly,
the Age of Agriculture; and 4thly, the Age of Commerce.53
Similarly to Turgot, Smith advocated existence of freedom in progress, although for
Smith it was an economic freedom. Through the evolution of particular stages he tried to
discover how property developed and what was its impact on people. In the times of the
Enlightenment there were different categories involved with the idea of progress. Among
liberty and knowledge, property was another that became a key-element in working on
the history of mankind, refinement and general development. Smith noticed the
development of modes of subsistence and the importance of legislation that would protect
them. In general, most of the conflicts were due to problems with different kinds of
property. Therefore laws always had to deal with property one way or another.
Smith's method was to use experimental laws and observations from studies of
human nature. He adopted a holistic view on history and did not want to define matters
into closed categories. In the Enlightenment every single aspect of society was
interconnected; thus only a universal and wide approach could have given proper
explanations. Other Scottish scholars followed Smith in his four-stage evolution.
Moreover, Hume, Robertson, Ferguson, Millar, all agreed on the idea of acquiring
freedom through commerce. Most Scottish philosophers agreed that there was no
possibility for a cultivated society to exist if the national system was not developed. This
resulted in promotion of economic models of growth in Western Europe. In Eastern
Europe, as well as others, not as economically advanced areas, this theory gave reason to
placing those regions into ideologically lower stages of development.
Jean-Antoine-Nicolas Caritat de Condorcet Jean Condorcet was closer in his beliefs to
Turgot than Smith. He was optimistic in his beliefs in mankind's future. According to
Condorcet, one's happiness could be obtained by his own virtues and ability to progress.
Condorcet in this idea put an emphasis on all the virtues of a human being and his natural
need to improve. His work Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human
Mind advocated the perfectibility of the human being and is also an example of another
stage theory of development:
While in hiding from the Jacobins in 1793-1794, he wrote a Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind that is often considered the epitome of Enlightenment belief in progress. It described ten epochs of history, linked by the advancement of rational intelligence along a path of indefinite progress, despite the great weight of priestcraft and other obstacles. Historical progress had occurred in all domains, had quickened recently, and was capable of further acceleration by knowledgable human effort. Limitless perfectibility being a principal characteristic of the species, the coming tenth epoch
held enormous promise.54
In the description of Condorcet's theory, Turgot's perfectibility and secularization are
combined with Smith's stages of development that were modified into study of different
epochs. According to Condorcet, he himself lived in the ninth epoch, which would be
followed by the tenth – possibly due to the French Revolution. Along with the revolution,
he praised science as a crucial factor in progress towards the future. Science could not yet
rule society because of deeply rooted religious influences that still existed. He was
confident about the future of society and strongly believed in intellectual forces that
would govern humankind in the next epoch.55
As a scholar working from the intellectual heritage of Turgot, Condorcet has also
put great emphasis on equality in society. However, this equality was not universally
advocated. Condorcet presented the need for preserving some inequalities that could help
the society as a whole –
It is not absolute, total equality that Condorcet seeks and predicts for the future; not a levelling of human beings for its own sake. As we have already seen, Condorcet, for all his animosity toward the kinds of inequality, took note of the importance of preserving the possibility of
those inequalities which will be “useful to the interest of all.”56
Presumably, these would have been legal inequalities. Despite that, the philosopher was a
true supporter of human liberties also for women, slaves and ethnic minorities. It can be
stated that Condorcet was a spokesman of ideas that were chiefly established in society
only two centuries after his death.
These three representatives, of the stand in philosophy emphasizing freedom
connected with progress, must have been an influence for the many contemporaries,
travellers among them. In travel literature, the resemblance between these philosophical
theories and suggestions on progress done by the travellers is great. For example,
Marshall was a spokesman of Smith's theory due to his opinion about the importance of
trade in a country's development. He was also a supporter of Turgot's concept of
secularization, as he was against the influence of religion on political matters. These and
other connections with philosophy of progress-as-freedom will be shown later in the text.
Progress as power Robert Nisbet in his book History of the Idea of Progress made a
distinction between two philosophies of progress in the eighteenth century – progress as
freedom and as power. As described before, the theory of individual freedom was deeply
rooted in the minds of philosophers, similarly to a theory of power, although the latter
was mostly developed in the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, there were still thinkers of
the Enlightenment who worked on this issue such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Henri de
Saint-Simon. This idea has an indirect connection with the situation of Eastern Europe at
the time, as we shall see.
According to Nisbet, in the years 1750-1900 the new doctrines of nationalism,
statism, utopianism and racism soon came into life. They were all in use in the name of
some kind of progress; usually conflicts were covered up with ideas of liberation or
development. The philosophers who dealt with this tradition were also supporters of
freedom but Nisbet explains that this freedom, connected with power, differs widely from
the definition of freedom used by Turgot or Smith.
Freedom here is inseparable from some proffered community – political, social, racial, or other – and from the uses of coercion and strict discipline, when needed. Only through closer and more devoted awareness of himself as an organic part of the absolute state would the individual achieve, in Hegel's perspective, true freedom – a 'higher
freedom' than that posited by an Adam Smith.57
According to the philosophers, there was a need for influence, leadership and guidance
by cultured and educated people. These would protect civilization from decline and lead
it to the higher stage of development.
This idea of genuine influence between the nations was very noble. However, two
centuries later the belief in such influence was transformed into a theory of superiority of
one nation over others in the World Wars. The similar treatment, although more in an
intellectual than practical way, was observed in an example of relationships between
Western and Eastern Europe in the eighteenth century. The Enlightenment's conviction
about the need of guidance in less-developed countries and its belief in the superiority of
the West somewhat excused wars, colonization and intellectual imperialism in the world.
This idea of progress linked with power was two-way. On the one hand, it was utopian
and virtuous, because it was aimed at the improvement of civilization. On the other hand,
it exposed the weaker countries on the actions of authoritarian powers and therefore
deprived people of their individual liberties.58
2.2. 'Noble' vs 'Ignoble Savages'
Progress understood as the need for power and dominance was one of the
ideologies of Western imperialism in the world. Various wars for new territories were
explained by the protection of the citizens from unwanted foreign influences.
Explorations of new continents, regions and dominating the inhabitants were explained
by the need of the implementation of infrastructure to improve the state of the places.
Finally, colonization was explained by the will to bring civilization to savage nations. All
the above historical facts, resulting in dependence and a lack of freedom, are negative
examples of the discourse of progress as power. However, there appeared an another way
of understanding this negative discourse. Savage tribes started to be seen not only as
conquered peoples without any potential, but, in some cases, also as interesting
individuals.
In general, it was literature and art that focused firstly on the figure of a 'noble
savage'. This was due to different reasons, among them the shock of a new world. Also,
one of the motives was the same as the reason of writing travel accounts – the lack of
original topics and looking for new, innovative subjects and ideas. This could have
seemed like a good idea, especially because newly conquered nations were always being
associated with backwardness. This underdevelopment was unusual and therefore
interesting for more advanced Westerners. A unique representation of savages as full of
virtues, being close to the nature and living in a non-corrupted society was exotic and
exciting for readers at the time. In addition, philosophers got interested in the 'noble
savage' and tried to understand the circumstances connected with this phenomenon. The
general explanation of the morality of barbarians was well explained by Lois Whitney in
Primitivism and the Idea of Progress:
Since there is a natural tendency towards goodness among men and a light of nature by which even the most ignorant may know natural law, the laws of nature may often be more graciously followed among 'peasants' and 'simple men' than among more learned people. The complement to this corollary is the generalization that civilized men
have so degenerated that they no longer readily recognize or follow the laws of nature. But a third corollary provides for a few 'beautiful souls' even in our modern civilization who are so good by nature that they
follow the laws of nature unconsciously.59
This idea was first developed via the example of the conquered savages of North America
and other colonized countries in the seventeenth century. Nevertheless, it also
corresponds with the Europe of the eighteenth century. The West and East could equally
represent the corrupted nation on the one hand and natural morality on the other.
Having a new context for the conquered peoples, some philosophers were very
keen on developing it with an immediate connection to key terms of the Enlightenment.
The period was focused on liberty, virtues, individual value, human experience and
diversity. Many scholars were working on assimilation of the theory of merit of a savage
to the Enlightenment by asking questions such as: “What had led the West to its high
point of refinement and civilization? Did the West evolve from the same simple
beginnings as 'savage society' or were there different paths to 'civilization'?”60 Hobbes in
Leviathan explained the slow process of development in savage countries with the lack of
stable economy.
In such condition, there is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth, no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; […] and which is worst of all, continuall feare, and danger of violent
death; and the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.61
Although, Hobbes in general did not believe in the greater development of society, in this
case he stated a causal link explaining why such a development cannot exist; he
associated the answer with the economy. Rousseau praised the natural society in which
man lives without any authority. Also, he believed that all the people were virtuous and it
was only a modern society that has corrupted them (a mirror image of theory of
primitivism). Diderot added a supplement to his Encyclopédie, dealing with the travel of
Bougainville to Tahiti, where he warned the Tahitians against the destruction of their way
of life by Westerners. “Thus the 'noble savage' became the vehicle for a wide-ranging
critique of the over-refinement, religious hypocrisy and divisions by social rank that
existed in the West.”62 John Locke believed that modern society in the past resembled
newly discovered lands. He was convinced that uncultivated nations will get to the same
stage of civilization as that which West has obtained.
Stuart Hall examined the theories of Hobbes, Rousseau, Lock and others, and
came up with interesting conclusions on the character of the Enlightenment. In his
opinion, most of the thinkers believed that all the nations of the world follow only one
path of development and some groups can be more advanced while others can stay
behind. The example of the first group was, with no doubt, the cultured West, an example
of the latter, savage Northern America. “This idea of a universal criterion of progress
modelled on the West became a feature of the new 'social science' to which the
Enlightenment gave birth.”63 Moreover, this discipline kept replicating the same wrong
stereotypes, conventions and labels about other underdeveloped regions in the world.
Therefore, the Enlightenment created a discipline that with direct positive slogans,
indirectly kept reinforcing the differences between the two social orders, if not creating
them from scratch as a complementary part of its own perfectionist image.
In Enlightenment discourse, the West was a model, the prototype and the measure of social progress. It was western progress, civilization, rationality and development that were celebrated. And yet, all this depended on the discursive figures of the 'noble vs ignoble savage', and of 'rude and refined nations' which had been formulated in the discourse of 'the West and the Rest'. So the Rest was critical for the formation of western Enlightenment – and therefore for modern social science. […] 'The Other' was the 'dark' side – forgotten, repressed and denied; the
reverse image of enlightenment and modernity.64
A similar point of view can be found in the previously cited Inventing Eastern Europe by
Larry Wolff. Both authors are rather negative about the idea of a virtuous savage. Before
concluding the existence of such a viewpoint, it is crucial to analyse the accounts of
travellers in pursuit of two approaches: favourable towards 'barbarian Easterners' or
rejecting their 'natural goodness'.
2.3. Travellers on Poland
Bernard Connor, The history of Poland Connor spent a lot of time in Poland so he was
truly immersed in the culture, social life and politics. He wrote his book focusing only on
this one country, unlike other travellers who usually described Poland in opposition to
other previously visited places. This and also the period in which Connor resided in
Poland (the period of the reign of the king Jan III Sobieski, considered as a favourable
time in Polish history) influenced him to be more sympathetic with the Polish state of
affairs.
An interesting part of the second volume is the description of the political arena.
The author exemplified policies established at the time or shortly before, such as the
elective crown, the division of government into three parts, the Great Diet or 'Liberum
Veto'. About eighty years before the first partition of Poland, Connor noticed the
disadvantages of these new changes in politics. These would all be cited by his
successors as the main reasons for the partition or the decline of the country. Connor
concluded on the changes by saying:
A mixt Government therefore made out of all these Three, is that which has proved most Agreeable to the Polish Nation, being a just Medium between the dangerous Extremities of an Absolute Monarchy, and those of Aristocracy and Democracy. It is this the Poles have pitch'd upon as most proper to preserve the public Liberty, and to perpetuate the Happiness of their State; being, it seems, perswaded that a Body Politic resembles a Humane in this, that as the one borrows all its Vigour and Health from a Just Temperament of the different Humours that compose it; so the other depends absolutely on that of the Three before-mention'd Forms of Government. And moreover, as the former subsists by the mutual Opposition of contrary Qualities, so the King, Senate and Gentry of Poland having in some measure different Interests and Inclinations, are not only hinder'd from deviating into vicious Extremities, but also through a Noble Emulation are excited to labour carefully for the Good of the Public.65
Connor in this passage emphasized that the creation of a new system was meant to be a
consensus between the absolutism, aristocracy and democracy; a new government that
meant to share responsibilities. He was a spokesman of the British system in which a
mixed government was a pride for all the citizens. In Poland, although an original system
was right, the corrupted nobility had already started to arrange it for their own benefit.
Although the official version proclaimed freedom from absolutism, the nobles soon after
became a source of authoritarian power in Poland. They used 'progress' as a tool for their
own exercise of power. Bury explained this phenomenon in his book The Idea of
Progress:
The ideals of liberty and democracy, which have their own ancient and independent justifications, have sought a new strength by attaching themselves to Progress. The conjunctions of “liberty and progress,” “democracy and progress,” meet us at every turn. Socialism, at an early stage of its modern development, sought the same aid. […] It is in the name of Progress that the doctrines who established the present reign of terror in Russia profess to act. All this shows the prevalent feeling that a social or political theory or programme is hardly tenable if it cannot claim that it harmonises with its controlling idea.66
Although Bury found the examples of the association of progress with various actions in
the history of the twentieth century, his approach can also be applied to the Polish
political arena of the eighteenth century. The political changes were made by nobility 'in
the name of the progress'. They were accepted as a virtuous step towards refinement
although, in fact, they turned out to be mere manipulations in order to gain domination.
Connor noted that the beginning of the crisis started with the death of Zygmunt II;
at the time when the aristocracy came up with the idea of an elective crown and specific
terms and conditions for the new king. These resulted in giving the gentry great
privileges and finally depriving the king of any power. The last king of Poland was the
best example of this conduct, but even Zygmunt III was limited in making decisions.
Moreover, in politics there was no place for the needs of ordinary people. Nobility was
focused on themselves. They were so afraid of losing control over the people, as well as
the king, that the idea of equality was not their priority. In the descriptions of the
meetings of members of the Diet, the gentry and clergy, as well as their conduct, were
depicted in a negative light – “Here Sir, I may remark a pleasant reflection of
Hauteville67, in his account of Poland, where he says, that the Poles employ more time in
drinking and feasting, than in debating matters of state, for that they never think on that
work till they begin to want money to buy Hungarian wine.”68
Connor compared the Polish Diet to the English Parliament and found out
similarities between the organisation of both places: “The diet of Poland (in some
respects) resembles our Parliament, being made up of two houses; the House of Senators,
answerable to our House of Lords; and the House of Nuncio's, not unlike our House of
Commons.”69 In fact, this was not the only similarity between the Polish and English
diets. Connor described the Polish Diet as a place for the meetings of acquaintances, a
social circle for discussing other matters besides politics; even a perfect place for
arranging marriages. The author disapproved of situations as such, yet did not mention
that similar events were taking place in his home country.
'Liberum Veto' was another element that led to the destruction of Poland,
according to Connor. It was a right to break the Diet session without giving any specific
reason and was used by foreign powers and corruptible nobles to obtain private benefits
and to prevent the progress of the country. In general, the lack of people's personal
freedom, reinforced by the behaviour of nobility, led the country to ruin. The absolutism
of the aristocracy deprived the country of any possibility to avoid the partitions.
No body but sees the unhappy state of the government of Poland; that their constitutions and privileges are most pernicious; that the unlimited and absolute liberty of each member makes all the republick slaves, either to the whimsy or factious obstinacy of one particular man […]. Thus Sir, you may perceive that affairs of the greatest consequence depend not only on the prudent deliberations of sober men, but also on the whimsical humours of the senseless or deprav'd. This excessive liberty of every private man shews that both the nation and the diet have none at all.70
Connor presented unfavourable images of the Polish political arena. He stated all the
calamities that ruled the political life and privileges that entirely corrupted the upper
class. If the members of the Diet cared more about the country, they could possibly
prevent a foreign occupation.
It was not only in government that the gentry exposed their superiority. The
traveller devoted a whole letter to the issue of the peasants, or more likely their life as
slaves to the nobility. This lack of independence and personal liberty was constantly
stopping the country from progress. The nobility was so focused on their own gains that
the vision of the country being prosperous was no longer their goal.
At the end of Connor's book, the emerging image of the Polish people is not
positive. Although Connor described the general character of the Poles as virtuous and
brave, represented the cities established ages before as great, and some of the people as
heroes (King Jan III Sobieski, Copernicus), the account of vices overshadowed it entirely.
