Greater Poland Uprising (1846)

The Wielkopolska Uprising of 1846 was an attempted uprising in the Polish part of Great Poland, which was a province of the Grand Duchy of Posen Kingdom of Prussia.

Prehistory

In the Polish division of areas emerged in the 1840s, new organizations with the aim of a renewal of the Polish state. Among them were the Democratic Society in Warsaw and the province of Posen. In Poznan and the plebeian covenant to Walenty Stefanski originated. This beamed into it also to Pomerania and West Prussia.

In the spring of 1845, the Central Committee decided to prepare an uprising in Poznan. The main reason was the fear that political reforms within the division of powers could spill the Polish identity. It was planned in Poznan and Galicia to attack the Prussian or Austrian units stationed there and to trigger an uprising in the Russian part of Poland. This should go into a general war. The goal was to build the Polish state within the borders before the partitions of Poland again. In January 1846 in Krakow, the formation of a national government with Karol Libelt was decided at the top.

Failure

It was in Prussia, except for a few skirmishes around Posen, not to carry out the plans, as they had been betrayed to the police and the leaders were arrested. In Prussia, the wider insurgency were indicted in the so-called Polish process of high treason.

Also another action, the Cracow uprising against Austria failed. There too, as in the Russian Congress Poland, the leader of the underground movement were arrested.