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75-578: Pułtusk is one of the oldest townships in Poland, having received city rights from Duke Siemowit I of Masovia in 1257. Throughout the 15th and 17th centuries, the settlement was a significant economic centre of Masovia . The favourable geographical placement of the town on the Narew, along which goods were transported to the port of Gdańsk on the Baltic Sea , contributed to the town's importance. Pułtusk

150-676: A borough (or burgh ) was distinguished from the countryside by means of a charter from the ruling monarch that defined its privileges and laws . Common privileges involved trade (marketplace, the storing of goods, etc.) and the establishment of guilds . Some of these privileges were permanent and could imply that the town obtained the right to be called a borough , hence the term "borough rights" ( German : Stadtrecht ; Dutch : stadsrechten ). Some degree of self-government , representation by diet , and tax-relief could also be granted. Multiple tiers existed; for example, in Sweden ,

225-798: A bone of contention between Poland and Hungary , which was a part of the Monarchy. Nevertheless, the Ottoman Empire, the Bar confederation and its French and European volunteers were defeated by Russian forces and Polish governmental ones with the aid of Great Britain. As Russia moved into the Crimea and the Danubian Principalities (which the Habsburg monarchy long coveted), King Frederick II of Prussia and Maria Theresa were worried that

300-536: A large portion had not been ethnically Polish. By seizing northwestern Poland, Prussia instantly gained control over 80% of the Commonwealth's total foreign trade. Through levying enormous customs duties, Prussia accelerated the collapse of the Commonwealth. After having occupied their respective territories, the three partitioning powers demanded that King Stanisław and the Sejm approve their action. When no help

375-543: A police prison, court prison and forced labour camp in the town. The German police carried out executions of Poles in the local prison in November and December 1939. During the German occupation , approximately 50% of the city's inhabitants, mostly Jews, were expelled or deported, some to Nazi concentration camps . In 1941-1945 it was renamed in German as Ostenburg , to erase traces of Polish origin. On December 17, 1942,

450-714: A royal one. The next king could be a member of the Russian ruling dynasty now. The Sejm approved this. Resulting reaction among some of Poland's Roman Catholics, as well as the deep resentment of Russian intervention in the Commonwealth's domestic affairs including the exile to Russia of the top Roman Catholic bishops, the members of the Polish Senate, led to the War of the Confederation of Bar of 1768–1772, formed in Bar , where

525-569: A state symbol (in contrast to the white eagle , a symbol of Poland). The Commonwealth had been forced to rely on Russia for protection against the rising Kingdom of Prussia , which demanded a slice of the northwest in order to unite its Western and Eastern portions; this would leave the Commonwealth with a Baltic coast only in Latvia and Lithuania . Catherine had to use diplomacy to win Austria to her side. The Commonwealth had remained neutral in

600-565: A wide-scale social reform, virtually impossible. Solovyov specified the cultural, language and religious break between the supreme and lowest layers of the society in the east regions of the Commonwealth, where the Belarusian and Ukrainian serf peasantry was Orthodox. Russian authors emphasized the historical connections between Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, as former parts of the medieval old Russian state where dynasty of Rurikids reigned ( Kievan Rus' ). Thus, Nikolay Karamzin wrote: "Let

675-493: Is Nadnarwianka Pułtusk . It competes in the lower leagues. Pułtusk is twinned with: City rights Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the traditions of the self-administration of Roman cities. Judicially,

750-582: The Gestapo carried out a public execution of four members of the Home Army , the leading Polish resistance organization . In the battle for Pułtusk during later World War II , over 16,000 soldiers of the Soviet Red Army were killed. As a result of the battle, approximately 85% of the city was destroyed. On September 7, 1939, the city became under the control of Nazi Germany . On September 27,

825-758: The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 ). Poland would be briefly resurrected—if in a smaller frame—in 1807, when Napoleon set up the Duchy of Warsaw . After his defeat and the implementation of the Congress of Vienna treaty in 1815, the Russian-dominated Congress Kingdom of Poland was created in its place. After the Congress, Russia gained a larger share of Poland (with Warsaw ) and, after crushing an insurrection in 1831 ,

