First plans for a large-scale drainage and land amelioration were developed under King Frederick William I of Prussia in 1738/39, though not carried out until after the Seven Years' War in 1763. After the First Partition of Poland in 1772 the adjacent Greater Polish lands up the river were annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia as the Netze District. The territory, created by the Prussian administration, was again ceded to newly established Duchy of Warsaw in 1807, but fell back to Prussia by resolution of the Vienna Congress in 1815.