The Austrian partition refers to the former territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth acquired by the Austrian Empire during the partitions of Poland in late 18th century.
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The Austrian Empire (known from the second half of the 19th century as the Austro-Hungarian Empire) acquired Polish territories in the First (1772) and Third (1795) partitions of Poland.
Major historical events of the Austrian partition include:
The Austrian Empire divided the former territories of the Commonwealth it obtained into:
Two important and major cities of the Austrian partition were Kraków (Cracow) and Lwów (Lviv).
In the first partition, Austria received the largest share of the formerly Polish population, and the second largest land share (83,000 km² and over 2.65 million people). Austria did not participate in the second partition, and in the third, it received 47,000km² with 1.2 million people. Overall, Austria gained about 18 percent of the former Commonwealth territory (130,000 km²) and about 32 percent of the population (3.85 million people).[1] From the geographical perspective, much of the Austrian partition corresponded to the Galicia region.
At first, the Austrian government made little or no concessions to their new Polish constituents.[2] However, by the early 20th century, out of the three partitioned regions, the Austrian partition had the most local autonomy.[3] The local government had much influence, Polish language was accepted as the official regional language, Polish language was used in schools, Polish organizations had the freedom to operate, Polish parties could participate in the Austro-Hungarian politics.[3]
On the other hand, economically, Galicia was rather backward, and universally regarded as the poorest of the three partitions.[3] There was much corruption during the elections, and the region was seen by the Vienna government as a low priority for investment and development.[3] It was a poor agricultural country, with inefficient agriculture and little industry. In 1900, 60% of the village population (age 12 and over) couldn't read or write.[3] Education was obligatory till the age of 12, but this requirement was often ignored.[3] Between the years 1850 and 1914 it is estimated that about 1 million people from Galicia (mostly Poles) emigrated to United States.[3] Galician poverty to this day has survived in Polish language as an expression (adage: bieda galicyjska or nędza galicyjska).[3][4]