Finally, the Poles were considered as bad warriors, people not skilled in besieging towns,
maintaining castles or security.71 According to Connor, above all, the bad administration
and the nobility that was self-seeking and corrupted, did not allow the country a chance to
progress.
Joseph Marshall, Travels Marshall conducted his reflections on Poland with a clear
division by province. In general, the Russian province was characterised by poverty, the
Prussian by order and the Austrian by commerce. This division is very important because
it shows the specific features Marshall endorsed for the country. In this analysis it is also
easy to see what kind of elements of the social order were those that led to the collapse of
the country, according to the author.
The Russian province was considered the poorest. Almost all the Polish people
were transferred to Russia, while Russian soldiers took their place and land. The rest of
the families lived in terrible conditions, often with animals, without any property. There
is an assumption that Marshall was a physiocrat which means that he believed that the
prosperity of a country depends solely on agriculture. This theory can be found in his
accounts, with his constant descriptions of land, modes of tillage and natural sources.
Alas, he was not satisfied by the state of Polish agriculture. He noticed some useful
landmarks that could serve cultivation but there were no people to take care of them and
no new inventions helping improvement.
The advantages of all the cultivation I saw are in the hands of the Russians, for the Polish nobles through most of the great province of Samogitia are driven from their estates. […] I had read that they used in this province none but wooden plough-shares, through a ridiculous
notion that the iron damaged their crops.72
Marshall not only noticed a lack of Polish people on their lands but also an insufficient
knowledge of soil cultivation. With such an inadequacy in tools, knowledge and work
force, there was no place for improvement. Marshall was certain that only a stable
economy, based on agriculture, could produce a surplus of wealth that could be used for
further improvements (here there is a close similarity to Smith's theory of progress). The
author was very negative about the progress of Poland simply because he saw the country
had sunk into stagnation. There was no progress towards higher stages of development
and it seemed like Poland just obtained the third of fourth stages, that of agriculture,
while other countries were already working on new technologies.
The Prussian state was inhabited by the Poles and the living conditions there were
a lot better than in the Russian province. This resulted in a more developed agriculture,
trade and commerce that is praised in Marshall's descriptions. The idea of paying
systematic taxes to the king in return for protection suited Marshall as another policy
supporting the country, as opposed to the Polish peasants paying very irregular taxes to
the nobles.
Apart from characterising the province in the present, he was also interested in the
general history of the country. The traveller saw the beginning of the Polish crisis in
religion. When Roman Catholic bishops did not want to agree on the recognition of other
religions (Protestants and Greeks), the civil war in Poland broke out. The king was
neutral, the nobility was rigid, and the peasants were the ones who suffered the most.
This remark resembles the need of secularization of the Enlightenment's theories. In the
eighteenth century the focal point was concentrated on the expansion of universal
morality and objective science in opposition to religious and mythical explanations.
Marshall, not only as a proponent of the Enlightenment but also as an Anglican
(presumably), was a strong critic of religion and especially its merging with politics. Here
there is a close connection with Turgot's philosophy that emphasised the importance of
secularization of process leading to progress.
Silesia, the Austrian part of Poland, was even more agreeable to the people than
Prussia. This country, in Marshall's account, was full of villages and cultivated land. The
new inhabitants were taken care of. Upon arrival they were given a place to live and
some land to cultivate. Even peasants seemed to be happy in this province despite the
high taxes and their belonging to the lowest class.
Nothing could be more striking, than the different appearance of Silesia
from that of Poland. We entered it the 13th, and found the country full of villages, half of which at least were peopled with Poles; the land all cultivated, and much of it extremely well; the houses and cottages in good repair; with all the appearances of ease and happiness; which formed such a contrast to the wretchedness we had so lately seen, that
the view had the effect of making Silesia appear a paradise.73
This state of affairs in Silesia was organized chiefly because of the implementation of
Smith's idea of progress; progress and development that was owed to trade and
commerce. People in Silesia were not entirely free but they did not work under an
authoritarian power. The well-constructed legislations allowed people to live, work and
gain at least enough money to survive. The Silesian authorities' impact on agriculture
helped to improve the economics of the province, thereby allowing people to invest
money in different kinds of developments.
Most of the descriptions of the bad treatment of peasants find their place in the
Russian and Prussian provinces. Not a single one can be found in the Austrian province.
Moreover, Marshall gave an example of a noble who treated his subjects with respect.
This concluded with him saving a lot of money.
This is a very rare instance in Poland; for they [peasants] are generally used, as I have often observed, in a most oppressive manner; but the good effect of this contrary treatment is extremely visible in the case of this nobleman, who, with only a small estate, compared with many in the kingdom, has by no means of a regular and consistent conduct towards his vassals, and by a constant attention to the culture of his land, been able to save much money; part of which he has laid out in fortifying his castle, which has more than once preserved his property
and his peasants.74
The owner has started the improvement of his estate with his kind attitude towards the
workers. When these felt respected and free, their work was more efficient and provided
more wealth than before. This surplus of wealth led to investments and further
improvements of the estate. This idea of emancipation followed by trade and prosperity
was seen by Marshall as the necessary step for the restoration of a country. He clearly
stated that in the province where people are treated with respect their work is a lot more
efficient; this labour enriches commerce, therefore making the country flourish.
The writer was not optimistic about the present condition nor about the future of
Poland. He considered the country as wretched, destroyed and with little hopes for near
future development. According to the traveller, depopulation was so great that it would
take centuries to restore the balance of people. These negative reflections show that
Marshall did not perceive Poland as a country that progressed. Moreover he did not
proclaim any specific remedies for the restoration of the country. However, it can be
concluded that in his opinion Poland needed what the Enlightenment's philosophers
promoted at the time: a democratic state, secularized policies also focused on balanced
economics and an expansion of trade.
William Wraxall, Cursory Remarks and Memoirs In the Cursory Remarks Wraxall
visited the north of Poland and made his way to the south. The traveller visited the
country just two years after the first partition. His accounts resulted in very interesting
records of the social condition of the country, but the general disposition of the place was
saddening. Through his description emerged an image of poverty, emptiness, and a lack
of any progress or glory. There was no trade in Poland, the lands were not cultivated, the
potential of people was unexploited and it was even dangerous and sometimes impossible
to travel from one place to another. This image of the country was not however
judgmental, as was the case with the previous travellers, but rather melancholic and
purely descriptive. Although he noticed all the negativity in the country, Wraxall still
devoted some place to describe the positive side of cities, buildings, castles and people.
He even told legends about the places he saw. In Cursory Remarks the traveller created a
picture of Poland as a country that was not perfect but still with many elements that were
worth mentioning. The country in this book was represented as a victim of the force of
foreign powers and ignorance of internal rule. It seems like Wraxall did not perceive the
country as a savage or barbarous land. He only expressed the compassion for its
treatment and appeared to state that Poland did not deserve such ruin.
Three years after the first short visit, Wraxall came back to Poland where the state
of the country had significantly declined. His accounts also changed from mild, non-
judgmental descriptions into more harsh illustrations of reality. The writer concluded the
state of a country in one statement: “indignation, when we reflect on the abject state to
which a country is reduced, where public spirit is extinct, the Crown degraded, the
Nobility enslaved or driven to wander in exile, and its fairest provinces divided among
foreign powers.”75
In the publication Wraxall conceived many reasons for the decline of Poland. One
of the possible causes was the character of the Poles who have always been enthusiastic
in their efforts but “deficient in judgment, desultory in conduct and precipitate in
projects.”76 In another place the writer stated:
The principal external causes which led to the partition of Poland: for, in the detestable and ruinous form of their constitution, must be sought the internal source of all their national calamities. What else could rationally be expected, as the natural death of a country, where the crown is at once elective, venal and powerless; where the nobility are independent, uncontrollable, and tyrannical; while the people are sunk in slavery, ignorance, oppression and poverty?77
Such severe criticism towards law and people themselves shows that Wraxall did not
believe that the Polish people were entirely aware what was good for them. It was hard
for him to apply the theory of “a noble savage” and find qualities in the Polish state of
living. It seems like in his opinion there was no trace of any willingness to change the
fate of the country.
Besides blaming the people in power for the wretched country, Wraxall focused
also on depicting the decline and havoc of the places he had seen a few years before.
Although his first book already showed the poverty and destruction, in the Memoirs he
presented an even worse picture of reality. The cities were in a terrible state and people
did not feel safe. For Wraxall, the people were used to such a state of affairs and even if
they were not, there was no place to get support. Because usually they did not mind living
in such conditions and because they agreed to such a state, the writer called them
barbaric. Also the peasants were blamed for their unlucky conduct as a result of their
character more than bad conditions. Wraxall is the author who described the Poles as
barbarians the most often. Among other instances, he said that the country is in a state of
“national barbarism and political humiliation”78 and he described a custom of marriage
as a “barbarous mirth.”79 Wraxall expressed himself using the negative context of
barbarism. In his descriptions he used only the word 'barbarian' instead of the word
'savage'. This choice of words shows that Wraxall was closer to a negative opinion about
the Poles than to a positive approach. That which Rousseau was writing about by
referring to a 'savage', that turned out to be a positive figure. For the traveller there was
no place for the natural virtuosity of a 'noble savage' among the Polish people.
Wraxall also focused his attention on the sovereign and aristocracy, representing
them as a core of the problem. The king was described as the pawn of Catherine the Great
and the man who epitomised the corruption of manners. With such a state of affairs all the
institutions were 'infected' with corruption and wretchedness: the army, church, court and
every department of private life.80 Wraxall was also opposed to the subversive character
of the nobility, which he gave proof of in a very sad description:
The great nobility are depraved, corrupt and destitute of enlightened patriotism: their education and habits extinguish every spark of public virtue. In their infancy they are surrounded by domestics or preceptors, who nourish those fatal prejudices and ideas of superiority, so calculated to harden the human heart.81
In his opinion, the gentry acted against the law although they were in power and had a
chance to improve lives of their subordinates. Wraxall advocated the Enlightened
patriotism that was understood by care of a country through Enlightened values such as
freedom and knowledge. The nobles did not give an example of morality and treated their
subjects as inferior creatures. They learnt these attitudes from past generations; the
negative attitudes were passively accumulated and reinforced with time. This situation,
when the whole ruling state was corrupted in terms of money as well as in terms of
morals, did not permit the growth of the state. Wraxall saw that the lack of any kind of
development resulted from the absence of liberty and cultivated, moral minds.
The traveller tried to depict some good characteristics of the Poles. Probably, it
was done to soften the negative image outlined in so many pages before or because he
tried to find the qualities that could suit the aforementioned 'theory of primitivism'. It
seems like it was a difficult task for Wraxall to make a depiction that consisted of merely
two pages and it was concluded with pessimistic words:
It is to be lamented that a race of men, endowed with such qualities and faculties, should in general be false, inconsistent, fickle, prodigal, and deficient in that judgement, conduct, and consistency of character, without which all external and ornamental talents are comparatively of
no value or importance.82
The writer was very melancholic and did not see any hope for Poland. He actually
foresaw the extinction of the country, which happened eighteenth years after. This vision
perfectly represents Wraxall's attitude towards the question of Polish progress. He did not
believe that a country with the scarce qualities as could be found in the Poles, had the
ability to be refined. He was a supporter of equality between people and social order that
leads to progress (connection with the Condorcet's theory of progress). Wraxall saw only
regression leading to total decline. In his opinion, Poland already had no history or
political existence. He made it clear that among all the disadvantages it was the lack of
social order, allies and revenues enough for emancipation that would lead the country to
decay. The internal dissolution of the people resulted in the external destruction of a
country.
William Coxe, Travels Coxe's literature is considered by contemporaries as one of the
most interesting of all in the travel literature of the eighteenth century. Indeed, his deep
accounts of events, supported by detailed information from history, geography and
anthropology, constituted an almost perfect picture of the countries he visited. In Poland
he was equally perceptive and insightful as in other places. Coxe tried to keep the
position of a neutral observer while describing the country, but the difficult situation that
he found, did not save him from criticism.
The traveller noticed everything that others saw: poverty, hunger, destruction,
despotism and immorality. In his accounts he combined a judgmental and a positive
attitude towards various situations. He related the negative elements, examined them as
wrong but also gave remedies. For stories about the subjection of the peasants he
provided records of good people who opposed the established order and freed the
subjects. By doing so, Coxe could have had two intentions. Firstly, he may have wanted
to instil hope for improvement among the Polish people. Secondly, he probably wanted to
show to his fellow-citizens and future readers not only the vices but also the Polish
virtues.
Commerce was widely noted as one of the principles of progress and Coxe was
aware of that (possibly influenced by the Smith's theory of progress). He devoted a lot of
space to the description of the state of trade in Poland. He paid attention to rivers, as the
best channels of exchanging goods, which were not exploited well enough. This was
blamed on the foolishness of people. As an example, Coxe told the story of a cardinal
who noticed the fertility of soil in the area and ordered it to be measured. Alas, the people
who were commissioned to do so, stated that it is not practical to cultivate the land.
The judicious author above-mentioned [Wiebitski], in touching upon his subjects, lamented the ignorance of his countrymen; and ridicules the precipitation with which they abandoned a plan so favourable to the improvement of their commerce. He shows, […] the inattention of the Poles to the natural advantages of their country.83
The traveller knew the great importance of trade, agriculture and commerce in pursuing
any kind of refinement. All the more, he continued to complain about the ill-educated
people who did not understand the significance of their behaviour.
According to Coxe, it was anarchy that led to the decline of the country. This
failure was commenced by the nobility that was constantly increasing its power and the
king who was left on the throne without any real authority.
The name of Poland still remains, but the nation no longer exists: an universal corruption and venality prevades all ranks of people. Many of the first nobility do not blush to receive pensions from foreign courts. One professes himself publicly an Austrian, a second a Prussian, a third a Frenchman, and a fourth a Russian.84
Aristocrats cared only about gaining more privileges. The fate of their people has became
a part of a bargain, for those who could pay, in order to control the country. The liberty of
the people, as well as that of the corrupted nobles, was gone. Without the self-esteem of
an upper class and at least minimal liberties for a lower class, Coxe did not see any
possibility for further development of Poland. He strongly linked the aforementioned
commerce with freedom in describing differences between the Polish and German
peasants. German ones were endowed with a few privileges that led to the flourishing of
agriculture, commerce and general well-being of society.
The author was not positive about the future of Poland. Although he did not
predict any specific situation, he believed that even if the country somehow overcame its
difficulties, the wretched state of the rulers would lead it into destruction again.
But when Poland (if ever that event should happen) is again left to herself, the same fury of contending parties, now smothered, but not annihilated, will probably break out with redoubled fury; and again generate those disturbances which have long convulsed this unhappy kingdom: and to what a wretched state is that country reduced, which owes its tranquility to the interposition of a foreign army!85
He believed that the vices of the Polish ruling class were so prevalent that nothing could
change them. The Poles were characterised as a people who strove for power and were
willing to do anything to gain it. Coxe was not optimistic at all by saying “if ever that
event should happen.” In the national character of the Polish nobles, he did not see any
natural qualities that could help the progress of the country in any way.
2.4. Theory of primitivism and its place in travellers' accounts
By analysing the most interesting excerpts of the travellers' accounts the general
conclusion is that the theory of primitivism was indeed only a theory. It does not find its
place in the practices of the supporters of the Enlightenment. The travellers, with the
exception of a few moments, were very negative about the natural state of society in
Poland. The theory of 'a noble savage' was based on virtues. Its core consisted of natural
goodness, morality, proper decisions and intellectual refinement, not necessarily based on
science. The situation in Poland was exactly opposite and this is what travellers
emphasized. Even with instances of decency, people were full of vices and ignorance.
Corruption, immorality and the quest for power eradicated all that Poland needed to
become a virtuous nation from the theory of a 'noble savage'. Presumably, this theory had
its application only in the colonial period in places such as Northern America. In fact,
people there did base their society mainly on the laws of nature, using them instead of
science in the understanding of different elements of the surrounding world. Such beliefs
in primitivism could have been answered there. In Poland, society was torn between two
realities. On the one hand, there was the negative side to society: backwardness of
morals, poor organization of the country, lack of property and lack of liberty. On the other
hand, the country had already had its Golden Ages and already left the 'first stage of
civilization'. This positive period took place in the sixteenth century, when the country
was large, economically stable and proud of its achievements in art, science and culture.
Therefore, the country, although being underdeveloped, could not have been considered
as absolutely savage. In the end, the country found itself 'in between' two states of
existence. On the one hand, it was considered as a truly backward and barbarian country
that was being deprived of any possibility to progress. On the other hand, it was not
perceived as one of these 'noble savage'-nations. This resulted in a country that had sunk
into stagnation in this 'in between' state that persisted over a long period of time.
