Partitions of Poland
In 1730, Prussia, Austria, and Russia signed a secret agreement to maintain the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's existing laws. This pact became known in Poland as the Alliance of the Three Black Eagles because all three states used a black eagle as their state symbol. The alliance ensured that no changes could be made to Commonwealth laws without foreign approval. During the reign of Władysław IV from 1632 to 1648, a policy called the liberum veto developed. This procedure required unanimous consent for all parliamentary measures. A single member of parliament could strike down an act simply by believing it was injurious to his own estate. Thus it became increasingly difficult to undertake any action at all. The system provided openings for foreign diplomats to get their ways through bribing nobles to exercise this veto power. By the mid-18th century, the Commonwealth existed in a state of disorder and functioned almost as a vassal state. Polish kings were effectively chosen through diplomatic maneuvers between Prussia, Austria, Russia, and France. Stanisław August Poniatowski served as the last Commonwealth King and had been a lover of Russian Empress Catherine the Great for some time. In 1756, the Commonwealth remained neutral during the Seven Years War yet allowed Russian troops access to its western lands as bases against Prussia. Frederick II retaliated by ordering enough Polish currency counterfeited to severely affect the Polish economy. Through the Polish nobles whom Russia controlled and the Russian Minister to Warsaw, ambassador Prince Nicholas Repnin forced a constitution on the Commonwealth at the so-called Repnin Sejm of 1767. Repnin dictated the terms of that Sejm and ordered the capture and exile to Kaluga of vocal opponents including bishop Józef Andrzej Załuski.
In February 1772, the agreement of partition was signed in Vienna before any military action took place. Early in August, Russian, Prussian, and Austrian troops occupied the provinces agreed upon among themselves. However, fighting continued as Bar confederation troops and French volunteers refused to lay down their arms. Most notably, resistance occurred in Tyniec, Częstochowa, and Kraków. On the 5th of August 1772, the occupation manifesto was issued to the dismay of the weak and exhausted Polish state. The partition treaty was ratified by its signatories on the 22nd of September 1772. Frederick II of Prussia was elated with his success because Prussia took most of Royal Prussia except Gdańsk. This territory stood between Prussia's possessions in Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Prussia also gained Ermland, northern areas of Greater Poland along the Noteć River known as the Netze District, and parts of Kuyavia but not the city of Toruń. Despite token criticism from Empress Maria Theresa, Austrian statesman Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg, was proud of wresting a large share. To Austria fell Zator and Oświęcim, part of Lesser Poland embracing parts of the counties of Kraków and Sandomir and the whole of Galicia less the city of Kraków. Austria acquired the rich salt mines of Bochnia and Wieliczka. Empress Catherine II of Russia was satisfied despite losing Galicia to the Habsburg monarchy. By this diplomatic document, Russia received Polish territory east of the line formed roughly by the Dvina and Dnieper rivers. Russia gained Polish Livonia including Latgale and parts of the eastern Grand Duchy of Lithuania in what is now Belarus. The cities of Vitebsk, Polotsk, and Mstislavl came under Russian control. By this partition, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth lost about 30% of its territory and half of its population totaling four million people. A large portion of those who were lost had not been ethnically Polish. Through seizing northwestern Poland, Prussia instantly gained control over 80% of the Commonwealth's total foreign trade. Levying enormous customs duties, Prussia accelerated the collapse of the Commonwealth economy.
