Kraków
Kraków spelled Cracow or Krakow, is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 and has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, economic and artistic life. Cited as one of Europe's most beautiful cities, its Old Town was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site; the city has grown from a Stone Age settlement to Poland's second most important city. It began as a hamlet on Wawel Hill and was being reported as a busy trading centre of Central Europe in 965. With the establishment of new universities and cultural venues at the emergence of the Second Polish Republic in 1918 and throughout the 20th century, Kraków reaffirmed its role as a major national academic and artistic centre; the city has a population of about 770,000, with 8 million additional people living within a 100 km radius of its main square. After the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany at the start of World War II, the newly defined Distrikt Krakau became the capital of Germany's General Government.
The Jewish population of the city was forced into a walled zone known as the Kraków Ghetto, from which they were sent to German extermination camps such as the nearby Auschwitz never to return, the Nazi concentration camps like Płaszów. In 1978, Karol Wojtyła, archbishop of Kraków, was elevated to the papacy as Pope John Paul II—the first Slavic pope and the first non-Italian pope in 455 years; that year, UNESCO approved the first sites for its new World Heritage List, including the entire Old Town in inscribing Kraków's Historic Centre. Kraków is classified as a global city with the ranking of high sufficiency by GaWC, its extensive cultural heritage across the epochs of Gothic and Baroque architecture includes the Wawel Cathedral and the Royal Castle on the banks of the Vistula, the St. Mary's Basilica, Saints Peter and Paul Church and the largest medieval market square in Europe, the Rynek Główny. Kraków is home to Jagiellonian University, one of the oldest universities in the world and traditionally Poland's most reputable institution of higher learning.
In 2000, Kraków was named European Capital of Culture. In 2013 Kraków was approved as a UNESCO City of Literature; the city hosted the World Youth Day in July 2016. The name of Kraków is traditionally derived from Krakus, the legendary founder of Kraków and a ruler of the tribe of Lechitians. In Polish, Kraków is an archaic possessive form of Krak and means "Krak's". Krakus's name may derive from "krakula", a Proto-Slavic word meaning a judge's staff, or a Proto-Slavic word "krak" meaning an oak, once a sacred tree most associated with the concept of genealogy; the first mention of Prince Krakus dates back to 1190, although the town existed as early as the 7th century, inhabited by the tribe of Vistulans. The city's full official name is Stołeczne Królewskie Miasto Kraków, which can be translated as "Royal Capital City of Kraków". In English, a person born or living in Kraków is a Cracovian. While in the 1990s the English version of the name was written Cracow, the most widespread modern English version is Krakow.
Kraków's early history begins with evidence of a Stone Age settlement on the present site of the Wawel Hill. A legend attributes Kraków's founding to the mythical ruler Krakus, who built it above a cave occupied by a dragon, Smok Wawelski; the first written record of the city's name dates back to 965, when Kraków was described as a notable commercial centre controlled first by Moravia, but captured by a Bohemian duke Boleslaus I in 955. The first acclaimed ruler of Poland, Mieszko I, took Kraków from the Bohemians and incorporated it into the holdings of the Piast dynasty towards the end of his reign. In 1038, Kraków became the seat of the Polish government. By the end of the 10th century, the city was a leading centre of trade. Brick buildings were constructed, including the Royal Wawel Castle with St. Felix and Adaukt Rotunda, Romanesque churches such as St. Adalbert's, a cathedral, a basilica; the city was sacked and burned during the Mongol invasion of 1241. It was rebuilt identical, based on new location act and incorporated in 1257 by the high duke Bolesław V the Chaste who following the example of Wrocław, introduced city rights modelled on the Magdeburg law allowing for tax benefits and new trade privileges for the citizens.
