Editing Frederick the Great (section)

=== First Partition of Poland ===
{{main|First Partition of Poland|Prussian Partition}}
[[File:Rzeczpospolita Rozbiory 1.png|thumb|alt=Political map of the border changes due to the First Partition of Poland|The [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] after the First Partition in 1772]]
[[File:portraitoffrederickthegreat.jpg|thumb|alt=Full-length portrait painting of Frederick as an older man|Portrait of Frederick by [[Anna Dorothea Therbusch]] (1772, [[Palace of Versailles]], France)]]
Frederick sought to acquire and economically exploit [[Royal Prussia|Polish Prussia]] as part of his wider aim of enriching his kingdom.{{sfn|Scott|2001|p=[{{Google book|id=lc8EMD0JYUAC|page=176|plainurl=yes}} 176]}} As early as 1731 Frederick had suggested that his country would benefit from annexing Polish territory,{{sfn|MacDonogh|2000|p=[https://archive.org/details/frederickgreatli00macd/page/78 78]}} and had described Poland as an "artichoke, ready to be consumed leaf by leaf".{{sfn|Clark|2006|p=[https://archive.org/details/ironkingdomrised00chri/page/231 231]}} By 1752, he had prepared the ground for the partition of Poland–Lithuania, aiming to achieve his goal of building a territorial bridge between Pomerania, Brandenburg, and his East Prussian provinces.{{sfn|Friedrich|2000|p=[{{Google book|id=3pdTHkGcs1wC|page=189|plainurl=yes}} 189]}} The new territories would provide an increased tax base, manpower for the military, and serve as a surrogate for the overseas colonies of the other great powers.{{sfn|Hagen|1976|pp=[https://www.jstor.org/stable/4545765 118–119]}}

Poland was vulnerable to partition due to poor governance and the interference of foreign powers in its internal affairs.{{sfn|Konopczyński|1919|pp=[https://archive.org/details/briefoutlineofpo00kono/page/28 28–33]}} Frederick himself was partly responsible for this weakness by opposing attempts at financial and political reform in Poland,{{sfn|Scott|2001|p=[{{Google book|id=lc8EMD0JYUAC|page=176|plainurl=yes}} 176]}} and undermining the Polish economy by inflating its currency by his use of Polish coin dies. The profits exceeded 25&nbsp;million [[thaler]]s, twice the peacetime national budget of Prussia.{{sfn|Lukowski|2013|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=OI-3f0olkGAC&q=25%20million%20thaler 176]}} He thwarted Polish efforts to create a stable economic system by building a customs fort at [[Kwidzyn|Marienwerder]] on the Vistula, Poland's major trade artery,{{sfn|Scott|2001|p=[{{Google book|id=lc8EMD0JYUAC|page=176|plainurl=yes}} 176]}} and by bombarding Polish customs ports on the Vistula.{{sfn|Davies|1996|p=[{{Google book|id=jrVW9W9eiYMC|page=663|plainurl=yes}} 663]}}

Frederick used Poland's religious dissension to keep the kingdom open to Prussian control.{{sfn|Konopczyński|1919|p=[https://archive.org/details/briefoutlineofpo00kono/page/34 34]}} Poland was predominantly Roman Catholic, but approximately ten per cent of Poland's population, 600,000 Eastern Orthodox and 250,000 Protestants, were non-Catholic dissenters. During the 1760s, the dissenters' political importance was out of proportion to their numbers. Although dissenters still had substantial rights, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had increasingly been reducing their civic rights after a period of considerable religious and political freedom.{{sfn|Scott|2001|p=[{{Google book|id=lc8EMD0JYUAC|page=177|plainurl=yes}} 177]}} Soon Protestants were barred from public offices and the {{lang|pl|[[Sejm]]}} (Polish Parliament).{{sfn|Teter|2005|pp=[{{Google book|id=5-l_EXtIVe8C|page=57|plainurl=yes}} 57–58]}} Frederick took advantage of this situation by becoming the protector of Protestant interests in Poland in the name of religious freedom.{{sfn|Scott|2001|pp=[{{Google book|id=lc8EMD0JYUAC|page=177|plainurl=yes}} 177–178]}} Frederick further opened Prussian control by signing an alliance with Catherine the Great who placed [[Stanisław August Poniatowski]], a former lover and favourite, on the Polish throne.{{sfn|Hodgetts|1914|pp=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924028401234/page/n263 228–230]}}

After Russia occupied the [[Danubian Principalities]] in 1769–1770, Frederick's representative in Saint Petersburg, his brother Prince Henry, convinced Frederick and Maria Theresa that the balance of power would be maintained by a tripartite division of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth instead of Russia taking land from the Ottomans. They agreed to the [[First Partition of Poland]] in 1772 without war. Frederick acquired most of Royal Prussia, annexing {{convert|38000|km2|sqmi|sigfig=2}} and 600,000 inhabitants. Although Frederick's share of the partition was the smallest of the partitioning powers, the lands he acquired had roughly the same economic value as the others and had great strategic value.{{sfn|Kaplan|1962|pp=[https://archive.org/details/firstpartitionof0000kapl/page/188 188–189]}} The newly created province of [[West Prussia]] connected [[East Prussia]] and Farther Pomerania, granted Prussia control of the mouth of the [[Vistula River]], and cut off Poland's sea trade. Maria Theresa had only reluctantly agreed to the partition, to which Frederick sarcastically commented, "she cries, but she takes".{{sfn|Ritter|1936|p=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_520010744/page/192 192]}}

Frederick undertook the exploitation of Polish territory under the pretext of an enlightened civilising mission that emphasised the supposed cultural superiority of Prussian ways.{{sfn|Clark|2006|p=[https://archive.org/details/ironkingdomrised00chri/page/239 239]}} He saw Polish Prussia as barbaric and uncivilised,{{sfn|Egremont|2011|p=[{{Google book|id=ZzWkxQZzyBIC36|page=36|plainurl=yes}} 36]}} describing the inhabitants as "slovenly Polish trash".{{sfn|Kakel|2013|p=[{{Google book|id=TbXKAQAAQBAJ|pg=PT43|plainurl=yes}} 213]}} His long-term goal was to remove the Poles through [[Germanisation of Poles during the Partitions|Germanisation]], which included appropriating Polish Crown lands and monasteries,{{sfn|Konopczyński|1919|p=[https://archive.org/details/briefoutlineofpo00kono/page/46 46]}} introducing a military draft, encouraging German settlement in the region, and implementing a tax policy that disproportionately impoverished Polish nobles.{{sfn|Hagen|1976|p=[https://www.jstor.org/stable/4545765 119]}}