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900-691: The January Uprising . Afterwards the town was utterly destroyed and Russian officials sent many prominent citizens to Siberia and internal exile. On 30 January 1868 a meteorite fell in Pułtusk . It was one of the biggest to fall in Europe. Large chunks (9 kg (20 lb) each) were acquired by the British Museum , which has them on display in London . Although, the first Jews settled in

975-536: The Kościuszko Uprising began. Kosciuszko's ragtag insurgent armies won some initial successes, but they eventually fell before the superior forces of the Russian Empire. The partitioning powers, seeing the increasing unrest in the remaining Commonwealth, decided to solve the problem by erasing any independent Polish state from the map. On October 24, 1795, their representatives signed a treaty, dividing

1050-548: The Noteć River (the Netze District ), and parts of Kuyavia (but not the city of Toruń ). Despite token criticism of the partition from Empress Maria Theresa , Austrian statesman Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg , was proud of wresting as large a share as he did, with the rich salt mines of Bochnia and Wieliczka . To Austria fell Zator and Auschwitz ( Oświęcim ), part of Lesser Poland embracing parts of

1125-555: The Persian Empire ), and reserved a place in its diplomatic corps for an Ambassador of Lehistan (Poland). Several scholars focused on the economic motivations of the partitioning powers. Hajo Holborn noted that Prussia aimed to take control of the lucrative Baltic grain trade through Gdańsk . In the 18th century the Russian peasants were escaping from Russia to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (where

1200-706: The Polish 13th Infantry Regiment was stationed in Pułtusk. In 1931 the town had some 16,800 inhabitants. As a result of the German invasion of Poland , which started World War II in September 1939, Pułtusk was occupied by the Wehrmacht and incorporated into Nazi Germany . Already on September 12–13, 1939, the Einsatzgruppe V entered the town to commit atrocities against the population . Nazi Germany operated

1275-643: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 123 years. The partitions were conducted by the Habsburg monarchy , the Kingdom of Prussia , and the Russian Empire , which divided up the Commonwealth lands among themselves progressively in the process of territorial seizures and annexations. The First Partition

1350-603: The Russian Enlightenment , as Russian writers such as Gavrila Derzhavin , Denis Fonvizin , and Alexander Pushkin stressed degeneration of Catholic Poland and the need to "civilize" it by its neighbors. Nonetheless, other 19th century contemporaries were much more skeptical; for example, British jurist Sir Robert Phillimore discussed the partition as a violation of international law ; German jurist Heinrich Bernhard Oppenheim presented similar views. Other older historians who challenged such justifications for

1425-632: The Russian Revolution and the Treaty of Versailles finally allowed and helped the restoration of Poland's full independence after 123 years. The term "Fourth Partition of Poland" may refer to any subsequent division of Polish lands, including: If one accepts more than one of those events as partitions, fifth, sixth, and even seventh partitions can be counted, but these terms are very rare. (For example, Norman Davies in God's Playground refers to

1500-626: The Seven Years' War (1756–1763), yet it sympathized with the alliance of France, Austria , and Russia, and allowed Russian troops access to its western lands as bases against Prussia. Frederick II retaliated by ordering enough Polish currency counterfeited to severely affect the Polish economy. Through the Polish nobles whom Russia controlled and the Russian Minister to Warsaw, ambassador and Prince Nicholas Repnin , Empress Catherine

1575-743: The Swedish army under Charles XII defeated and captured a large part of the Saxon army under Graf von Steinau . Although the town and the castle were initially conquered by Polish forces, they were later recaptured by the Swedish army, which looted and destroyed it. After the Partitions of Poland , the town was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia . The Polish forces of General Antoni Madaliński stationed in Pułtusk in 1794 declined to obey Prussian orders and started their march towards Kraków . This marked

