The Three Partitions of Poland

The Three Partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, 1795) were divided landings where neighboring powers—Russia, Prussia, and Austria—dismembered the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to expand their territories. Each partition gradually stripped Poland of its independence, sharing its land among them without Polish consent. The first partition was motivated by regional conflicts and internal weaknesses; the second by rising threats from elsewhere; the third by complete domination. This process erased Poland as an independent state until it was reestablished in 1918, after World War I.