Following the subsequent partitions of 1772, 1793 and 1795, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth disappeared from the map of Europe. Yet the Polish Nation saw no higher value than its own, sovereign state. The struggle for independence lasted over 100 years, and was marked with the sacrifice of blood shed in the Napoleonic Wars, numerous armed bids against the oppressors, the November and January uprisings and the battlefields of World War I.