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1650-628: The United States . Following the war, the Jewish population rose to about 7,500 and accounted for roughly half of the total population of the town. During the First World War Pultusk was the scene of another battle on 13 July 1915 when German forces attempted to cross the river Narew at Pułtusk. The 40th Infantry Division and the 50th Infantry Division of the imperial Russian Army successfully prevented them. The town

1725-543: The once dire conditions had improved, unlike in Russia ) in significant enough numbers to become a major concern for the Russian Government sufficient to play a role in its decision to partition the Commonwealth (one of the reasons Catherine II gave for the partition of Poland was that thousands of peasants escaped from Russia to Poland to seek a better fate"). Jerzy Czajewski and Piotr Kimla assert that in

1800-424: The 1772 population remained in Poland. Prussia named its newly gained province South Prussia , with Poznań (and later Warsaw) as the capital of the new province. Targowica confederates, who did not expect another partition, and the king, Stanisław August Poniatowski , who joined them near the end, both lost much prestige and support. The reformers, on the other hand, were attracting increasing support, and in 1794

1875-576: The 1807 creation of the Duchy of Warsaw as the fourth partition, the 1815 Treaty of Vienna as the fifth, the 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as the sixth, and the 1939 division of Poland between Nazi Germany and the USSR as the seventh.) However, in recent times, the 1815 division of the Duchy of Warsaw at the Congress of Vienna and the 1939 division of Poland have been sometimes called the fourth and fifth partitions, respectively. The term "Fourth Partition"

1950-458: The 18th century until the partitions solved this problem, Russian armies increasingly raided territories of the Commonwealth, officially to recover the escapees, but in fact kidnapping many locals; Piotr Kimla noted that the Russian government spread international propaganda, mainly in France, which falsely exaggerated serfdom conditions in Poland, while ignoring worse conditions in Russia, as one of

2025-457: The Austrian 47,000 km (18,147 sq mi) with 1.2 million and Lublin and Kraków. The King of Poland , Stanisław August Poniatowski , under Russian military escort left for Grodno where he abdicated on November 25, 1795; next he left for Saint Petersburg , Russia, where he would spend his remaining days. This act ensured that Russia would be seen as the most important of

2100-538: The Austrians established Galicia in the Austrian partition, whereas the Russians gained Warsaw from Prussia and formed an autonomous polity known as Congress Poland in the Russian partition. In Polish historiography, the term "Fourth Partition of Poland" has also been used, in reference to any subsequent annexation of Polish lands by foreign invaders. Depending on source and historical period, this could mean

2175-424: The Commonwealth had been showing the beginning signs of a slow recovery and see the last two partitions as an answer to strengthening reforms in the Commonwealth and the potential threat they represented to its power-hungry neighbours. As historian Norman Davies stated, because the balance of power equilibrium was observed, many contemporary observers accepted explanations of the "enlightened apologists" of

2250-489: The Commonwealth's population, Austria with 32%, and Russia with 45%. (Wandycz also offers slightly different total annexed territory estimates, with 18% for Austria, 20% for Prussia and 62% for Russia.) During the Napoleonic Wars and in their immediate aftermath the borders between partitioning powers shifted several times, changing the numbers seen in the preceding table. Ultimately, Russia ended up with most of

2325-705: The Congress Kingdom's autonomy was abolished and Poles faced confiscation of property, deportation, forced military service, and the closure of their own universities. After the uprising of 1863 , Russification of Polish secondary schools was imposed and the literacy rate dropped dramatically. In the Austrian sector which now was called Galicia , Poles fared better and were allowed to have representation in Parliament and to form their own universities, and Kraków with Lemberg (Lwów/Lviv) became centers of Polish culture and education. Meanwhile, Prussia Germanized

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2400-774: The Germans deported most of the Jews to concentration camps. Some eventually made their way to the Soviet border but many died in the camps. In the 21st century, descendants of Pułtusk Jewry are found mainly in Israel , the United States , Canada , and Argentina . In 1950, a rail line connecting Pułtusk with Nasielsk Railway Station was built. In 1975, the Science Center of the Mazovian Center for Scientific Research