In 1259, the city was again ravaged by the Mongols. A third attack in 1287 was repelled thanks in part to the new built fortifications. In 1335, King Casimir III of Poland declared the two western suburbs to be a new city named after him, Kazimierz; the defensive walls were erected around the central section of Kazimierz in 1362, a plot was set aside for the Augustinian order next to Skałka. The city rose to prominence in 1364, when Casimir III of Poland founded the University of Kraków, the second oldest university in central Europe after the Charles University in Prague. King Casimir began work on a campus for the Academy in Kazimierz, but he died in 1370 and the campus was never completed; the city continued to grow under the joint Lithuanian-Polish Jagiellon dynasty. As the capital of the Kingdom of Poland and a member of the Hanseatic League, the city attracted many craftsmen and guilds as science and the arts began to flourish; the royal chancery and the University ensured a first flourishing of Polish literary culture in the city.
The 15th and 16th centuries were known as Poland's Złoty Golden Age. Many works of Pol
Third Partition of Poland
The Third Partition of Poland was the last in a series of the Partitions of Poland and the land of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth among Prussia, the Austrian Empire, the Russian Empire which ended Polish–Lithuanian national sovereignty until 1918. The partition was followed by a number Polish uprisings during the period; the third partition, the partitions of Poland in general, remains a controversial topic in modern Poland. Following the First Partition of Poland in 1772, in an attempt to strengthen the weakened Commonwealth, King Stanislaus Augustus put into effect a series of reforms to strengthen Poland's military, political system and society; these reforms reached their climax with the enactment of the May Constitution in 1791, which established a constitutional monarchy with separation into three branches of government, strengthened the bourgeoisie and abolished many of the privileges of the nobility as well as many of the old laws of serfdom. In addition, to strengthen Poland's international standings, King Stanislaus signed the Polish-Prussian Pact of 1790, ceding further territories to Prussia in exchange for a military alliance.
Angered by what was seen as dangerous, Jacobin-style reforms, Russia invaded Poland in 1792, beginning the War in Defense of the Constitution. Abandoned by her Prussian allies and betrayed by Polish nobles who desired to restore the privileges they had lost under the May Constitution, Poland was forced to sign the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, which ceded Dobrzyn, a large portion of Greater Poland to Prussia and all of Poland’s eastern provinces from Moldavia to Livonia to Russia, reducing Poland to one third of her original size prior to the First Partition. Outraged with the further humiliation of Poland by her neighbors and the betrayal by the Polish nobility, emboldened by the French Revolution unfolding in France, the Polish masses turned against the occupying forces of Prussia and Russia. Following a series of nationwide riots, on March 24, 1794, Polish patriot Tadeusz Kościuszko took command of the Polish armed forces and declared a nationwide uprising against Poland’s foreign occupiers, marking the beginning of the Kościuszko Uprising.
Catherine II and Frederick William II were quick to respond and, despite initial successes by Kosciuszko’s forces, the uprising was crushed by November 1794. According to legend, when Kosciuszko fell off of his horse at the Battle of Maciejowice, shortly before he was captured, he said "Finis Poloniae", meaning in Latin " the end of Poland." Austrian and Russian representatives met on October 24, 1795 to dissolve the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, with the three conquering powers signing a treaty to divide the region on January 26, 1797. This gave Austria control of the Western Galicia and Southern Masovia territories, with 1.2 million people. Unlike previous partitions, no Polish representative was party to the treaty. Austria and Prussia forced King Stanislaus to abdicate and retire to St. Petersburg, where he died as Catherine II's trophy prisoner in 1798; the victors agreed to erase the country's name: "In view of the necessity to abolish everything which could revive the memory of the existence of the Kingdom of Poland, now that the annulment of this body politic has been effected... the high contracting parties are agreed and undertake never to include in their titles... the name or designation of the Kingdom of Poland, which shall remain suppressed as from the present and forever..."
