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East Prussia is the historical center of development of Prussia. Up to the 16th century this region was inhabited by pagan tribes of Baltic (Prussian and Lithuanian) ethnic backgrounds. In the 13th century the knights of the Teutonic Order of Our Lady settled there in order to convert the Prussians. During that period of history the knights ruled a considerable part of historical Pomerania. In the 15th century that region was taken over by the Polish King, after his wars with the Order, and renamed Royal Prussia. The Order kept the eastern parts of Prussia as a vassal of Poland. During the Reformation, the Order was secularized and its Great Master began to rule his fief as a prince, hence the territory was called Ducal Prussia. The princes became more and more powerful and during the 17th and 18th centuries they also began to rule Brandenburg, Pomerania and Silesia In 1701 the Prince became King of Prussia. Finally, during the Partitions of Poland, the King of Prussia also incorporated the northern and western parts of the Polish Kingdom, namely Royal Prussia (then renamed West Prussia) and Greater Poland (later renamed Province of Posen). The territory of East Prussia was sparsely populated and colonized by the Germans and Poles (the southern parts). The Prussians of Baltic background were Germanized before the 17th century. Most of the inhabitants of the province were Lutheran. In 1815 a new administrative division of the Prussian monarchy was introduced. The westernmost portion (marked in cyan on the map) of the historical Ducal Prussia (with Kwidzyn/Marienwerder) was incorporated into West Prussia, which in turn lost the region of Warmia (German: Ermland - shown in yellow) to East Prussia. Warmia remained a Catholic enclave in this generally Protestant province. At the end of the 19th century most of the inhabitants of East Prussia spoke German. A considerable minority speaking Polish (the Masurian dialect) lived in the southern districts and the northeastern portions were partially inhabited by Lithuanians. After WWI, the northernmost region of Memel (Lithuanian: Klaipeda) was incorporated into the newly created independent Lithuania. The southernmost portion of East Prussia (along with the town Dzialdowo - German: Soldau) became part of Poland. Both areas mentioned are marked in green on the map below. East Prussia was in turn extended by the eastern districts (shown in green and in cyan) of the former Province of West Prussia which remained German after 1920. In 1945 East Prussia was divided between Poland and Russia. The capital city of Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad and became the capital of the Russian enclave. German inhabitants of East Prussia either escaped in 1945 or were expelled from there afterwards. Only a part of the Polish-speaking population from the southern districts remained. The territory was settled by Poles (the Polish part) and citizens of the Soviet Union (the Soviet part). The map shows the territory of East Prussia at the beginning of the 20th century. The colored regions are explained above. The pink line is the post-WWII border between Poland and Russia. Polish, German and post-WWII Soviet names of cities are provided. This province consisted of the eastern parts of historical Pomerania and some other regions acquired from the Teutonic Order by Polish Kings in the 15th century. Due to this, the historical name of the region was Royal Prussia. The territory which remained under the rule of the Order was then called Ducal Prussia and later became the province of East Prussia. In 1657 Poland lost the northwestern fragments of Royal Prussia which were taken by Brandenburg (marked in blue on the map) and later bacame part of Pomerania. The province of Royal Prussia was mostly inhabited by Catholics of Polish (or Cashubian) ethnicity and a significant German (partially Lutheran) minority, which was predominant particularly in the cities, as Gdansk (German: Danzig) and Torun (Thorn). In 1772, as a result of the first Partition of Poland, the whole of Royal Prussia was annexed by Prussia and renamed West Prussia. In 1815 the region of Warmia (German: Ermland), shown in yellow-grey, was included into the province of East Prussia, whereas the area around Kwidzyn (German: Marienwerder), shown in green, formerly in the Ducal Prussia became part of West Prussia. At the beginning of the 20th century, the German-speaking inhabitants were about 50% of the total. The other half spoke Polish (partially the Cashubian dialect). After WWI, the major part of West Prussia became part of independent Poland. The city of Gdansk (Danzig) with a small surrounding area became a Free City (marked in yellow), independent of Poland and Germany. Two westernmost districts remained in Germany as part of a new province, Grenzmark Posen-Westpreussen (marked in brown). The areas of the former West Prussia east from the Vistula River (shown in green and pink) also remained German