2475-524: The Great forced a constitution on the Commonwealth at the so-called Repnin Sejm of 1767, named after ambassador Repnin, who effectively dictated the terms of that Sejm (and ordered the capture and exile to Kaluga of some vocal opponents of his policies, including bishop Józef Andrzej Załuski and others). This new constitution undid the reforms made in 1764 under Stanisław II . The liberum veto and all

2550-621: The Mayor's House, today known as the "Polonia House" or "Polonia Castle", was constructed. In 1449 a Gothic church was added to the city's facilities. In the 16th century the castle was rebuilt by several renowned Italian architects, including Giovanni Battista of Venice and Bartolommeo Berrecci , and Giovanni Cini of Siena . Pułtusk was located in the Masovian Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of

2625-463: The Partitions included French historian Jules Michelet , British historian and politician Thomas Babington Macaulay , and Edmund Burke , who criticized the immorality of the partitions. Nonetheless, most governments accepted the event as a fait acompli . The Ottoman Empire was either the only, or one of only two countries in the world that refused to accept the partitions, (the other being

2700-513: The Poles tried to expel Russian forces from Commonwealth territory. The irregular and poorly commanded Polish forces had little chance in the face of the regular Russian army and suffered a major defeat. Adding to the chaos was a Ukrainian Cossack and peasant rebellion in the east ( Koliyivshchyna ), which erupted in 1768 and resulted in massacres of Polish noblemen ( szlachta ), Jews, Uniates , ethnic minorities and Catholic priests, before it

2775-553: The Polish Crown . In 1530 the first Masovian printing house was opened. In 1566 one of the first public theatres in Poland was established in Pułtusk. In the 16th century the town was visited by many notable individuals, such as King Sigismund III Vasa , and poets Jan Kochanowski and Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski . On 21 April 1703 during the Great Northern War , a decisive battle was fought in Pułtusk , where

2850-433: The Polish core at the expense of Prussia and Austria. Following the Congress of Vienna , Russia controlled 82% of the pre-1772 Commonwealth's territory (this includes its puppet state of Congress Poland ), Austria 11%, and Prussia 7%. As a result of the Partitions, Poles were forced to seek a change of status quo in Europe. Polish poets, politicians, noblemen, writers, artists, many of whom were forced to emigrate (thus

2925-462: The basic royal charter establishing a borough enabled trade, but not foreign trade, which required a higher-tier charter granting staple right . This European history –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article relating to the law of Europe or of a European country is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of

3000-539: The corollary that unanimous consent was needed for all measures. A single member of parliament's belief that a measure was injurious to his own constituency (usually simply his own estate), even after the act had been approved, became enough to strike the act. Thus it became increasingly difficult to undertake action. The liberum veto also provided openings for foreign diplomats to get their ways, through bribing nobles to exercise it. Thus, one could characterise Poland–Lithuania in its final period (mid-18th century) before

3075-581: The counties of Kraków and Sandomir and the whole of Galicia , less the city of Kraków . Empress Catherine II of Russia was also satisfied despite the loss of Galicia to the Habsburg monarchy. By this "diplomatic document" Russia gained Polish Livonia , and lands in eastern Belarus embracing the counties of Vitebsk , Polotsk and Mstislavl . By this partition, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth lost about 30% of its territory and half of its population (four million people), of which

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3150-766: The defeat of the Ottoman Empire would severely upset the balance of power in Eastern Europe. Frederick II began to construct the partition to rebalance the power in Eastern Europe. In February 1772, the agreement of partition was signed in Vienna . Early in August, Russian, Prussian and Austrian troops occupied the provinces agreed upon among themselves. However, fighting continued as Bar confederation troops and French volunteers refused to lay down their arms (most notably, in Tyniec , Częstochowa and Kraków ). On August 5, 1772,

3225-574: The emperor that "the French people didn't know their victories." After the fall of the French empire the ship was transferred to the new Dutch navy and named Waterloo (I) . During the November Uprising , the town changed hands several times. In 1831 Russian forces were carrying a cholera epidemic when they entered the town, resulting in high fatalities. Pułtusk inhabitants took part also in