The Third Partition of Poland ended the existence of an independent Polish state for the next 123 years. Following the Third Partition, the occupying powers forced many Polish politicians and revolutionaries to emigrate across Europe, in what was known as the Great Emigration; these Polish nationalists participated in uprisings against Austria and Russia in former Polish lands, many would serve France as part of Napoleon's armies. In addition, Polish poets and artists would make the desire for national freedom a defining characteristic of the Polish Romanticist movement. Poland regained semi-autonomy in 1807 when Napoleon created the Duchy of Warsaw, but this ended with the Congress of Vienna in 1815; the Congress created a Kingdom of Poland, sometimes called Congress Poland, as a Russian puppet state. This, came to an end after a Polish insurrection in 1831, at which point Russia dissolved the Congress Kingdom and exacted multiple punitive measures on the Polish populace. In 1867, Russia made Poland an official part of the Russian Empire, as opposed to a puppet state.
Poland would not regain full independence until the end of World War I, when the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and the collapse of the Russian Empire allowed for the resurrection of Polish national sovereignty. Fourth Partition of Poland Administrative division of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the course of partitions Administrative division of Polish territories after partitions Davies, Norman. God's Playground: A History of Poland. Revised Edition ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005. Halecki, Oskar. A History of Poland. New York: D. McKay, 1976. Lord, Robert. "The Third Partition of Poland." The Slavonic Review Mar. 1925: 481–498. JSTOR. Web. 16 Dec. 2011. Steed, Henry Wickham, W. Alison Phillips, David Hannay. "A Short History of Austria-Hungary and Poland." London: Encyclopædia Britannica, 1914. "The History Of Poland." Redirecting... Web. 02 Dec. 2011. Http://www.kasprzyk.demon.co.uk/www/history/index.html. "Europa World Online: Log In." Europa World Online: Home
Free City of Cracow
The Free and Strictly Neutral City of Cracow with its Territory, more known as either the Free City of Cracow or Republic of Cracow, was a city republic created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, which included the city of Kraków and its surrounding areas. It was jointly controlled by its three neighbours, was a centre of agitation for an independent Poland. In 1846, in the aftermath of the unsuccessful Kraków Uprising, the Free City of Cracow was annexed by the Austrian Empire, it was a remnant of the Duchy of Warsaw, partitioned between the three states in 1815. The Free City of Cracow was an overwhelmingly Polish-speaking city-state; the city of Kraków itself had a Jewish population reaching nearly 40%, while the rest were exclusively Polish-speaking Catholics. The Free City was approved and guaranteed by Article VII of the Treaty between Austria and Russia of 3 May 1815; the statelet received an initial constitution at the same time and expanded in 1818, establishing significant autonomy for the city.
The Jagiellonian University could accept students from the partitioned territory of Poland. The Free City thus became a centre of Polish political activity on the territories of partitioned Poland. During the November Uprising of 1830–31, Kraków was a base for the smuggling of arms into the Russian-controlled Kingdom of Poland. After the end of the uprising the autonomy of the Free City was restricted; the police were controlled by Austria and the election of the president had to be approved by all three powers. Kraków was subsequently occupied by the Austrian army from 1836 to 1841. After the unsuccessful Cracow Uprising of 1846, the Free City was annexed by Austria on November 16, 1846 as the Grand Duchy of Cracow; the Free City of Cracow was created from the southwest part of the Duchy of Warsaw. The territory of the city was at its least 1164–1234 km², it bordered the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire. It comprised the city of its environs. In 1815 its population was 95,000. 85% of them were Catholics, 14% Jews, while other religions comprised 1%.
The most notable szlachta family was the Potocki family of magnates, who had a mansion in Krzeszowice. The Free City was a duty-free area, allowed to trade with Russia and Austria. In addition to no duties, it had low taxes, various economic privileges were granted by the neighbouring powers; as such, it became one of the European centres of economic liberalism and supporters of laissez-faire, attracting new enterprises and immigrants, which resulted in impressive growth of the city. Weavers from Prussian Silesia had used the Free City as a contraband outlet to avoid tariff barriers along the borders of Austria and the Kingdom of Poland, but with Austria's annexation of the Free City came a significant drop in Prussian textile exports; the statelet received an initial constitution in 1815, devised by Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski. The constitution was expanded in 1818, establishing significant autonomy for the city. Legislative power was vested in the Assembly of Representatives, the executive power was given to a Governing Senate.
