The Greater Poland Uprising of 1918-1919 was a military insurrection of Poles in the Greater Poland against Germany. After 1795, Poland ceased to exist as an independent state. From 1795 through the beginning of World War I, several unsuccessful uprisings to regain an independent state took place.
At the end of World War I, United States President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points proposed an independent Poland but failed to definitively set borders for Poland that could be universally accepted. Most of Poland was still part of Germany with the rest being part of Russia and Austria-Hungary. Poznan, which was part of the Germany portion, was a major industrial city who were uncertain whether they would be repatriated with the proposed new Polish nation.
The defeat of the German Army on the Western Front in the autumn of 1918 ignited Polish hopes for a sovereign Poland. Poles began serious preparations for an uprising after the abdication on November 9, 1918, which saw the end of the German monarchy. The uprising broke out on December 27, 1918 in Poznan after a patriotic speech by Ignacy Paderewski, a famous Polish pianist. The forces consisted of members of the Polish Military Organization of the Prussian Partition and many volunteers – mainly veterans of World War I.
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