1.
Masurian Lake District
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The district had been elected as one of the 28 finalists of the New7Wonders of Nature. The Lakeland extends roughly 290 km eastwards from the lower Vistula to the Poland–Russia border, administratively, the Lake District lies within the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. Small parts of the district lie within the Masovian and Podlaskie Voivodeships, the lakes are well connected by rivers and canals, forming an extensive system of waterways. The 18th-century Masurian Canal links this system to the Baltic Sea, the whole area is a prime tourist destination, frequented by boating enthusiasts, canoeists, anglers, hikers, bikers and nature-lovers. It is one of the most famous lake districts in Central Europe, the lake district was shaped by the Pleistocene ice age. Many of its hills are parts of moraines and many of its lakes are moraine-dammed lakes, from 13th century on, the Lakeland was successively part of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights, the Duchy of Prussia, and the Prussian province of East Prussia. In modern times, while part of the German Empire, it was the location of the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes and the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes during World War I. At the end of World War II, following the decision taken at the Potsdam Agreement, all national borders were redrawn, the Masurian Lakeland can be reached by train, bus, or car. The nearest international airports are in Szymany, Warsaw, Gdańsk, the main transport hubs in the region are the towns of Olsztyn and Ełk. There are trains to Masuria from Warsaw, Gdańsk and Vilnius, a boat service connects some central towns in the region. Biking and boating are popular ways to get around, hotels can be found in close proximity to the Great Masurian Lakes, in the towns of Giżycko, Mikołajki and Ełk among others. There are also guesthouses and campsites in surrounding villages, the Masuren Waterway starts in Węgorewo in the north and finishes in Pisz. This Waterway is new for pleasure boats, only boats with a low waterdraft can go far as Pisz on the Pisa. Masuria is famous for its lakes and forests, offering a range of outdoor activities from sailing to kayaking and swimming. The region includes the largest lake in Poland called Śniardwy, the resort towns include the most popular Giżycko and Mikołajki, Węgorzewo, Ryn, Pisz and Iława. Giżycko is located on the shore of Lake Niegocin and it has an ancient fortress, historic church, bridges, and passenger boats to the towns of Węgorzewo, Mikołajki and Ruciane-Nida. The town of Mikołajki is a tourism center. In addition to lakes, the Masurian region also has many rivers used for fly fishing, there are four separate boating trails set up along connecting lakes, from Giżycko to Węgorzewo and Ruciane-Nida, and from Mikołajki to Pisz and Ryn
2.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
3.
Polish language
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Polish is a West Slavic language spoken primarily in Poland and is the native language of the Poles. It belongs to the Lechitic subgroup of the West Slavic languages, Polish is the official language of Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries. It is one of the languages of the European Union. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet, which has 9 additions to the letters of the basic Latin script, Polish is closely related to Kashubian, Silesian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Czech and Slovak. It is also the second most widely spoken Slavic language, after Russian, in history, Polish is known to be an important language, both diplomatically and academically in Central and Eastern Europe. Today, Polish is spoken by over 38.5 million people as their first language in Poland. It is also spoken as a language in western parts of Belarus and Ukraine, west and central Lithuania, as well as the northern parts of the Czech Republic. There are 55 million Polish language speakers around the world, Polish began to emerge as a distinct language around the 10th century, the process largely triggered by the establishment and development of the Polish state. With Christianity, Poland also adopted the Latin alphabet, which made it possible to write down Polish, the precursor to modern Polish is the Old Polish language. Ultimately, Polish is thought to descend from the unattested Proto-Slavic language, Poland is the most linguistically homogeneous European country, nearly 97% of Polands citizens declare Polish as their first language. Elsewhere, Poles constitute large minorities in Lithuania, Belarus, Polish is the most widely used minority language in Lithuanias Vilnius County and is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania. There are significant numbers of Polish speakers among Polish emigrants and their descendants in many other countries, in the United States, Polish Americans number more than 11 million but most of them cannot speak Polish fluently. The largest concentrations of Polish speakers reported in the census were found in three states, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. Enough people in these areas speak Polish that PNC Financial Services offer services available in Polish at all of their machines in addition to English and Spanish. According to the 2011 census there are now over 500,000 people in England, in Canada, there is a significant Polish Canadian population, There are 242,885 speakers of Polish according to the 2006 census, with a particular concentration in Toronto and Montreal. The geographical distribution of the Polish language was affected by the territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II. Poles settled in the Recovered Territories in the west and north and this tendency toward a homogeneity also stems from the vertically integrated nature of the authoritarian Polish Peoples Republic. The inhabitants of different regions of Poland still speak standard Polish somewhat differently, first-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty distinguishing regional variations
4.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
5.
Region
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In geography, regions are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics, human impact characteristics, and the interaction of humanity and the environment. Apart from the continental regions, there are also hydrospheric and atmospheric regions that cover the oceans. The land and water global regions are divided into subregions geographically bounded by large geological features that influence large-scale ecologies, such as plains and features. As a way of describing spatial areas, the concept of regions is important and widely used among the branches of geography. For example, ecoregion is a used in environmental geography, cultural region in cultural geography, bioregion in biogeography. The field of geography that studies regions themselves is called regional geography, where human geography is concerned, the regions and subregions are described by the discipline of ethnography. A region has its own nature that could not be moved, the first nature is its natural environment. The second nature is its physical elements complex that were built by people in the past, the third nature is its socio-cultural context that could not be replaced by new immigrants. Global regions distinguishable from space, and are clearly distinguished by the two basic terrestrial environments, land and water. However, they have generally recognised as such much earlier by terrestrial cartography because of their impact on human geography. They are divided into largest of land regions, known as continents, there are also significant regions that do not belong to either classification, such as archipelago regions that are littoral regions, or earthquake regions that are defined in geology. Continental regions are based on broad experiences in human history. As such they are conceptual constructs, usually lacking distinct boundaries, oceanic division into maritime regions are used in conjunction with the relationship to the central area of the continent, using directions of the compass. To a large extent, major continental regions are mental constructs created by considering an efficient way to large areas of the continents. For the most part, the images of the world are derived as much from academic studies and they are a matter of collective human knowledge of its own planet and are attempts to better understand their environments. Regional geography is a branch of geography that studies regions of all sizes across the Earth and it has a prevailing descriptive character. The main aim is to understand or define the uniqueness or character of a particular region, attention is paid also to regionalization, which covers the proper techniques of space delimitation into regions. Regional geography is considered as a certain approach to study in geographical sciences
6.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
7.
