partitions of Poland

partitions of Poland The basic causes leading to the three successive partitions (1772, 1793, 1795) that eliminated Poland from the map were the decay and the internal disunity of Poland and the emergence of its neighbors, Russia and Prussia, as leading European powers. The first partition was proposed when Frederick II of Prussia feared that Russia was about to take the Danubian principalities from the Ottoman Empire and thus provoke an Austro-Russian war. Frederick proposed that Russia annex part of Poland in return for renouncing the Danubian principalities and that Prussia and Austria take parts of Poland to balance Russia's gain. This arrangement satisfied Catherine II of Russia, who had long contemplated such a partition. Maria Theresa of Austria, though opposing the scheme both on moral and political grounds, nevertheless partook in the spoils, which otherwise would have fallen entirely to Russia and Prussia. King Stanislaus II of Poland was unable to resist his three neighbors. The partition of 1772 gave Pomerelia and Ermeland to Prussia, Latgale and Belarus E of the Dvina and Dnieper rivers to Russia, and Galicia to Austria.

When in 1791 the remainder of Poland showed signs of regeneration, particularly in the adoption of a new constitution, a Russian army invaded Poland (1792). Prussia invaded the country in turn, and in 1793 a second partition—this time without Austrian participation—was arrived at. Only the central section of Poland was left independent, and that under Russian control.

The national uprising under Thaddeus Kosciusko (1794) and the conservative rulers' reaction to the French Revolution led to the final partition of 1795; all of Poland was divided among Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Russia, which also formally annexed Courland , received the major share of territory, but the capital, Warsaw, went to Prussia. At the Congress of Vienna (1814-15) Poland remained partitioned, although the boundaries were radically changed in favor of Russia. (For the provisions made at Vienna and for the Polish partition of 1939, see Poland ).

Bibliography: See P. S. Wandycz, The Lands of Partitioned Poland (1975); N. Davies, God's Playground: A History of Poland (2 vol., 1982).

partition, noun deriving from the Latin partitio, a division. It began to be used in a political sense in the 18th century, notably in 1751 when Voltaire referred to the 1700 accord of London as ‘ce traité de partage’, and then in connection with the partitions of Poland of 1772, 1793, and 1795. By the 19th century it was well understood in a political sense, as in the partition of Africa. In Ireland it did not surface as a significant issue in the first two home rule controversies, although some form of county option was discussed in the Liberal Party in 1887. It can be argued that the emergence of a specifically Ulster unionist organization (see Ulster unionist council) following the devolution crisis foreshadowed division, the more so as southern unionism declined as a political force.

The first overt proposal to exclude part of Ulster from the jurisdiction of a Dublin parliament came during the committee stage of the home rule bill in June 1912, when Thomas Agar‐Robartes, Liberal MP for St Austell, proposed that its terms should not apply to Antrim, Armagh, Down, or Londonderry. When Carson moved an amendment in December 1912 for nine‐county exclusion it was clear that some form of partition would be seriously discussed. By the time of the Buckingham Palace conference of 21–4 July 1914 the issues had come to focus on whether exclusion would be temporary or permanent and on the number of counties involved. It was during Lloyd George's negotiations with Redmond and Carson in May 1916 that the prospect of a six‐county partition came clearly into view. Even so, in 1919 the cabinet committee on the Irish question recommended a nine‐county division as a means of minimizing the partition of Ireland on religious lines. The terms of the government of Ireland bill proposed a six‐county Northern Ireland, the course northern unionists had come to accept. Debates in the House of Commons revealed that both unionists and nationalists saw this as leading to a permanent partition of the island.

The opening of the Northern Ireland parliament by King George V on 22 June 1921 seemed confirmation of the reality of partition, though Irish unity remained a priority for Sinn Féin in the negotiation of the Anglo‐Irish treaty. Failure to break off negotiations on the issue of unity was the basis of much criticism of Griffith and Collins. Their belief that the Boundary Commission would end partition by truncating Northern Ireland proved baseless. With the collapse of the commission in 1925 partition became an established, if controversial, fact.

Bibliography

Fraser, T. G. , Partition in Ireland, India and Palestine: Theory and Practice (1984)

T. G. Fraser