Poland was partitioned in XVIII century by three similarly backwards neighboring Eastern European powers: Russia, Prussia and Austria. They were more efficient

Poland was partitioned in XVIII century by three similarly backwards neighboring Eastern European powers: Russia, Prussia and Austria. They were more efficient that Poland though, because they were ruled by ruthless tyrants, while Poland was a democracy of the nobles, with all the worst traits that can occur in democracies (triumph of small egoisms, power and votes for sale, domination of politics by few richest oligarchs who don’t care about the country etc.). It’s basically a great pre-modern era cautionary tale of how a democracy can degenerate to the levels of complete state failure.