Lutheranism
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Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestant Christianity which identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German friar, ecclesiastical reformer and theologian. Luthers efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched the Protestant Reformation in the German-speaking territories of the Holy Roman Empire. Lutheranism advocates a doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone on the basis of Scripture alone and this is in contrast to the belief of the Catholic Church, defined at the Council of Trent, concerning authority coming from both the Scriptures and Tradition. In addition, Lutheranism accepts the teachings of the first seven ecumenical councils of the undivided Christian Church, unlike Calvinism, Lutherans retain many of the liturgical practices and sacramental teachings of the pre-Reformation Church, with a particular emphasis on the Eucharist, or Lords Supper. Lutheran theology differs from Reformed theology in Christology, the purpose of Gods Law, the grace, the concept of perseverance of the saints. Today, Lutheranism is one of the largest denominations of Protestantism, with approximately 80 million adherents, it constitutes the third most common Protestant denomination after historically Pentecostal denominations and Anglicanism. The Lutheran World Federation, the largest communion of Lutheran churches, Other Lutheran organizations include the International Lutheran Council and the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference, as well as independent churches. The name Lutheran originated as a term used against Luther by German Scholastic theologian Dr. Johann Maier von Eck during the Leipzig Debate in July 1519. Eck and other Catholics followed the practice of naming a heresy after its leader. Martin Luther always disliked the term Lutheran, preferring the term Evangelical, which was derived from euangelion, the followers of John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, and other theologians linked to the Reformed tradition also began to use that term. To distinguish the two groups, others began to refer to the two groups as Evangelical Lutheran and Evangelical Reformed. As time passed by, the word Evangelical was dropped, Lutherans themselves began to use the term Lutheran in the middle of the 16th century, in order to distinguish themselves from other groups such as the Philippists and Calvinists. In 1597, theologians in Wittenberg defined the title Lutheran as referring to the true church, Lutheranism has its roots in the work of Martin Luther, who sought to reform the Western Church to what he considered a more biblical foundation. Lutheranism spread through all of Scandinavia during the 16th century, as the monarch of Denmark–Norway, through Baltic-German and Swedish rule, Lutheranism also spread into Estonia and Latvia. Since 1520, regular Lutheran services have been held in Copenhagen, under the reign of Frederick I, Denmark-Norway remained officially Catholic. Although Frederick initially pledged to persecute Lutherans, he adopted a policy of protecting Lutheran preachers and reformers. During Fredericks reign, Lutheranism made significant inroads in Denmark, at an open meeting in Copenhagen attended by the king in 1536, the people shouted, We will stand by the holy Gospel, and do not want such bishops anymore. Fredericks son Christian was openly Lutheran, which prevented his election to the throne upon his fathers death, however, following his victory in the civil war that followed, in 1537 he became Christian III and advanced the Reformation in Denmark-Norway
8.
Masurians
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The Masurians or Mazurs are a Lechitic sub-ethnic group in the present-day Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland. They are descended from Masovians, Polish settlers from Mazovia who moved to Prussia during and after the Protestant Reformation, in the 19th century, the Masuria region of East Prussia was named after the Masurians. After World War II many Masurians were classified as Germans and most of them expelled to West Germany or emigrated after 1956, in the Middle Ages, the inhabitants of the Duchy of Masovia were called Mazury in Polish. Between the 14th and 17th centuries, Polish settlers from northern Masovia moved to the territories of the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights. The northern part of state was soon settled by settlers from Germany. On the other hand, the incoming Protestant from the until 1526 independent Duchy of Masovia, partially Polonised a southern part of the Duchy of Prussia, only in Allenstein, now Olsztyn, Catholics remained, because it belonged to the Prince-Bishopric of Ermland or Warmia. Because of the influx of Masovians into the southern lakeland, the area started to be known as Masuria from the 18th century, during the Protestant Reformation the Masurians, like most inhabitants of Ducal Prussia, became Lutheran Protestants, while the neighboring Masovians remained Roman Catholic. In 1525 the Duchy of Prussia, a Polish fief until 1657, was founded from the orders territory. The small minority of Protestant Masovians in southern Catholic Masovia inside Poland emigrated later to Prussian Masuria, Masuria became part of the Kingdom of Prussia at the Kingdoms founding in 1701, and part of the Prussian-led German Empire at the Empires founding in 1871. During the 1840s, the folklorist Gustaw Gizewiusz collected Masurian folk songs which were included in Oskar Kolbergs compilation Dzieła Wszystkie. Beginning in the 1870s, Imperial German officials restricted the usage of other than German in Prussias eastern provinces. The German authorities undertook several measures to Germanise the Masurians or to them culturally from neighboring Poles by creating a separate identity. Berger concludes that such the arguments of German nationalists were simply aimed at gaining as much territory as possible into German Reich, before World War I many Masurians emigrated to the Ruhr Area, especially to Gelsenkirchen. Here, Masurians were not distinguished apart from the Poles and both groups were seen as inferior to Germans, culturally or even racially. Despite those official efforts, German scholars usually considered Masurians as a group of Poles. <ref name=Wang377>In general, the plebiscite was organized by the local German authorities. Kossert admits irregularities during the referendum, but asserts that in general, in Masuria proper the vast majority opted to remain in Prussia. Attempts to create schools teaching Polish in interwar Germany were met with terror and violence Support for the Nazi Party was high in Masuria, Nazis used the Masurian dialect for their political rallies during the campaigning. The government of Nazi Germany changed the names of several Masurian towns, during World War II the Nazis persecuted and killed Polish speakers in Masuria and imprisoned Polish teachers as well as children who learned Polish
9.