By 1790, the Commonwealth had been weakened to such a degree that it was forced into an unnatural and terminal alliance with its enemy, Prussia. The Polish-Prussian Pact of 1790 was signed on the 24th of February 1790. The conditions of the Pact contributed to the subsequent final two partitions of Poland-Lithuania. The May Constitution of 1791 enfranchised the bourgeoisie and established the separation of the three branches of government. This constitution eliminated the abuses of the Repnin Sejm from earlier years. Those reforms prompted aggressive actions on the part of its neighbors, wary of the potential renaissance of the Commonwealth. Arguing that Poland had fallen prey to radical Jacobinism then at high tide in France, Russian forces invaded the Commonwealth in 1792. In the War in Defense of the Constitution, pro-Russian conservative Polish magnates formed the Confederation of Targowica. They fought against Polish forces supporting the constitution believing that Russians would help them restore the Golden Liberty. Abandoned by their Prussian allies, Polish pro-constitution forces faced Targowica units and the regular Russian army. These forces were defeated in battle. Prussia signed a treaty with Russia agreeing that Polish reforms would be revoked. Both countries received chunks of Commonwealth territory as payment for their cooperation. In 1793, deputies to the Grodno Sejm, the last Sejm of the Commonwealth, agreed to Russian territorial demands. This meeting took place in the presence of Russian forces who threatened any opposition. In the Second Partition, Russia and Prussia helped themselves to enough land so that only one-third of the 1772 population remained in Poland. Prussia named its newly gained province South Prussia with Poznań and later Warsaw as the capital of the new province. Targowica confederates did not expect another partition and lost much prestige and support along with King Stanisław August Poniatowski who joined them near the end. Reformers on the other hand were attracting increasing support and in 1794 the Kościuszko Uprising began.
Kosciuszko's ragtag insurgent armies won some initial successes but eventually fell before the superior forces of the Russian Empire. The partitioning powers decided to solve the problem by erasing any independent Polish state from the map entirely. On the 24th of October 1795, their representatives signed a treaty dividing the remaining territories between their three countries. One of Russia's chief foreign policy authors, Alexander Bezborodko, advised Catherine II on both the Second and Third Partitions of Poland. The Russian part included 250,000 square kilometers and 1.2 million people with Vilnius as a major city. The Prussian part consisted of new provinces called New East Prussia and New Silesia containing 1 million people with Warsaw. The Austrian portion covered 83,000 square kilometers with 1.2 million people including Lublin and Kraków. The King of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski, left for Grodno under Russian military escort where he abdicated on the 25th of November 1795. He then left for Saint Petersburg, Russia, where he would spend his remaining days. This act ensured that Russia would be seen as the most important of the partitioning powers. With regard to population in the First Partition, Poland lost over four to five million citizens representing about a third of its population of 14 million before the partitions. Only about 4 million people remained in Poland after the Second Partition which made for a loss of another third of its original population. By the Third Partition, Prussia ended up with about 23% of the Commonwealth's population while Austria received 32% and Russia took 45%. Following the Congress of Vienna, Russia controlled 82% of the pre-1772 Commonwealth's territory including its puppet state of Congress Poland. Austria held 11% and Prussia only 7%.
As a result of the Partitions, Poles were forced to seek a change of status quo in Europe. Polish poets, politicians, noblemen, writers, and artists became revolutionaries of the 19th century. Many were forced to emigrate thus creating what became known as the Great Emigration. Desire for freedom became one of the defining parts of Polish romanticism. Polish revolutionaries participated in uprisings in Prussia, the Austrian Empire, and Imperial Russia. Polish legions fought alongside Napoleon under the slogan For our freedom and yours. They participated widely in the Spring of Nations particularly during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. Poland would be briefly resurrected if in a smaller frame in 1807 when Napoleon set up the Duchy of Warsaw. After his defeat and implementation of the Congress of Vienna treaty in 1815, the Russian-dominated Congress Kingdom of Poland was created in its place. After the Congress, Russia gained a larger share of Poland with Warsaw included. Following crushing an insurrection in 1831, the Congress Kingdom's autonomy was abolished. Poles faced confiscation of property, deportation, forced military service, and closure of their own universities. After the uprising of 1863, Russification of Polish secondary schools was imposed and literacy rates dropped dramatically. In the Austrian sector which now was called Galicia, Poles fared better and were allowed representation in Parliament. They could form their own universities while Kraków with Lemberg became centers of Polish culture and education. Meanwhile, Prussia Germanized the entire school system of its Polish subjects without respect for Polish culture or institutions. In 1915 a client state of the German Empire and Austria-Hungary was proposed and accepted by the Central Powers of World War I known as the Regency Kingdom of Poland.
