Grand Duchy of Warsaw

Grand Duchy of Warsaw, political unit created by Napoleon I in 1807 as a gesture toward restoring the Polish state, which had been completely dismembered in 1795. The Grand Duchy of Warsaw came into existence under the provisions of the Treaty of Tilsit, which was signed by France and Russia at the East Prussian town of Tilsit (now Sovetsk, Russia) in July 1807, ending the War of the Third Coalition (see Napoleonic Wars). The new duchy was only a small portion of the territory of the old Poland and consisted largely of the Polish lands that Prussia had seized in three previous partitions, thus furthering Napoleon's objective of completing the isolation and subjection of Prussia. The grand duchy, containing more than 4.5 million inhabitants and having an area of 116,550 sq km (45,000 sq mi), was placed under the rule of the king of Saxony, Frederick Augustus I, as its grand duke, who ruled under a constitution prepared by Napoleon. In 1809 Napoleon added Austria's share of Polish territory taken during the third partition to the duchy.

Polish hopes that the grand duchy was to be the nucleus of a future independent kingdom were short-lived, and upon the defeat of Napoleon in Russia in 1812, Russia took possession of the duchy. Tsar Alexander I wished to set up Poland as an independent state under Russian supremacy. However, the tsar's plan met with serious opposition at the Congress of Vienna, which met from 1814 to 1815 to reestablish the territorial divisions of Europe following the downfall of Napoleon. The Polish territories were once again divided up among the great powers, and Russia was obliged to give up nearly one-fourth of the duchy, including the city of Kraków. Out of what was left, the tsar created the new kingdom of Poland, known as the Congress Kingdom, with the Russian tsar as its king.