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under his control the grand-duchy of Warsaw (1807-13),composed of the Prussian and part of the Austrian sharein the partitions, not of any of the Russian, but none theless doubly dangerous as a military outpost of theNapoleonic empire and as a possible nucleus for afuture independent Poland that would owe nothing toAlexander (cf. p. 401).The Polish question, as much as the ContinentalSystem and even more than the Turkish question,caused Napoleon's 1812 campaign, which was a reply toa projected campaign of Alexander through the grandduchyin the previous year. Napoleon himself beganby calling 1812 "the second Polish war." As soon as itopened the Diet in Warsaw proclaimed the restorationof Poland and summoned 'the western lands' to rise:1812 was to be a war of national reconquest. Thesummons was none too successful; but in the GrandArmy there were 85,000 Poles, and none excelled themin enthusiasm and bravery.Three years later Napoleon was in St Helena andPoland for the fourth time partitioned, after a long andalmost violent tussle between the powers at the Congressof Vienna. Posen, Thorn, and Danzig returned toPrussia, while the rest of the grand-duchy went toAlexander as his 'Polish Kingdom,' in official style,unofficially known as 'Congress Poland.' Austria remainedin possession of Galicia, except for Cracow,which was erected into a tiny free state, until Nicholas Iinsisted that an end be made of this "hotbed of a vastnew conspiracy whose ramifications embrace all theformer Polish provinces," and it was accordingly annexedto Austria in 1846.In 1815 for the first time Russia was joined with thecore of Poland, the central Vistula lands centred onWarsaw, with some 3,000,000 Poles (and two to threehundred thousand Jews). This 'Congress Poland' wasoriginally entirely distinct from the empire, with aseparate crown hereditary in the house of Romanov.Like the grand duchy of Finland, conquered by Alexanderfrom Sweden in 1809, his 'Polish Kingdom' had aconstitution of its own, drawn up in 1815 by Poles on214