First Partition of Poland by Prussia, Russia, and Austria

Historical Context Note

Pawel Styrna (University of Illinois at Chicago)

Ed. by Ewa M. Thompson, Rice University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.8.3: Polish Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Roman Koropeckyj (University of California, Los Angeles), Ewa M. Thompson (Rice University)

Domains

Colonialism and colonisation

Dates

Date of occurrence 1772-08-05

Places

Poland (Location)
Austria (Involved)
Germany (Involved)
Russia (Involved)

Resources

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Having been the largest state in Europe in the sixteenth century, Poland was progressively weakened in the eighteenth when Peter the Great (1672-1725) transformed Russia into a powerful empire and wrested control over the eastern Baltic from Sweden by the Treaty of Nystad in 1721. It then sought to extend its control over eastern Poland. Weakened by its own civil war in 1768, Poland could not resist the manoeuvres of Russian, Austria and Prussia to partition the country between them. This inaugurated a tragic phase of Polish history which would extend through further Russian interventions in 1792 and 1794, down to 11 November 1918 when the Poles were at last given back the political identity that the population craved.

The 1772 partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the first

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317 words

Citation: Styrna, Pawel. "First Partition of Poland by Prussia, Russia, and Austria". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 June 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=4191, accessed 18 April 2024.]

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