South Prussia

South Prussia ( _de. Südpreußen; _pl. Prusy Południowe) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1793 to 1807. It was created out of territory annexed in the Second Partition of Poland and included the regions of Greater Poland and Masovia. The capital of the province was Poznan (1793-1795) at first, after Warsaw (1795-1806), which was added in 1795 after the Third Partition, but it was administered by the General Directory ("General-Direktorium") in Berlin. In 1806 it had 1,503,508 inhabitants.

South Prussia encompassed territory between Prussian Silesia, the Netze District, and the rivers Vistula and Pilica. It was subdivided into the Kammerdepartements Posen (Poznań), Kalisch (Kalisz), and Warschau (Warsaw).

German colonists invited to settle on the province's noble estates were known as "Hauländer", while those who settled on royal crown lands were known as " Kolonisten".

Following Napoleon Bonaparte's victory in the War of the Fourth Coalition and a Polish uprising, the territory of South Prussia became part of the Duchy of Warsaw, a French client state, according to the 1807 Treaties of Tilsit. After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, it was divided between the Prussian Grand Duchy of Posen and Congress Poland, a part of the Russian Empire. The General Directory records dealing with the history and genealogy of the Prussian part of Poland were taken from the Prussian archives by Napoleon Bonaparte soon after 1806 and transferred to Warsaw.

Districts

In 1806, South Prussia consisted of three departments ("Kriegs- und Domänen-Kammern") divided into the following districts or counties ("Kreise"):

External links

* [http://users.foxvalley.net/~goertz/faqpos.html FAQ for Posen, South Prussia, and New East Prussia]