East Prussia
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East Prussia was a province of Prussia from 1773–1829 and from 1878–1945. East Prussia was the part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast. East Prussia enclosed the bulk of the lands of the Baltic Old Prussians. During the 13th century, the native Prussians were conquered by the crusading Teutonic Knights, the indigenous Balts who survived the conquest were gradually converted to Christianity. Because of Germanization and colonisation over the centuries, Germans became the dominant ethnic group, while Poles. From the 13th century, East Prussia was part of the state of the Teutonic Knights. After the Second Peace of Thorn in 1466 it became a fief of the Kingdom of Poland, in 1525, with the Prussian Homage, the province became the Duchy of Prussia. The Old Prussian language had become extinct by the 17th or early 18th century, because the duchy was outside of the core Holy Roman Empire, the prince-electors of Brandenburg were able to proclaim themselves King of Prussia beginning in 1701. Between 1829 and 1878, the Province of East Prussia was joined with West Prussia to form the Province of Prussia, the Kingdom of Prussia became the leading state of the German Empire after its creation in 1871. Following Nazi Germanys defeat in World War II in 1945, war-torn East Prussia was divided at Joseph Stalins insistence between the Soviet Union and the Peoples Republic of Poland, the capital city Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946. The German population of the province was evacuated during the war or expelled shortly thereafter in the expulsion of Germans after World War II. An estimated 300,000 died either in war time bombings raids or in the battles to defend the province. Upon the invitation of Duke Konrad I of Masovia, the Teutonic Knights took possession of Prussia in the 13th century, local Old-Prussian and Polish toponyms were gradually Germanised. Its defeat was formalised in the Second Treaty of Thorn in 1466 ending the Thirteen Years War, together with Warmia it formed the province of Royal Prussia. Eastern Prussia remained under the Knights, but as a fief of Poland,1466 and 1525 arrangements by kings of Poland were not verified by the Holy Roman Empire as well as the previous gains of the Teutonic Knights were not verified. The Teutonic Order lost eastern Prussia when Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach converted to Lutheranism, Albert established himself as the first duke of the Duchy of Prussia and a vassal of the Polish crown by the Prussian Homage. Walter von Cronberg, the next Grand Master, was enfeoffed with the title to Prussia after the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, in 1569 the Hohenzollern prince-electors of the Margraviate of Brandenburg became co-regents with Alberts son, the feeble-minded Albert Frederick. The Administrator of Prussia, the grandmaster of the Teutonic Order Maximilian III, when Maximilian died, Alberts line died out, and the Duchy of Prussia passed to the Electors of Brandenburg, forming Brandenburg-Prussia
10.
Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship
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Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship or Warmia-Masuria Province, is a voivodeship in northeastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Olsztyn, the voivodeship has an area of 24,192 km2 and a population of 1,427,091. The provinces name derives from two regions, Warmia and Masuria. The region contains the part of the historic Prussian province of East Prussia. Today, a small German-speaking minority is present in the region. The Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship has the largest number of ethnic Ukrainians living in Poland due to forced relocations carried out by the Soviet, the Voivodeship contains 49 cities and towns. These are listed below in descending order of population, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship is divided into 21 counties,2 city counties and 19 land counties and these are further divided into 116 gminas. The counties are listed in the following table, the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship is twinned with, Podolsk, Russia Masurian dialect Official website of Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship
11.
Prussia (region)
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Prussia is a historical region stretching from Gdańsk Bay to the end of Curonian Spit on the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea, and extending inland as far as Masuria. The territory and inhabitants were described by Tacitus in Germania in AD98, about 800–900 years later the Aesti were named Old Prussians, who since AD997 repeatedly successfully defended against take-over attempt by the newly created Duchy of the Polans. The territory of the Prussians and neighboring Couronians and Livonians was in the 1230s under Papal Order established as Teutonic Order State, Prussia was politically divided in the period 1466-1772, with western Prussia under protection of the crown of Poland-Lithuania and eastern Prussia a Polish fief until 1660. It is famous for many lakes, as well as forests, since the military conquest by the Soviet Army in 1945 and the expulsion of the inhabitants it divided between northern Poland, Russias Kaliningrad exclave, and southwestern Lithuania. The former German state of Prussia derived its name from the region, the area was settled by the bearers of the Corded Ware culture in the 4th millennium BC. These were presumably the early Indo-European speakers which in the Baltic would diversify into the Satem branch which would give rise to the Balts as the speakers of the Baltic languages. The Balts would have differentiated into Western and Eastern Balts in the late centuries BC. The Greek explorer Pytheas may have referred to the territory as Mentenomon, a river to the east of the Vistula was called the Guttalus, perhaps corresponding to the Nemunas, the Łyna, or the Pregola. In 98 AD Tacitus described one of the tribes living near the Baltic Sea as Aestiorum gentes, the Vikings started to penetrate the southeastern shores of the Baltic Sea in the 7th and 8th centuries. The largest trade centres of the Prussians, such as Truso and Kaup, Prussians used the Baltic Sea as a trading route, frequently travelling from Truso to Birka. At the end of the Viking Age, the sons of Danish king Harald Bluetooth and they destroyed many areas in Prussia, including Truso and Kaup, but failed to dominate the population totally. A Viking presence in the area was less dominant and very much less than imperial. According to a legend, recorded by Simon Grunau, the name Prussia is derived from Pruteno, the chief priest of Prussia and brother of the legendary king Widewuto, who lived in the 6th century. The regions of Prussia and the tribes are said to bear the names of Widewutos sons — for example. The territory was identified as Brus in the 8th-century map of the Bavarian Geographer. The name has nothing to do with the fact the region is situated between the present day countries of Poland and Russia, therefore merging the two names to create Prussia. The Old Prussians spoke a variety of languages, with Old Prussian belonging to the Western branch of the Baltic language group, meanwhile, the big part of later Prussia, west of Vistula and south of Osa rivers, has been inhabited by Lechitic tribes. In the first half of the 13th century, Bishop Christian of Prussia recorded the history of an earlier era
12.
Old Prussians
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Prussians may also refer to citizens of the former German state Prussia. Old Prussians or Baltic Prussians refers to the peoples from a cluster of Baltic tribes that inhabited the region of Prussia. This region became the core of the state of Prussia. It was located on the shore of the Baltic Sea between the Vistula Lagoon to the west and the Curonian Lagoon to the east. The people spoke a language now known as Old Prussian and followed pagan Prussian mythology, during the 13th century, the Old Prussians were conquered by the Teutonic Knights. The former German state of Prussia took its name from the Baltic Prussians, the Teutonic Knights and their troops transferred Prussians from southern Prussia to northern Prussia. Many Old Prussians were also killed in crusades requested by Poland, many were also assimilated and converted to Christianity. The old Prussian language was extinct by the 17th or early 18th century, many Old Prussians emigrated due to Teutonic crusades. Old Prussians, who emigrated to surrounding areas, later returned, the land of the Old Prussians was larger before the arrival of Polans consisting of central and southern East Prussia and West Prussia. After 1945, the territory was equivalent to the areas of Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, the Kaliningrad Oblast. The names of the Baltic Prussian tribes all reflected the theme of landscape, most of the names were based on water, an understandable convention in a land dotted with thousands of lakes, streams, and swamps. To the south, the terrain runs into the Pripet Marshes at the headwaters of the Dnieper River, the original pre-Baltic settlers generally named their settlements after the streams, lakes, seas, or forests by which they settled. The clan or tribal entities into which they were organized then took the name of the settlement and this root is perhaps the one used in the very name of Prusa, for which an earlier Brus- is found in the map of the Bavarian Geographer. In Tacitus Germania, the Lugii Buri are mentioned living within the range of the Germans. Lugi may descend from Pokornys *leug-, black, swamp, while Buri is perhaps the Prussian root, the name of Pameddi tribe is derived from the words pa and meddin or meddu. Nadruvia may be a compound of the words na and drawē or nad, the name of the Bartians, a Prussian tribe, and the name of the Bārta river in Latvia are possibly cognates. In the 2nd century AD, the geographer Claudius Ptolemy listed some Borusci living in European Sarmatia and his map is very confused in that region, but the Borusci seem further east than the Prussians, which would have been under the Gythones at the mouth of the Vistula. The Aesti, recorded by Tacitus, were 450 years later recorded by Jordanes as part of the Gothic Empire, folk etymology led to the belief that each Prussian tribe was named after a tribal leader or his wife, such as the mythical leader Warmo ruling the Warmians
13.
