The Age of Enlightenment Reforms and Partitions of Poland: Economy and Politics in the Late Eighteenth Century (1772–1795)

Abstract

Between 1772 and 1795, in spite of the recently undertaken reforms, the Polish state ceased to exist as a result of three partitions. Subsequently, it was revived—on a significantly diminished territory—first by Napoleon, as the Duchy of Warsaw, and then, after the Congress of Vienna, as the Kingdom of Poland (known as Congress Poland) and the Free City of Cracow, both with relative autonomy (including their own constitutions). Within the Prussian state, some extent of autonomy was granted to the Grand Duchy of Posen. These quasi-states came to a decline between 1831 (the defeat of the November Uprising) and 1848 (after the Revolutions of 1848). The chapter presents the economic consequences of fragmentation of the Polish territory and the subsequent projects of modernization of Poland formulated by Enlighted reformers.