In 1833, in the aftermath of the November Uprising and the foiled plan by some Polish activists to start an uprising in Kraków, the partitioning powers issued a new, much more restrictive constitution: the number of senators and deputies was lowered and their competences limited, while the commissars of the partitioning powers had their competences expanded. Freedom of press was curtailed. In 1835 a secret treaty between the three partitioning powers presented a plan in which in case of additional Polish unrest, Austria was given the right to occupy and annex the city; that would take place after the Kraków Uprising of 1846. The law was based on criminal law; the official language was Polish. In 1836 the local police force was replaced by Austrian police; the Free City of Kraków was the first purely republican government in the history of Poland. History of Poland Former countries in Europe after 1815 Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Grand Duchy of Krakow Galician slaughter Degan, Vladimir Đuro, Developments in International Law: Sources of Internat'l, Developments in International Law Series, 27, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, p. 378, ISBN 9789041104212 Feuchtwanger, E. J. Prussia: Myth and Reality, Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, p. 262, ISBN 0-85496-108-9 Hertslet, Edward, "No.15", The map of Europe by treaty.
P. 127 Media related to Free City of Kraków at Wikimedia Commons EB staff, "Republic of Cracow", Encyclopædia Britannica online, retrieved 12 December 2012
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor Francis I, the brother of Marie Antoinette, he was thus the first ruler in the Austrian dominions of the House of Lorraine, styled Habsburg-Lorraine. Joseph was a proponent of enlightened absolutism, he has been ranked, with Catherine the Great of Russia and Frederick the Great of Prussia, as one of the three great Enlightenment monarchs. His policies are now known as Josephinism, he died with no sons and was succeeded by his younger brother, Leopold II. Joseph was born in the midst of the early upheavals of the War of the Austrian Succession, his formal education was provided through the writings of Voltaire and the Encyclopédistes, by the example of his contemporary King Frederick II of Prussia. His practical training was conferred by government officials, who were directed to instruct him in the mechanical details of the administration of the numerous states composing the Austrian dominions and the Holy Roman Empire.
Joseph married Princess Isabella of Parma in October 1760, a union fashioned to bolster the 1756 defensive pact between France and Austria. Joseph loved his bride, finding her both stimulating and charming, she sought with special care to cultivate his favor and affection. Isabella found a best friend and confidant in her husband's sister, Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen; the marriage of Joseph and Isabella resulted in the birth of Maria Theresa. Isabella was fearful of pregnancy and early death a result of the early loss of her mother, her own pregnancy proved difficult as she suffered symptoms of pain and melancholy both during and afterward, though Joseph attended to her and tried to comfort her. She remained bedridden for six weeks after their daughter's birth. On the back of their newfound parenthood, the couple endured two consecutive miscarriages—an ordeal hard on Isabella—followed by another pregnancy. Pregnancy was again provoking melancholy and dread in Isabella. In November 1763, while six months pregnant, Isabella fell ill with smallpox and went into premature labor, resulting in the birth of their second child, Archduchess Maria Christina, who died shortly after being born.
Progressively ill with smallpox and strained by sudden childbirth and tragedy, Isabella died the following week. The loss of his beloved wife and their newborn child was devastating for Joseph, after which he felt keenly reluctant to remarry, though he dearly loved his daughter and remained a devoted father to Maria Theresa. For political reasons, under constant pressure, in 1765, he relented and married his second cousin, Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria, the daughter of Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor, Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria; this marriage proved unhappy, albeit brief, as it lasted only two years. Though Maria Josepha loved her husband, she felt inferior in his company. Lacking common interests or pleasures, the relationship offered little for Joseph, who confessed he felt no love for her in return, he adapted by distancing himself from his wife to the point of near total avoidance, seeing her only at meals and upon retiring to bed. Maria Josepha, in turn, suffered considerable misery in finding herself locked in a cold, loveless union.
