The Second Northern War saw Russia and Sweden ally with the purpose of defeating the Commonwealth. By the end of 1655 all but a small portion of the nation was occupied by either Sweden or Russia.

The Battle of Grunwald was the first nail in the coffin of the Teutonic Knights. The conditions of the peace that followed were so severe that the Order was never able to recover. Eventually it declined to the point that the nation disappeared and was replaced by Prussia. It also was a sign to Europe that the Teutonic Order no longer ruled over Eastern Europe, and the Polish-Lithuanian Union was the new major power in the region.

The Battle of Grunwald is often seen as the turning point in the Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War. The decisive victory by Poland and Lithuania caused so much damage to the Teutonic Order that it would never return to being a major power in Eastern Europe.

The Ottoman Empire sought to continue its advance into Europe by taking Vienna, which was the capital of the Austrian Empire. They ultimately failed due to the arrival of Austria's ally, Poland.

The first Partition of Poland occurred in 1772, and was meant to be the only one as the Partitioning powers believed the losses had sufficiently weakened Poland. The passing of the May 3rd Constitution and subsequent restructuring of the Polish government in 1791 caused the partitioning powers to be concerned that Poland might attempt to become a regional power as it had been before. So, the second and third partitions were undertaken to erase Poland from the map.

Prussia had amongst the finest military traditions anywhere in Europe. They had such well drilled and experienced troops that they regularly took on nations many times larger than themselves and were victorious.

In an attempt to retake the Silesia region which they had lost to Prussia in a previous war, Austria recruited Russia and France to join an alliance against Prussia. However, Prussia successfully fought off each nations attempts to invade its territory and at the end of the war Prussia maintained all of its territory.

Austria, Prussia, and Russia were the three partitioning powers. As the only three nations to border Poland at the time they were also the only nations capable of doing so.

For the past three centuries before the Siege of Vienna, Poland was a major power in Eastern Europe, and Europe on the whole. The victory at Vienna, made possible only by Poland's involvement, was the last great military achievement by Poland, which would be in a steep decline for the next century, until the nation was partitioned in 1795.

The Thirty Years War began in 1618 as a religious conflict between Protestant and Catholic groups within Germany, but then spread to become a war between most of the major powers of Europe.