and were incorporated into East Prussia. After the Second World War, all the territory of the former West Prussia became part of Poland. German inhabitants either escaped or were expelled and were replaced by Polish refugees from Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine. The historical region of Pomerania (Polish: Pomorze, German: Pommern) comprised the areas at the southern coast of the Baltic Sea between the estuaries of the Oder and Vistula Rivers. During the Middle Ages it was mostly inhabited by Slavonic peoples akin to the Poles. The eastern portion of this region then became part of Royal Prussia and since that time the name Pomerania has been limited to the western and central parts of the region (except for Poland, where the old usage of the term "Pomerania" has been retained). Until the 17th century, the Province of Pomerania was ruled by native princes but under the dependence on Poland (up to the 12th century), and later on Brandenburg and Sweden. Its inhabitants accepted Protestantism and were influenced by the German culture. More and more Germans settled there and the original Slavonic inhabitants gradually lost their original language. In the early 1600's Pomerania was annexed by Sweden. During the next century most of it was incorporated into Brandenburg, therefore becoming part of Prussia. In 1815 northern portions of historical Brandenburg, so-called Neumark, (marked green on the map below) were added to Pomerania together with former fiefs (shown in yellow) of the Kingdom of Poland, which were already taken by Brandenburg in the second half of the 17th century (see map below). The Prussian province of Pomerania in this point was practically entirely German-speaking and Protestant, except for the easternmost districts (once Polish) where a Polish-speaking, partially Catholic minority remained. This province remained in Germany after WWI. Minor adjustments were made on the Polish border in 1920. After WWII, the greater part of Pomerania was incorporated into Poland. German inhabitants of the province escaped or were expelled and Poles from the formerly Polish regions in the East settled in Pomerania. Only the western districts (German: Vorpommern) remained part of post-WWII Germany. The map shows the province of Pomerania at the beginning of the 20th century. Polish and German names of cities are provided. The colored regions are explained above. The pink line is the post-WWII border between Poland and Germany In the 11th and 12th centuries, Mark Brandenburg (which means "Brandenburg borderland") was a German state at the borderland of the Polish duchies. In the 13th century it acquired the land on the eastern bank of the Oder river, so-called Neumark, i.e. "new borderland". During the next centuries, when the princes of Brandenburg began to control further provinces, they became Kings of Prussia (1701) and played an important role in the partitioning of Poland. In 1815, according to the new administrative division of the Prussian monarchy, the northernmost fragments of the Province of Brandenburg (together with areas previously acquired by it from Poland prior to the Partitions), were incorporated into Pomerania (see the map of Pomerania). The enclave of Swiebodzin (Schwiebus), marked in red on the map below, (which belonged to Silesia before 1815) was incorporated into Brandenburg which also acquired a large part of the Kingdom of Saxony (shown in green). In the 19th century, Brandenburg was a Lutheran and mostly German-speaking province. There was a Lusatian (Wend)-speaking minority in the southern region of Cottbus, (Lusatian: Chosebuz). A small Polish-speaking minority also existed in eastern Brandenburg. WWI brought no change to the status of this province except that it again became a "borderland" province as most of the former Province of Posen was returned to Poland. After WWII, the part of Brandenburg east of the Oder was incorporated into Poland. Most of the German inhabitants escaped in 1945 as the Red Army conquered the land. This area was settled by Polish refugees from the East. The greater part of Brandenburg still remains German and is one of the states within the current Federal Republic of Germany. The map shows the territory of the eastern part of Brandenburg at the beginning of the 20th century. The colored regions are explained above. The pink line is the present border between Poland and Germany. Polish and German names of cities are provided. In the Middle Ages, Silesia was inhabited mostly by people of Slavonic ethnic background and belonged at first to Poland and later to Bohemia. Since the 13th century Silesia together with Bohemia has come under German cultural and political influence. In the 16th century it became part of Austria and a significant part of the inhabitants were germanized. This process continued during the next centuries. In 1742 Prussia conquered most of Silesia, only the southernmost regions (marked in orange on the map below) of Opava and Cieszyn remained Austrian. |