Prussian Partition
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The Prussian Partition (), or Prussian Poland, is the former territories of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...
acquired during the
Partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partition (politics), partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1772 and 1795, toward the end of the 18th century. They ended the existence of the state, resulting in the eli ...
, in the late 18th century by the
Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...
. The Prussian acquisition amounted to 141,400 km2 (54,600 sq mi) of land constituting formerly western territory of the Commonwealth. The first partitioning led by
imperial Russia Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * ...
with Prussian participation took place in 1772; the
second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...
in 1793, and the third in 1795, resulting in Poland's elimination as a state for the next 123 years.


History

The
Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...
acquired Polish territories in all three military partitions.


The First Partition

The
First Partition of Poland The First Partition of Poland took place in 1772 as the first of three partitions that eventually ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The growth of power in the Russian Empire threatened the Kingdom of Prussia an ...
in 1772 included the annexation of the formerly Polish Prussia by Frederick II who quickly implanted over 57,000 German families there in order to solidify his new acquisitions. In the first partition, Frederick sought to exploit and develop Poland economically as part of his wider aim of enriching Prussia. and described it as an "artichoke, ready to be consumed leaf by leaf". As early as 1731 Frederick had suggested that his country would benefit from annexing Polish territory. By 1752, he had prepared the ground for the partition of Poland–Lithuania, aiming to achieve his goal of building a territorial bridge between Pomerania, Brandenburg, and his East Prussian provinces. The new territories would also provide an increased tax base, additional populations for the Prussian military, and serve as a surrogate for the other overseas colonies of the other great powers. Frederick did not justify his conquests on an ethnic basis; he pursued an imperialist policy focused on the security interests of his state. However, Frederick did use propaganda to justify the partition and his economic exploitation of Poland, portraying the acquired provinces as underdeveloped and in need of improvement by Prussian rule; these claims were sometimes accepted by subsequent German historiography and can still be found in modern works. Frederick wrote that Poland had "the worst government in Europe with the exception of
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
". After a prolonged visit to West Prussia in 1773, Frederick informed Voltaire of his findings and accomplishments: "I have abolished serfdom, reformed the savage laws, opened a canal which joins up all the main rivers; I have rebuilt those villages razed to the ground after the plague in 1709. I have drained the marshes and established a police force where none existed. … is not reasonable that the country which produced
Copernicus Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath who formulated a mathematical model, model of Celestial spheres#Renaissance, the universe that placed heliocentrism, the Sun rather than Earth at its cen ...
should be allowed to moulder in the barbarism that results from tyranny. Those hitherto in power have destroyed the schools, thinking that uneducated people are easily oppressed. These provinces cannot be compared with any European country—the only parallel would be Canada." However, in a letter to his favorite brother, Prince Henry, Frederick admitted that the Polish provinces were economically profitable: :It is a very good and advantageous acquisition, both from a financial and a political point of view. In order to excite less jealousy I tell everyone that on my travels I have seen just sand, pine trees, heath land and Jews. Despite that there is a lot of work to be done; there is no order, and no planning and the towns are in a lamentable condition. Frederick's long-term goal was to displace the Poles from the conquered region and colonize it with Germans, whom he considered better workers. To accomplish this goal, Frederick invited thousands of German colonists into the conquered territories by promises of free land. He also engaged in the plunder of Polish property, gradually appropriating (Polish Crown estates) and monasteries and redistributed them to German landowners. He also aimed to expel the Polish nobles—who were viewed as wasteful, lazy, and negligent—from their land by taxing them at a rate higher than other regions of Prussia, which increased their financial burden and reduced their power. In 1783, Frederick also passed legislation allowed buyouts of noble land. This legislation allowed the free alienation of Polish nobles' estates so that this property could be purchased by German colonists. This resulted in a greater percentage of noble land being transferred to bourgeoise owners than in any other part of Hohenzollern land. Ultimately, Frederick settled 300,000 colonists in territories he had conquered. Frederick undertook the exploitation of Polish territory under the pretext of an enlightened civilizing mission that emphasized the supposed cultural superiority of Prussian ways. He saw the outlying regions of Prussia as barbaric and uncivilized, He expressed anti-Polish sentiments when describing the inhabitants, such as calling them "slovenly Polish trash". He also compared the Polish peasants unfavorably with the
Iroquois The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...
, and named three of his new Prussian settlements after colonial areas of North America: Florida, Philadelphia and Saratoga. The Poles remaining in the territories were to be Germanized. The Polish language was marginalized. Andrzej Chwalba, ''Historia Polski 1795-1918'', Wydawnictwo Literackie 2000,
Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...
, pages 175-184, and 307-312. .
Teachers and administrators were encouraged to be able to speak both German and Polish, and recognizing that his kingdom now had Polish inhabitants, Frederick also advised his successors to learn Polish. However, German was to be the language of education. The introduction of compulsory Prussian military service would also Germanize the Poles. And, the rural Poles were to be mixed with German neighbors so these Poles could learn "industriousness", "cleanliness, and orderliness" and acquire a "Prussian character". By such means, Frederick boasted he would "gradually...get rid of all Poles".