2.5. Feudalism
It was not difficult for the travellers to call the Polish people barbaric. As
foreigners, they were at ease with comparing the situation they discovered in new places
with those they experienced in England. Although they tried to remain objective and not
influenced by their own history, it was natural to look for differences and similarities
between the countries' state of affairs.
When one society views another it seems inevitable that even those best informed will mix their knowledge with assumptions, preconceptions and prejudices. That is why we are concerned with the images created by this mixture in the minds of eighteenth-century Englishmen.86
In terms of Poland, British history was truly an influence for the travellers. The Polish
arena remarkably resembled the feudal states of Western Europe dating back to the
Middle Ages. Gideon Sjoberg explained the eleventh century feudalism by the following
characteristics:
The feudal order is characterized by rigid class or caste-like stratification and complex state, educational, and economic institutions – all of which necessitate an extensive division of labor. Furthermore, it has a relatively large population and an extended territorial base. […] Typically, feudalism is predicated on a large peasant population. These individuals live in a small village settlements and gain their livelihood primarily from intensive cultivation of the soil through the use of a simple technology. Scattered about the countryside they form the backbone of the feudal system.87
This description matches those of the travellers regarding Poland. They also focused their
observations on the division of labour that was concentrated on the lowest class of
society. They noticed that the peasants constituted the largest part of society although
they did not possess any power. Their houses were poorly constructed, they occupied
themselves only with the work of their master and in agriculture they used only the most
basic of tools; a wooden plough instead of iron one, etc. Indeed, the Polish economic
system in the eighteenth century was based on the main principals of feudalism. The elite
consisting of the aristocracy controlled the lower classes. The latter did not have any
choice but to provide them all the goods: free labour, food, military service, surplus of
wealth and many more. This situation reminded the British of the feudalistic system that
controlled England for a few centuries.
It must have been quite extraordinary for these men to encounter a model of
society from the twelfth century in modern Europe. Wraxall noticed the similarity to
feudalism when he was visiting the capital – Warsaw. Usually these central cities were
the most flourishing ones as the concentration of political life. In the Polish case, Wraxall
did not notice any splendour but an exemplary town of the feudal order:
Palaces and sheds, the mansions of the great, and the cottages of the poor, compose exclusively the larger portion of Warsaw. It is like an assemblage of nobles and slaves, of lords and vassals, such as the darkness of the middle ages when feudal tyranny prevailed universally, might have exhibited; but which, happily for mankind, is now no where to be seen except in Poland. Even Constantinopole is in this respect far less barbarous; […] The despotism of one man, however pernicious, is yet less destructive than the tyranny of a thousand petty despots; and the Turks, though fallen from their antient splendor, do not present a picture of national degradation or humiliation, such as the Poles at present offer the world.88
The barbarism of Poland was said to exceed that if the ancient state of Constantinople.
Wraxall set in opposition an ancient regime and present state of a country. This
opposition expresses how much Poland was backward in the eyes of the travellers. The
author was specific in his opinion about feudalism. This model used to work centuries
before but was fortunately transformed into other forms of development. Due to rooting it
out, Western countries got a chance to progress. The system has not served the interests
of whole communities, only the people in power.
Initially, feudalism was a military system. It was based on an army composed of
vassals, who by getting the land for cultivation, had a duty to fight for their masters. Coxe
found out that the Polish army was very similar to the group of vassals from the Middle
Ages:
The mode of levying and maintaining this army is exactly similar to that practiced under the feudal system. At present, though it is almost totally unfit for the purposes of repelling a foreign enemy, it is yet a powerful instrument in the hands of domestic faction: for the expedition with which it is raised under the feudal regulations, facilitates the formation of these dangerous confederacies, which suddenly start up on the contested election of a sovereign, or whenever the nobles are at variance with each other.89
The traveller again emphasized the distorted nature of Polish aristocracy. The army was
not well trained, did not get privileges from servitude and most often were involved in
simply solving the domestic disputes of the nobles.
Another characteristic of feudalism in Europe in between the seventh and
eleventh centuries was the subjection of people. Exactly the same relationship, based on
domination, was established in Poland between the nobles and peasants. An extract
below, although describing the European reality of the Middle Ages, resembles
eighteenth-century Poland.
The people, the most numerous as well as the most useful part of the community, were either reduced to a state of actual servitude, or treated with the same insolence and rigor as if they had been degraded into that wretched condition. The king, stripped of almost any prerogative, and without authority to enact or to execute salutary laws, could neither protect the innocent nor punish the guilty.90
Peasants in Poland were the largest out of all the classes. They were used by the nobility
to work for their wealth. Many of them were treated as slaves, as it is proven in all the
travellers' accounts. Also the king Stanislaw August Poniatowski is an equivalent of the
ruler in an excerpt. He was unable to make any significant political decisions. Coxe has
stated that Stanislaw was “the king, without influence, and consequently without a
shadow of authority […] the unfortunate monarch.”91 Both statements correspond to
each other and emphasise similarities between two orders of feudalism: one from the past
and one in present times. Feudalism was truly a degraded state, all the more the travellers
could not understand how it had survived in Poland for such a long time. In fact it was a
result of the intertwining of historical processes, inappropriate management of wealth and
the ignorance of the people.
There were many elements that inspired the British travellers to release the same
negative opinion on the state of Poland. One of them was certainly the Enlightenment.
Western Europe was immersed in the ideas of freedom, science and universality so the
travellers must have also been affected by these views. This inspired them to be open-
minded and to look for improvements. The fact that most of the travellers were well
educated is not without significance too. Their knowledge in different domains and their
being well read in contemporary philosophy and literature definitely helped them to
constitute their opinions about Poland. But their constant emphasis on values like
economy, trade and personal liberties showed that it was the historical experience of
England that led them to provide such similar points of view. They were aware of the
possibility of refinement and they associated the highest refinement with what they knew
best – their own country.
The Western world started to shift towards the early models of capitalism already
in the fifteenth century. Social mobility reinforced the middle class living in the towns.
These people were growing into a more important group that was trying to displace all
the habitual principles of a feudal economy. The moment at which they were deprived of
their rights led to the beginning of social revolutions, in England as well as France.
Daniel Chirot in The Rise of the West explained the most important factors that helped the
development of the region as simple advantages: “These were chiefly geographic
advantages, political ones, and a series of legal and religious developments which
emerged from the first two.”92 The geographic position of the West allowed the people to
cultivate the soil in an efficient way and breed animals for labour. These were basic but
significant elements that led to the beginning of social improvements. The political
division of land, creation of channels of communication such as rivers and roads and
change from production for use to the one of sale were also big factors in the transition.
Additional religious and legal changes in society only reinforced the new order.
Among all these processes the emergence of cities turned out to be almost an
essential element in forming the stronger image of Western Europe. The first cities were
established because of merchants settling near the castles in order to raise their earnings.
Also the peasants started to move to the towns and cities and this social mobility
increased the need for infrastructure as well as labour in the cities. These mixed group of
new citizens created a basic unit of future Western development:
The enlargement of the surplus transferred from peasant production, more in the form of jurisdictional and monopoly profits than in the form of rent from landed holdings, meant that lords' incomes were in fact realized more and more in cash. The division of labour between town and country, the development of towns not simply as markets where
rural produce was sold so as to raise cash for satisfaction of lord's exactions, but as centres of craft production, can, no doubt, be explained in general terms, as the response to the more efficient concentration of surplus in the hands of a more differentiated (and from the point of view of its cultural demands more sophisticated) aristocracy.93
These new centres had, according to Max Weber, great political autonomy and impact on
the ruling class. The sovereigns sought for hope in the cities when the feudal order was
slowly declining, therefore depriving them of profits. The relationship between the rulers
and cities was like a self-reinforcing engine; it was mutual. The royalty needed a new
source of income and cities needed the investments that improved their qualities. Weber
explained it by saying:
The urban autonomy of varying extent, which was the specific characteristic of the medieval Occidental city, developed only because and insofar as the non-urban power-holders did not yet possess a trained apparatus of officials able to meet the need for an urban administration even to the limited extent required by their own interest in the economic development of the city … The competition between non-urban powers, in particular the conflict of the central power with the great vassals and the hierocratic power of the church, came to the aid of the cities, especially since an alliance of any one of the contending powers with the money power of the burghers could provide it with decisive advantage.94
The travellers came to visit Eastern Europe from a country that has been evolving
from feudalism over one hundred years. They witnessed a more evolved type of national
improvement agenda. The British were taking care of not only their country but also their
colonies. They rationalized their legislations to be able to apply them in their dominions.
This imperialism resulted in improving technologies and communications in order to
supervise the new lands.
Although the philosophy of the Enlightenment provided noble ideas, it had also
equipped Westerners with the need of a comparative approach towards other nations. If
the Western conditions were given as superior and exemplary, every other country that
did not fulfil these criterions was considered as lower in the hierarchy of civilization. It
has to be emphasized that Poland in the eighteenth century was particularly disturbed and
a lot of criticism that it received was in accordance with facts. Nevertheless, the image of
backwardness was created by travellers not only from the emergence of facts but also
from the wrong placement of Poland in opposition to the state of England in the
eighteenth century. Robert Brenner tried to explain this phenomenon in his essay
Economic Backwardness in Eastern Europe in Light of Developments in the West:
The problem of backwardness in Eastern Europe is a question badly posed. Its unstated premise is the widely held view, originating with Adam Smith, that economic development is more or less natural to society and that its failure to occur must therefore require reference to certain exogenous interfering factors. The view that, historically speaking, non-development is the rule rather than the exception is, in some contrast, the point of departure for this essay. From this standpoint, if anything needs special explanation, it is the unprecedented breakthrough to sustained economic growth which took place in certain parts of Western Europe during the early modern period, rather than a supposed failure of development in Eastern
Europe.95
This work showed that it needed a lot of time and work to change the stand in this, so far
obvious, statement about the failure of countries of the East. Therefore, it is difficult to
blame the travellers for their reflections that were so strongly influenced by the dominant
intellectual ideologies and philosophical theories.
Chapter 3. Cartography in the eighteenth century as an example of progress as
power
3.1. State of cartography in Europe in the eighteenth century
The general state of cartography in the eighteenth century was very good due to
almost three centuries of experience in map-making. It was considered as an important
branch of science and was strongly connected to travelling. Also, the rulers and country
leaders understood that maps can serve as a tool of political power for them and their
countries, which made cartography a science in which many countries invested. The book
The Commerce of Cartography. Making and Marketing Maps in Eighteenth Century
France and England by Mary Sponberg Pedley is an in-depth story of the state of maps
in the eighteenth century; from planning to selling to evaluating the process. The author
distinguished two phases of interest in cartography after the Middle Ages. The first phase,
was the moment when people started debating the shape of the Earth, inspired by the
works of Galileo Galilei and the Geografia Riformata of Giovanni Battista Riccioli,
around the year 1650. Because they were progressing in their understanding of the
problem they were able to further apply this knowledge in a pragmatic fashion i.e.
cartography. The second phase, came in the 1750s when the national home surveys
became an instrument for supervising societies. For this task they needed the proper
tools: maps. Also, demands were made on schools to educate engineers and surveyors.96
The force of national institutions, as well as pervasive Enlightenments' ideologies, had a
big impact on the idea that maps provide an essential source of knowledge and power.
The political and social needs for cartography were soon formalised. The
institutions that had the biggest impact on cartography in the eighteenth century were,
among others, the Royal Society in London, the Académie Royale des Sciences in Paris,
the observatories in Greenwich and in Paris. The first two were established on intellectual
foundations – the works of Galileo, Francis Bacon and René Descartes.97 Furthermore,
the new schools, such as École d'Artillerie, École des Ponts et Chaussées in France or the
Academy at Woolwich in England, were being established to meet the needs of
cartography and to inspire the interests of new scientists.98 These Western European
institutions were cornerstones of science in the Enlightenment. Having such an educated
group of scholars, western countries took the lead in creating maps for other nations,
especially those in Eastern Europe. Despite the concentration of knowledge in these
countries, the map-making business was spreading globally because the interest in
cartography was rising not only among scholars but also among potential consumers,
such as merchants and investors.
Map consumers were of a different kind. They varied according to different kind
of maps. The maps had multifaceted character. When they were used according to
different needs, they 'produced' different kind of information.
Maps are 'graphic representations that facilitate a spatial understanding of things, concepts, conditions, processes, or events in the human world.' Because of their capacity to simplify the complex, maps can be
seen as 'simple iconic devices' wielding 'extraordinary authority.' […] Of singular importance in understanding the meaning of maps and their influence is the work of placing maps in their political, cultural, intellectual, and social contexts.99
The same map could have been used in different contexts if readers focused on different
aspects. Therefore such a map could provide all sorts of information. When map was
used in a political context, it was used by kings in planning the subjection of lands.
Travellers and anthropologists were reading maps in cultural and social contexts to
discover new states. The intellectual use of maps could have served as a tool of power; by
highlighting specific details the information about countries could have been
manipulated. The most common receivers of the maps were monarchs, for whom maps
were essential in planning battles and future conquests. The rulers, who were usually in
charge of the scientific or cartographic institutions, had therefore the easiest access to
maps.
The cultural agency of schools was probably the second biggest consumer. Firstly,
children were being taught geography via maps. Secondly, in higher education, many
maps were being used by professors in teaching topography and connected sciences.
These students were later on educated to become new map-making specialists.
The third group could be a blend of travellers and the readers of their books. To
fully represent their adventures, travellers would add a visual representation of the land
they visited in the form of a map. It helped the readers to better imagine the lands they
had visited, the distances travelled, as well as the difficulties that the author could have
experienced on the way (as in the case of travellers visiting Poland and facing a lack of
roads, that could have been easily represented on a map). Sometimes the travellers also
played the role of a proofreader, rewriting the maps, supplying additional details or
removing misleading information. In the eighteenth century, travel literature as well as
maps themselves became a source of pleasure and the object of desire among cultured
people.
Maps and globes had become a regular feature in the life of the literate. The number of maps found in personal libraries in both England and France increased throughout the century. […] As wall decorations, maps were described as 'the most commodious ornament for everyman's House.' William Leybourne echoed these sentiments in his Treatise on Plots (1653); maps were a 'neat ornament for the lord of the manor.' […] Printed maps illustrated French and English books, particularly history and military memoirs, as well as novels. […] Further evidence of the sale and collection of maps may be found in auction catalogues, in subscriber lists for maps and atlases, and in diaries and travel journals.100
This meant that maps were no longer solely in the domain of science and politics. Maps
started to educate, as well as, entertain people, who were looking to expand their
intellectual horizons.
3.2. State of cartography in Eastern Europe
Cartography produced in the western part of Europe triumphed in the eighteenth
century. The role of maps and map-making processes was rising slowly also in America
but it was in England and France that cartography was a prime business area. These two
countries were definitely the centre of the discipline. The concentration of interest was
due to two main reasons. Firstly, there was the biggest market of potential buyers, such as
scholars, students, philosophers or merchants. Secondly, the high-level of education given
to cartographers in many of the established schools, gave the West a chance to become a
mecca of talent in this domain.
With map-making flourishing in the West, educated Eastern Europeans realized
the growing importance of the field. Alas, there were only a small group of scholars who
were properly educated and had experience in cartography. They still belonged to the
elite of the country, who worked on important maps, but never had recognition from their
collaborators in the West. There were no special facilities to educate young cartographers,
while there were many in England and France. Perhaps, if the domain of cartography in
the east had been more developed at the time, these countries could have avoided
patriarchal treatment from the West. They could have geographically mastered their lands
on their own and felt responsible for their own maps. This would have also avoided
foreign misconceptions of their land. Although local authors could also distort the image
of their country presented in the maps, usually their maps were more reliable than foreign
ones. It was because the outsiders did not have feelings for the country, land or people.
This made their work more simplistic and exposed to disorders in the image.
Nevertheless, countries such as Poland or Russia had to rely on intellectuals from
abroad if they wanted to create maps to a Western standard. There were not enough
national scholars to be able to carry out extensive geographical works and were therefore
not recognized in the West. This was due not only to intellectual insufficiencies but
mainly because the Eastern scholars focused their efforts on mapping their own
neighbourhoods and not other parts of the world. Countries like England and France had
long since created maps of the world, atlases and charts of newly discovered lands. As
countries in the east were not included in the colonial power agenda, their needs were not
broad enough to explore and draw images of the new places. The war maps were
proceeded beyond the frontiers, but usually the battles were conducted in proximity to
their country, so the cartographers were not compelled to work out images of too many
distant areas.
Russia, which was generally the most aware of its needs among all the countries
of Eastern Europe, realized early on the importance of maps. The Russians invested in
foreign students asking them to work in the discipline.
