Third Partition of Poland

Outraged with the further humiliation of Poland by

her neighbors and the betrayal of the Polish nobility
and emboldened by the French Revolution unfolding in
France, the Polish masses quickly turned against the
occupying forces of Prussia and Russia. Following a
series of nationwide riots, on March 24, 1794, Polish patriot Tadeusz Kociuszko took command of the
Polish armed forces and declared a nationwide uprising against Polands foreign occupiers, marking the beginning of the Kociuszko Uprising. Catherine II and
Frederick William II were quick to respond and, despite
initial successes by Kosciuszkos forces, the uprising was
crushed by November 1794. According to legend, when
Kosciuszko fell o of his horse at the Battle of Maciejowice, shortly before he was captured, he said Finis Poloniae, meaning this is the end of Poland.[2]

The three partitions of Poland-Lithuania

The Third Partition of Poland (1795) was the last in a

series of the Partitions of Poland of the land of the Polish 2 The Terms of the Third Partition
Lithuanian Commonwealth among Prussia, the Austrian
Empire, and the Russian Empire which eectively ended
Following the end of the Kosciuszko rebellion, Austria,
PolishLithuanian national sovereignty until 1918.
Prussia, and Russia decided to put an end to the unrest
by wiping Poland o of the map of Europe. On October 24, 1795, the representatives of the Russian Em1 Background
pire, Austria, and the Kingdom of Prussia assembled to
write the treaty formally dissolving the PolishLithuanian
Following the First Partition of Poland in 1772, in an Commonwealth and all of her institutions, though the
attempt to strengthen the greatly weakened Common- conquering powers did not sign the treaty until January
wealth, King Stanislaus Augustus put into eect a series 26, 1797 in St. Petersburg. Despite a heated disagreeof reforms to strengthen Polands military, political sys- ment between Austria and Prussia over the division of
tem, economy, and society. These reforms reached their land that almost led the negotiations to collapse, it was
climax with the enactment of the May Constitution in eventually agreed that Austria would receive the territo1791, which established a constitutional monarchy with ries of Western Galicia and Southern Masovia, along with
separation into three branches of government, strength- approximately 1.2 million people; Prussia received Podened the bourgeoisie and abolished many of the privi- lachia, the remainder of Masovia, and Warsaw, with 1
leges of the nobility as well as many of the old laws of million people; and Russia received the remainder, inserfdom. In addition, to strengthen Polands international cluding the city of Vilnius and 1.2 million people. Since
standings, King Stanislaw signed the Polish-Prussian Pact Poland no longer existed as a national entity following
of 1790, ceding further territories to Prussia in exchange the Kosciuszko Rebellion, the conquering powers found
for a military alliance. Angered by what was seen as dan- no need to force approval from a Polish representative as
gerous, Jacobin-style reforms, Russia invaded Poland in they had done with the previous partitions. The partition
1792, beginning the War in Defense of the Constitution. coalition forced King Stanislaw to abdicate and he retired
Abandoned by her Prussian allies and betrayed by Polish to St. Petersburg as Catherine IIs trophy prisoner, where
nobles who desired to restore the privileges they had lost he died in 1798. Austria, Russia, and Prussia sought to
under the May Constitution, Poland was forced to sign permanently erase the existence of Poland, even down to
the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, which ceded Do- the countrys name, as proven by a secret and separate
brzyn, Kujavia, and a large portion of Greater Poland to article signed by the partition coalition:
Prussia and all of Polands eastern provinces from MolIn view of the necessity to abolish everydavia to Livonia to Russia, reducing Poland to one third
thing which could revive the memory of the
of her original size prior to the First Partition.[1]
1

6
existence of the Kingdom of Poland, now that
the annulment of this body politic has been
eected ... the high contracting parties are
agreed and undertake never to include in their
titles ... the name or designation of the Kingdom of Poland, which shall remain suppressed
as from the present and forever ...[2]

EXTERNAL LINKS

4 See also
Administrative division of the PolishLithuanian
Commonwealth in the course of partitions
Administrative division of Polish territories after
partitions

5 Sources
3

Aftermath

[1] Halecki, Oskar. A History of Poland. New York: D.

McKay, 1976.
[2] Davies, Norman. Gods Playground: A History of Poland.
Revised Edition ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005.
[3] http://www.kasprzyk.demon.co.uk/www/history/index.
html

Davies, Norman. Gods Playground: A History of

Poland. Revised Edition ed. Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 2005.
Halecki, Oskar. A History of Poland. New York:
D. McKay, 1976.

Part of permanent exhibition dedicated to the partitions of Poland

at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

See also: Partitions of Poland Aftermath

The Third Partition of Poland ended the existence of an
independent Polish state for the next 123 years.[3] Immediately following the Third Partition, the occupying
powers forced many Polish politicians, intellectuals, and
revolutionaries to emigrate across Europe, in what was
later known as the Great Migration. These Polish nationalists participated in uprisings against Austria, Prussia,
and Russia in former Polish lands, and many would serve
France as part of Napoleon's armies. In addition, Polish poets and artists would make the desire for national
freedom a dening characteristic of the Polish Romanticist movement. Poland briey regained semi-autonomy
in 1807 when Napoleon created the Duchy of Warsaw,
but this eectively ended with the Congress of Vienna
in 1815. The Congress created a Kingdom of Poland,
sometimes called Congress Poland, as a Russian puppet
state. Even this, however, came to an end after a Polish
insurrection in 1831, at which point Russia dissolved the
Congress Kingdom and exacted multiple punitive measures on the Polish populace. Russia then made Poland an
ocial part of the Russian Empire, as opposed to a puppet state. Poland would not regain full independence until
the end of World War I, when the signing of the Treaty of
Versailles and the collapse of the Russian Empire allowed
for the resurrection of Polish national sovereignty.

Lord, Robert. The Third Partition of Poland. The

Slavonic Review Mar. 1925: 481498. JSTOR.
Web. 16 Dec. 2011.
Steed, Henry Wickham, W. Alison Phillips, and
David Hannay. A Short History of AustriaHungary and Poland. London: Encyclopdia Britannica, 1914.
The History Of Poland. Redirecting... Web. 02
Dec. 2011. http://www.kasprzyk.demon.co.uk/
www/history/index.html.
Europa World Online : Log In. Europa World Online : Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2011.
http://europaworld.com/entry/pl.
Partitions of Poland (Polish history) Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web.
http://www.britannica.com/
16 Dec.
2011.
EBchecked/topic/466910/Partitions-of-Poland.

6 External links
The Period of Partitions (17721918) resources
Encyclopedia Britannica: Poland
Europaworld Online: Poland
The Partitions of Poland

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1

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Third Partition of Poland Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Partition_of_Poland?oldid=674637752 Contributors: Halibutt,

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