Figure 5. The First Partition of Poland, 1772

Figure 6. The Second Partition of Poland, 1793

Figure 7. The Third Partition of Poland, 1795

Figure 8. Duchy of Warsaw, 1807-13, and Congress Poland, 1815

Although the majority of the szlachta was reconciled to the end of the commonwealth in 1795, the possibility of Polish independence was kept alive by events within and outside Poland throughout the nineteenth century. Poland's location in the very center of Europe became especially significant in a period when both Prussia/Germany and Russia were intensely involved in European rivalries and alliances and modern nation states took form over the entire continent.

Data as of October 1992