In so far as Peter I and his immediate successors preferred any single foreign country as a source of intellectual stimulus for their people, they tended to choose Germany; and this preference was strengthened by the influence of their numerous German advisers, favourites, and officials.101
For Russia, because of the experiences with Germans working for the monarch, Germany
was the best country to invest in, in order to improve Russian cartography. One of the
aims of the reign of Peter the Great was to carry out a cultural revolution. He was the first
monarch to transform Russia into an independent and strong monarchy within Europe.
The Tsar focused his efforts on a two-way exchange. Firstly, many of the Russian
intellectuals, who decided to study abroad, got their education in Germany. Secondly, the
Academy of Sciences, established in 1725 in Moscow, hosted many German students.
The students were getting sponsored by the Russians and in return gave their skills and
knowledge to develop Russian cartography. This idea of investment in western human
capital, forced an intellectual growth of the country. It is interesting that Russia broke
with the continental belief in the superiority of England in cartography over exemplary
Germany. “To the Russian nobility the English by contrast appeared still primarily as
merchants, and hence faintly contemptible, while their close connection with the
unpopular navy earned them a good deal of dislike.”102 It appears that Russians treated
their well-established relationships (and possibly simply distance) as more important than
alleged advantages they could get from working with England.
The principal difference between the state of cartography in Russia and in Poland
was that while in Russia the monarch invested in the country's development, in Poland, in
the eighteenth century, the discipline was considered more of a hobby. When the Russians
were working on the improvement of their cartography, Poland' king Stanislaw August
Poniatowski refused to lend his maps to Tadeusz Kościuszko so that the latter could
prepare for battle. The king made the famous statement, “If I still had diamonds left, I
would prefer to give them, rather than these maps, which are the fruit of twenty years of
my efforts,”103 but later agreed to the demand. This unlikely approach to science shows
the difference between Russia and Poland. Russia was focused on its own growth and
from the beginning invested in maps and establishing cartography. Poland did not take
the same chances and maps were used more for private purposes than public utility. The
simple object of a map would not have saved Poland from being partitioned.
Nevertheless, it became an example of the awareness of Russia, which led them to be an
invader, and the naivety of the Polish monarch and his nobility, who finally became
subjects. Science of cartography and its understanding became for some countries a
useful political tool for obtaining power in Europe.
Michael J. Mikoś in his essay Monarchs and Magnates told the story of the king's
interest in cartography. Despite all the vices, the author paid respect to Stanislaw August
Poniatowski for his will to encourage map-making, even if it was made on a small-scale.
Similarly, Larry Wolff exalted the king for making room for cartography in his country,
which may have been the only reason why maps of Poland even existed at the time.104
Stanislaw was considered as an educated person who enjoyed art, science and
culture. He treated the affairs of science as he treated art, i.e. science was a hobby, a past-
time, mere entertainment. This artistic idealisation of all the disciplines led him to the
hobbyist treatment of domains that, as it was mentioned, could have helped him in
leadership.
After his election, [Stanislaw] undertook an ambitious program of creating appropriate conditions for the development of cartography, surrounded himself with astronomers and cartographers, organized an office of cartography at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, and assembled there a sizable collection of 325 maps, globes, and astronomical instruments.105
Although he managed to improve the discipline of map-making, the king did not profit as
much as he might have from this science.
The monarch united foreign intellectuals with native scholars and worked mainly
with Charles Perthées, Francis Czaki, Jozef Aleksander Jablonowski and Teodor Waga.
Perthées, for example, was in charge of making small maps of different regions of Poland
he had never visited. Although it seemed like a difficult task, the cartographer compiled
all the important information, with the help of bishops who provided the details about the
provinces. This is how he created a valuable representation of the Polish lands. Jozef
Aleksander Jablonowski compiled information for the first map of Poland, which was
drawn by Saint-Hilaire106 in 1755 in Paris. Francis Czaki collaborated with Jean-
Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville in 1761 on one of the maps of the country.107 These
binational cooperations were generally successful with the exception of one case. The
work on the atlas of Poland around the year 1770 was a laborious process and included
many scholars. The compilation of all the details in the final stage of the work was given
to Italian cartographer Giovanni Rizzi Zannoni. Zannoni, indeed, published his Carte de
la Pologne divisée par provinces et palatinates et subdivisée par districts in 1772 in
Paris, but claimed credit for creating the whole atlas. Prince Jablonowski got only a
'flattering dedication' on the side of the map for all the work he actually put into its
creation.108 This example clearly shows the difference between the objectives of foreign
and native cartographers towards national work. The foreign scholars were not bound, as
in Russia by academic commitments, or by attachment to the country, so intellectual theft
was not a problem for them.
Although it is very difficult to find maps that travellers used while travelling
around Poland and Europe, Coxe mentioned the map of Zannoni as one that was
generally in use in the eighteenth century.
The partition being made according to the map of Zannoni, the river Podhorts was taken as the eastern boundary of this dismembered province; but when the Austrian commissioners visited the spot, where
according to Zannoni the Podhorts flowed into the Dnieper, they found no river known to the inhabitants which answered to that name.109
The map was instantly associated with the creation of Zannoni, not Prince Jablonowski. It
means that the general public did not know about the dispute or even if they knew, they
accepted Zannoni as the author of the map. Coxe told the story in order to show that even
the map used for such a significant task as partition, bore great mistakes. Apart from this
record, no other examples of using maps can be found in travel accounts. Perhaps,
travellers did not decide to add any of the used maps in order to create a mental map of
visited lands, done through literary language.
Other misfortunes that occurred in Polish cartography were events in which the
maps were not secured properly. This led to many of them being burnt in fires, stolen or
taken away to other countries. The Polish cartography could not therefore provide a
proper means of supplying information, especially to foreigners who wanted to get to
know the country. With the lack of such maps, Western Europe took an initiative. By
exploring the East they pursued its superiority in somewhat discovering new lands and
obtaining an intellectually imperialistic power over Eastern Europe.
3.3. Maps as a language of power
Cartography in the eighteenth century was not yet a stable, fully established
discipline. Although the approach to this science significantly improved, it did not mean
that there was no market for new tools in cartography and new maps. The constant
political and territorial changes in the eighteenth century created a great need for new
maps, atlases and charts. In the eastern part of Europe, historical turmoils, such as the
creation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth or three partitions, encouraged the
map-making business to create new maps with up-to-date images. In the year of the first
partition, 1772, a French member of the Academy of Sciences in Petersburg, Jean-
Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, published L'Empire de Russie, son origine et ses
accroissements to emphasise the new lands, whose possession had made Russia proud.
This example, of a rapid publication in order to show off the new gains, is but one case
showing the existence of power in images, especially maps.
Following the reasoning of Larry Wolff, that Western Europe had an ideological
agenda for establishing Eastern Europe; the “cartographical ambition of Western Europe
to master Eastern Europe in the eighteenth century”110 seemed an important symptom of
that ideological quest. A proper theory for that approach can be find in an essay by John
Brian Harley, Maps, Knowledge, and Power. His thesis that maps are important
documents that contribute to the discourse of power, casts a new light on the existing
Western definitions and traditions. In Harley's opinion, historians must shift their focus
from geographical representations embodied in the maps towards manipulation and
hidden information. The map is, for him, a “socially constructed form of knowledge”111
which is the result of a strong link between political geography and the history of
geographical thought.
Harley's methodology was to treat cartography as a language and examine the
maps in the frame of political power, focusing on the iconological approach:
Maps will be regarded as part of the broader family of value-laden images. […] We thus move the reading of maps away from the canons of traditional cartographical criticism with its string of binary oppositions between maps that are 'true and false', 'accurate and inaccurate', 'objective and subjective', 'literal and symbolic', or that are based on 'scientific integrity' as opposed to 'ideological distortion'. Maps are never value-free images […]. Both in the selectivity of their content and in their signs and styles of representation maps are a way of conceiving, articulating, and structuring the human world which is biased towards, promoted by, and exerts influence upon particular sets of social relation.112
The author based his theory on three distinctions. The first was, as mentioned before, the
language of cartography. This language conveys the ideas from the map in the way that
the receiver can understand them and stimulate a “search for evidence about aspects such
as the codes and context of cartography as well as its content in a traditional sense.”113
This approach to maps leads the receiver to being able to ask and answer questions about
“changing readerships for maps, about levels of carto-literacy, conditions of authorship,
aspects of secrecy and censorship, and also about the nature of the political statements
which are made by maps.”114 To treat cartography as a language, helping to find a
discourse of power in maps, is to be able to notice the possible agenda of map-makers in
the details of a map.
The second facet was based on the theory of iconology formulated by Erwin
Panofsky. Similarly to the language dimension, iconology brings the understanding that
images have two layers of meaning. The first is the literal sense of the figure, while the
second is a hidden layer of meaning. The latter is a symbolic vision of every image, in
this case a map. According to Harley, it is in this deeper sense that the political and power
dimension of an image provides the most important information for an insightful reader.
115
The last aspect of this theoretical perspective was derived from the
aforementioned idea that a map can produce knowledge in a social context. Harley was
building his belief on the works of Michel Foucault and Anthony Giddens. According to
Foucault, knowledge is a form of power. This was a starting point for Harley to
demonstrate that cartography is similarly a source of knowledge and therefore power,
because maps “cannot escape involvement in the process by which power is
deployed.”116 Giddens's contribution to this ideology is the theorization of the
“'authoritative resources' (as distinguished from material resources) controlled by the
state: 'storage of authoritative resources involves above all the retention and control of
information and knowledge'.”117 Maps bear the characteristics of surveillance, that can
make them the means of state control and political power. Harley made a remark about
the present times, when the complex states require more and better maps. This can also be
applied to the growing state of affairs in the eighteenth century.
To conclude, these three elements help to convert the one-dimensional image into
a detailed source of political power in society. In the words of Harley:
Maps as 'knowledge as power' are explored here under three headings: the universality of political contexts in the history of mapping; the way in which the exercise of power structures the content of maps; and how cartographic communication at a symbolic level can reinforce that exercise through map knowledge.118
This ideology is important in understanding the complex nature of maps. The use of
specific maps and atlases by the travellers, following Harley's point of view, could have
had a great impact on how they perceived the places they visited. Another element of
Harley's thesis, vital for the purpose of this paper, is the silence of maps, which means
that “maps – just as much as examples of literature or the spoken word – exert a social
influence through their omissions as much as by the features they depict and
emphasise.”119 The omission of some details could have been the result of an
unconscious will, the lack of experience or the political order. Even in the first two cases,
with accidental omissions, maps could have provided distorted information about the
countries. In the latter case, maps were clearly a tool for discrimination and imperialistic
agenda for power. By noticing the marginalized people, lands and other such elements on
the maps, Hartley may wish to restore social justice.
Mark Monmonier agreed with the possible double-meaning of maps. In his
opinion it is enforced by the paradox of cartographical representation, the receivers and
map-makers. “On n'échappe donc pas au paradoxe de la cartographie: pour offrir une
represéntation fidèle et fiable, une carte précise doit énoncer de pieux mensonges.”120
The paradox is the friction between the honest representation of the world, as a prime
reason for map-making, and the selective and incomplete approach that has to be
undertaken to create such an image. The receivers of such an imperfect image easily
accept it. They believe in the good intentions of the map-maker, taking into account a
small probability of error, as an element that may have occurred by mistake. However,
cartography should not be considered as a manipulated branch of science that should not
be trusted at all. On the contrary, it should be regarded as an objective science but studied
within many intellectual and social contexts.
Moreover, the map-makers usually are not a tool of propaganda in the hands of
the state. It is more of an unconscious choice between what to place in the map and what
to neglect. The author chooses different parameters, details and elements that he places in
his image and that makes it his map, in a way that there is only one map of that kind in
the world. Yet, such a map can provide different meanings according to different contexts
and people.
Une simple réflexion devrait mettre en garde les utilisateurs de cartes contre une naïveté aussi malsaine que largement répandue: une carte donnée, quelle qu'elle soit, n'est jamais que l'une des innombrables cartes que l'on pourrait dresser à partir de la même situation et des mêmes paramètres.121
Maps in this context always become different representations of reality, even if drawn
with the same parameters. For the travellers it meant that even if they used the same map,
they have seen different elements that interested them. Moreover, maps have to be
selective in nature, so the task of a cartographer is to make a choice between what to
show or emphasise and what to omit, and how to expose the chosen information in the
best way. Jeremy Black somewhat defended map-makers with respect to these difficult
decisions, which can have wide consequences in historical and social fields of study:
The subject of a map reflects choice; so also do the scale, projection, orientation, symbolization, key, colour, title and caption. To imagine that there is a totally objective cartography is to deny the element and nature of choice and to neglect the assumptions present in choices […].
Both assumptions and choices can require careful unpicking, as they entail subjective judgements […] whereas the ideology of modern cartography […] is that of accuracy, which is generally seen as an aspect of objectivity.122
Black suggested that it is not always a person that uses a map who changes its context,
but the map itself is in nature marked by the subjective nature of the cartographer. Maps
can never be objective but they can only aim to be accurate. This means that maps
themselves are a tool of power that can distort the image of a country; travellers were
only a part of the discovery of these specific details in a map.
Larry Wolff, in contrast, used the imperialistic character of maps as evidence for
his thesis of cartographical superiority of the West over the East. As the level of
cartography in Eastern Europe was not as developed as it was in England or France, the
task of preparing the map of a country was usually in the hand of a foreigner. Wolff
believed that this could have led to the manipulation on the part of Westerners; done in
order to create a new, obviously backward reality of the 'lost lands':
At the beginning of the eighteenth century the lands of Eastern Europe were still incompletely mapped by comparison to the cartographical standard of Western Europe, and the mapping of Eastern Europe that took place during the course of that century, often carried out by foreign experts, was a fundamental part of the general discovery which produced and organized knowledge of 'these lost lands'.123
This intellectual expansion led to the re-discovery of Eastern Europe by travellers,
scholars and cartographers, ratifying the positive and superior image of the West. This
approach also carried the marks of indirect imperialism, because the West created the
images of the East from scratch, implementing their own ideas for a representation of
these lands. As one of the examples of such double-meaning images, Wolff provided a
map of Russia made by Nicolas Sanson in 1695. In this map the details of cities and
places decreased as one moved to the east: “The predominance of little trees made it that
much easier to master this map 'with facility,' and reflected the still rudimentary mapping
of Russia at the end of the seventeenth century.”124 Another example was that of the
distortion of the image of Poland, found in the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d'Alembert.
The authors called for the use of land for commerce and trade and described it with close
connections to geographically distant places:
The rivers of Poland were no more than lines on the map, useless to the Poles themselves, but exciting to the imagination of geographers in Western Europe, who inevitably envisioned in Eastern Europe a meeting of the Orient and the Occident. Typically disorientating was the prospect of joining east and west by rivers that, fundamentally, flowed to the north or the south. Typically confusing was the elementary error by which the Encyclopedia allowed Poland access to the 'northern ocean,' when, in fact, Poland's northern coast was on the Baltic Sea. However much one insisted that Poland was a land of the North, it was nevertheless distinctly non-Arctic.125
The representation of the country, so remote from the original state, results in the
questioning of the reasons for such an article. If the writers of so excellent a source of
knowledge were not careful enough to produce reliable information about the
geographical state of affairs, other topics such as politics or culture could have also been
distorted in what could have produced far reaching consequences for the country.
Considering the popularity of the Encyclopédie, many readers must have merged the
writer's opinions with their existing view on Poland, which resulted in an alarming state
of knowledge regarding Eastern Europe among Westerners.
Travellers were an important source of information for cartographers at the time,
as they are for historians now. Cartographers and travellers had a two-way relationship.
Map-makers were the ones who created maps for the use of travellers. The places that
travellers could reach depended on their efforts and type of work. Likewise, the voyagers
were helpful to cartographers. They were the ones who often discovered new places and
provided new information for the maps. The Enlightenment also had an impact on this
relationship since travellers were meant to do “the work of 'enlightened people' seeking to
cast light upon the darkest corner of the continent”. One of the dark corners was
definitely Eastern Europe but philosophers of the Enlightenment (who also often made
maps themselves) associated the light of cartography with the light of civilization. This
light was meant to bring the East back from the darkness of backwardness.126
3.4. Examples of the maps presenting Eastern Europe
Along with the arguments regarding the Western agenda of superiority towards
the East, as shown by map-making domains, it is essential to analyse the maps
themselves. The travellers, Marshall, Wraxall and Coxe, did not give examples of the
maps they used in their travels. Despite that, they did mention in a few places, how they
related knowledge coming from the maps to the knowledge they got from experience.