3300-716: The entire school system of its Polish subjects, and had no more respect for Polish culture and institutions than the Russian Empire. In 1915 a client state of the German Empire and Austria-Hungary was proposed and accepted by the Central Powers of World War I: the Regency Kingdom of Poland . After the end of World War I, the Central Powers' surrender to the Western Allies , the chaos of

3375-459: The events of 1815 , or 1832 and 1846 , or 1939 . The term "Fourth Partition" in a temporal sense can also mean the diaspora communities that played an important political role in re-establishing the Polish sovereign state after 1918. During the reign of Władysław IV (1632–1648), the liberum veto was developed, a policy of parliamentary procedure based on the assumption of the political equality of every " gentleman/Polish nobleman ", with

3450-412: The expulsion of Jews from Russia to Russian-controlled Congress Poland (see Pale of Settlement ). The great fire in 1875 destroyed most of the city. It was depicted by Nobel Laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz in his novel Quo Vadis as the great fire of Rome . By the year 1900, around 6,000 Jews lived in Pułtusk. Many had migrated to nearby Warsaw before and after World War I . Others emigrated to

3525-421: The foreigners denounce the partition of Poland: we took what was ours." Russian historians often stressed that Russia annexed primarily Ukrainian and Belarusian provinces with Eastern Slavic inhabitants, although many Ruthenians were no more enthusiastic about Russia than about Poland, and ignoring ethnically Polish and Lithuanian territories also being annexed later. A new justification for partitions arose with

3600-448: The justification for the partitions. Il Canto degli Italiani , the Italian national anthem, contains a reference to the partition. The ongoing partitions of Poland were a major topic of discourse in The Federalist Papers , where the structure of the government of Poland, and of foreign influence over it, is used in several papers ( Federalist No. 14 , Federalist No. 19 , Federalist No. 22 , Federalist No. 39 for examples) as

3675-410: The neighbors of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ( Rzeczpospolita ), namely Prussia, Austria and Russia, signed a secret agreement to maintain the status quo : specifically, to ensure that the Commonwealth laws would not change. Their alliance later became known in Poland as the " Alliance of the Three Black Eagles " (or Löwenwolde 's Treaty ), because all three states used a black eagle as

3750-435: The occupation manifesto was issued, to the dismay of the weak and exhausted Polish state; the partition treaty was ratified by its signatories on September 22, 1772. Frederick II of Prussia was elated with his success; Prussia took most of Royal Prussia (except Gdańsk ) that stood between its possessions in Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg , as well as Ermland ( Warmia ), northern areas of Greater Poland along

3825-502: The old abuses of the last one and a half centuries were guaranteed as unalterable parts of this new constitution (in the so-called Cardinal Laws ). Repnin also demanded the Russian protection of the rights of peasants in private estates of Polish and Lithuanian noblemen, religious freedom for the Protestant and Orthodox Christians and the political freedoms for Protestants, Orthodox Christians and Eastern Catholics (Uniates), including their right to occupy all state positions, including

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3900-450: The partitioning powers. With regard to population, in the First Partition, Poland lost over four to five million citizens (about a third of its population of 14 million before the partitions). Only about 4 million people remained in Poland after the Second Partition which makes for a loss of another third of its original population, about a half of the remaining population. By the Third Partition, Prussia ended up with about 23% of

3975-428: The partitioning state. 19th-century historians from countries that carried out the partitions, such as 19th-century Russian scholar Sergey Solovyov , and their 20th century followers, argued that partitions were justified, as the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had degenerated to the point of being partitioned because the counterproductive principle of liberum veto made decision-making on divisive issues, such as

4050-420: The partitions as already in a state of disorder and not a completely sovereign state, and almost as a vassal state , with Polish kings effectively chosen in diplomatic maneuvers between the great powers Prussia, Austria, Russia, and France. This applies particularly to the last Commonwealth King Stanisław August Poniatowski , who for some time had been a lover of Russian Empress Catherine the Great . In 1730,

