The Grand Duchy of Warsaw known contemporarily as Poland, was a client state of the First French Empire that was established in 1807 as a result of the Treaties of Tilsit. Prussia gave independence to Poland, which was ruled by King Friedrich August III of Saxony, and Polish nationalists were delighted by the independence of their great country. The duchy assisted France during its wars with the Coalition from 1807 to 1814, and it was occupied by the Russian Empire after the defeat of Napoleon. On 9 June 1815, under the Congress of Vienna, the duchy was divided into the Russian-controlled Congress Poland, the Prussian-ruled Grand Duchy of Posen, and the Austrian client state, the Free City of Krakow.
History[]
Grand Duke Michal I of Poland
In 1806, the crown of Prussia moved their capital to Warsaw after the fall of Berlin to the army of Napoleon I of France during the Napoleonic Wars. Warsaw's populace was unhappy under the rule of the German royal family and were already hostile to the conscription introduced to the Prussian fiefs that year during the Fourth Coalition. The French Marshal Michel Ney and 9,800 French troops captured Warsaw in late September 1806, driving out Gebhard von Blucher's 21,700 Prussian troops. The city, made up of 4,367,157 people as of that time, was 100% Catholic, and opposed to the Protestant House of Hohenzollern. The French emperor Napoleon believed that Poland deserved its own country, so he persuaded Polish nobles to declare independence from Prussia and draft a constitution. The Polish nation was ruled by Grand Duke Michal I of Poland.
Europe, 1812: Great Britain is scarlet, Spain is yellow, Portugal is white, France is blue, Switzerland is darker red, Wurttemberg is grey, Bavaria is light blue, Hessen is pink, the United Provinces is orange, Oldenburg is maroon, the Grand Duchy of Warsaw is purple, the Ottoman Empire is dark red, the Hungarian Kingdom is light green, Austrian Empire is mustard yellow, the Russian Empire is green, Courland is light purple, Denmark-Norway is light red, Sweden is dark blue, Italy is dark green, Papal States are dark orange, Naples is greyish-white, and Sicily is sea green.
Poland was feeble and had meagre wealth, and traded with the French Empire. They were isolated from other nations in Europe economically, but they were loyal to France and became their protectorate. Poland's Polish Legions served under France as auxilliary units, and in 1807 they declared war on the Russian Empire and Austrian Empire after persuasion from France. They defeated a small Russian invasion force near Lodz in 1807 but did little more fighting than that. They relied on Marshal Ney to defend their lands from attack in the 1812 Russian Campaign, as their armies were suffering from the cold.
The Grand Duchy of Warsaw acquired Galicia, Volhynia & Podolia, and Lithuania from France after they conquered the regions from Russia in a smart strategy by Napoleon; resistance to French rule would be quieted if given to another nation, so the people would be happier under France's ally. Poland had 10,277,708 people by early April 1812.
The end came to the Grand Duchy of Warsaw when Russian forces occupied the city in January 1813. After the 1815 Congress of Vienna and the Fourth Partition of Poland, the Duchy of Warsaw fell into Prussia's hands once more and the rest of the country was absorbed by Russia.