Marshall when describing Russia noticed a great difference between these two kinds of
knowledge:
The reason must be, the country's being so extremely out of the way of all travellers, that not a person in a century goes to it, who takes notes of his observations with intention to lay them before the world […]; and hence it is that the greatest changes happen in such remote parts of the world, without any thing of the matter being known. And our writers of geography, who are every day publishing, copy each other in so slavish a manner, that a fact in 1578 is handed down to us as the only information we can have in 1769; a circumstance which reigns in all the books of general geography I have seen. Let me here add, that I have, in travelling to gain information, visited those countries about which it would be in vain to consult books.127
Marshall, although suspected of not visiting any countries abroad, treated himself as a
scientific explorer, who travelled in order to enrich cartography. He noticed the lack of
information in the books or maps on this part of Europe. He assigned this state of affairs
to the unpopularity of the place, that it did not encourage travellers to visit and therefore
create proper guides about the area. Also Coxe gave the expression of mental-mapping by
saying: “The Poles, in their features, look, customs, dress, and general appearance,
resemble Asiatics rather than Europeans; and they are unquestionably descended from
Tartar ancestors.”128 The author stated that the Polish characteristics belong more to an
Asian race than a European race. This opinion was the case for many other travellers at
the time (most often of those who did not travel to Eastern Europe). Such a comparison
reinforced the belief that Poland was the first country on the border with Asia and that it
already belonged to the Orient.
The travellers did not provide information about the sources of their maps,
suggesting in fact that their sources were not satisfactory enough. Yet, there are a few
maps dating from 1754 to 1812 that could be an example of the maps used by the
travellers or to show the treatment of Eastern Europe in cartography in the eighteenth
century. Moreover, each of the maps represents an idea of progress-as-power as was
discussed before. Of importance is the timeframe for the maps. The first four maps could
have been used for political reasons and were influenced by the Seven Years' War
1754-1763. The last three maps were certainly affected by the partitions of Poland in the
years 1772, 1792 and 1795.
Figure 1 is an atlas map of Europe created and published in France in 1754 by
Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, a French geographer and cartographer. The
presented map is drawn on two sheets, the relief is shown pictorially and political borders
are hand coloured.
Most of D'Anville's atlases were made up for the individual customer, so it appears that no two are alike. D'Anville's maps have a clarity and directness that is very 'modern'. He read widely, and incorporated the best available geographic knowledge into his work. The English and others copied from his maps extensively. Many of the maps were missing when we acquired this atlas, and have been added subsequently.129
D'Anville was an approved cartographer who was able to create very detailed maps, such
as the one from 1754. The full title of this map is Europe contenant la France,
l'Allemagne, l'Italie, l'Espagne & les Isles Britanniques.
As Poland, or any other country from the eastern part, is not considered in the
title, it is rather clear that it would not appear on the final map. Despite that, the author
decided to devote quite a large space in the top right corner to the sketch of Poland. The
northern and western part of the country are described in detail; the names of the bigger
towns and rivers, as well as small villages, are provided. In the northern part, belonging
to Prussia, the names of the particular regions (Pomern, Cassuben, Wenden) are also
mapped, which does not occur in any other part of the mapped land. Further east, the map
looses in detail. In the central part of Poland, only Warsaw is signalled as if it was the
only relevant city to be listed. This resembles travel accounts in which all the travellers
headed to Warsaw, expecting it to be glorious and different from all the poverty that had
been seen on the road.
In general, the peripheries of the map are filled with the names of the places on
every side of the map, except for Poland. Moreover, the protruding ends of countries like
Portugal, Italy or England, exceed even beyond the contours of the map. Southern parts
of Scandinavia, although being placed at the same latitude as Scotland, are cut out from
the map, while an image of Scotland is forced in. These are the visible choices made by a
cartographer on which places to expose and which to omit. For people using such a map
what strikes first is the focus on important countries and the lack of the focus on the
others; not worth exposing in detail at all. The observer sees Poland as a country that is
symbolizing the 'end of Europe' or 'the poor, empty state'. Other countries, to the West,
overflow the borders of the map while Poland is under-represented. This resulted in
reinforcing the common concepts of poverty and emptiness of the eastern countries. No
wonder that many people could have had a fragmentary representation of these countries
if they only used such maps.
Figure 1 Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon Anville, Premiere partie de la Carte d'Europe
contenant la France, l'Alemagne, l'Italie, l'Espagne & les Isles Britanniq(ue)s, 1754,
atlas map, 99 cm x 81 cm, David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
Figure 2 is an atlas map of Europe with annotations on the name, religion and
sovereigns of particular countries. It was reprinted in Paris in 1755 by the Abbé de
Dangeau. It is an engraved map with hand-coloured country boundaries. There are only a
few countries' names listed on the map: Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany,
Hungary, Poland, Russia (Moscovie). On the left side there is a column of text with
information on every single specified country, and additionally Courland (today Latvia).
The copy from the Rumsey Collection bears pen-and-ink modifications to the text.
Nouvelle méthode pour apprendre facilement et sans maitre la géographie, et les premiers principes du Blazon ... Compose par M. L'abbe de Dangeau, l'un des quarante de l'académie Françoise. Cette géographie de la France par l'Abbe de Dangeau est le manuscrit de l'auteur.130
The note on the map suggests that it was used for pedagogical purposes. The map must
have been used at school to teach the geography of Europe to children as indicated by the
words “apprendre facilement et sans maitre la géographie.” The map is only a draft of the
contours of the countries; it could not have been useful to scholars or travellers because
of the lack of important details. The author clearly made a distinction between the north-
eastern part of Europe, which he treated as a whole, and the rest of Europe. The specified
countries of the north are Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland and from east Russia,
Poland and Hungary. An appearance of Germany among these countries is unusual.
Generally, Germany was associated with Austria, Italy, France and England as a western
country. Also on the map, a contour of this state is placed on the left page, signalling a
greater connection with the west. Nevertheless, Germany in the beginning of the
eighteenth century was still under the rule of the Austrian sovereigns. Moreover, the
struggle of Prussia and the Habsburg monarchy in the War of the Austrian Succession
(1740-48) led to the situation when Germany was not yet considered as a dominant power
in Europe. This could have caused the placing of the nation with the eastern countries.
The receiver at once associates the represented countries as a single block, a
counter-part to the western part. The aim of the presentation must have been to create two
maps with two different topics, first with the countries of Western and Southern Europe,
second with the Northern and Eastern. Such division, given to children, reinforces the
conviction of Europe's division into two separate parts.
Figure 2 Abbé de Dangeau, Europe, 1755, atlas map, 43 cm x 61 cm, David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
Figure 3 is an atlas map of Poland created and published in London in 1758. It
was drawn and engraved by John Gibson; Emanuel Bowen made revisions, corrections
and improvements. The full title of the map is Poland. Atlas Minimus or a New Set of
Pocket Maps of the Several Empires, Kingdoms and States of the Known World, with
Historical Extracts relative to each. According to the title, in London in the 1750s,
Poland was considered as a country of a 'known world', which means there existed
enough information to provide a detailed account of it. The map is an outline coloured
map of Poland and its lands, with the names explaining specific areas. There are two
columns of text explaining the size of each of the provinces. Although the map is not very
detailed, and does not give many names of the towns, the general draft of the provinces
provides a solid basis for geographical as well as political knowledge.
The map could have been created for people willing to understand the country in
general. It is not very detailed and it emphasises only the most important provinces. For
that reason it could have been a useful and uncomplicated tool in getting to know Poland.
The joint information about geographical distances between the provinces could have
also been useful to the travellers in their first attempts at researching the country.
Knowing how big the lands are in between their destinations, they could have planned
their trip based on individual provinces. Also, the map itself, because of the colours of the
lining, the displayed size and the concentration on only one country, made the journey
there encouraging. This map is in a contradiction to the argument that the English could
have tried to diminish Poland in cartographical works.
Figure John Gibson, Emanuel Bowen, Poland. Atlas Minimus or a New Set of Pocket
Maps, 1758, atlas map, 7 cm x 10 cm, David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
Figure 4 is an atlas map entitled Poloniae Regnum, Ducatusq Magnae Lithuaniae
created by Tobias Conrad Lotter and published by Tobias Lobeck in Augsburg in 1762.
The map illustrates the countries of the Baltic Region: Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine. It
is full coloured and is hand coloured on the outlines. The date is estimated.131 It lists
names of the biggest towns and selected smaller villages. Also, the names of the regions,
written in Latin, are mapped. The name of the sea is written in Dutch 'De Oost See',
which means the Eastern Sea. Both languages, Latin and Dutch, can signify that a map
was used by merchants. The specific indication of cities, towns and rivers were helpful in
navigating trade in the country. Poland at the time had imported goods from Holland as
well as France; this was recorded by Marshall: “The Dutch have all the supply of India
goods, and most of that of linen and woollen; and the French the principal part of the
silks, brandy, wines, and all the West India commodities.”132 The map indeed, could
have been of use for the Dutch, French and other merchants of different nationalities, as it
was written in universal Latin.
On the right side of the map, on the Lithuanian territories, but especially in
Muscovie, the representation of forests attracts attention. It seems like when going further
east, the urbanization diminishes in favour of uncultivated or husbandry areas. The image
of the great forests of Central Europe can be found in The History of the Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon twice: “In the time of Caesar the reindeer, as
well as the elk and the wild bull, was a native of the Hercynian forest, which then
overshadowed a great part of Germany and Poland”133 and “It is difficult in the dark
forests of Germany and Poland to pursue the emigrations of the Heruli.”134 The map
representation of the vast green areas in the East could have been connected with the
ancient idea of Central and Eastern Europe as planted with forests. It could have also
been a filling of a space that conveyed the idea of natural, savage lands of the far Eastern
Europe.
Another important detail on the map is the ideological definition of the four
corners of the world instead of a geographic one. On four sides of the map, outside the
square, there are four names defining the directions: in the west – Occidens, north –
Septentrio, east – Oriens, south – Merinies. The idea of using old geographical
designations may signalize the hidden agenda for communicating the existing ideological
frontiers of Europe. The familiar division between Occident and Orient signify the same
differences.
Figure Tobias Conrad Lotter, Tobias Lobeck, Poloniae Regnum, Ducatusq Magnae
Lithuaniae, 1762, atlas map, 11 cm x 13 cm, David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
Figure 5 is an atlas map entitled A new map of the Kingdom of Poland with its
dismembered provinces. It was made by Thomas Kitchin in 1787 and published by
Robert Sayer in London. It is an engraved map with coloured outlines of the provinces. It
shows vegetation, marshes, etc., and the relief is shown pictorially. The works on the atlas
were based on the maps of D'Anville and Robert.135 Again, the map is quite detailed.
Further east, the names of the towns disappear but it seems like the localization of the
forests and green areas is very well established. In the top right as well as bottom right
corners, there are only a couple of names of the towns with the perfect positioning of the
forests. It seems like these vast green areas were easier to be mapped by cartographers
than the specific towns or villages in the east. In the top left corner there is a chart with
the numbers of inhabitants of Poland belonging to different provinces:
The Kingdom of Poland before the Partition Treaty in 1775 contained 14,260,000 Inhabitants. The Russian Province, dismembered from Lithuania, contains 1,550,000. The Austrian Province, of Galicia which includes Lodomeria, contains 2,580,000. The Prussian Province, comprehending Polish or Western Prussia &c. contains 800,00. Total in the dismembered Provinces 4,930,000. Remains in Poland 9,330,000.136
This chart explains the division of lands and the amount of inhabitants per district.
Austria, as a precursor of the idea of partition, got the land with the largest population,
while the smallest territory was assigned to Prussia. With the first partition in 1772,
Poland had already lost a one-third of its lands. These statistics could have been placed
on the map in order to calm the other countries of Europe, already anxious of the unfair
dealings in the East. Considering that Poland did not have strong allies in Europe at the
time, the information of the withdrawal of 'only' one-third of this country, did not raise
widespread discontent among the western nations.
Coxe presented very similar statistics to those from the map in his Travels,
published in 1784; three years before the publication of the map.
Of the dismembered countries, the Russian province is the largest, the Austrian the most populous, and the Prussia the most commercial. The population of the whole amounts to near 5,000,000 of souls; the first containing 1,500,000, the second 2,500,000, and the third 860,000.137
Both sets of numbers are almost the same. It shows that authors of the map from 1787
used the calculations done a few years earlier. Therefore, the map was not fully updated
at the time when it was published. It may suggest that other maps could have been done
with the same neglect for important details such as specific numbers.
Figure Kitchin, Thomas, A new map of the Kingdom of Poland with its dismembered
provinces, 1787, atlas map, 48 cm x 66 cm, David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
Figure 6 is an atlas map printed by Mathew Carey on May 1, 1795 in
Philadelphia. The map is called Poland, Shewing the Claims of Russia, Prussia &
Austria. It represents the lands taken by Russia, Prussia and Austria in the third partition
of Poland in 1795. The map was originally uncoloured but some time later a few remarks
have been placed and highlighted with coloured pen and pencil.
Once more, some parts of the land are more detailed than others. In the bottom
right corner, Ukrainian lands are almost extending the borders of the map. Yet, on the
right side of the map, on the same longitude, the Russian lands are not detailed at all. The
author could have wanted to focus one's attention only on the lands that were taken by the
three powers and not mistake it with their official land from before the partition.
There is a legend on the left hand side of the map explaining which lands belong
to what country. The system used for such indications is not very good. It is difficult to
localize the regions by province and even harder to find out the borders of each district.
Presumably, an American cartographer could not have been sure about such details;
moreover these agreements on partition were constantly changing. The cartographer
somehow may have anticipated the criticism and added a remark in the bottom left corner
“Poland, Shewing the Claims of Russia, Prussia & Austria, until the late Depredations,
the extent of which cannot as yet be ascertained”. He could not predict the exact division
of lands mainly because the map was printed in May while the official agreement on the
partition was given in October 1795.
From the analysis of the language that the cartographer used, from the use of the
word 'depredations', it can be deduced that he treated the partition as a violation of an
established order. As mentioned before, the political events were encouraging the map-
making business to constantly issue improved copies. Such was the case of this map,
which represented Poland in a poor way, nevertheless addressing the need of providing
the newest information as soon as possible. Perhaps, the map was ordered by three
invaders, Russia, Prussia and Austria, due to a need of planning changes in the newly
possessed lands. It could have been also important for sovereigns of other countries to
obtain a map like this. Their political decisions and their receivers have changed and that
had to be taken into consideration.
Figure Carey, Mathew, Poland, Shewing the Claims of Russia, Prussia & Austria, 1795, atlas map, 32 cm x 37 cm, David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
Figure 7 is an example of the maps from the beginning of the nineteenth century
that displayed improvements in cartography. The map depicts an image of Poland as a
country erased from the map of Europe. It was made by John Pinkerton, drawn by L.
Hebert and published by Cadell and Davies in London in 1810. It represents the lands
belonging to Prussia. The map comes from Pinkerton's Modern Atlas which is considered
one of the best English atlases of the period. It is an engraved map, fully hand-coloured
and the relief is shown by hachures138 (hachures is a type of graphic shading of selected
elements of the map, consisting of parallel or intersecting lines). Specific regions within
the Prussian provinces are marked by different colours, which makes it easier to read the
map.
It is a very detailed image of the country, consisting even of the names of the very
small villages. The situation of these villages is not always geographically correct, but in
general the map is very close to the perfect representation of the province in a way that
even the smallest villages are presented on the map. Due to its detailed character, the map
could have been used by travellers as it would be very easy to navigate the lands with this
map. Also, it could have been used by the government in order to survey the territories, or
soldiers having their garrisons even in villages. It would not be used by merchants
because the places located on the map were usually not connected with any kind of trade.
Most of the names of the towns and villages are changed into German
equivalents. This shows the one-sighted view of expansion that was an eradication of all
prevailing traditions, such as the names of the towns that has been always known in
Polish. This is an example of the imperialistic agenda of Germany who were not
concerned with any sentiments towards the Polish traditions but only about their conquer.
To conclude, the map varies from others that are dating even fifteen years earlier.
Possibly, the Prussian cartographers, influenced by the monarch, got interested in their
own lands and decided to create a proper map of their own estates. Also, the Prussian
administration of the lands could have made it more popular for visits as well as
explorations, which resulted in the improvement of cartography of this region.
Figure Pinkerton, John, Prussian Dominions, 1810, atlas map, 52 cm x 71 cm, David
Rumsey Map Collection
Most of the maps from the eighteenth century found in the David Rumsey
Historical Map Collection are maps created in England, France and the United States.
