Biggest Cities of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with a Map
With the help of a map, can you name the most populous cities of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with an estimated population of over 5,000 at its territorial apex in 1618?
Paul Bairoch estimates the population of said city at 6k in 1600 in his book "La Population Des Villes Europeennes". It's true though that discrepancies can happen and that estimates should always be taken with a grain of salt.
This city is no longer included. This was actually a mistake by the author, who meant to include the similarly named "Świdnica" instead. This city wasn't part of the Commonwealth, but rather part of a vassal duchy of the Kingdom of Bohemia under the Habsburgs at this point in time.
Good map and reasonably good representation. I cannot believe Smolensk was so (relatively) big at that time. Also interesting reminder that Torun used to be bigger than Bydgoszcz, now it's the other way around.
Few minor suggestions: Greater Poland and lesser Poland in grey are way too big. Greater Poland was just a small part around Poznan. Eastward is Masovia. Likewise Lesser Poland is just a small area around Krakow, I certainly wouldn't stretch it anywhere near Lviv or certainly not further east, that's just not accurate. Another minor suggestion: I do not think of Braniewo when I see that location on the map, and I really doubt it reached 5K population at that time, since per wikipedia in (in Polish) its 1792 population was below 5K. I would instead consider Frombork, that was the main city in the area and where Copernicus worked.
To respond to your suggestions: The defintions of Greater Poland and Lesser Poland go by their defined old provincial boundaries and aren't comparable to the modern areas.
Braniewo is suggested to have been that populated around this time, especially as suggested by Paul Bairoch. City populations have always declined, increased and stagnated. A population count from almost two centuries later can thus absolutely be similar.
That being said, a main administrative city in the area usually doesn't really mean that it was the largest in the area.
Few minor suggestions: Greater Poland and lesser Poland in grey are way too big. Greater Poland was just a small part around Poznan. Eastward is Masovia. Likewise Lesser Poland is just a small area around Krakow, I certainly wouldn't stretch it anywhere near Lviv or certainly not further east, that's just not accurate. Another minor suggestion: I do not think of Braniewo when I see that location on the map, and I really doubt it reached 5K population at that time, since per wikipedia in (in Polish) its 1792 population was below 5K. I would instead consider Frombork, that was the main city in the area and where Copernicus worked.
To respond to your suggestions: The defintions of Greater Poland and Lesser Poland go by their defined old provincial boundaries and aren't comparable to the modern areas.
Braniewo is suggested to have been that populated around this time, especially as suggested by Paul Bairoch. City populations have always declined, increased and stagnated. A population count from almost two centuries later can thus absolutely be similar.
That being said, a main administrative city in the area usually doesn't really mean that it was the largest in the area.