[1][2][3] The Poles living in the region of Greater Poland were subjected to Germanisation and land confiscations to make way for German colonization.

At the end of World War I, US President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points and the idea of national self-determination were met with opposition from European powers standing to lose influence or territory, such as Germany, which dominated Greater Poland.

[5] On 28 October 1918, Major Włodzimierz Zagórski, as Deputy Head of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, established a dedicated command in Kalisz wherein a department of affairs related to Greater Poland was set up.

[5] In late 1918, Poles hoping for a sovereign Poland started serious preparations for an uprising after Wilhelm II's abdication on 9 November 1918, which marked the end of the German Empire.

The uprising broke out on 27 December 1918 in Poznań, after a patriotic speech by Ignacy Paderewski, the famous pianist, who would become the Polish prime minister in 1919, with 2,000 men serving in the Guard and Security Service rising up in the city.

The first contingent to reach the Bazar Hotel, from where the uprising was initiated, was a 100-strong force from wildecka kompania Straży Ludowej (Wilda's People's Guard) led by Antoni Wysocki.

Initially, the members of the council, including Captain Stanisław Taczak and General Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki were against the uprising, but they changed their minds in support of the insurrection on 9 January 1919.

The timing was advantageous for the insurrectionists since between late 1918 and early 1919, internal conflict had weakened Germany, and many of its soldiers and sailors engaged in mutinous actions against the state.

By 15 January 1919, Poles had taken control of most of the province, and they engaged in heavy fighting with the regular German army and irregular units such as the Grenzschutz.

The truce also affected the front line in Greater Poland, but despite the ceasefire, skirmishes continued until the final signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919.

The uprising couldn't be passed down by generations as a heroic fight to the death, no, it was simply a military operation that pushed the Germans out of a section of the Prussian Partition.

Many part of the original uprisings simply took up arms, liberated their towns and by sundown they had eaten dinner and went back to civilian life.