Following the First Partition of Poland in 1772, in an attempt to strengthen the greatly weakened Commonwealth, King Stanislaus Augustus had put into effect a series of reforms to strengthen Poland's military, political system, economy, and society.

These reforms had reached their climax with the enactment of the May Constitution in 1791, which established a constitutional monarchy with separation into three branches of government, strengthened the bourgeoisie, and abolished many of the privileges of the nobility as well as many of the old laws of serfdom.

In addition, to strengthen Poland's international standings, King Stanislaus had signed the Polish-Prussian Pact of 1790, ceding further territories to Prussia in exchange for a military alliance.

Angered by what is seen as dangerous, Jacobin-style reforms, Russia had invaded Poland in 1792, beginning the War in Defense of the Constitution.

Abandoned by her Prussian allies and betrayed by Polish nobles who desire to restore the privileges they had lost under the May Constitution, Poland is forced to sign the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, which cedes Dobrzyn, Kujavia, and a large portion of Greater Poland to Prussia, and all of Poland’s eastern provinces from Moldavia to Livonia to Russia, reducing Poland to one third of her original size prior to the First Partition.

Russia and Prussia arrange the Second Partition of Poland in 1793.

Russia takes most of eastern Poland; Prussia takes Gdansk (Danzig) and Great Poland.

Sultan Selim, a poet and an accomplished composer of Ottoman classical music, had enjoyed greater freedom before his accession than the Ottoman princes before him.

Influenced by his father, Mustafa III, Selim has acquired a zeal for reform.

Selim attempts to end the social, economic, and administrative chaos facing the empire.

He sets up a committee of reformers (1792–93) and promulgates a series of new regulations collectively known as the nizam-i cedid (“new order”).

These include reforms of provincial governorships, taxation, and land tenure.

More significant are his military reforms: in addition to new military and naval schools, he founds new corps of infantry trained and equipped along European lines and financed by revenues from forfeited and escheated fiefs and by taxes on liquor, tobacco, and coffee.

Finally, to provide for direct contact with the West, Ottoman embassies are opened in the major European capitals.

The Bani Yas Bedouin, originally centered on the Liwa Oasis, about ninety-seven point six kilometers south of the Persian Gulf coast, is the most significant in the area, having over twenty subsections.

In 1793, the Al Bu Falah subsection migrates to the island of Abu Dhabi on the coast of the Persian Gulf due to the discovery of fresh water there.

One family within this section is the Al Nahyan family, which makes up the rulers of Abu Dhabi today.

Ireland has chiefly been controlled by the minority Anglican Protestant Ascendancy since 1691 and the end of the Williamite war.

Constituting members of the established Church loyal to the British Crown, it governs through a form of institutionalized sectarianism codified in the Penal Laws, which discriminate against both the majority Irish Catholic population and non-Anglican Protestants (for example Presbyterians).

Liberal elements among the ruling class in the late eighteenth century are inspired by the example of the American Revolution (1776–1783) and seek to form common cause with the Catholic populace to achieve reform and greater autonomy from Britain.

As in England, the majority of Protestants, as well as all Catholics, are barred from voting because they do not pass a property threshold.

Another grievance is that Ireland, although nominally a sovereign kingdom governed by the monarch and Parliament of the island, in reality has less independence than had most of Britain's North American colonies, due to a series of laws enacted by the English, such as Poynings' law of 1494 and the Declaratory Act of 1720, the former of which had given the English veto power over Irish legislation, and the latter of which had given the British the right to legislate for the kingdom.

When France joined the Americans in support of their Revolutionary War, London had called for volunteers to join militias to defend Ireland against the threat of invasion from France (since regular British forces had been dispatched to America).

Many thousands had joined the Irish Volunteers.

In 1782, they had used their newly powerful position to force the Crown to grant the landed Ascendancy self-rule and a more independent parliament ("Grattan's Parliament").

The Irish Patriot Party, led by Henry Grattan, had pushed for greater enfranchisement.

In 1793, parliament passes laws allowing Catholics with some property to vote, but they can neither be elected nor appointed as state officials.

Liberal elements of the Ascendancy seeking a greater franchise for the people, and an end to religious discrimination, are further inspired by the French Revolution, which has taken place in a Catholic country.

The prospect of reform had inspired a small group of Protestant liberals in Belfast to found the Society of United Irishmen in 1791.

The organization crosses the religious divide with a membership comprising Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, other Protestant "dissenters" groups, and some from the Protestant Ascendancy.

The Society openly puts forward policies of further democratic reforms and Catholic emancipation, reforms which the Irish Parliament has little intention of granting.

The outbreak of war with France earlier in 1793, following the execution of Louis XVI, has forced the Society underground and toward armed insurrection with French aid.

The avowed intent of the United Irishmen is to "break the connection with England".

It links up with Catholic agrarian resistance groups, known as the Defenders, who had started raiding houses for arms in early 1793.