In early to mid-18th Century Poland, lower class Jews were in a time of struggle. A series of massacres starting in 1648 led to a severe economic downturn in Jewish Poland. This prompted the Kahals (autonomous Jewish councils that were government-authorized to govern the Jewish people, whose chief duty was to apportion taxes) to increase taxes in order to compensate the Kahals" debts from the recession in the Jewish community. So while lower class Jews were suffering at home, their taxes increased. During this time of depression, these Jews had nowhere to turn for religious support. They wished for unbridled, emotionally gratifying faith, but Judaism of the time was intended for only intense pupils of the Talmud, which was not only against their wishes, but was also inept to their abilities; most common Jews were illiterate. The exclusive Talmudic Education of the time was too spiritually meaningless and too intellectual for them to practice. They wished for a leader to bring them from the depths of economic and spiritual hardship to a more peaceful place in their minds. Therefore, economic misfortune, spiritual dissatisfaction, and lack of leadership all uniquely attributed to the growth in popularity of Israel Ba"al Shem Tov, and subsequently the expansion of Hasidic Jewry.
Jews in Poland were, historically, the most confined of all Jews in Europe. However, they additionally had the most rights of all Jews in Europe. In the year 1264, the Krakow Prince Boleslaus (nicknamed "the Modest") issued a General Charter of Jewish Liberties, something unheard of for the time. Excluding a couple of Jews being erroneously executed after being found guilty of heresy in the 16th and 17th Centuries, the Polish government primarily followed this charter. Sixteenth Century King Sigismund I encouraged Jewish immigration [Davies, G d's Playground Vol. I, 190-6]. In that same century, the Council of the Four Lands (the principal Kahal consisting of Four Lands in the Kingdom of Poland: Little Poland, Big Poland, Lithuania, and Volhynia) and the Kahal system was established to, essentially, leave Jewish issues to someone else [Dubnow, 198].