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The
last bright moment of Polish martial history was the
Battle of Vienna. In 1683, king Jan III Sobieski led
the Polish army of 30,000 men to relieve Vienna besieged
by the Turks. The charge of the huzaria, Polish heavy
cavalry, smashed the Turkish lines and ended once and
for all the centuries old Turkish threat to Central
Europe. This victory only strengthened Austria, a country
which would later take its turn at invading Poland.
In
the period that followed Sobieski's death, the country
virtually disintegrated. A number of despotic neighboring
rulers (Peter the Great and Catherine the Great of Russia
as well as Frederick the Great of Prussia) menaced Poland's
borders, sending rampaging armies crisscrossing through
a virtually defenseless land.
At
last at the beginning of the 1700s, Poland fell under
the influence of Tsarist Russia, which was the cause
of partitions the country. The First Partition took
place in 1772 and Russia, Austria and Prussia annexed
substantial chunks of Poland. One positive result of
the First Partition was to awaken the country from its
state of lethargy. Polish cultural and political thought
resulted in period of reforms, which culminated with
the adoption of the new Constitution on May 3, 1791.
The Constitution was the world's second written delineation
of government responsibility.
The
Constitution provoked Catherine the Great who feared
threat to her hegemony over Poland. In response, she
ordered her armies to smash the newly formed government.
The immediate result was the Second Partition of Poland
(1793). In response, patriotic forces under the leadership
of Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a hero of the American War of
Independence. The Kosciuszko Uprising was Poland's final
attempt to maintain independence. The failed uprising
was followed by the Third Partition of Poland in 1795.
Thus,
the Polish state, as an entity, disappeared off the
map of Europe. It would take 123 years, until November
11, 1918, before Poland fully regained its independence.
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