History of Poland (1795–1918)

Poles rebelled several times against the partitioners, particularly near the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the nineteenth century. One of the most famous and successful battle for Poland was at Racławice where Tadeusz Kosciuszko lead peasants and some polish armies into battle against Russia, in 1794. In 1807, Napoleon I of France recreated a Polish state, the Duchy of Warsaw, but after the Napoleonic Wars, Poland was again divided in 1815 by the victorious Allies at the Congress of Vienna. The eastern portion was ruled by the Russian tsar as a Congress Kingdom which possessed a liberal constitution.

However, the tsars soon reduced Polish freedoms, and Russia eventually de facto annexed the country. Later in the nineteenth century, Austrian-ruled Galicia, particularly the Free City of Kraków, became the centre of Polish cultural life.