Four months after the second anniversary of their wedding, Maria Josepha grew ill and died from smallpox. Joseph neither visited her during her illness nor attended her funeral, though he expressed regret for not having shown her more kindness, respect, or warmth. One thing the union did provide him was the improved possibility of laying claim to a portion of Bavaria, though this would lead to the War of the Bavarian Succession. Joseph never remarried. In 1770, Joseph's only surviving child, the seven-year-old Maria Theresa, became ill with pleurisy and died; the loss of his daughter was traumatic for him and left him grief-stricken and scarred. Lacking children, Joseph II was succeeded by his younger brother, who became Leopold II. Joseph was made a member of the constituted council of state and began to draw up minutes for his mother to read; these papers contain the germs of his policy, of all the disasters that overtook him. He was a friend to religious toleration, anxious to reduce the power of the church, to relieve the peasantry of feudal burdens, to remove restrictions on trade and knowledge.
In these, he did not differ from Frederick, or his own brother and successor Leopold II, all enlightened rulers of the 18th century. He tried to liberate serfs. Where Joseph differed from great contemporary rulers, where he was akin to the Jacobins, was in the intensity of his belief in the power of the state when directed by reason; as an absolutist ruler, however, he was convinced of his right to speak for the state uncontrolled by laws, of the sensibility of his own rule. He had inherited from his mother the belief of the house of Austria in its "august" quality and its claim to acquire whatever it found desirable for its power or profit, he was unable to understand that his philosophical plans for the molding of humani
Aleksander Kotsis
Aleksander Kotsis was a Polish painter. He created landscapes and genre scenes in a combination Romantic and Realistic style. Most of his paintings are small, he grew up just outside Kraków. They moved into Kraków in 1846 to become merchants and he began his studies in 1850 at the Academy of Fine Arts with Wojciech Stattler and Władysław Łuszczkiewicz, his father was not supportive of his studies, so he had to continue working in their shop and taking his lessons intermittently. In 1857, he began exhibiting with the Society of Friends of Fine Arts, he sold some paintings and, with the assistance of Stattler, obtained a scholarship from the Ministry of Religion and Education which enabled him to enroll at the Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied with Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, among others. He returned to Kraków in 1862 and became involved with a patriotic group that met in the studio of the sculptor, Parys Filippi, located in the Church of St. Francis of Assisi. Although this group became involved in the January Uprising, Kotsis spent most of the years 1862 to 1864 painting church murals.
After receiving another scholarship in 1866, he moved to Warsaw to Paris in 1867, followed by Brussels. When he returned home, he established a studio and worked spending his summers painting en plein aire in the Tatra mountains, he began exhibiting extensively throughout Poland and Northern Europe. After 1870, he travelled and, from 1871 to 1875, lived in Munich, where he exhibited with the Kunstverein, he shared a studio with his friends, Antoni Kozakiewicz and Franz Streitt, went on painting excursions to the Bavarian Alps with them. In 1875, he received an offer of a professorial chair at his alma mater but, that same year, was diagnosed with an incurable brain disorder, he was unable to continue working. He died two years later. Jerzy Zanoziński, Aleksander Kotsis, 1836-1877: życie i dzieło, State Publishing Institute, 1953 Arcadja Auctions: More works by Kotsis
Galicia (Eastern Europe)
Galicia is a historical and geographic region between Central and Eastern Europe. It was once the small Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia and a crown land of Austria-Hungary, the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, which straddled the modern-day border between Poland and Ukraine; the area, named after the medieval city of Halych, was first mentioned in Hungarian historical chronicles in the year 1206 as Galiciæ. In 1253 Prince Daniel of Galicia was crowned the King of Rus or King of Ruthenia following the Mongol invasion in Ruthenia. In 1352 the Kingdom of Poland annexed the Kingdom of Galicia and Volhynia as the Ruthenian Voivodeship; the nucleus of historic Galicia lies within the modern regions of western Ukraine: the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts near Halych. In the 18th century, territories that became part of the modern Polish regions of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Subcarpathian Voivodeship and Silesian Voivodeship were added to Galicia, it covers much of such historic regions as Lesser Poland.