The Second Partition

In the
Second Partition of Poland The 1793 Second Partition of Poland was the second of partitions of Poland, three partitions (or partial annexations) that ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition (politics), partition occurred i ...
in 1793, the Kingdom of Prussia annexed
Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...
(Danzig) and
Toruń Toruń is a city on the Vistula River in north-central Poland and a World Heritage Sites of Poland, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its population was 196,935 as of December 2021. Previously, it was the capital of the Toruń Voivodeship (1975–199 ...
(Thorn), part of the Crown of Poland since 1457. The incursion sparked the first Greater Poland Uprising in Kujawy under Jan Henryk Dąbrowski. The revolt ended after General
Tadeusz Kościuszko Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko (; 4 or 12 February 174615 October 1817) was a Polish Military engineering, military engineer, statesman, and military leader who then became a national hero in Poland, the United States, Lithuania, and ...
was captured by the Russians.


The Third Partition

The subsequent third partitioning of 1795 marked the Prussian annexation of Podlasie region, with the remainder of
Masovia Mazovia or Masovia ( ) is a historical region in mid-north-eastern Poland. It spans the North European Plain, roughly between Łódź and Białystok, with Warsaw being the largest city and Płock being the capital of the region . Throughout the ...
, and the capital city of
Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
(handed over to the Russians twenty years later by Frederick III). The second Greater Poland Uprising against Prussian forces (also under General Dąbrowski) broke out in
Wielkopolska Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; ), is a Polish Polish historical regions, historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed by Kalisz, the oldest city in Poland. The bound ...
(Greater Poland) in 1806, ahead of the Prussian total defeat by Napoleon who created the
Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw (; ; ), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a First French Empire, French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars. It initially comprised the ethnical ...
in 1807. However, the fall of Napoleon during his Russian Campaign lead to the dismantling of the ''Duchy'' at the
Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...
(1815) and the return of Prussian control. The third Greater Poland Uprising under Ludwik Mierosławski occurred in 1846. The Uprising was designed to be part of a general uprising against all three states that had partitioned Poland.Marian Zagórniak, Józef Buszko, ''Wielka historia Polski'' vol. 4 ''Polska w czasach walk o niepodległość (1815–1864)''. "Od niewoli do niepodległości (1864–1918)", 2003, page 186. Some 254 insurgents were charged with high treason in Berlin. Two years later, during the Spring of Nations, the fourth Polish uprising broke out in and around
Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...
in 1848, led by the Polish National Committee. The Prussian army pacified the area and 1,500 Poles were imprisoned in Poznań Citadel. The Uprising showed to Polish insurgents that there was no possibility whatsoever to try to negotiate Polish statehood with the Germans. Only sixty years later, the Greater Poland Uprising (1918–1919) in the Prussian Partition helped Poland regain its freedom in the
aftermath of World War I The aftermath of World War I saw far-reaching and wide-ranging cultural, economic, and social change across Europe, Asia, Africa, and in areas outside those that were directly involved. Four empires collapsed due to the war, old countries were a ...
.