More recent studies claim that partitions happened when the Commonwealth had been showing beginning signs of slow recovery. These studies see the last two partitions as an answer to strengthening reforms in the Commonwealth and potential threats they represented to power-hungry neighbors. As historian Norman Davies stated, because the balance of power equilibrium was observed, many contemporary observers accepted explanations from enlightened apologists of the partitioning states. 19th-century historians from countries that carried out the partitions argued that partitions were justified. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had degenerated to the point of being partitioned because counterproductive principles made decision-making on divisive issues virtually impossible. Solovyov specified cultural, language, and religious breaks between supreme and lowest layers of society in eastern regions. Belarusian and Ukrainian serf peasantry there were Orthodox rather than Catholic. Russian authors emphasized historical connections between Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia as former parts of medieval old Russian state where dynasty of Rurikids reigned. Nikolay Karamzin wrote Let the foreigners denounce the partition of Poland: we took what was ours. A new justification for partitions arose with the Russian Enlightenment. Writers such as Gavrila Derzhavin, Denis Fonvizin, and Alexander Pushkin stressed degeneration of Catholic Poland and need to civilize it by its neighbors. Nonetheless other 19th century contemporaries were much more skeptical. British jurist Sir Robert Phillimore discussed the partition as a violation of international law. German jurist Heinrich Bernhard Oppenheim presented similar views. French historian Jules Michelet, British historian Thomas Babington Macaulay, and Edmund Burke criticized immorality of the partitions. Most governments accepted the event as fait accompli except Ottoman Empire which reserved place in diplomatic corps for Ambassador of Lehistan. Several scholars focused on economic motivations of partitioning powers. Hajo Holborn noted that Prussia aimed to take control of lucrative Baltic grain trade through Gdańsk. In 18th century Russian peasants escaped from Russia to Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth where conditions had improved unlike in Russia. Thousands fled seeking better fate which became major concern for Russian Government sufficient to play role in decision to partition Commonwealth.
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Common questions
When did the first partition of Poland occur and what territories were lost?
The agreement for the First Partition was signed in February 1772, with occupation manifestos issued on the 5th of August 1772. This event caused the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to lose about 30% of its territory and half of its population totaling four million people. Prussia gained most of Royal Prussia including the Netze District while Austria acquired Galicia and Russia received land east of the Dvina and Dnieper rivers.
Who was the last king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth before it ceased to exist?
Stanisław August Poniatowski served as the last King of the Commonwealth until his abdication on the 25th of November 1795. He left for Grodno under Russian military escort and subsequently spent his remaining days in Saint Petersburg after the Third Partition treaty was signed on the 24th of October 1795. His predecessor Władysław IV reigned from 1632 to 1648 during which the liberum veto policy developed.
What specific events led to the Second Partition of Poland in 1793?
The May Constitution of 1791 prompted aggressive actions by neighbors leading to a Russian invasion in 1792 and the formation of the Confederation of Targowica. Deputies to the Grodno Sejm agreed to Russian territorial demands on the 2nd of September 1793 in the presence of threatening Russian forces. This resulted in Prussia gaining South Prussia with Poznań and Warsaw while leaving only one-third of the 1772 population in Poland.
How did the Third Partition of Poland divide territory among Russia Prussia and Austria in 1795?
On the 24th of October 1795 representatives signed a treaty dividing the remaining territories between Russia Prussia and Austria. Russia received 250,000 square kilometers including Vilnius while Prussia gained New East Prussia and New Silesia containing Warsaw. Austria acquired 83,000 square kilometers including Lublin and Kraków before the Congress of Vienna later adjusted these holdings.
Why did foreign powers justify the partitions of Poland according to 19th-century historians?
Historians from partitioning states argued that the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had degenerated due to counterproductive principles making decision-making virtually impossible. Writers such as Gavrila Derzhavin and Alexander Pushkin stressed the need to civilize Catholic Poland through its neighbors. Russian authors emphasized historical connections between Belarus Ukraine and Russia as former parts of medieval old Russian state where the dynasty of Rurikids reigned.