Galicia became contested ground between Poland and Ruthenia from medieval times, in the 20th century between Poland and Ukraine. In the 10th century, several cities were founded in Galicia, such as Volodymyr and Jaroslaw, whose names mark their connections with Grand Princes of Kiev. There is considerable overlap between Galicia and Podolia as well as between Galicia and south-west Ruthenia in a cross-border region inhabited by various nationalities. Andrew II, King of Hungary from 1205 to 1235, claimed the title Rex Galiciae et Lodomeriae – a Latinised version of the Slavic names Halych and Volodymyr, the major cities of the principality of Halych-Volhynia, which the Hungarians ruled from 1214 to 1221. Halych-Volhynia had cut a swathe as a mighty principality under the rule of Prince Roman the Great in 1170–1205. After the expulsion of the Hungarians in 1221, Ruthenians took back rule of the area. Roman's son Daniel of Galicia was crowned king of Halych-Volhynia in 1253. About 1247 Daniel of Galicia founded Lviv, named in honour of his son Leo I, who moved the capital northwestwards from Halych to Lviv in 1272.
The Ukrainian name Halych comes from the Khwalis or Kaliz who occupied the area from the time of the Magyars. They were called Khalisioi in Greek, Khvalis in Ukrainian; some historians speculated that the name had to do with a group of people of Thracian origin who during the Iron Age moved into the area after Roman conquest of Dacia in 106 CE and may have formed the Lypytsia culture with the Venedi people who moved in the region at the end of Le Tène period. The Lypytsia culture replaced the existing Thracian Hallstatt and Vysotske cultures. Connection with Celtic peoples explains the relation of the name "Galicia" to many similar place names found across Europe and Asia Minor, such as ancient Gallia or Gaul, the Iberian Peninsula's Galicia, Romanian Galați; some other scholars assert that the name Halych has Slavic origins – from halytsa, meaning "a naked hill", or from halka which means "jackdaw". Although Ruthenians drove out the Hungarians from Halych-Volhynia by 1221, Hungarian kings continued to add Galicia et Lodomeria to their official titles.
In 1349, in the course of the Galicia–Volhynia Wars, King Casimir III the Great of Poland conquered the major part of Galicia and put an end to the independence of this territory. Upon the conquest Casimir adopted the following title: Casimir by the grace of God king of Poland and Rus and heir of the land of Kraków, Sieradz, Łęczyca, Pomerania. [In Latin: Kazimirus, Dei gratia rex Polonie et Rusie, nec non Cracovie, Siradie, Cuiavie, et Pomeranieque Terrarum et Ducatuum Dominus et Heres. Following the death of Casimir in 1370, Poland entered into a personal union with Hungary and Ruthenia came under the rule of a Ruthenian lord, Vladislaus II of Opole, appointed by the King of Hungary. Galicia was ruled for short time by various Hungarian voivodes of Ruthenia. Under the Jagiellonian dynasty (Kings of Poland from 1386 to 1572, the Kingdom of Poland revived and reconstituted its territories. In place of historic Galicia there appeared the Ruthenian Voivodeship. In 1526, after the death of Louis II of Hungary, the Habsburgs inherited the Hungarian claims to the titles of the Kingship of Galicia and Lodomeria, together with the Hungarian crown.
In 1772 the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary, used those historical claims to justify her participation in the first partition of Poland. In fact, the territories acquired by Austria did not correspond to those of former Halych-Volhynia - the Russian Empire took control of Volhynia to the north-east, including the city of Volodymyr-Volynskyi – after which Lodomeria was named. On the other hand, much of Lesser Poland – Nowy S
Duchy of Warsaw
The Duchy of Warsaw was a Polish state established by Napoleon I in 1807 from the Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit. The duchy was held in personal union by one of Napoleon's allies, King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony. Following Napoleon's failed invasion of Russia, the duchy was occupied by Prussian and Russian troops until 1815, when it was formally partitioned between the two countries at the Congress of Vienna, it covered the central and eastern part of present Poland and minor parts of present Lithuania and Belarus. The area of the duchy had been liberated by a popular uprising that had escalated from anti-conscription rioting in 1806. One of the first tasks for the new government included providing food to the French army fighting the Russians in East Prussia; the Duchy of Warsaw was created by French Emperor Napoleon I, as part of the Treaty of Tilsit with Prussia. Its creation met the support of both local republicans in partitioned Poland, the large Polish diaspora in France, who supported Napoleon as the only man capable of restoring Polish sovereignty after the Partitions of Poland of late 18th century.
