The 1569 Union of Lublin established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely unified federal state with an elective monarchy, but which was governed largely by the nobility. The Warsaw Confederation (1573) guaranteed religious freedom for the Polish nobles ''(szlachta)'' and townsfolk ''(mieszczanie)''. However, the peasants ''(chłopi)'' were still subject to severe limitations imposed on them by the nobility, and confined to private folwark farmsteads. The establishment of the Commonwealth coincided with a period of stability and prosperity, with the union thereafter becoming a European power and a major cultural entity, occupying approximately  after the Truce of Deulino. It was the largest state in Europe at the time. Poland was the dominant partner and acted as an agent for the dissemination of Western culture, Catholicism and Polish traditions through Polonization into areas of North-Eastern Europe which it controlled following the union. Certain factions of Lithuanian nobility were apprehensive about the merger, fearing that it would lead to the loss of Lithuania's cultural identity.