Wielkopolska was made part of the Kingdom of Prussia after the Second Partition of Poland in 1793 and, accordingly, took part in the Kościuszko Uprising of 1794, albeit against the Prussian authorities.

When Prussia officially took up arms against the insurgents in June 1794, Kościuszko began to campaign strenuously for an armed insurrection in the rear of the Prussian army. Wielkopolska’s oath to participate in the Kościuszko Insurrection was sworn in the village of Rąbiń, near Turew (Kościan County), once the number of insurgents had reached 600. Early successes had to consolidated quickly to pre-empt Prussian counter measures. A body of troops under the command of Gen. Jan Henryk Dąbrowski arrived in Wielkopolska in September, having been dispatched there by Kościuszko. Dąbrowski occupied Koło, Słupcę, Gniezno, won a skirmish outside Łabiszyn and took Bydgoszcz after a successful offensive on 2 October. A Toruń expedition was planned soon afterwards but news of the crushing defeat at Maciejowice forced the insurgents to retreat. Dąbrowski amalgamated small contingents of local insurgents he encountered along the way during this rally for liberation.

Dąbrowski’s withdrawal from Wielkopolska caused the uprising to collapse in the region. Some of those who had taken part in the struggle remained under his command and marched on central Poland. The uprising was finally quelled in Wielkopolska in mid-December 1794, by which time its leader had long been incarcerated in a Tsarist prison. Wielkopolska’s participation in the Kościuszko Uprising was the first military test of the region’s loyalty to the cause of fighting for the country’s freedom.