Balts
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One of the features of Baltic languages is the number of conservative or archaic features retained. German medieval chronicler Adam of Bremen in the part of the 11th century CE was the first writer to use the term Baltic in its modern sense to mean the sea of that name. This is the first reference to the Baltic or Barbarian Sea, the Germanics, however, preferred some form of East Sea until after about 1600, when they began to use forms of Baltic Sea. Around 1840 the German nobles of the Governorate of Livonia devised the term Balts to mean themselves and they spoke an exclusive dialect, Baltic German. For all practical purposes that was the Baltic language until 1919, scandinavians begin settling in Western Baltic lands in Lithuania and Latvia during Vendel Age and with interruptions their presence in Baltic lands continued most of Viking Age. In 1845 Georg Heinrich Ferdinand Nesselmann proposed a language group for Latvian and Lithuanian to be called Baltic. It found some credence among linguists but was not generally adopted until the creation of the Baltic states as part of the settlement of World War I in 1919, estonia and Finland, however, also became counted among the Baltic states in the geopolitical sense. Because the thousands of lakes and swamps in this area contributed to the Balts geographical isolation and it is possible that around 3, 500–2,500 B. C. there was massive migration of peoples representing the Corded Ware culture. They came from the southeast and spread all across Eastern and Central Europe and it is believed that Corded Ware culture peoples were Indo-European ancestors of many Europeans, including Balts. It is thought that those Indo-European newcomers were quite numerous and in the Eastern Baltic assimilated earlier indigenous cultures, over time the new people formed the Baltic peoples and they spread in the area from the Baltic sea in the west to the Volga in the east. This information is summarized and synthesized by Marija Gimbutas in The Balts to obtain a likely proto-Baltic homeland, a possible early reference to a Baltic people occurs in 98 CE, when Tacitus names a tribe living near the Baltic Sea as the Aesti and describes them as amber gatherers. However, it is not clear if the Aesti mentioned by Tacitus were, a Baltic people, or, the Aesti appear to have inhabited the Sambian peninsula (in or near the present Kaliningrad Oblast. Over time, the area of Baltic habitation shrank, due to assimilation by other groups, finally, according to Slavic chronicles of the time, they warred with Slavs, and perhaps, were defeated and assimilated some time in the 11th to 13th centuries. Balts became differentiated into Western and Eastern Balts in the late centuries BCE, the eastern Baltic region was inhabited by ancestors of the Western Balts, Brus/Prūsa, Sudovians/Jotvingians, Scalvians, Nadruvians, and Curonians. The Eastern Balts, including the hypothesised Dniepr Balts, were living in modern-day Belarus, Ukraine, many other Eastern and Southern Balts either assimilated with other Balts, or Slavs in the 4th–7th centuries and were gradually slavicized. Gradually Old Prussians became Germanized or some Lithuanized during period from the 15th to the 17th centuries, the cultures of the Lithuanians and Latgalians/Latvians survived and became the ancestors of the populations of the modern countries of Latvia and Lithuania. Old Prussian was closely related to the other extinct Western Baltic languages and it is more distantly related to the surviving Eastern Baltic languages, Lithuanian and Latvian. Compare the Prussian word seme, the Latvian zeme, the Lithuanian žemė, Old Prussian contained a few borrowings specifically from Gothic and even North Germanic
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Ethnic group
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An ethnic group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other based on similarities, such as common ancestral, language, social, cultural or national experiences. Unlike other social groups, ethnicity is often an inherited status based on the society in which one lives, in some cases, it can be adopted if a person moves into another society. Ethnic groups, derived from the historical founder population, often continue to speak related languages. By way of language shift, acculturation, adoption and religious conversion, it is possible for individuals or groups to leave one ethnic group. Ethnicity is often used synonymously with terms such as nation or people. In English, it can also have the connotation of something exotic, generally related to cultures of more recent immigrants, the largest ethnic groups in modern times comprise hundreds of millions of individuals, while the smallest are limited to a few dozen individuals. Conversely, formerly separate ethnicities can merge to form a pan-ethnicity, whether through division or amalgamation, the formation of a separate ethnic identity is referred to as ethnogenesis. The term ethnic is derived from the Greek word ἔθνος ethnos, the inherited English language term for this concept is folk, used alongside the latinate people since the late Middle English period. In Early Modern English and until the mid-19th century, ethnic was used to mean heathen or pagan, as the Septuagint used ta ethne to translate the Hebrew goyim the nations, non-Hebrews, non-Jews. The Greek term in antiquity could refer to any large group, a host of men. In the 19th century, the term came to be used in the sense of peculiar to a race, people or nation, the abstract ethnicity had been used for paganism in the 18th century, but now came to express the meaning of an ethnic character. The term ethnic group was first recorded in 1935 and entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972, depending on the context that is used, the term nationality may either be used synonymously with ethnicity, or synonymously with citizenship. The process that results in the emergence of an ethnicity is called ethnogenesis, the Greeks at this time did not describe foreign nations but had also developed a concept of their own ethnicity, which they grouped under the name of Hellenes. Herodotus gave an account of what defined Greek ethnic identity in his day, enumerating shared descent. Whether ethnicity qualifies as a universal is to some extent dependent on the exact definition used. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf and they regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. According to Thomas Hylland Eriksen, the study of ethnicity was dominated by two distinct debates until recently, one is between primordialism and instrumentalism. In the primordialist view, the participant perceives ethnic ties collectively, as a given, even coercive
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Vistula Lagoon
