How large can the PLC be? Assuming that they didn't get fucked up internally, what territories will she aim for?
How large can the PLC be? Assuming that they didn't get fucked up internally, what territories will she aim for?
Probably Prussia, Russia, and a few German states.
I imagine they'd want to get Silesia at some point, as it's an awesome place to have economically speaking. Aside from that, they'd probably want to finish conquering the Baltic states, as well as the rest of Western Ukraine down to the Black Sea (including Crimea). That way they could dominate the Baltic and have influence in the Black Sea and surroundings.
What about land in Scandinavia. If Sweden still goes into a successional war, Poland may support them, at least have Finland.
Maybe land above Bulgaria?
The upper bound is gobbling Russia and then expanding eastwards - taking the whole Siberia and some more. Demographics means that this country will become Russian-dominated and then turn into what we know OTL as Russia in anything but name, so (apart from butterflies) no such drastic change from OTL.
Honestly, you could have the PLC co-opt Russia entirely by conquering the entire Rus. Who's going to stop them, other than the Russians themselves?
Their own motivations will stop them, of course.
Poland-Lithuania had many opportunities to destroy Muscovy and didn't. There was nothing there they saw as valuable.
But let's say that hypothetically they destroy Russia in its infancy because some Polish leader decided to finally put down the yapping dog biting at its ankles. They could take control of Kiev, of course. And then expand down to the Black Sea.
But why would they expand into the endless frozen forest to the east? They wouldn't, because their resources are much better spent securing Ukraine.
Maybe if Poland-Lithuania is a great power in the age of exploration, they'll try to conquer east, but it would be for prestige reasons, not settlement reasons.
Plus if the Central Asian states are left alone until that time, Kazan or some other proto-state could develop into something that could resist invasion.