What was significant about the first partition of Poland in 1772 ?
During the second half of the 18th century the Kingdom of Poland was a country which differed from present-day Poland in many important ways. Its territory included all of what we now call Lithuania, Belarus and half of contemporary Ukraine. On the other hand, nearly half of the contemporary area of Poland then belonged to Prussia (or, less precisely – to Germany). From time immemorial all those territories had been inhabited by diverse peoples of several religions. The western and central regions of the Kingdom were inhabited mostly by Catholics of Polish ethnic background. Catholic Poles and Lithuanians lived in its north-eastern section, which is now the Republic of Lithuania. The eastern regions were inhabited by Byzantine Catholics of Ruthenian (which is now Belarussian and Ukrainian) background and a small but important Catholic Polish minority. All parts of the Polish Kingdom were also inhabited by Jews (about 10% of the whole population) who lived mostly in shtetls, i.e. tiny c
