Background
By 1790, on the political front, the Commonwealth had deteriorated into such a helpless condition that it was successfully forced into an unnatural and ultimately deadly alliance with its enemy, Prussia. The Polish-Prussian Pact of 1790 was signed, giving false hope that the Commonwealth might have at last found an ally that would shield it while it reformed itself. The May Constitution of 1791 enfranchised the bourgeoisie, established the separation of the three branches of government, and eliminated the abuses of Repnin Sejm. Those reforms prompted aggressive actions on the part of its neighbours, wary of the potential renaissance of the Commonwealth. Once again Poland dared to reform and improve itself without Russia's permission, and once again the Empress Catherine was angered; arguing that Poland had fallen prey to the radical Jacobinism then at high tide in France, Russian forces invaded the Commonwealth in 1792.
In the War in Defense of the Constitution, the army of the Russian Empire, invited by pro-Russian conservative Polish magnates' alliance, the Confederation of Targowica, fought against the Polish forces supporting the Constitution. The conservative nobility (szlachta) believed that the Russians would help them restore their Golden Liberty. Abandoned by their Prussian allies, the badly outnumbered Polish pro-Constitution forces fought under Prince Józef Poniatowski a defensive war with some measure of success, but were ultimately ordered to abandon their efforts by their supreme commander, King Stanisław August Poniatowski. The King decided to join the Targowica Confederation, as demanded by the Russians.
Russia invaded Poland to ensure the defeat of the Polish reforms, with no overt goal of another partition (it viewed Poland as its protectorate, and saw little need in giving up chunks of Poland to other countries). Frederick William II of Prussia, however, saw those events as an opportunity to strengthen his country. Frederick demanded from Catherine that for its abandoning Poland as a Prussia ally, and for Prussian participation in the War of the First Coalition against revolutionary France (a participation that Russia encouraged, and in which Prussia recently suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Valmy), Prussia should be compensated - preferably with parts of the Polish territory. Russia soon decided to accept the Prussian offer.
Read more about this topic: Second Partition Of Poland
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