Britain and the second and third partitions of Poland
This comprehensive account of Anglo-Polish relations, 1788-95, re-examines official and popular British perspectives on the second partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, perpetrated by Russia and Prussia in 1793, and on the third. 1795. partition of Poland at Russian. Austrian, and Prussian hands, which completed a process begun in 1772. In 1793 and 1795 prominent Poles nurtured high hopes of British interference, which they assiduously, unavailingly, courted. Those dismemberments aroused widespread and genuine British interest and sympathy, and lent themselves, to a generally unrecognized degree, to partisan politicking in Britain. As well the little known pro-Polish remonstrances and activities of some British diplomats and private individuals often served multiple interests--Poland's, and perhaps support for or opposition to war against Revolutionary France, Jacobinism, or domestic Parliamentary reform. In neither the second nor third partition, however, did Britain officially intervene, despite Poland's potential value to her as a trading partner, ally, and bulwark against Russian expansion. Having, however, underestimated the extensive consequences for Britain of the Polish upheaval--critical
Wicklum, Ellen
Anglo-Polish relations; Lithuanian; Russia
Britain and the second and third partitions of Poland. This comprehensive account of Anglo-Polish relations, 1788-95, re-examines official and popular British perspectives on the second partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, perpetrated by Russia and Prussia in 1793, and on the third. 1795. partition of Poland at Russian. Austrian, and Prussian hands, which completed a process begun in 1772. In 1793 and 1795 prominent Poles nurtured high hopes of British interference, which they assiduously, unavailingly, courted. Those dismemberments aroused widespread and genuine British interest and sympathy, and lent themselves, to a generally unrecognized degree, to partisan politicking in Britain. As well the little known pro-Polish remonstrances and activities of some British diplomats and private individuals often served multiple interests--Poland's, and perhaps support for or opposition to war against Revolutionary France, Jacobinism, or domestic Parliamentary reform. In neither the second nor third partition, however, did Britain officially intervene, despite Poland's potential value to her as a trading partner, ally, and bulwark against Russian expansion. Having, however, underestimated the extensive consequences for Britain of the Polish upheaval--critical
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