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Sarmatism (or Sarmatianism; Sarmatyzm; Sarmatizmas) was an ethno-cultural ideology within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was the dominant Baroque culture and ideology of the nobility (szlachta) that existed in times of the Renaissance to the 18th centuries. Together with the concept of "Golden Liberty", it formed a central aspect of the Commonwealth's culture and society. At its core was the unifying belief that the people of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth descended from the ancient Iranian Sarmatians, the legendary invaders of contemporary Polish lands in antiquity. The term and culture were reflected primarily in 17th-century Polish literature, as in Jan Chryzostom Pasek's memoirs and the poems of Wacław Potocki. The Polish gentry wore a long coat, called kontusz, knee-high boots, and carried a small szabla (sabre) called karabela. Moustaches were also popular, as well as decorative feathers in men's headgear. Poland's "Sarmatians" strove to achieve martial skill on horseback, believed in equality among themselves, and in invincibility in the face of the enemy. Sarmatism lauded past victories of the Polish military, and required Polish noblemen to cultivate the tradition. Sarmatia (Sarmacja) was a semi-legendary, poetic name for Poland that was fashionable into the 18th century, and which designated qualities associated with the literate citizenry of the vast Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Sarmatism greatly affected the culture, lifestyle and ideology of the Polish nobility. It was unique for its cultural mix of Oriental, Western and native traditions. Criticized during the Polish Enlightenment, Sarmatism was rehabilitated by the generations that embraced Polish Romanticism. Having survived the literary realism of Poland's "Positivist" period, Sarmatism made a comeback with The Trilogy of Henryk Sienkiewicz, Poland's first Nobel laureate in literature. The term Sarmatism was first used by Jan Długosz in his 15th century work on the history of Poland.

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The ideas of the Age of Enlightenment in Poland were developed later than in Western Europe, as the Polish bourgeoisie was weaker, and szlachta (nobility) culture (Sarmatism) together with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth political system (Golden Liberty) were in deep crisis. The period of Polish Enlightenment began in the 1730s–40s, peaked in the reign of Poland's king, Stanisław August Poniatowski (second half of the 18th century), went into decline with the Third Partition of Poland (1795) – a national tragedy inspiring a short period of sentimental writing – and ended in 1822, replaced by Romanticism.

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