Ethnicity

Apart from ethnic Germans and Poles, the Prussian Partition was also inhabited by
ethnolinguistic Ethnolinguistics (sometimes called cultural linguistics) is an area of anthropological linguistics that studies the relationship between a language or group of languages and the cultural practices of the people who speak those languages. It exa ...
minorities. Minority groups included Kashubs in West Prussia,
Czechs The Czechs (, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavs, West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common Bohemia ...
and
Moravians Moravians ( or Colloquialism, colloquially , outdated ) are a West Slavs, West Slavic ethnic group from the Moravia region of the Czech Republic, who speak the Moravian dialects of Czech language, Czech or Czech language#Common Czech, Common ...
in
Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...
,
Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
, and others. Ethnic structure of eastern regions of Prussia.png, Ethnic structure of the eastern regions of Prussia in 1817–1823 Poles Prussia.png, Poles in the Kingdom of Prussia during the 19th century:


Society

In the late 19th century, non-Germans in the Prussian partition were subject to extensive
Germanization Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, German people, people, and German culture, culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nati ...
policies ( Kulturkampf, Hakata).Andrzej Garlicki, ''Polsko-Gruziński sojusz wojskowy'', Polityka
Wydanie Specjalne 2/2008
ISSN 1730-0525, pp. 11–12
Frederick the Great brought 300,000 colonists to territories he conquered to facilitate Germanization.Jerzy Surdykowski, ''Duch Rzeczypospolitej'', 2001 Wydawn. Nauk. PWN, 2001, page 153. That policy, however, had an opposite effect to that which the German leadership had expected: instead of becoming assimilated, the Polish minority in the German Empire became more organized, and its national consciousness grew. Of the Three Partitions, the education system in Prussia was on a higher level than in Austria and Russia, irrespective of its virulent attack on the Polish language specifically, resulting in the Września children strike in 1901–04, leading to persecution and imprisonment for refusing to accept the German textbooks and the German religion lessons. In 1902, after unveiling a statue of Frederick in Posen, Wilhelm offered a speech where he denied German interferences with Polish religion and tradition. He also demanded that the "many races" of Prussia first and foremost hold themselves to be good Prussians. Observers indicated that Wilhelm's speech had little impact on alleviating concerns amongst the populace in the region.


Economy

From the economic perspective, the territories of the Prussian Partition were the most developed out of the three partitions, thanks to the policies of the government. The German government supported efficient farming, industry, financial institutions and transport.


Administrative division

In the First Partition, Prussia received 38,000 km² and about 600,000 people. In the second partition, Prussia received 58,000 km² and about 1 million people. In the third, similar to the second, Prussia gained 55,000 km² and 1 million people. Overall, Prussia gained about 20 percent of the former Commonwealth territory (149;000 km²) and about 23 percent of the population (2.6 million people). Piotr Stefan Wandycz, ''The Price of Freedom: A History of East Central Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present'', Routledge (UK), 2001,
Google Print, p.133
/ref> From the geographical perspective, most of the territories annexed by Prussia formed the province of
Greater Poland Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; ), is a Polish Polish historical regions, historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed by Kalisz, the oldest city in Poland. The bound ...
('). The Kingdom of Prussia divided the former territories of the Commonwealth it obtained into the following: * Netze District - from 1772 to 1793 * New Silesia - from 1795 to 1807 * New East Prussia - from 1795 to 1807 * South Prussia - from 1793 to 1806 *
East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...
- from 1773 to 1829 * West Prussia - from 1773 to 1829 Over time the administrative divisions changed. Important Prussian administrative areas set up from Polish lands included: * Grand Duchy of Posen from 1815–1848 * Province of Posen from 1848–1919


See also

* Polish–Prussian alliance * History of Poland (1795–1918)


References

Citations Bibliography * * * * * * * * * * {{Authority control Kingdom of Prussia - 18th century in Prussia