The sketch of history you’ve laid out here is misleading and wrong. You’re conveniently forgetting the fact that larger powers deliberately set out to destroy local languages in favor of their own imperial ones, and that Romantic nationalism was a direct response to this. Polish nationalism in the 19th century was continually boosted by the anti-Polish cultural behavior of the larger empires, which tried to erase Polish culture and language in favor of German or Russian. Conversely in the Austrian partition, there was more local tolerance for Polish culture and subsequently Poles had a slightly more amicable relationship with the Austrian-Hungarians.
I for one inplied (and stated) only two things in my posting:
1. The "Polish Partitions" were not unique nor exceptional "for their time". Predatory behaviour by states in Europe has other examples contemporary to the partitions.
2. The aggressive nationalism, not the least by (but also not exclusively by) Germany wasn't a driver of the Polish Partitions, nor did these cause it.
The latter is at least rather obvious from mere timing - "Germany" didn't exist, and while the two then-largest/then-most-powerful Prussia/Austria participated in it, the largest (by far) part of the German populace was simply unaffected and indifferent. For, say, a Hannoverian, what happened in England or Holland was likely far more interesting, and had a far more direct impact on their lifes, than what happened in Poland.
It's absolutely not an excuse for what happened later, especially not for Germany going down a deep dark path. Did the Polish partitions cause "imperialistic nationalism" ? I'm not sure. Poland got a bad deal from those near-200 years without statehood, agreed. There were a lot of other factors in play then, though, and the world, not even Europe, exclusively revolves around "what happened to Poland", "what Germany did", "what France did" or "what the Church did". If only the history of the world were so trivial, and so objectively to assess.
The only thing, really, we can do today is to stand by "Never Again!". To stand against breeding resentment. For fairness. It's not always easy.
Again, you don't seem to have much historical knowledge of the situation and instead are pushing some kind of German superiority propaganda, as suggested by your other comments.
The rest of your comment is just hand-waving, wishy-washy nonsense that lacks any sort of coherent thesis, probably because you're indirectly trying to argue that Germany is superior to Poland, which is obvious, again, because of your blatantly misleading comments throughout this thread.
P.S: you forgot to log out of your alt account when replying to me. Hilarious that you replied to your own comment (as as michael9423) with "Excellent contribution."
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (not Poland) was partitioned because it consisted of so many different cultures, had massive conflicts within (Targowica Confederation, the Polish nobility fought back against the constitution, causing the second and third partition), and fell prey to more powerful "progressive" powers, which sadly worked to put an end to multi-ethnic states in Europe.
No one tried to destroy the Polish culture, people or language. Rather, it was the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that got destroyed. In 1815, most of the eastern parts of this Commonwealth stayed with Russia - as no one there spoke Polish, and the concept of the congress of Vienna was to separate people by their nation. Today, some Poles even hate the Lithuanians, and vice versa.
In the territories claimed by Prussia, there was a significant German population. The bourgeoisie of the cities of West Prussia, especially those of the old Hanseatic cities like Danzig, had always been predominantly German-speaking.
The areas claimed by Russia were dominated by Greek-Orthodox Ukrainians and Catholic Lithuanians.
Thinking in simplistic terms of good and bad, right and wrong, is not helpful if you want to understand history.
Empires fought with each other all the time, that's not the issue. The issue is that with nationalism, common people were suddenly made to identify with the struggle of their rulers and were made to hate common people (civilians) of other nations. It was a new idea that a people have to be represented by a nation and have to live in a geographically defined region without people of other cultures.
Marion Dönhof was the most internationally respected journalist in post-war Germany, she directly participated in the resistance against Hitler, and studied history, especially the history of her own German and Polish ancestors, for years, while studying at a university in Switzerland.
She discovered that before the rise of nationalism, german and polish people were cordial to each other and there was friendship. One of her ancestors was appointed by the Polish King:
"When Ahasverus Lehndorff returned home at the age of twenty-six, the knowledge he had amassed won him universal respect. He went to Poland, where King Kasimir put him in command of all Germans serving in Poland. After six years in Poland he joined the administration of Brandenburg-Prussia, where he held a number of high positions."
The time after 1800 slowly saw the rise of the concept of nation vs. nation, language vs language. We still see this today when people take sides in historical debates and blame one nation over the other, as if history is black and white.
Regarding the partition - the German Assembly of March 31, 1848 proclaimed that it was “the sacred duty of the German people to work with all their might for the reconstitution of the Polish kingdom in order to compensate for the injustice wrought by the partition.”.
Yes, Germans and Poles largely got along prior to the partitions, that is, long before your supposed timeline concerning nationalism. Romanticism is very much tied to nationalism and very much tied to 19th century cultures that found themselves under the yoke of other empires. The thing is, destroying someone’s country and persecuting their language and culture tends to make them dislike you.
This isn’t the slightest bit controversial historically, and some random German journalist’s opinion is not worth much. Nor is a meaningless proclamation by a government that had already dismembered a state and oppressed its people.
The Lithuanian National Revival, for example, was a consequence of Polonization, with a lot of conflicts between Lithuanians and Poles still existing today.
Prussians actually respected the Polish culture and turned their German culture into Polish to accomodate the rulers:
"Since 1527 there have been complaints from representatives of large cities that some council members use Polish, although they know German. In 1555, a canon of Gniezno delivered a speech to the Prussian Sejm in Polish, without the help of an interpreter. In the second half of the 16th century, royal decrees were issued in Polish, debates in the Landtag were held in Polish. Great Prussian families polonised their names: the Baysen to Bażyński; the Zehmen to Cema; the Dameraw to Działyński, and the Mortangen to Mortęski, the Kleinfelds to Krupocki."
The fact that a lot of the Polonization processes actually happened after the partition, shows that this process was somewhat independent of the concept of cultural unity on a political level.
Even after the partition, many Germans turned Polish:
"It is estimated by the German that during the nineteenth century 100,000 Germans in the eastern provinces of Prussia were Polonized, that is, they adopted the language, religion, and sentiments of the Poles. During this time the Poles were making no systematic effort in this direction. It seems to me that the main force in operation was the attractive qualities of the Poles -- and their more intimate, personal, face-to-face relations."
While many Poles voluntarily subordinated themselves to German:
"On the other hand it seems that the Polish population was at one time on the road to Germanization. In the period of serfdom the peasant had been so mercilessly exploited that he acquired a profound suspicion of the upper classes, and this remains a prominent trait in his character today. (...) And under the German government he began to be loyal (for Germany understands how to care for her people) and for a long time -- until after the war with France -- she treated the Poles without discrimination -- protected them and let them alone. And they in turn began to be patriotic, to speak German and drink beer, and to be proud of the Prussian uniform."
Germanization of Poles happened, just like Polonization of Germans happened in the Polish areas. But until the beginning of nationalism, this was mostly a voluntary processs neither forced by rulers nor directed at civilians.
Only at the end of the 19th century, with forced Germanization policies by Bismarck and long after the Congress of Vienna, did the resentments start:
"But in 1873 he (the peasant) was attacked by the government. At this point Bismarck took a hand and decided to force the process of Germanization. (...) There is not the slightest doubt that the Prussian government at this point raised a devil which it has not been able to lay. This action, indeed, marked the beginning of what is now known as the Polish Peasant Republic in Posen. The direct consequences of this school policy were riots and school strikes. "
It seems you simply don’t know your history.