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The Vistula Lagoon is a brackish water lagoon on the Baltic Sea roughly 56 miles long,6 to 15 miles wide, and up to 17 feet deep, separated from Gdańsk Bay by the Vistula Spit. It is now known as the Vistula Bay or Vistula Gulf, the modern German name, Frisches Haff, is derived from an earlier form, Friesisches Haff. The lagoon is a mouth of a few branches of the Vistula River, notably the Nogat, and it is connected to Gdańsk Bay by the Strait of Baltiysk. The Poland–Russia border runs across the lagoon, localities on the lagoon include Kaliningrad, Baltiysk, and Primorsk in Russias Kaliningrad Oblast and Elbląg, Tolkmicko, Frombork, Krynica Morska in Poland. The Polish port of Elbląg used to see a substantial amount of trading traffic on the lagoon, Kaliningrad and Baltiysk are currently major seaports on the lagoon. The earliest version of the name of Vistula Lagoon has been recorded in sources by Wulfstan. It is an Anglo-Saxon translation of Old Prussian name for the lagoon - *Aīstinmari derived from Aistei - Ests, Aestii etc. and *mari - lagoon, the Ests were Baltic people who since 9th Century became called in some historical sources Bruzi, Pruzzen, Pruteni etc. So the oldest known meaning of the name of Vistula Lagoon was The lagoon or sea of the Ests. Then in 1251 we find record about Mare Recens et Neriam, digging a canal to connect the lagoon with the Baltic Sea is in consideration as a major EU-supported project. The canal, would re-activate the Elbląg river port and it would also free its dependence on Russia, which time and again revokes the right of passage for Polish ships through Strait of Baltiysk as a form of pressure on Polish authorities. In October 2016 details of the project were confirmed by PiS leader, the 1.3 kilometres long,80 metres wide and 5 metres deep canal shall be completed by 2020 at an estimated cost of PLN880 million. However, major ecological considerations stand in the way, for example, mammal migration along the lagoon could be disrupted. Also, the inflow of brackish waters from the Baltic sea could result in serious unbalancing of the freshwater ecosystem. From 1772 until 1918, the lagoon was part of the Kingdom of Prussia, between 1920 and 1946 it was split between Germany and the Free City of Danzig. At present state since 1945 its eastern part belongs to Russia, the bordering administrative regions is polish Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship and modern Russian Kaliningrad Oblast, which had name Königsberg Oblast during half of 1946. The Kuršininkai were eventually assimilated by the Germans, except along the Curonian Spit where some still live, the Kuršininkai were considered Latvians until after World War I when Latvia gained independence from the Russian Empire, a consideration based on linguistic arguments. This was the rationale for Latvian claims over the Curonian Spit, Memel, attacked by Soviet fighter aircraft thousands of them were killed or broke through the ice. Curonian Lagoon www. en. zalew-wislany. pl – Monitoring the Vistula Lagoon water quality on the basis of satellite remote sensing Battle of Vistula Lagoon
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Curonian Lagoon
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The Curonian Lagoon is separated from the Baltic Sea by the Curonian Spit. Its surface area is 1,619 square kilometers, the Neman River supplies about 90% of its inflows, its watershed consists of about 100,450 square kilometres in Lithuania and Russias Kaliningrad Oblast. In the 13th century, the area around the lagoon was part of the lands of the Curonians. Later it bordered the region of Lithuania Minor. As the new border, the river that flows into the Curonian Lagoon near Rusnė was chosen. The rivers lower 120 km in Germany were called die Memel by Germans, the border also separated the peninsula near the small holiday resort of Nida, Lithuania, the southern part of the Spit and the Lagoon remained in Germany until 1945. While today the Kursenieki, also known as Kuršininkai, are a nearly extinct Baltic ethnic group living along the Curonian Spit, the Kuršininkai were eventually assimilated by the Germans, except along the Curonian Spit where some still live. The Kuršininkai were considered Latvians until after World War I, when Latvia gained independence from the Russian Empire and this was the rationale for Latvian claims over the Curonian Spit, Memel, and other territories of East Prussia which would be later dropped. The Lagoon, formed about 7,000 years BCE, is classified as brackish and it is highly biodiverse, although troubled by water pollution. The presence of algal blooms was confirmed in the 2000s, Nemunas Delta Vistula Lagoon Kurische Nehrung
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Galindians
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Galindians were two distinct, and now extinct, tribes of the Balts. Most commonly, Galindians refers to the Western Galindians who lived in the southeast part of Prussia, less commonly, it is used for a tribe that lived in the area of what is today Moscow. The name Galinda is thought to derive from the Baltic word *galas, alluding to the fact that they settled for some further west. The region lay adjacent to the territory of the Yotvingians, which is today in Podlaskie Voivodeship, the name Galind- is probably derived from the hydromym of Gielądzkie Jezioro in the province of Olsztyn, in what was the very center of ancient Galindia. J. Nalepa suggested the root *gal- was originally a different ablaut grade of the root found in Lith. gilus - deep. The original meaning referred to the depth of the lake mentioned, ptolemy was the first to mention the Galindians in the 2nd century AD. From the 6th/7th century until the 17th century the central part of the Galindian tribe continued to exist as the Old Prussian clan of *Galindis. The Eastern Galindians, an extinct East Baltic tribe, lived from the 4th century in the basin of the Protva River, near the modern Russian towns of Mozhaysk, Vereya, the Russian chronicles first mention Eastern Galindians as Goliadj in 1058. Prince Yury Dolgorukiy arranged a campaign against them in 1147, the year of the first mention of Moscow in the Russian chronicles, subsequent chronicles do not mention the Eastern Galindians. Nevertheless, the Russians probably did not completely assimilate them until the 15th century, some people still identified as Goliads in the 19th-century
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Old Prussian
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Old Prussian is an extinct Baltic language, once spoken by the Old Prussians, the indigenous peoples of Prussia, now northeastern Poland and the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia. Old Prussian began to be written down in the Latin alphabet in about the 13th century, a small amount of literature in the language survives. In addition to Prussia proper, the territory of the Old Prussians might have included eastern parts of Pomerelia. Old Prussian was closely related to the other extinct Western Baltic languages and it is related to the Eastern Baltic languages such as Lithuanian and Latvian, and more distantly related to Slavic. Compare the Old Prussian semmē, Latvian zeme and Lithuanian žemė, groups of people from Germany, Poland, Lithuania, France, Scotland, England, and Austria found refuge in Prussia during the Protestant Reformation and thereafter. Such immigration caused a decline in the use of Old Prussian, as the Prussians adopted the languages of their more recently arrived co-citizens. Georg Gerullis undertook the first basic study of names in Die altpreußischen Ortsnamen, written and published with the help of Walter de Gruyter. Separate words found in historical documents. Vernacularisms in the former German dialects of East and West Prussia, as well as words of Old Curonian origin in Latvian, the so-called Basel Epigram, the oldest written Prussian sentence. It reads, This jocular inscription was most probably made by a Prussian student studying in Prague, found by Stephen McCluskey in manuscript MS F. V.2, 63r, stored in the Basel University library. 100 words of the Vocabulary by a friar Simon Grunau, a historian of the Teutonic Knights, apart from those words Grunau also recorded an expression sta nossen rickie, nossen rickie. The so-called Elbing Vocabulary, which consists of 802 thematically sorted words, peter Holcwesscher from Marienburg copied the manuscript around 1400, the original dates from the beginning of the 14th or the end of the 13th century. It was found in 1825 by Fr, neumann among other manuscripts acquired by him from the heritage of the Elbing merchant A. Grübnau, it was thus dubbed the Codex Neumannianus. The three Catechisms printed in Königsberg in 1545,1545, and 1561 respectively, the first two consist of only 6 pages of text in Old Prussian – the second one being a correction of the first into another Old Prussian dialect. The third catechism, or Enchiridion, consists of 132 pages of text, will himself knew little or no Old Prussian, and his Prussian interpreter was probably illiterate, but according to Will spoke Old Prussian quite well. The text itself is mainly a translation, and Will phonetically recorded Megotts oral translation. With other monuments being merely word lists, the grammar of Old Prussian is reconstructed chiefly on the basis of the three Catechisms. There is no consensus on the number of cases that Old Prussian had, there are traces of a vocative case, such as in the phrase O Deiwe Rikijs O God the Lord, reflecting the inherited PIE vocative ending *-e