4125-454: The radical Jacobinism then at high tide in France, Russian forces invaded the Commonwealth in 1792. In the War in Defense of the Constitution , pro-Russian conservative Polish magnates , the Confederation of Targowica , fought against Polish forces supporting the constitution, believing that Russians would help them restore the Golden Liberty . Abandoned by their Prussian allies, Polish pro-constitution forces, faced with Targowica units and

4200-443: The regular Russian army, were defeated. Prussia signed a treaty with Russia, agreeing that Polish reforms would be revoked, and both countries would receive chunks of Commonwealth territory. In 1793, deputies to the Grodno Sejm , last Sejm of the Commonwealth, in the presence of the Russian forces, agreed to Russian territorial demands. In the Second Partition, Russia and Prussia helped themselves to enough land so that only one-third of

4275-488: The remaining territories of the Commonwealth between their three countries. One of Russia's chief foreign policy authors, Alexander Bezborodko , advised Catherine II on the Second and Third Partitions of Poland. The Russian part included 120,000 km (46,332 sq mi) and 1.2 million people with Vilnius , the Prussian part (new provinces of New East Prussia and New Silesia ) 55,000 km (21,236 sq mi) and 1 million people with Warsaw, and

4350-430: The start of the Kościuszko Uprising . Prussian rule lasted only a few years. Another Battle of Pułtusk was fought on 26 December 1806, between forces of Imperial Russia and Imperial France . The battle became so famous that its name is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris . After the fall of Warsaw in 1809, Pułtusk became the temporary capital of the Duchy of Warsaw . After the fall of Napoléon Bonaparte ,

4425-432: The term Great Emigration ), became the revolutionaries of the 19th century, as desire for freedom became one of the defining parts of Polish romanticism . Polish revolutionaries participated in uprisings in Prussia , the Austrian Empire and Imperial Russia . Polish legions fought alongside Napoleon and, under the slogan of For our freedom and yours , participated widely in the Spring of Nations (particularly

4500-407: The town became part of so-called Congress Poland within the Russian Partition of Poland. In 1811 a new ship-of-the-line of the French navy was named Pulstuck , to commemorate this battle. This ship of 74 guns of the Téméraire- class was built in Antwerp. Only after the Danish crew of the ship remarked about the spelling of the name, this was corrected to Pultusk, with an icy comment from

4575-403: The town in the 15th century, the Jewish community only started to flourish in the 19th century after a large influx of Jews. At the start of the 19th century, about 120 Jews lived in the city. Others lived in shtetls outside the city. Throughout the 19th century, though, the Jewish population increased rapidly to nearly 7,000 in the mid-19th century as a result of Russian discriminatory policies and

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4650-423: The two meanings. The consecutive acts of dividing and annexation of Poland are referred to as rozbiór (plural: rozbiory ), while the term zabór (plural: zabory ) refers to parts of the Commonwealth that were annexed in 1772–1795 and which became part of Imperial Russia, Prussia, or Austria. Following the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the borders of the three partitioned sectors were redrawn;

4725-433: The unsuccessful Polish Kościuszko Uprising the previous year. With this partition, the Commonwealth ceased to exist . In English, the term "Partitions of Poland" is sometimes used geographically as toponymy , to mean the three parts that the partitioning powers divided the Commonwealth into, namely: the Austrian Partition , the Prussian Partition and the Russian Partition . In Polish, there are two separate words for

4800-497: Was again burnt by Lithuanians in 1368, but following the Union of Krewo between Poland and Lithuania , the Lithuanian raids were stopped, and the town quickly recovered. By the 15th century Pułtusk's merchants were among the richest in Poland. The town was granted a privileges of organizing nine grand fairs a year and two small markets a week. The city also gained much profit from exporting wood and grain to Gdańsk , as well as from mead and beer production. In around 1405,

4875-416: Was also the site of notable events, such as the Napoleon's 1806 battle , and the world's largest meteorite shower to date in 1868, among others. The town has existed since at least the 10th century. In the Middle Ages , the Castle in Pułtusk was one of the most important defensive forts in northern Masovia against the attacks of Old Prussians and Lithuanians . According to a legend, the town initially