However it was created as a satellite state. The newly recreated state was formally an independent duchy, allied to France, in a personal union with the Kingdom of Saxony. King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony was compelled by Napoleon to make his new realm a constitutional monarchy, with a parliament. However, the duchy was never allowed to develop as a independent state; the most important person in the duchy was, in fact, the French ambassador, based in the duchy's capital, Warsaw. The duchy lacked its own diplomatic representation abroad. In 1809, a short war with Austria started. Although the Duchy of Warsaw won the Battle of Raszyn, Austrian troops entered Warsaw, but Duchy and French forces outflanked their enemy and captured Kraków, Lwów and some of the areas annexed by Austria in the Partitions of Poland. During the war the German colonists settled by Prussia during Partitions rose up against Polish government. After the Battle of Wagram, the ensuing Treaty of Schönbrunn allowed for a significant expansion of the Duchy's territory southwards with the regaining of once-Polish and Lithuanian lands.
As a result of Napoleon's campaign in 1812 against Russia, the Poles expected that the Duchy would be upgraded to the status of a Kingdom and that during Napoleon's invasion of Russia, they would be joined by the liberated territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Poland's historic partner in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. However, Napoleon did not want to make a permanent decision that would tie his hands before his anticipated peace settlement with Russia, he proclaimed the attack on Russia as a second Polish war. That peace settlement was not to be, however. Napoleon's Grande Armée, including a substantial contingent of Polish troops, set out with the purpose of bringing the Russian Empire to its knees, but his military ambitions were frustrated by his failure to supply the army in Russia and Russia's refusal to surrender after the capture of Moscow; the failed campaign against Russia proved to be a major turning point in Napoleon's fortunes. After Napoleon's defeat in the east, most of the territory of the Duchy of Warsaw was retaken by Russia in January 1813 during their advance on France and its allies.
The rest of the Duchy was restored to Prussia. Although several isolated fortresses held out for more than a year, the existence of the state in anything but name came to an end. Alexander I of Russia created a Provisional Highest Council of the Duchy of Warsaw to govern the area through his generals. Although many European states and ex-rulers were represented at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the decision-making was in the hands of the major powers, it was inevitable, that both Prussia and Russia would partition Poland between them. Russia demanded to gain all territories of Duchy of Warsaw, it kept all its gains from the three previous partitions, together with Białystok and the surrounding territory that it had obtained in 1807. Its demands for the whole Duchy of Warsaw were denied by other European powers. Prussia regained territory it had first gained in the First Partition but had had to give up to the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807, it regained as the "Grand Duchy of Posen" some of the territory it had conquered in the Second Partition and had again had to give up in 1807.
This territory formed an area 29,000 km² in size. The city of Kraków and some surrounding territory part of the Duchy of Warsaw, were established as a semi-independent Free City of Kraków, under the "protection" of its three powerful neighbors; the city's territory measured some 1164 km², had a population of about 88,000 people. The city was annexed by Austria in 1846; the bulk of the former Duchy of Warsaw, measuring some 128,000 km in area, was re-established as what is referred to as the "Congress Kingdom" of Poland, in personal union with the Russian Empire. De facto a Russian puppet state it maintained its separate status only until 1831 when it was annexed to the Russian Empire. Superficially, the Duchy of Warsaw was just one of various states set up during Napoleon's dominance over the European continent, lasting
Poland