This truly shows that the countries of the Western part of Europe, and partially the United
States, were pioneers in cartography. The maps described represent only a small
percentage of the maps of Europe or Poland. The changing course of history was
inspiring the cartographers to create new maps of the same places, due to historical
changes as well as different ideas for their representation. As map-makers were educated
in different ways and had various political backgrounds and opinions on particular parts
of the world, the maps they created resembled each other only superficially. The details
were never identical. These unique characteristics and, most importantly, the way they
were displayed on maps were what the travellers were focusing on. Some maps, such as
those presented above, could have easily discouraged the travellers, who based their
decisions precisely on maps or other travel accounts. The maps described, especially
from the period before the last partition in 1795, were usually of a poor representation of
the eastern part of Europe. On the one hand, they were misleading in a way that many
details, which were known about these places, were not provided on such maps. On the
other hand, even Coxe, Wraxall and Marshall noticed the emptiness of the lands they
visited in Poland, which can make such a scanty portrayal reasonable. In two of the maps
the clear division of West versus East or Occident versus Orient is being shown. This
confirms Wolff's argument that indeed such separation existed in this period and was very
visible in the cartography. Moreover, all the maps, after being closely analysed, reveal
features of the discourse of power, as delineated by John Harley. Certainly, if the maps
were studied more closely, they would exhibit many more facets to prove the thesis of
Western Europe mastering the East. Nevertheless, the chosen viewpoints already go
closely together with the argument and endorse it.
Chapter 4. Race and slavery issues
4.1. Problem of race in the eighteenth century
The issue of race began to be noticed at the end of the fifteenth century. This was
due to the first voyages to the 'New World'. The explorers faced groups of people that did
not resemble them, in skin colour, traditions and manners. After a period of curiosity,
caused by the first contact, race started to be used as an analytical category. According to
Andrew Valls, it provided an easy method of differentiating people. Simple observation
enabled anyone to find differences in people's appearance. It allowed philosophers and
anthropologists to work on understanding the sources of these differences; racial
categories became scientific tools.139 Consequently, in the seventeenth century, race
became a central element of the economic and political agenda for the western world. The
use of this category justified the exploitation of colonized nations and created a
transformation of the social contract that started to be based on race.
In The Racial Contract, Charles Mills argues that one of the main devices of modern political philosophy, the social contract, is despite its universalist appearance racially coded. The actual social contract was a contract among whites, and the content of the agreement was to exclude
and exploit nonwhites.140
The author found proofs for his argument in the works of such philosophers as Hobbes,
Locke and Kant. Whenever these scholars mentioned the social contract, both parts of it
were meant to be white, moreover Europeans. Despite that, the use of race in this context
could have been mistakenly analysed in an anachronistic way. The philosophers were
indeed basing their theories only on white men but their general assumption was that all
men were equal. Nevertheless, their opinions still provided a basis for racial theories. So,
although different races were allegedly equal, the lower placement in the hierarchy of
development did not allow, the exemplary, Native Americans to contract with Europeans;
this led to abuse and advantage taking .
In the course of colonialism and imperial expansion, a distinction between two
types of approach towards race appeared: race-as-ethnicity and race-as-biology141. A
similar distinction was offered by Anthony Appiah, here cited by Andrew Valls: “As such,
racialism is the belief in 'racial essence.' While this view is mistaken, according to
Appiah, it presents 'a cognitive rather than a moral problem' because the issue is not a
normative one – how people are to be treated – but 'how the world is'”.142 These two
perspectives demonstrate that the original character of 'race' was only an expression of
typical appearance and character; initially the concept of race did not bear any intellectual
connotations with possible defects as it began to be done later. When, for different
purposes, people have started to be treated differently, only because of how they looked,
the positive attitude towards race has been changed and its category politicized.
The Enlightenment is considered as a controversial period in terms of discussions
about racism. On the one hand, it was the time when nationalism was still mild and the
general ideas of toleration were treated above the religious superstition and prejudice. On
the other hand, many important scholars of this period justified the different approach to
people, based on the race. This was mainly due to colonialism and western superiority
that needed to be somehow explained and justified.
Several critics and historians have identified the Enlightenment as the doctrinal fount of modern racism. They can point to a specific logic which connects secularisation to racism. If the early modern world was constrained in its attitudes to other races by the word of scripture, so the argument runs, then the Enlightenment witnessed a liberation of science and philosophy from the shackles of Christian tradition, which created the ideological space in which racist doctrines might flourish. […] Modern scholarly debates have also begun to rage about the relationship of the Enlightenment to the rise of Orientalism, triggered
by the work of Edward Said, and about the downgrading of a backward
eastern Europe by the western European Enlightenment.143
In the modern era, Enlightenment is associated with the approach of race-as-biology
rather than ethnicity. Many decades of rationalizing the slave trade and the conquest of
foreign lands enforced the creation of a very close link between the period of reason and
the advent of colonialism marked by racism. This connection was also emphasized by the
superiority of western Europe towards the east. Although the Easterners were not that
much different from the English in their appearance, there were many other elements that
helped to create a powerful distinction between the two regions of Europe.
4.2. Polish essence
The dominant theories about the nature of man in modern times, from Montaigne onward, including those of Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Malebranche, Locke, Leibniz, Bayle, Berkeley, Hume and Kant, are all universalistic. They all define man in terms of mental and psychological characteristics. Size, skin color, religious beliefs, etc. do not enter into the question of whether he is to be treated in certain ways which differentiate him from animals or machines. However, the same people in the Enlightenment who could develop these theories of human nature could also provide the bases for theories claiming that some individuals, in fact millions of them, were less than men because they were dark, or
accepted the wrong religion.144
Philosophy was such a crucial element of the Enlightenment that it was, in fact, capable
of conveying all kinds of beliefs. Scholars, philosophers, ordinary people and, among
them, travellers, were receivers of these various philosophical theories that shaped their
minds. In one of his essays, David Hume wrote about national characters.145 This essay
could have had a big impact on travellers. Hume explained that there exists a tendency
for people of the same country to be similar to each other in manners and attitude.
Moreover, citizens of one country differ from those of another. Every nation has special
attributes that are explained by different causes. The author described a national character
in words:
Where a number of men are united into one political body, the occasions of their intercourse must be so frequent, for defence, commerce, and government, that, together with the same speech or language, they must acquire a resemblance in their manners, and have a common or national character, as well as a personal one, peculiar to each individual. Now though nature produces all kinds of temper and understanding in great abundance, it does not follow, that she always produces them in like proportions, and that in every society the ingredients of industry and indolence, valour and cowardice, humanity and brutality, wisdom and folly, will be mixed after the same manner.146
This specificity of attributes was often associated with climate. Hume mentioned it in his
essay but it was Montesquieu who was most often associated with this theory. According
to him, the temper depended on the hot or cold climate in which a man lived, and weather
had a big influence on his everyday decisions. When talking about eastern countries,
Montesquieu linked the context of the climate with an attachment to traditions.
If to that delicacy of organs which renders the eastern nations so susceptible of every impression, you add likewise a sort of indolence of mind, naturally connected with that of the body, by means of which they grow incapable of any exertion or effort; it is easy to comprehend,
that when once the soul has received an impression she cannot change it. This is the reason that the laws, manners, and customs, even those which seem quite indifferent, such as their mode of dress are the same to this very day in eastern countries as they were a thousand years ago.147
The attachment to specific elements of appearance as well as elements of social life was
also a common reflection of travellers. They closely observed the national character of
the Poles and the particular elements that had formed it – for example a national dress,
emphasizing Sarmatian roots, attitude towards tolerance and religion. It has to be
emphasized that only an upper class was perceived as one with a specific character. The
rest of the society, especially the peasants, did not have much to offer, that is why they
could not express their being in particular ways.
Connor about the essence from the times before the partitions Connor rejected the
theory of Montesquieu that climate formed the characters of people. He stated that the
Poles were very lively, strong and they lived long, in opposition to their neighbours –
Russians, Germans and Swedes. According to Connor, it was not climate but other
elements that helped Polish people to be vigorous. The reasons for the Polish character
were found in their diet, drinking, a way of life that was not luxurious, hunting,
exercising and most importantly, freedom: “Their health, vigour, and vivacity may
reasonably be augmented by their great freedom and privileges; for where slavery
hebetates and blunts the mind, and consequently enervates the body, liberty exhilerates
the one, and by that means strengthens the other”148. Connor was an agent of the
Enlightenment due to his belief in the importance of liberty in man's life. He was also an
optimist, when writing about Poland, as he did not predict a negative future for Poland.
He presented the character of the Poles as mainly positive. He also described the outfit of
Polish nobles. Its description became an important part of the story of each traveller,
exhibiting the essence transferred through costume.
The Polish men cut their hair about their ears like monks, as I observ'd in the first volume of this history. They raze away all the hair from their faces, leaving only one large whisker. They walk gravely with a poll-ax in their hands, and a sabre by their sides, which they never put off but when they go to bed. This sabre hangs by a strap of leather, to which is also fastened a handkercheif, a knife and sheath, and a small stone set in silver to whet their knife upon. They wash their faces and necks every morning in cold-water, and the fathers are accustom'd to make their children to wash themselves as soon as they are stirring, even in the
sharpest weather.149
Connor noticed that the outfit varied from those of different countries. Polish costumes
were usually inspired by the alleged ancestors of the Polish nobles, the Sarmatians. The
nobles believed in their aristocratic roots of Sarmatian ancestry from centuries before. In
order to express the apparent similarity, they adopted the fashion that distinguished them
from other nations and that expressed the distinctive elements, such as a shaved head and
moustache. The travellers, Connor among them, did not compliment the nobility on their
behaviour or their bravery. Contrary, they usually blamed them for the calamities of the
country. Therefore, the aristocracy did not behave as Sarmatians but only pretended to be
like them on the surface. The Polish essence was very superficial and, in fact, was
expressed only in a traditional dress.
Marshall on luxury and religion Marshall, when describing the character of the Poles,
focused his attention on foreign influences in fashion and lifestyle. He was invited for
dinner by one of the nobles in Gdansk. When visiting his house Marshall thoroughly
examined the interior as well as the family.
He has a large and convenient house, well furnished, and much in the English manner. His wife is an agreeable, sensible woman, a native of Silesia, who talked politicks incessantly […]. Their daughter, who entertained me on the harpsichord, Dantzick being pretty well supplid with musicians from Germany. Mr. Pratsky lives elegantly, but in the German manner, which is all the taste there: they sit long at their meals, and drink very heartily […]. Miss Pratsky, and other ladies I saw, aim in
their dress, I observed, at an imitation of the French taste.150
At Pratsky's family mansion, Marshall noticed many influences from abroad. The house
was decorated in an English way, this may have been the fashion at the time, as it was
also observed by Coxe in a different place.151 Gdansk, as a main merchant city in
Poland, was inhabited by many Germans. Hence, at Pratsky's, the German lifestyle
overruled the Polish ways and even entertainment, a song played by a daughter, was
probably the result of lessons with German musicians. The French fashion among women
was typical in many European countries, nevertheless, having outfits as such must have
been expensive. Using their wealth, the nobility indulged themselves in decorations and
goods imported from abroad. Their houses were examples of good taste, fine pieces of art
and foreign fashion. The nobility lived luxuriously, in order to express their aristocratic
origin. Although the times were difficult for most of the population, the fashion for
opulence and living beyond their means ruled in the minds of the nobility.
Not only Marshall, but also Coxe and Wraxall paid attention to this phenomenon.
Both of the latter visited aristocratic mansions and came to the same conclusions of
splendour. Similarly, the castle of the king in Warsaw was described by them as a place
strongly influenced by the English and French fashion. For them, two realities of
lifestyle, of nobility and peasants, created an opposition that found its place in the cities.
According to Coxe: “The whole town has a melancholy appearance, exhibiting that
strong contrast of wealth and poverty, luxury and distress, which pervades every part of
this unhappy country.”152 Wraxall shared this observation: “Many of the great families
continue to live in a style almost royal, amidst the ruins of their expiring country.”153
The upper class was criticized for focusing only on their wealth instead of the problems
of the failing country.
Despite their fascination for foreign objects, the Poles were not very keen on
people of different faiths. Although dissenters faced difficulties over the whole of Europe,
the split in faith in Poland led to the civil war. Marshall considered this, and the lack of
commerce, as the two main reasons for the ruin of the country.
Poland is divided into two grand parties, the Roman Catholicks, and the Protestants and Greeks. The former, for some ages past, have omitted (as has been the case in every country of Europe) no opportunities of oppressing the latter, and depriving them of that religious liberty to which they have a right by the constitution of the kingdom. A civil war immediately commenced. […] The success of the war was at first various; but every where the effect of it was destroying and plundering each other's estates, and utterly ruining a considerable part of the
kingdom.154
The Catholic priests could not accept the existence of Protestants and Greeks, expressing
therefore their very unchristian intolerance. The clergy, due to collaboration with the
nobility, possessed many privileges that they did not want to loose. The struggle for the
basic rights in the country caused the most problems to ordinary people, who could not
protect themselves nor flee the country in pursuit of protection abroad. The conflict once
again expressed the peculiar character of the Polish upper class. They formed alliances
with the clergy and fought fiercely in order to protect their power. Yet, they never decided
to battle for the felicity of their country and its citizens. It can be concluded that the
Polish essence at the time consisted more of political privileges and wealth than any
virtues.
Wraxall on Sarmatian traditions A strong Polish belief in Sarmatian roots was depicted
most of all in Wraxall's accounts. He returned at least three times to the issue of an outfit
that meant to represent a specific character of the Poles. By doing so, the traveller added
value to the costume that was an essential element of every respectable noble's
appearance. Wraxall's portrayal of the outfit was very similar to Connor's:
His head, which he shaves, is covered with a large fur bonnet. He wears a sort of hussar's dress, with long hanging sleeves, a sabre that reaches to the ground, and boots. His enormous moustachios complete the fierce singularity of his figure, and remind us of his Sarmatian origin.155
Both men focused their attention on shaved heads, moustaches and sabres at the side.
As opposed to Connor, for Wraxall the Polish appearance was displeasing and
harsh. Presumably, he recognized that the outfit was only a part of the Sarmatian role and
had nothing to do with the behaviour of the nobility. Among many accounts, in which
Wraxall stated the lack of virtue among the aristocracy, there was one specific that proved
the theory about Wraxall being able to see through the exterior appearance of the nobles.
The traveller mentioned the corruption of manners when telling a story about a Polish
lady Madam Zanguska. She was only twenty four years old and was already planning a
divorce. This was openly done in the presence of her husband and another lady, who was,
also openly, his mistress. Three people lived together in one house, in perfect relations.
Wraxall found this story disgraceful and the nobles immoral. This confirmed the theory
that Wraxall disapproved of the gentry's lifestyle so much that even their perfect
appearance did not persuade him to change his mind.
The author seems to have agreed with Montesquieu on his theory about the never
changing habits of some nations.
The Portugueze, the Russians, and the Neapolitan, are now no longer distinguishable from each other, and all the former originality of garb, which discriminated one nation from another, is lost. The Poles alone, who have survived their independence, have nevertheless tenaciously preserved their former habit, which hitherto the Russians have not attempted to compel them to renounce. A 'Piast,' or a gentleman, thus clothed, presents a striking contrast to those of every other country.156
As mentioned, for the Poles the outfit represented their connection with the ancient
Sarmatians. As the Sarmatians were virtuous and good warriors, the Polish nobles saw
them as role models. However, as their vices and corruption did not let them lead a
similar lifestyle, the nobility decided to express the Sarmatian tradition through very
visible elements, such as an outfit and preaching prominent slogans about their origin.
Coxe also noticed an attachment to the garment. When he met king Stanislaw August
Poniatowski for the first time, he noticed that he was dressed in modern clothes instead of
a national costume. Coxe stated that many modern gentlemen have decided to follow the
fashion of the ruler, but he also found many opponents to this idea.
The natives in general are so attached to this dress, that in the diet of convocation which assembled previous to the election of his present majesty, it was proposed to insert in the Pacta Conventa an article, whereby the king should be obliged to wear the Polish garment: but this motion was over-ruled.157
The creation of the Sarmatian identity, that in fact expressed only in the dress, was so
important for the aristocracy that they even wanted to change legislation. This exhibits
the nobility's attachment to superficial elements and representations. Yet, their tactic of
expressing Sarmatian attitudes was not consistent. The nobility indulged themselves with
modern foreign fashions and influences that did not support the image of an ancient
Sarmata. It was in fact only their formal dress that expressed alleged connection,
something that proves the point that aristocrats were very superficial and ignorant to
believe that an outfit will add to their character. Their own appearance was more
important than the appearance of their country that, on the European arena, was slowly
losing its ability.
Coxe on the relationships with the Jews The issue of race and tolerance also arose in the
case of the Jews inhabiting Poland in the eighteenth century. The Jews constituted a big
part of society and each traveller mentioned their existence on the Polish territories,
assigning them the role of maintaining commerce. Coxe referred to the Jews for the first
time when reporting his trips between the cities. According to the traveller, the only
accommodation on the road was provided by Jews. They owned the inns or offered their
own houses as places of rest, in exchange for money. The places were usually neglected,
not furnished and not prepared for the role of an inn. In spite of this condition, the Jews
were the only people who offered a place to stay for the travellers, so the visitors were
forced to pay them for lodging. The persistence of the Jews led them to monopolise the
domain of travelling and eventually most of the trade. This persistence was noticed also
by Wraxall. He described the Jews as strong people who, despite the inconveniences of
their fate, remain in the country and work for their success.