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Prussian mythology
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The Prussian mythology was a polytheistic religion of the Old Prussians, indigenous peoples of Prussia before the Prussian Crusade waged by the Teutonic Knights. It was closely related to other Baltic faiths, the Lithuanian and Latvian mythologies and its myths and legends did not survive as Prussians became Germanized and extinct in the early 18th century. Fragmentary information on gods and rituals can be found in medieval chronicles. No sources document pagan religion before the forced Christianization in the 13th century, most of what is known about Prussian religion is obtained from dubious 16th-century sources. The Teutonic Knights, a military order, began the Prussian Crusade in the 1220s. Their goal was to conquer and convert pagan Prussians to Christianity, the Knights built log and stone fortresses, which proved to be impregnable to the Prussians. Despite five Prussian uprisings, conquest of Prussia was then complete by the 1280s, german colonists repopulated the decimated region. It is estimated that by around 1400, Prussians numbered 100,000, the Prussians were subject to Germanization and assimilation and eventually became extinct sometime after the 16th century. The Knights regarded paganism as evil, worthy of complete eradication, therefore they showed no interest in local customs and produced no detailed accounts of Prussian mythology. Affected by the Protestant Reformation, the former Catholic stronghold the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights was transformed into the Lutheran Duchy of Prussia in 1525, religious disputes brought new interest in the pagan Prussian religion. Right about that time two staple studies of Prussian culture were produced, the Sudovian Book and Chronicle of Simon Grunau, there is considerable academic debate on the authorship, dating, and reliability of the Sudovian Book. Simon Grunau is much-criticized for using dubious and falsified sources and often augmenting facts with his own imagination, modern scholars often dismiss the chronicle as a work of fiction, though Lithuanian researchers tend to be more careful and attempt to find its redeeming qualities. Various later authors simply copied information from Grunau and the Sudovian Book adding no or very little new information, the 1249 Treaty of Christburg mentioned Curche, an idol worshiped during harvest festivals. Scholars were unable to determine its gender, function, or etymology. Various suggested functions include god of food, smithing god, god creator, god of harvest and grain, evil spirit, some even doubted whether it was a god at all and suggested that it was a name given to a corn dolly. Another reliable source is a 1418 memorandum written by Bishop of Warmia to Pope Martin V, the letter reminded the Pope about Teutonic achievements in Christianizing Prussians, who no longer worshiped Patollu and Natrimpe. Most scholars interpret this as two different gods, but patollu could also be an adjective to describe Natrimpe, based on later works, patollu is usually identified as Peckols, angry god of the underworld, and Natrimpe as Potrimpo, god of seas or grain. Constitutiones listed ten Prussian gods and provided their classical Roman equivalents, note that none of these are female goddesses and that Curche is missing
20.
Roman Catholicism
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The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church or the Universal Church, is the largest Christian church, with more than 1.28 billion members worldwide. As one of the oldest religious institutions in the world, it has played a prominent role in the history, headed by the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope, the churchs doctrines are summarised in the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed. Its central administration is located in Vatican City, enclaved within Rome, the Catholic Church is notable within Western Christianity for its sacred tradition and seven sacraments. It teaches that it is the one church founded by Jesus Christ, that its bishops are the successors of Christs apostles. The Catholic Church maintains that the doctrine on faith and morals that it declares as definitive is infallible. The Latin Church, the Eastern Catholic Churches, as well as such as mendicant orders and enclosed monastic orders. Among the sacraments, the one is the Eucharist, celebrated liturgically in the Mass. The church teaches that through consecration by a priest the sacrificial bread and wine become the body, the Catholic Church practises closed communion, with only baptised members in a state of grace ordinarily permitted to receive the Eucharist. The Virgin Mary is venerated in the Catholic Church as Queen of Heaven and is honoured in numerous Marian devotions. The Catholic Church has influenced Western philosophy, science, art and culture, Catholic spiritual teaching includes spreading the Gospel while Catholic social teaching emphasises support for the sick, the poor and the afflicted through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The Catholic Church is the largest non-government provider of education and medical services in the world, from the late 20th century, the Catholic Church has been criticised for its doctrines on sexuality, its refusal to ordain women and its handling of sexual abuse cases. Catholic was first used to describe the church in the early 2nd century, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in the letter from Saint Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans, written about 110 AD. In the Catechetical Discourses of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, the name Catholic Church was used to distinguish it from other groups that call themselves the church. The use of the adjective Roman to describe the Church as governed especially by the Bishop of Rome became more widespread after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire and into the Early Middle Ages. Catholic Church is the name used in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church follows an episcopal polity, led by bishops who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders who are given formal jurisdictions of governance within the church. Ultimately leading the entire Catholic Church is the Bishop of Rome, commonly called the pope, in parallel to the diocesan structure are a variety of religious institutes that function autonomously, often subject only to the authority of the pope, though sometimes subject to the local bishop. Most religious institutes only have male or female members but some have both, additionally, lay members aid many liturgical functions during worship services
21.
