3. PREUSSEN: The Prussian Partition (1772-1918)
'Prussian Poland', like 'Russian Poland', was a variable term. In official usage,
it was generally confined to the one area, the Grand Duchy of Posen, which from
1815 to 1848 enjoyed a measure of autonomy. In this sense, and in the same
period, it was the exact parallel to the restricted meaning of 'Russian Poland' in
reference to the Congress Kingdom. In more popular usage, it referred to all the
lands which the Kingdom of Prussia inherited from the former
Polish—Lithuanian Republic, and as such included not only Posnania (Wielko-
polska and Kujawy), but also West Prussia (Royal Prussia), and for a dozen
years between 1795 and 1807 South Prussia (Mazovia), New Silesia (Czfsto-
chowa), and New East Prussia (Suwaiki and Biaiystok). These are what
Prussians used to call 'our Polish provinces'.* In Polish eyes, however, Prussian
Poland was later thought to include every area of the Kingdom of Prussia which
contained a predominantly Polish population or which in some way or another
had been connected with Poland in the past. In this way, it came to refer both to
Silesia and to Pomerania and even to East Prussia. (See Map 3.) For most of the
nineteenth century, the Slav element in these provinces did not consider them-
selves to be Poles, and were widely classified as 'Polish-speaking Prussians'. At
the beginning of the century, the Silesians, the Kashubs, and the Protestant
Mazurians possessed a weaker sense of their Polish-ness than the German-
speaking Danzigers.
The Kingdom of Prussia was in a state of flux throughout the modern period.
It experienced several fundamental changes both to its territorial base and to its
constitutional system. The Enlightened Despotism of Frederickian Prussia did
not survive the death of its author in 1786. Under Frederick-William II
(1786-97), and in the first half of the reign of Frederick-William III (1797-1840),
the Revolutionary Era saw the decline of the monarchy and a series of political
defeats and losses of territory. Prussia lost its Rhineland provinces and regained
them; lost part of its Polish provinces and partly regained them; and was sub-
jected to a whole series of constitutional and administrative experiments. But at
* Despite subsequent changes of opinion, both Silesia and Pomerania were generally regarded
at the time to be part of Germany, and both were included in the German League from 1815
to 1866. As from 1834, the Zollverein (German Customs Union), and as from 1867, the
North German Confederation, included all the provinces of the Kingdom of Prussia.