Warsaw is likewise crowded with Jews, who form a considerable proportion of the inhabitants. They wear a distinguishing dress, and derive a very precarious subsistence from the arts of fraudulent commerce, most of them being extremely poor. From time to time they are plundered, exiled, imprisoned, and massacred: yet, under such accumulated vexations, they continually multiply, and are here found in
far greater numbers than even at Amsterdam.158
The fact that there was such a great number of Jews in Poland was surprising for the
travellers. They could not understand the tolerance that the Poles had for them. The
nobles were usually very self-centred. In the religious civil war they, together with the
clergy, had already expressed their dislike to people of a different religious or political
belief. Theoretically, Jews should have been treated with a similar aversion. Nonetheless,
the Jews turned out to be a convenient tool for the nobility in preserving their wealth. The
relation between the two groups was thus mutual. The Jews undertook the trade and
commerce, which enriched the nobility, while enjoying many privileges obtained from
the Diet.
The privileges of the Jews were associated by Wraxall with the story of Ester who
was meant to be a mistress of one of the Polish kings, Casimir the Great. The king was
very much in love with her so he gave privileges to all the Jews. Her tomb was erected in
the gardens, near the palace in Cracow, reminding the travellers about this story. Yet Coxe
believed more in the political awareness of the king than his sentiments.
But when I consider the character of Casimir, I conceive that they [Jews] were indebted for their favourable reception in Poland more to his policy than to his affection for his mistress; for in those times the Jews were the richest and most commercial individuals in Europe; by allowing them therefore to settle in Poland, and by granting them some extraordinary immunities, he introduced trade and much wealth into his
dominions.159
Coxe was sure that Casimir knew that by granting rights to the Jews he could use their
trading skills in developing the situation of his country. Indeed, most of the trade was
owed to the foreigners and the Jews. The travellers, believing in the power of commerce
in gaining liberty, praised the Jews and compared them to the Polish people; the first
cared more about Poland than its own natives.
Jews owe the numerous privileges enjoyed by them in Poland, which is called the paradise of the Jews. [...] The number of Jews is now prodigious, and they have in a manner engrossed all the commerce of
the country; yet this flourishing state of affairs must not be attributed solely to the edicts of Casimir in their favour, but to the industry of those extraordinary people, to the indolence of the gentry, and
oppressed condition of the peasants.160
Apart from obvious advantages proceeding from the hard-working nature of the
Jews, they also paid taxes to the king that enriched the royal deposit. Among other
travellers, Connor mentioned the issue of taxes the most often, showing how important
this revenue was for the state.
The Jews are every where to be found in Poland, and enjoy their religion, and other privileges, without interruption; only they are restrain'd from trading within twelve leagues of Warsaw, by the constitutions. Their number is so great […] that there are above two millions of them in this kingdom, and that they are so privileg'd, that all this vast body pays not above a hundred and twenty thousand tinfes or florens a year to the states; which amounts to no more than twenty thousand dollars.161
Out of all the social classes in Poland, Jews were the most profitable of them all. The
nobility did not pay any taxes to the king. The peasants did but very often were not able
to give large amount of money due to their poverty. Therefore, the numerous Jews, when
most of them dealt with commerce and circulation of money, were able to increase
Poland's national income. It can be assumed, that it was important for the aristocracy as
well as the king to prevent the privileges of the Jews, in order to keep the profits coming.
Still, it is unusual that the conflicts between the clergy and other religious believers were
so fierce while the Jews were fully acknowledged in the country. Good relationships with
the Jews were bringing the upper class many benefits, so it seems that the clergy also had
to accept their existence in the Polish territories. Once again, the nobility along with the
clergy proved to be hypocritical. They persecuted other faiths but tolerated Jews due to
their profitability.
4.3. Slavery
Slavery in the historical British context can be examined in two ways. Firstly, it
can be investigated with the emphasis on the colonialism era and the events that
followed. Secondly, it can be understood paying attention to the processes that preceded
it; namely what had driven the British to create an empire. For the purpose of this paper,
the second question is more interesting. Although the British did not conquer Poland or
Eastern Europe, their intellectual conquest indeed took place there.
In the eighteenth century in England progress was associated with English
superiority. The British economy and political state, enforced mainly by colonialism and
slavery, were an example to many other European countries. These successes in different
fields strengthened British self-confidence. In the mid-nineteenth century, a French
aristocrat Arthur de Gobineau wrote an introduction to his book An Essay on the
Inequality of the Human Races, in which he proposed a philosophical basis for British
opinions on their superiority of the eighteenth century.
I was gradually penetrated by the conviction that the racial question overshadows all other problems of history, that it holds the key to them all, and that the inequality of the races from whose fusion a people is formed is enough to explain the whole course of its destiny. […] Thus, to take an example, a new era of power was opened for Great Britain by
the Anglo-Saxon invasion […] two branches of the same nation under the sceptre of a single house – a house that can trace its glorious title to the dim sources of the heroic nation itself. [...] By this method I convinced myself at last that everything great, noble, and fruitful in the works of man on this earth, in science, art, and civilization, derives from a single starting-point, is the development of a single germ and the result of a single thought; it belongs to one family alone, the different branches of which have reigned in all the civilized countries of the universe.162
Gobineau adopted a very simplistic point of view. He believed that all the successes and
failures of society can be associated with a specific race. Therefore, the British owed their
prosperity to their ancestors, just as Eastern Europeans owed their failures to theirs. This
strong belief in the importance of an origin, led the British to treat the colonised tribes as
lower people and ascribed them an inferior role in society.
Slavery was justified by the British as well as by the most famous representatives
of the Enlightenment. Hobbes in Leviathan explained that society must be ruled by an
absolute monarch. In his opinion, people feel a constant need for power that has to be
fulfilled: “A generall inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restlesse desire of power
after power, that ceaseth onely in Death”.163 Hobbes suggested that the quest for power
is natural and has to be satisfied. Colonizers in the Enlightenment could have understood
this passage as a justification for their striving of new lands and people; they could have
explained their negative actions as natural qualities or even virtues.
John Locke studied human nature and knowledge with reference to diversity. For
his sources he used many travel accounts and was the spokesman of toleration.
For Locke, the acknowledgment of diversity was not only an outcome of the investigation, but a methodological principle of the investigation
itself, set in place at the start. Thus we can see the logic behind scouring travel accounts, his efforts in the realm of natural philosophy, and his eventual production of Book I of the Essay. The outcome was a distinctive and influential, although hotly disputed, version of the natural history of man, one which confirmed the inescapable and apparently irreducible fact of diversity.164
Apart from his philosophical toleration, Locke also possessed shares in The Royal Africa
Company – the company that was responsible for the slave trade to England in the
seventeenth century. The philosophers of the Enlightenment had double standards in
regard to slavery. They were definitely opposed to intellectual, political and economic
slavery in 'civilized' countries. Yet, when the colonialism in Britain was bringing profits
they simply justified it.
Among all the philosophers, Hume is the most controversial, due to the footnote
added to his essay “Of National Characters”:
I am apt to suspect the negroes, and in general all the other species of men (for there are four or five different kinds) to be naturally inferior to the whites. There never was a civilized nation of any other complexion than white, nor even any individual eminent either in action or speculation. No ingenious manufactures amongst them, no arts, no sciences.165
Contemporary scholars still try to restore the position of Hume in the philosophy of the
Enlightenment. They use arguments of an anachronistic understanding of his words and
try to depict him as an open and tolerant man. Nevertheless, his words in the essay were
definitely racist and it is important to focus on their possible impact on the society at the
time. Hume's words could have been of great influence for his contemporaries. They not
only justified the inferior treatment of Blacks but also showed that there were a few types
of mankind. This could have led to different interpretations, again justifying various types
of subjugation. Larry Wolff concluded in favour of indecision in the philosophers' beliefs,
providing the example of Richardson who travelled to Russia, who was also uncertain
which stance he should choose on the question of slavery. “The Enlightenment in general
was subject to ambivalence on the subject of slavery, wherever it occurred, and his
hesitation over emancipation was only typical of the times.”166
For Wolff slavery was another element enabling one to distinguish the two parts
of Europe from each other. The travellers represented Poland as an enslaved country. The
examples of slavery were usually associated with ancient events, never with the
contemporary history of slavery in England. This subjective representation corresponds to
Wolff's theory: “The association between backwardness and slavery was important for
establishing the relative distinction of civilization in Western Europe and Eastern Europe;
it complemented the association of slavery and despotism, which quite broadly
encompassed both Eastern Europe and the Orient.”167 Indeed, there were different types
of oppression in Poland but they were all described by the travellers only in the context of
Poland itself. They did not refer to British history, so intertwined with African trade and
issues of slavery. This exposes the Western agenda of superiority that emphasized the
negative elements of the country without relating them to other, very present
circumstances.
4.4. Slavery in Poland
In the Oxford English Dictionary one of the definitions of the word 'slave' is as
follows: “One who is the property of, and entirely subject to, another person, whether by
capture, purchase, or birth; a servant completely divested of freedom and personal
rights.”168 This definition corresponds to the situation of the Polish peasants in the
eighteenth century. Wraxall noticed that peasants were indeed a property of their owner
and could be easily sold. “They constitute indeed a part of the estate, as in Russia, and are
sold or transferred with the land.”169 Moreover, the fact of the Polish peasants being
deprived of any rights is unquestionable. Therefore, the Polish peasants relate to the
general definition of a 'slave'. Still more interesting is the information about the
etymology of this word:
Old French esclave (also modern French), sometimes feminine corresponding to the masculine esclaf , esclas (plural esclaz , esclauz , esclos , etc.) [...] the Slavonic population in parts of central Europe having been reduced to a servile condition by conquest; the transferred sense is clearly evidenced in documents of the 9th century. The form with initial scl- is also represented by older German schlav(e, sclav(e, German sklave. In English the reduction of scl- to sl- is normal, and the other Germanic languages show corresponding forms, as West Frisian slaef, North Frisian slaaw, Middle Dutch slave, slaef (Dutch slaaf), Middle Low German and Low German slave (hence Danish and Norwegian slave), older German slaf(e, Swedish slaf). The history of the words representing slave and Slav in late Greek, medieval Latin, and German, is very fully traced in Grimm's Deutsches Wörterbuch s.v. Sklave.170
The word 'slave' therefore derives from 'Slav' – characterising a group of people
originating from the same race, inhabiting lands of eastern Europe. According to the
etymology, the association was already made in the ninth century. The travellers, almost
ten centuries later, were at ease in describing the Poles as slaves. Was it only due to
historical word associations or was Poland indeed an enslaved country?
Nobility and the peasants When writing about slavery in Poland most of the time the
travellers associated it with the relationship between the nobility and the peasants. As the
feudal system prevailed in the country, the aristocracy remained in a superior role
towards their vassals. Moreover, the upper class did not recognize the aim of respecting
their subjects, in order to improve their own economic situation. On the contrary, the
nobility used their power only to diminish the peasants.
The travellers, informed by an experience of colonialism, compared the situation
in Poland with the situation of the slaves from America. They observed that the nobility
created themselves as those who have a special essence or character that led them to
diminish other people, in this case the peasants. The men treated their subjects only as
machines for creating wealth and were not interested in their humanity. The serfs were
treated like animals without intellectual capacity and ability to decide for themselves.
Although slavery in England was universally accepted, the image of the exploited Polish
people resulted in strong criticism for the upper class. The use of similar words and
expressions exhibit the unanimity of the travellers' opinions. According to Connor: “The
vassals, who are no better than slaves to the gentry, for they have no benefit of the laws,
can buy no estates, nor enjoy any property no more than our negroes in the West-Indies
can.”171 Marshall used exactly the same comparison with the slaves of the West-Indies
in a statement – “But the personal service, in which the lower ranks of Poland are kept, is
a mere slavery, such a despotism as the planters in the West-Indies use over their African
slaves.”172 Coxe referred to the inferior position of peasants without comparing them to
the American or African slaves – “The generality, indeed, of the Polish nobles are not
inclined either to establish or give efficacy to any regulations in favour of the peasants,
whom they scarcely consider as entitled to the common rights of humanity.”173
Elsewhere, he emphasized the intellectual association that nobility made between
servants and the farm animals – “The peasants in Poland, as in all feudal governments,
are serfs or slaves; and the value of an estate is not estimated so much from its extent, as
from the number of its peasants, who are transferred from one master to another like so
many head of cattle.”174 The general representation of gentry and peasants in the
travellers' accounts suggests the cruelty of one national towards another.
The reference to the slaves of the West-Indies was easy to make for the travellers
as the colonisation of this region was an important moment in British history. But it was
not a new event because the colonisation of the central part of America had already
started in the sixteenth century. The travellers therefore chose to compare modern Poland
with events from the past. Also David Hume had decided to raise the issue of slavery in
Poland and compared the country to the people of Gaul from centuries before. “The
Gauls had no domestic slaves, who formed a different order from the Plebes. The whole
common people were indeed a kind of slaves to the nobility, as the people of Poland are
at this day.”175 Travellers and philosophers also tended to compare European feudalism
from the eleventh century to the state of affairs in Poland in the eighteenth century. All
these examples show that travellers as well as philosophers, when depicting Poland, were
constantly emphasizing its backwardness and slow development.
Connor and Coxe were the only two travellers who hesitated in forwarding a
negative opinion about the aristocracy. Within twenty pages, Connor wrote alternatively
about the vices and virtues of the upper class. Especially when describing the situation of
the peasants, Connor contradicted himself a few times. At one point, he was extremely
proud that, though the nobility had the power of life and death over their subjects, they
did not use it. Later, Connor discovered the reasons for such a state.
Yet the Poles say, that though they have an absolute power over them, they seldom make use of it any more than other Christians do over their dogs or horses. Strange comparison! As if they spar'd the poor peoples lives rather out of self-interest, than charity; and by reason that they
thought they would be more serviceable to them living than dead.176
The reasons for maintaining the peasants on their lands were certainly not noble but
originated only from the need to profit. Despite that, making a decision about placing the
nobles on the side of the victims or the winners was difficult for Connor. At the time of
his residence in Poland, the political situation was only just starting to decline. Therefore,
Connor had already started to notice the faults of the countrymen. The history of the
country from and before the seventeenth century was mainly positive, thus it was difficult
for Connor to adopt a pessimistic attitude towards Polish matters. Likewise, Coxe had
difficulties in judging the reality of Poland, although already sunk in the partitions. Coxe
was very critical of the nobles, but when visiting their houses he was always full of praise
and approval. It seems as if every time Coxe was surrounded by luxury, he forgot all his
previous opinions. The people he was visiting were usually aristocrats who did not
harshly manifest their power over the peasants. Nevertheless, Coxe could have been more
aware of their neglect and ignorance towards the matters of the country.
Despite the majority of peasantry being affected by the ill treatment of the
nobility, the travellers also noticed in a few situations the protectors of the lower class.
Marshall noticed it firstly in Konigsberg where the peasants were paying very heavy
taxes to the king. However, these taxes were regular and calculated proportionally.
According to Marshall, this policy of gaining money from the workers brought profits to
the nobility as well as peace to the peasants. In Poland, servants usually did not know
when they would have to pay their share, so their everyday expenses could not have been
controlled. Further, on the road to Warsaw, Marshall met a noble who treated his subjects
with respect and was taking care of them. The people were happier and not so afraid,
therefore the man's profits were also greater. Coxe related to this mutual relationship
between the two classes by giving an example of the Enlightened idea of commerce being
followed by improvement.
A few nobles, however, of benevolent hearts and enlightened principles, have ventured upon the expedient of giving liberty to their vassals. The event has showed this project to be no less judicious than humane, no less friendly to their own interests than to the happiness of their peasants: for it appears that in the districts, in which the new arrangement has been introduced, the population of their villages is considerably increased, and the revenues of their estates augmented in a
triple proportion.177
The traveller described in detail the cases of a few noblemen who decided to free their
peasants. He compared their revenues from before the event and after, creating almost a
scientific chart with statistics about the situation.178 By showing the growth of an
income, Coxe suggested that freedom is good for economy and general progress. He
focused a lot on this phenomenon, in order to persuade other nationals to follow the
example of these few virtuous men.
The nobility and politics The nobility expressed their superiority not only to the peasants.
