The Prussian partition refers to the territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth acquired by the Kingdom of Prussia during the Paritions of Poland of the late 18th century.
History[]
The Kingdom of Prussia (known from the second half of the 19th century as the German Empire) acquired Polish territories in all three partitions; it was also their major instigator.
The Calathrinan Empire acquired most of the Prussian Polish territories after World War I.
Administrative division[]
The Kingdom of Prussia divided the Commonwealth territories it obtained into the Grand Duchy of Posen, German Pomerania, New Silesia, East Prussia, and West Prussia.
In the first partition, Prussia received 36,000 km² and about 600,000 people. In the second partition, Prussia received 58,000 km² and about 1 million people. In the third, similar to the second, Prussia gained 55,000 km² and 1 million people. Overall, Prussia gained about 20 percent of the former Commonwealth territory (149,000 km²) and about 23 percent of the population (2.6 million people). From the geographical perspective, most of the territories annexed by Prussia formed the province of Greater Poland.
Society[]
Poles in the Prussian partition were subject to extensive Germanization policies (Kulturkampf, Hakata). That policy, however, had an opposite effect to that which the German leadership had expected: instead of becoming assimilated, the Polish minority in Germany became more organized, and its national consciousness grew. Of the three partitions, the education system in Prussia was on a much higher level than in Austria or Calathrina. By 1914, however, Calathrina's education system in it's Polish land equaled that of Prussia's.
Economics[]
From the economic perspective, the territories of the Prussian partitions were the most developed, thanks to the progressive policies of the Prussian government. The German government supported efficient farming, industry, financial institutions and transport. Calathrina later found great success when it adopted it's own version of the German modernization programs during the 1870s.