The Great Emigration (Polish: Wielka Emigracja) was an emigration of political elites from Poland from 1831–1870. Since the end of the 18th century, a major role in Polish political life was played by people who carried out their activities outside the country as émigrés. Their fate was a consequence of the Partitions of Poland, which completely divided the lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth between the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria. Because of this emigration of political elites, much of the political and ideological activity of the Polish intelligentsia during the 18th and 19th centuries was done outside of the lands of partitioned Poland.
Most of the political émigrés were based in France. The most important wave of emigration came after the November Uprising of 1830–1831. These Poles later fought and provided valuable support during the 1846 and 1848 revolutions in Poland. Their resistance was not limited to Polish revolutionary activity, as they also participated in various lands during the Revolutions of 1848, including France, the small principalities of Germany and Italy, Austria, Hungary, and the Danubian principalities Wallachia and Moldavia, the South American countries Argentina and Uruguay (participating in the "Guerra Grande") and later the Crimean War. Additional waves of émigrés came after the failures of the attempted 1848 revolution and the January Uprising of 1863–1864.
Notable Poles of the Great Emigration living in exile:
- Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, leader of the Polish Government-in-Exile in Paris with embassies in London and Istanbul.
- Joachim Lelewel
- Fryderyk Chopin
- Adam Mickiewicz
- Leonard Chodźko
- Ignacy Domeyko
- Juliusz Słowacki
- Cyprian Kamil Norwid
- Zygmunt Krasiński
- Jozef Krzucki
- Maurycy Mochnacki
- Piotr Michałowski
- Seweryn Goszczyński
- Jozef Bohdan Zaleski
- Aleksander Mirecki
- Emil Korytko
- Antoni Patek
- Casimir Gzowski
- Ignatius Szymanski
Some Poles emigrated not because of politics, but to pursue their life's goals. This was the case of Maria Curie-Skłodowska, who was unable to get accepted into any Russian universities (Poland was already partitioned) (due to her gender and anti-Polish repercussions of the January Uprising), and so decided to apply to the French universities.