After the death of king Zygmunt II, the nobles voted for an elective crown and many
privileges for the members of the diet. This resulted in establishing the general collection
of legislation called the Pacta Conventa. It was meant to help in the determining a new
king but, in fact, it consisted mainly of privileges bestowed on to the aristocracy. The
upper class ruled against the law and necessities of the citizens. Along with increased
power, these men established another law called 'Liberum Veto'. Due to this law, any
member of a diet could break the session if he did not agree with any part of the
deliberations. This led the members to accept bribes from foreign rulers who wanted to
manipulate Polish affairs by not letting the resolutions be passed. The corruption in the
Polish diet was so widespread that even in the times of the first partition the foreign
powers managed to persuade many senators into accepting the political dismemberment
of the country. The government was infected by the worse vices and was thus considered
by the travellers as the source of the Polish defeat:
A kingdom, so lately the master or protector of its neighbours, would never have been so readily overwhelmed by them, without the most glaring imperfections in its government. Poland, in truth, formerly more powerful than any of the surrounding estates, has, from the defects of
its constitution, declined in the midst of general improvement.179
It seems like Coxe suggested that Poland was not considered as a wretched country until
the recent changes in the management of the state. Poland was on the way to the 'general
improvement' that was interrupted by the misrule of the aristocracy.
The nobility was so confident about their actions that they habitually opposed the
people as well as the king. Connor described this monopoly of power as an example of
the demand that Zygmunt II once presented to the nobles. He wanted to give part of the
land to the family member but the diet fiercely opposed this idea. This and many other
examples showed that the nobles had an interest in limiting the king in power and that
was done in order to establish an aristocratic monarchy.
Thus it appears, that, from the times of Louis to the present period, the nobles have continued without interruption to diminish the regal authority, and to augment their own privileges. Many of the concessions which they obtained from the sovereigns of the Jaghellon line, were just and reasonable, and aimed only at an equitable degree of freedom. When, however, an absolute right to dispose of so tempting opportunities of prescribing unconditional terms to every candidate for the throne, they were no longer content with that equal distribution of power, which is the excellence of a limited monarchy; but aspired to
and nearly attained a direct aristocracy under a regal title and form.180
Led only by their own greed, the nobility drastically changed the fate of a whole country.
They simply became the slaves of possessing power, whereby Poland became their slave.
Foreigners and Poland The plan of the appropriation of the Polish territories matured
over many years. The perfect situation occurred with the death of August III when the
crown became elective. Catherine the Great together with Frederic II and Joseph II
agreed on a plan to dismember the country and share its territories. When Catherine
raised to the throne her acquaintance, and a former lover, Stanislaw August Poniatowski,
his countrymen were displeased. Frederic II, through secret propaganda, set the nobility
against their new sovereign. This gave the invaders the opportunity to place their troops
on Polish territory for protection. “His insinuations were successful; and Poland soon
became a theatre of civil war, of insurrection, and devastation.”181 With all of these
internal calamities it was only a matter of time before Russia, Prussia and Austria signed
the agreement on the first partition in 1772. Polish nationals were not able to withstand
the crisis, and soon after, in 1792, they had to face the second partition by seizure of
lands. Poland was a servant to its neighbours for a few years but the third partition, in
1795, made the country a true slave to the three powers, for the next 123 years.
Out of the three invaders it was Russia that was considered by the travellers as the
most authoritarian one. The Empress was regarded as a despotic ruler and her decisions,
concerning foreign policies, were ruthless. When visiting the Russian province, Marshall
noticed that this area was the poorest one. Almost all the indigenous people were
deported to Russia to become vassals to Catherine and they were replaced by Russian
troops.182 Coxe too noticed a great number of soldiers and he speculated that their
number might exceed the Polish troops.
The whole kingdom is entirely under the protection, or, in other words, under the power of Russia, who rules over it with the same unbounded authority as over one of its provinces. […] In a word, the Russian troops hold the nobles in subjection, and for the present keep under internal feuds and commotions. […] and to what a wretched state is that country reduced, which owes its tranquility to the interposition of a
foreign army!183
The country was under foreign protection, something that did not answer the Polish
needs. On the contrary, the protection was, in fact, meant to prevent any kind of uprising;
the people were kept under surveillance. The situation was getting worse and more
dangerous with some Russians constituting 'mafia' groups, protecting “the most atrocious
delinquents for money”.184 The Russian province was ruined, vicious and the most
degenerated.
Poland was in an obvious state of slavery to the three powers but also found itself
as a slave by the indifference of the rest of the European countries. Especially England
and France, driven by the ideals of an Enlightened freedom, were the desired allies in the
struggle for independence. The nations were more passive than expected. “The courts of
London, Paris, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, remonstrated against the usurpations; but
remonstrances without assistance could be of no effect.”185 Poland was not considered
by them as an essential player in European politics, especially considering its poor
situation during the partitions. That is why the countries found no benefit in helping
Poland. Poland did not have resources, means and allies to overcome the difficulties, so
its only fate was enslavement. The Enlightened slogans about freedom once again turned
out to be mere words without meaning.
Catherine the Great and Stanislaw August Poniatowski The political efforts of the
Polish king were described by the travellers usually with words like 'neutral', 'passive' and
'without authority'. As it was Catherine who placed him on the throne for various,
personal and political reasons, Stanislaw agreed to be a pawn in the hands of the
invaders. All of the travellers noticed the sovereign's charm and it seemed like the charm
influenced Marshall and Wraxall most of all. Both men agreed that Stanislaw did not
have the ability to be a king but they also depicted him as a victim of foreign conspiracy.
Wraxall stated that Stanislaw had no choice but to surrender the country to Russia, as he
did not have any supporters among the citizens. Such a statement, if true, would exhibit
Stanislaw's lack of virtues – virtues generally needed for a sovereign to be successful in
politics. Moreover, Marshall called the king a patriot. “His Majesty is certainly a man of
quick parts, and has a truly patriotic concern for the miseries of his kingdom, which he is
utterly unable to prevent: the state, in which he lives is a regular court, which the
republick maintains for all its kings.”186 Marshall's opinion about Stanislaw's patriotism
was very much mistaken, as proven by the king's passiveness. Moreover, the use of the
word 'unable to prevent' once again emphasizes the sovereign's unpreparedness for his
role as king.
Although very fond of the king, Coxe described him without sentiments. “The
king, without influence, and consequently without a shadow of authority […] the
unfortunate monarch.”187 Stanislaw resembled more “the chief of a commonwealth, than
the sovereign of a powerful monarchy.”188 The king was only a hopeless spectator in the
events that were taking place in his country. He accepted the double role of sovereign of
Poland and emissary of Russia. He agreed to be the slave of Catherine but, presumably,
when doing so, he did not expect the immediate catastrophe that happened to the Polish
people.
4.5. Depopulation and ruin
Although it could have been easy for travellers to use the term 'slavery' for Slavic
people because of the connection of these two words, Poland in the eighteenth century
was indeed enslaved in every possible way. There was an external slavery, examples of
which were mentioned before. Of importance was also the slavery of the Polish people –
to their own essence and national character. “Another Polish historian of a great note, the
celebrated Stanislaus Lubienski bishop of Plotsko, justly contends that the Poles, free as
they pretend to be, are absolutely in a state of slavery, to which they have been reduced
by an inconsiderate passion for liberty.”189 The bishop blamed the oppressed state of the
country not on others, but on the Poles themselves. It was their attachment to supposed
liberties and privileges that led Poland to destruction.
The decline was visible at every step. Especially in between the cities and towns,
travellers often struggled to find a place to stay or even inhabitants' settlements to spot.
The country was almost empty and all the households encountered were in ruin.
Through a country that had hardly any appearance of present cultivation; many villages I passed were deserted, several mansions in ruins, and fields entirely waste that had once been tilled; the whole a very melancholy spectacle; but much of the country was partly marsh
and forest.190
Marshall noticed the same image of abandonment all the way from Gdansk to Warsaw.
He saw empty lands, burnt villages and destroyed houses with poor people. Marshall
found the worse situation to be in the South, where nine tenths of the area was fully
destroyed.191 Wraxall and Coxe shared the same opinion as Marshall about the
valuelessness of the lands in between Cracow and Warsaw. According to Wraxall, “No
tract of country in Europe can offer fewer objects of information, curiosity, or
amusement, in the common acceptation of the terms, than that which extends from the
gates of Cracow to the suburbs of Warsaw.”192 Coxe used almost exactly the same
description in his accounts.
I never saw a road so barren of interesting scenes as that from Cracow to Warsaw; there is not a single object throughout the whole tract, which can for a moment draw the attention of the most inquisitive traveller. [...] Though in the high road, which unites Cracow and Warsaw, in the course of about 258 English miles, we met in our progress only two carriages and about a dozen carts. The country was
equally thin of human habitations.193
The state of the Polish land was tragic. Moreover, this image definitely reinforced the
backward representation that had long been suspected by the travellers.
Nor were the cities an example of splendour and development. Wraxall's second
visit to Poland, four years after the first one, varied in his experiences. He noticed a great
many differences in the city of Gdansk that had changed so much, it did not resemble its
state from years before. “It is evidently much declined in population, industry, and riches,
since I last visited it, only four years ago.”194 Cracow was also described by Wraxall and
Coxe as a deserted city that had once been a flourishing capital of the kings, and how it
now barely existed. When describing Cracow, Coxe again referred to ancient history,
comparing the city to the ruins of old and majestic settlements. ”In a word, Cracow
exhibits the remains of ancient magnificence, and looks like a great capital in ruins.”195
This is another example of travellers associating Poland with archaic history.
All the hope was located in the capital of Poland – Warsaw. Usually, visiting other
countries, travellers also encountered poverty and decline in the lands, but the capitals
were always an exception. Warsaw was a surprise for its visitors. According to the
travellers it did not look like a city but more like a village. It was missing the splendour
and luxury usually associated with the residence of the kings. The city was neglected,
without facilities and infrastructure. People lived in awful conditions, amid the stench and
dirt.
As I walk through the streets of Warsaw I continually imagine myself in some scattered and half-ruined village. All the municipal defects of Cracow exist here in a greater degree. […] In a city where there are no lamps in winter, and no precautions taken for general security, any desperate banditti, protected by night, may commit the most atrocious
crimes.196
If the capital, with the power concentrated there, did not even provide examples of
progress, for travellers it was a sign of the total decline of the whole country. This
resulted in a melancholic representation of the state and a reinforcement of the image of
the backward country. One could say that once again Poland was being enslaved – though
this time, to the unchanging and negative representation created by the travellers.
5. Conclusions
The Grand Tour in the eighteenth century brought many advantages. For the
travellers it was the perfect occasion to experience new places and develop oneself. It
also promoted travel literature, a very interesting literary genre for the readers as well as a
source of information for scholars and philosophers. Moreover, travel literature became a
significant historical source for the contemporary scholars. Historians appreciate these
books for their detailed information about the various historical events and
anthropologists value them for an insight into people's lives in the past. Connor, Marshall,
Wraxall and Coxe deserve to be acknowledged by the scholars due to their books that
provide a whole range of information on different parts of Europe. They certainly
enriched the history and anthropology of Poland and often provided a different perception
of traditional matters.
It can be stated that the main reasons for visiting Poland were political reasons
and a curiosity connected with a division between Western and Eastern Europe. Connor
initiated the trips by chance. He suspected that in Poland there was a great interest in the
sciences, so he decided to examine it. Later travellers were influenced by the information
of the growing powers of Russia, Prussia and Austria. As the three countries conducted a
partition of Poland that was a violation of all the noble ideas of the Enlightenment, the
travellers wanted to inspect the situation. They were concerned about the country that
over one hundred years fell into considerable decline. In fact, they were probably more
concerned about the three powers more than Poland. As the latter was slowly losing its
independence, there was not much hope that it would be able to improve its situation over
a short period of time. That is why the travellers (Marshall, Wraxall, Coxe) visited the
countries that were involved in the partition and Poland seemed to be just another step on
the way; a visit to supervise the changes carried out there. Another reason for visiting
Poland was the reinforcement of the division of civilized Western Europe and the
backward East. The travellers wanted to examine this separation and get to know if
indeed Poland was more European or Asian. There are more comparisons of Poland to
western countries, that is why the travellers had agreed on placing Poland within
European borders. The old division suggested that barbarism had its roots in the north of
Europe. In the case of Wraxall (Cursory Remarks) and Coxe they both intellectually
linked Poland (a new barbaric nation) with more norther countries such as Sweden or
Denmark (the old barbaric nations) by visiting both regions within one trip. This is only
one of the many examples showing that indeed, the travellers and philosophers constantly
reinforced the differences between the two parts of Europe.
The fact that the differences between the two countries were continually repeated
could have resulted from the fact that travellers were an experienced people. They were
strongly influenced by English history, culture and traditions. It was natural for them to
compare and often exalt their own country. Moreover, the writers were affected by events
they encountered in others during their journeys. None of them visited Poland at a young
age, without significant knowledge on English state of affairs, and as a first country to be
discovered. That is why the travellers must be forgiven for some of their remarks. Yet, it
is striking that their opinions and beliefs were so unanimous. They were often struggling
with being objective and frequently judged the events without comparing them to the
same events taking place in their home country. The discrepancy in travellers' attitudes
makes it very difficult to state if their opinions were politicized or not. The answer to
such a question could try to be answered in a broader work of that sort.
The most striking elements of the Polish society for all the travellers was
definitely slavery, feudalism and self-confidence of the nobility. Although England had
been dealing with the issue of slavery for two centuries, the Enlightenment affected the
travellers to condemn any sort of subordination in other countries besides England.
Slavery in the west was very well organised. The countries were profiting from the slave
labour and trade of foreign goods. In Poland, slavery reinforced only one class of society,
the aristocracy. Moreover, the slaves in Poland were of the same nationality as their
owners, so the cruelty of one national towards another was inhumane for the travellers.
The Polish economic system, that was mainly based on feudalism, took the
writers back to the Europe of the Middle Ages. It was striking for them to experience the
things they had only read about in books. In Poland the travellers associated the slow
development of the country with the character of the upper class. The economic system
along with the aristocracy and the nearby political changes, created a vicious cycle. The
nobles held all the power in the country and did not let others participate in any
privileges. This led to the absence of important factors in its development like merchants,
cities and technologies. With the lack of these elements, the economy declined with the
nobility enslaving their peasants more and more; in order to obtain more and more
profits. The lack of a progressive sovereign and the loss of independence only accelerated
the downfall of the country. All aforementioned elements resulted in depopulation,
migrations and ruin. It was the nobility's greed that started this unfortunate set of events
in Poland. It seems like the four travellers represent the steps of this downhill journey.
Connor showed the prosperity of the country but also the first flaws that he noticed in the
aristocrats. Over one hundred years, until Marshall's visit, Poland declined until it became
the object of an easy gain for its neighbours. Marshall, and Wraxall soon after, advocated
single remedies to improve the state. Coxe, as the last traveller, focused on all the
possible elements, that could strengthen the country. All of them, influenced by the
Enlightenment's idea of progress, noted different elements that would improve the
situation in Poland; the upper class however was so strong and powerful that it was
impossible to implement any changes in their conduct.
The conclusions for the various, and at the same time similar, visions of Polish
reality are as follows. There was indeed the enforcement of power over Poland. Yet, the
origin of it came from internal problems, namely the authority of the aristocrats. The
problem was noticed by attentive travellers and represented by them as the destructive
issue of Polish society. As the situation in England was more advantageous, Polish events
seemed even more dreadful than they were. The literary representation provided an
opportunity for England to become superior in comparison with Poland. This power was
imposed in an intellectual way, as proven by travellers' accounts and various maps used
before in the text. Moreover, obvious physical power was enforced on Poland by its
neighbours through the partitions. These layers of different types of control and authority
led the country to become the weakest nation out of them all.
The travellers' visits did not influence Poland in any significant way. As it was
mentioned before, the upper class protected the state of affairs and knew that any
improvements to society would only deprive them of their profit, so they strongly
opposed it. The travel literature, founded during trips to Poland, also did not improve the
relationships between England and Poland. By reading this negative representation, the
Polish seemed very ignorant to the English. Moreover, the last partition of 1795 swiped
away Poland from the map of Europe for more than one hundred years, so English-Polish
political relations were no longer possible. Although the image of Poland in English
travel literature was pessimistic, influencing the readers to have a negative opinion about
the county, it was done in accordance with the truth: a reality at that time.
There are a few issues that could not be discussed in this paper, yet, are certainly
interesting starting-points for a broader piece of work. It would be of importance to carry
out separate research on the travellers. It would therefore be easier to establish whether or
not they were influenced in their opinions by any authorities and to what extent they
influenced each other. One topic that seems to be extremely inspiring is the story of
Joseph Marshall. His mysterious past does not allow us to make many conclusions about
his accounts. By obtaining a comprehensive bibliography of Marshall, research on other
connected topics would certainly bring new answers. A fascinating subject, strongly
connected with this work, would be to compare the images of other countries visited by
travellers with those of Poland. The comparison of these various representations would
give a new rich account of how the British perceived the whole of Eastern Europe in the
Enlightenment.
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