Prussian Crusade
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The Prussian Crusade was a series of 13th-century campaigns of Roman Catholic crusaders, primarily led by the Teutonic Knights, to Christianize the pagan Old Prussians. Invited after earlier unsuccessful expeditions against the Prussians by Polish princes, by the end of the century, having quelled several Prussian Uprisings, the Knights had established control over Prussia and administered the Prussians through their monastic state. Wulfstan of Hedeby, an agent of Alfred of Wessex, recorded the seafaring and cattle-herding Prussians as a strong, mieszko I of the Polans tried to extend his realm from land he had just conquered around the mouth of the Oder as far as Prussia. Boleslaw I of Poland sent Adalbert of Prague to preach among the Prussians in 997, after some initial success among the Prussians, Adalberts successor, Bruno of Querfurt, was also killed in 1009. The Poles waged war with the neighboring Prussians, Sudovians, while the Poles sought the conversion of the Prussians and control of their land, the Prussians engaged in lucrative raids for slaves in the bordering territories of Chełmno Land and Masovia. Many Prussians nominally accepted baptism only to revert to pagan beliefs after hostilities ended, Henry of Sandomierz was killed fighting the Prussians in 1166. Boleslaw IV and Casimir II each led large armies into Prussia, while Boleslaws forces were defeated in guerilla warfare, King Valdemar II of Denmark supported Danish expeditions against Samland until his capture by Henry, Count of Schwerin, in 1223. In 1206, the Cistercian bishop Christian of Oliva, with the support of the King of Denmark and Polish dukes, inspired, he travelled to Rome to prepare for a larger mission. When he returned to Chełmno in 1215, however, Christian found the Prussians hostile, the pagan Prussians invaded Chełmno Land, Masovia, and Pomerellia, besieged Chełmno and Lubawa, and forced converts to return to the old beliefs. Because of the intensity of attacks, Pope Honorius III sent a papal bull to Christian in March 1217 allowing him to begin preaching a crusade against the militant Prussians. The following year the pagans attacked Chełmno Land and Masovia again, plundering 300 cathedrals, Duke Conrad of Masovia succeeded in expelling the Prussians by paying a huge tribute, which only encouraged the Prussians, however. Honorius III called for a crusade under the leadership of Christian of Oliva and chose as papal legate the Archbishop of Gniezno, numerous Polish nobles began endowing Christians Bishopric of Prussia with estates and castles in Chełmno Land during the meantime. The lords agreed that the focus was to rebuild the defenses of Chełmno Land, especially Chełmno itself. By 1223, however, most of the crusaders had left the region, the Balts even reached Gdańsk in Pomerellia. In 1225 or 1228, fourteen north German knights were recruited by Conrad, First granted the estate of Cedlitz in Kuyavia until the completion of a castle at Dobrzyń, the group became known as the Order of Dobrzyń. The Knights of Dobrzyń initially had success driving the Prussians from Chełmno Land, the survivors were granted asylum in Pomerania by Duke Swantopelk II. The Order of Calatrava, granted a base near Gdańsk, was also ineffective, while in Rome, Christian of Oliva had made the acquaintance of Hermann von Salza, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights from 1209-39. With the permission of Duke Conrad of Masovia and the Masovian nobility, stability with the Prussians would then allow Conrad to pursue becoming High Duke of Poland
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Teutonic Order
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The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious order founded as a military order in the 12th century in Acre. Purely religious since 1929, it still confers limited honorary knighthoods, the order was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals. Formed in the year 1190 in Acre, in the Levant, after Christian forces were defeated in the Middle East, the Order moved to Transylvania in 1211 to help defend the South-Eastern borders of the Kingdom of Hungary against the Kipchaks. Starting from there, the Order created the independent Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights, adding continuously the conquered Prussians territory, the Order theoretically lost its main purpose in Europe with the Christianization of Lithuania. However, it initiated numerous campaigns against its Christian neighbours, the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Novgorod Republic. The Teutonic Knights had an economic base, and so hired mercenaries from throughout Europe to augment their feudal levies. In 1410, a Polish-Lithuanian army decisively defeated the Order and broke its military power at the Battle of Grunwald, however, the capital of the Teutonic Knights was successfully defended in the following Siege of Marienburg and the Order was saved from collapse. In 1515, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I made an alliance with Sigismund I of Poland-Lithuania. Thereafter, the empire did not support the Order against Poland, in 1525, Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg resigned and converted to Lutheranism, becoming Duke of Prussia as a vassal of Poland. Soon after, the Order lost Livonia and its holdings in the Protestant areas of Germany, the Order did keep its considerable holdings in Catholic areas of Germany until 1809, when Napoleon Bonaparte ordered its dissolution and the Order lost its last secular holdings. However, the Order continued to exist as a charitable and ceremonial body and it was outlawed by Adolf Hitler in 1938, but re-established in 1945. Today it operates primarily with charitable aims in Central Europe, the Knights wore white surcoats with a black cross. A cross pattée was sometimes used as their coat of arms, the motto of the Order was, Helfen, Wehren, Heilen. The full name of the Order in German is Orden der Brüder vom Deutschen Haus St. Mariens in Jerusalem or in Latin Ordo domus Sanctæ Mariæ Theutonicorum Hierosolymitanorum, thus, the term Teutonic refers to the German origins of the order in Latin. It is commonly known in German as the Deutscher Orden, historically also as Deutscher Ritterorden, Deutschherrenorden, Deutschritterorden or Die Herren im weißen Mantel. However, based on the model of the Knights Templar, it was transformed into an order in 1198. It received papal orders for crusades to take and hold Jerusalem for Christianity, during the rule of Grand Master Hermann von Salza the Order changed from being a hospice brotherhood for pilgrims to primarily a military order. The Order was founded in Acre, and the Knights purchased Montfort, northeast of Acre, the Order also had a castle at Amouda in Armenia Minor
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Northern Crusades