4950-492: Was also used in the 19th and 20th centuries to refer to diaspora communities who maintained a close interest in the project of regaining Polish independence. Sometimes termed Polonia , these expatriate communities often contributed funding and military support to the project of regaining the Polish nation-state. Diaspora politics were deeply affected by developments in and around the homeland, and vice versa, for many decades. More recent studies claim that partitions happened when

5025-432: Was decided on August 5, 1772, after the Bar Confederation lost the war with Russia. The Second Partition occurred in the aftermath of the Polish–Russian War of 1792 and the Targowica Confederation when Russian and Prussian troops entered the Commonwealth and the partition treaty was signed during the Grodno Sejm on January 23, 1793 (without Austria). The Third Partition took place on October 24, 1795, in reaction to

5100-432: Was forthcoming and the armies of the combined nations occupied Warsaw to compel by force of arms the calling of the assembly, the only alternative was passive submission to their will. The so-called Partition Sejm , with Russian military forces threatening the opposition, on September 18, 1773, signed the treaty of cession, renouncing all claims of the Commonwealth to the occupied territories. In 1772, Jean-Jacques Rousseau

5175-399: Was founded in the town, and it became one of the most influential schools of higher education in the Polish Kingdom. Among its professors were Jakub Wujek and Piotr Skarga . By 1595 there were more than 600 students, and their number reached 900 by 1696. The town was destroyed by Lithuanians in 1262 and 1324. In the 14th century, Pułtusk became the official seat of Płock bishops. The town

5250-405: Was invited to present recommendations for a new constitution for the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , resulting in the Considerations on the Government of Poland (1782), which was to be his last major political work. By 1790, the Commonwealth had been weakened to such a degree that it was forced into an unnatural and terminal alliance with its enemy, Prussia. The Polish–Prussian Pact of 1790

5325-527: Was known as Tusk ; however, after a flood that destroyed half of the city, it was renamed as Pułtusk ( Pół- or puł- being a Polish prefix for a half). Most historians believe that it was named after a small river known as Pełta . From the 11th century onwards, the town belonged to the bishops of Płock . Due to a ford on the river located nearby, Pułtusk became an important centre of trade and commerce. It received its civic charter in 1257, modelled after that of Chełmno ( Kulm Law ). In 1440 an academy

5400-717: Was opened in the town. In 1993, Pułtusk hosted the first ever biennial meeting of the World International Advisory Committee of UNESCO 's Memory of the World Programme to discuss and inscribe items onto the Register. Currently Pułtusk is one of the most picturesque towns of Masovia . Located on the Narew river, it is one of the most popular weekend places for residents of Warsaw. Points of interest include: The local football club

5475-527: Was put down by Russian and governmental Polish troops. This uprising led to the intervention of the Ottoman Empire, supported by Roman Catholic France and Austria. Bar confederation and France promised Podolia and Volhynia and the protectorate over the Commonwealth to the Ottoman Empire for armed support. In 1769, the Habsburg monarchy annexed a small territory of Spisz and in 1770 it annexed Nowy Sącz and Nowy Targ . These territories had been

5550-529: Was reintegrated with Poland, when the country regained independence following World War I in 1918. During the Polish-Soviet War , it was fiercely defended by Poles on August 9–10, 1920, at the eve of the Battle of Warsaw . On August 13, the Russians captured the town, and then they massacred captured Polish soldiers. On August 17, the Polish 9th Infantry Division recaptured the town. In the interbellum

5625-562: Was signed. The conditions of the Pact contributed to the subsequent final two partitions of Poland–Lithuania. The May Constitution of 1791 enfranchised the bourgeoisie, established the separation of the three branches of government, and eliminated the abuses of the Repnin Sejm . Those reforms prompted aggressive actions on the part of its neighbours, wary of the potential renaissance of the Commonwealth. Arguing that Poland had fallen prey to

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