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The Vanished Empire

© Derek Royden Guiler

European Colonialism was a phenomenon that touched the whole world, including the continent itself. While England, Spain, and France amongst others used the sea for conquest, a few of the great European powers, most notably Russia, Prussia and Austria-Hungary, did their empire building overland. During the 18th century these three powers worked together to dismember a weakened Poland, and, by that century's end, one of Europe's oldest nations was wiped off the map.

Russia set a precedent for what was to come when they invaded the country in 1717 in order to prevent a civil war that they had. for the most part, instigated.1 With a friendly King on the Poland's throne, Russian troops marched on the country's ancient Sejm, or parliament, and held its deputies hostage, forcing them to accept a Russian "protectorate" for the country which was little more than an outright occupation. In 1768 an uprising called the "Council of Bar" took place in the country and was brutally, if not quickly, surpressed.2 Events in Poland coincided with Russia's successful war against Ottoman Turkey, a coincidence which would help seal the country's fate.

Russian victories against the Turks greatly concerned the Austrians, who didn't look forward to another powerful and emboldened neighbour on their south-eastern flank, regardless of whether that power was Muslim or Slavic Orthodox. They were considering joining the war against Russia when Frederick the Great of Prussia came forward with a solution to the problem.3 Frederick successfully convinced the Russian Monarch to turn his attention to Poland where all three powers, Prussia, Austria and the Russians themselves could peacefully sate their desire for new territories.

On August 5th, 1772 they signed a treaty to split a total 733,000 square kilometers of Poland and almost 5 million of its inhabitants between them.4 In a journal entry5 written after these events Frederick made clear his pleasure in Prussia's share of the robbery, noting that besides the increase in territory it gave his Kingdom control of the Vistula river. This was Poland's primary trade route and having it in the hands of Prussian tax collectors could only further weaken the Poles.

Following the first set of partitions, Polish national identity didn't atrophy as might be expected. Instead, in the remainder of the country there was a mini-Renaissance in politics and culture admired not only in Post-Revolutionary France and England but also the newly liberated United States of America.6 At the forefront of this quiet revolution was Poland's last King, Stanislaw August Poniatowski who was elected by the Sejm in 1764.