1793–1794 · the rump Commonwealth
The Second Partition
The war in defence of the Constitution of 3 May is lost, and Russia and Prussia take more than half of what was left; Austria takes no part this time. The Grodno sejm ratifies the partition at gunpoint — the last sejm the Commonwealth would ever hold. What remains is a rump state with a Russian garrison in Warsaw and a Prussian border a few dozen kilometres from the capital. It lasts two years.
Population
- about 4,000,000 (estimate, ±400,000) — Roughly 4 million on some 215,000 km², down from 8.8 million on 522,000. The second partition took about half of the people the first had left.
Rulers and leaders
- 1764–1795 Stanisław August Poniatowski — the last King of Poland monarch
- 1772–1796 Catherine II — Empress of Russia — partitioning power occupying power
- 1786–1797 Frederick William II — King of Prussia — partitioning power occupying power
- 1792–1835 Francis II — Holy Roman Emperor, from 1804 Emperor of Austria — partitioning power occupying power
- 1794 Tadeusz Kościuszko — Supreme Commander of the National Armed Force de facto leader
Took supreme authority by the Act of Insurrection on 24 March 1794; wounded and captured at Maciejowice on 10 October. Tomasz Wawrzecki succeeded him until November.
Events
- 1793The Second Partition 23 January, 23 September loss
Russia and Prussia answer the constitution with invasion and a second partition. The sejm at Grodno ratifies it under duress: the Russian treaty in July, the Prussian one at a “silent session” where the envoys’ silence was taken for assent.
- 1794The Kościuszko Uprising 24 March, 4 April, 7 May, 10 October uprising
Kościuszko proclaims the rising in Kraków and wins at Racławice with peasants armed with scythes. His Połaniec Manifesto promises them personal freedom — the first appeal to the peasants as citizens with a stake in the state. In the autumn Kościuszko is wounded and captured at Maciejowice, and after Praga is stormed and its people massacred, Warsaw capitulates to Suvorov.
Wars, uprisings and longer processes
- 1773–1794The Commission of National Education reform
The first ministry of education in Europe, funded from the estates of the dissolved Jesuit order. It takes over schools from the parish level to the academies of Kraków and Vilnius, writes Polish textbooks for them and teaches the sciences in them, not only Latin. The generation of the Great Sejm came out of its schools.
People of the age
- 1747–1822 Józef Wybicki — politician; in 1797 he wrote the Song of the Polish Legions in Italy, Poland’s anthem since 1927
- 1755–1818 Jan Henryk Dąbrowski — general, founded the Polish Legions in Italy