After the Partitions of Poland, Włodawa was annexed by Austria in 1795. In 1809, it briefly returned to Polish rule, being part of the Duchy of Warsaw. In 1815 it became part of Congress Poland, initially autonomous, but later forcibly integrated within Imperial Russia. The inhabitants of Włodawa actively joined the January Uprising in 1863. After the fall of the uprising, bloody repressions began and the attempts at Russification intensified. During World War I, from 1915 to 1918, the city was occupied by the Germans.