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The crusades took place mostly in the 12th and 13th centuries and resulted in the conversion and baptism of indigenous peoples. Most notable campaigns were Livonian and Prussian crusades, some of these wars were called crusades during the Middle Ages, but others, including most of the Swedish ones, were first dubbed crusades by 19th-century romantic nationalist historians. And 1293, Livonians, Latgallians, Selonians, and Estonians, Semigallians and Curonians, the campaigns started with the 1147 Wendish Crusade against the Polabian Slavs of what is now northern and eastern Germany. The crusade occurred parallel to the Second Crusade to the Holy Land, the Swedish crusades were campaigns by Sweden against Finns, Tavastians, and Karelians during period from 1150 to 1293. The Danes are known to have made two crusades to Finland in 1191 and in 1202, the latter one was led by the Bishop of Lund Anders Sunesen with his brother. The difference in creeds was one of the reasons they had not yet been effectively converted. During a period of more than 150 years leading up to the arrival of German crusaders in the region, Estonia was attacked thirteen times by Russian principalities, Estonians for their part made raids upon Denmark and Sweden. There were peaceful attempts by some Catholics to convert the Estonians, starting with missions dispatched by Adalbert, however, these peaceful efforts seem to have had only limited success. Although the crusaders won their first battle, Bishop Berthold was mortally wounded, in 1199, Albert of Buxhoeveden was appointed by the Archbishop Hartwig II of Bremen to Christianise the Baltic countries. By the time Albert died 30 years later, the conquest and formal Christianisation of present-day Estonia, although he landed in the mouth of the Daugava in 1200 with only 23 ships and 500 soldiers, the bishops efforts ensured that a constant flow of recruits followed. The first crusaders usually arrived to fight during the spring and returned to their homes in the autumn, to ensure a permanent military presence, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword were founded in 1202. The founding by Bishop Albert of the market at Riga in 1201 attracted citizens from the Empire, at Alberts request, Pope Innocent III dedicated the Baltic countries to the Virgin Mary to popularize recruitment to his army and the name Marys Land has survived up to modern times. This is noticeable in one of the given to Livonia at the time. In 1206, the crusaders subdued the Livonian stronghold in Turaida on the bank of Gauja River. In order to control over the left bank of Gauja. By 1211, the Livonian province of Metsepole and the mixed Livonian-Latgallian inhabited county of Idumea was converted to the Roman Catholic faith, the last battle against the Livonians was the siege of Satezele hillfort near to Sigulda in 1212. The Livonians, who had been paying tribute to the East Slavic Principality of Polotsk, had at first considered the Germans as useful allies, the first prominent Livonian to be christened was their leader Caupo of Turaida. As the German grip tightened, the Livonians rebelled against the crusaders and the christened chief, Caupo of Turaida remained an ally of the crusaders until his death in the Battle of St. Matthews Day in 1217
24.
Konrad I of Masovia
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Konrad I of Masovia, from the Polish Piast dynasty, was the sixth Duke of Masovia and Kujawy from 1194 until his death as well as High Duke of Poland from 1229 to 1232 and again from 1241 to 1243. He was the youngest son of High Duke Casimir II the Just of Poland and Helen of Znojmo and his maternal grandmother was Maria of Serbia, apparently a daughter of the pre-Nemanjić župan Uroš I of Rascia. After his fathers death in 1194, Konrad was brought up by his mother, in 1199 he received Masovia and in 1205 also the adjacent lands of Kuyavia. In 1205, he and his brother, Duke Leszek I the White of Sandomierz, had their greatest military victory at Battle of Zawichost against Prince Roman the Great of Galicia–Volhynia, the Ruthenian army was crushed and Roman was killed in battle. The Rurik princess Agafia of Rus became his wife, in order to enlarge his dominions, Konrad unsuccessfully attempted to conquer the adjacent pagan lands of Chełmno in Prussia during a 1209 crusade with the consent of Pope Innocent III. In 1215 the monk Christian of Oliva was appointed a missionary bishop among the Old Prussians, several further campaigns in 1219,1222 failed, instead Konrad picked a long-term border quarrel with the Prussian tribes. Subjected to constant Prussian raids and counter-raids, Konrad now wanted to stabilize the north of his Duchy of Masovia in this fight over the area of Chełmno. When they notified Hungary that the Order was, firstly, responsible to the pope, in view of an imminent Prussian invasion, Konrad supposedly signed the Treaty of Kruszwica in 1230, according to which he granted Chełmno Land to the Teutonic Knights and the Order of Dobrzyń. By this donation disclaiming any enfeoffment, Konrad established the nucleus of the State of the Teutonic Order, however it is believed that it was never signed, and the Order might have forged it. The Knights under the command of Hermann Balk crossed the Vistula river and conquered Chełmno Land, erecting the castle of Toruń in 1231. In 1234, Pope Gregory IX issued the Golden Bull of Rieti, confirming the prior deals with the Teutonic Knights, stating that the land of the Order was only subject to the Pope, not a fief of anybody. However their Silesian relative Duke Henry I the Bearded finally prevailed as High Duke at Kraków in 1232, by 1207 Konrad married Agafia of Rus, daughter of Prince Svyatoslav III Igorevich. Eudoxia, married Count Dietrich I of Brehna and Wettin Ludmila, salomea, probably a clare nun at Skała. Judith, married firstly to Duke Mieszko II the Fat of Opole, siemowit I, succeeded eldest brother as Duke of Masovia. From the Polish point of view, the Emperor had no basis to vest the Order with lands that were beyond his discretionary power. King Casimir III of Poland had to accept the rule of the Order in Thorn, after the Thirteen Years War in the 1466 Second Peace of Thorn, the Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon gained control over the Chełmno Land as part of Royal Prussia. History of Poland Altes Preussenland before 1200 Hartmut Boockmann, Deutsche Geschichte im Osten Europas, Konrad of Masovia sent Polish crusaders against Prussian after 1209
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Christianity
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Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Christian theology is summarized in creeds such as the Apostles Creed and his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news. The term gospel also refers to accounts of Jesuss life and teaching, four of which—Matthew, Mark, Luke. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century, following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization. Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, throughout its history, Christianity has weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in many distinct churches and denominations. Worldwide, the three largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the denominations of Protestantism. There are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible, concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Apostles Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and this particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator, each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Most Christians accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the mentioned above. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept, Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin
26.
Mazovia
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Mazovia is a historical region in mid-north-eastern Poland. Borders of the Mazovian Voivodeship, which was created in 1999, do not reflect exactly its original shape, historical Mazovia existed since the Middle Ages until the partitions of Poland and consisted of three voivodeships with the capitals in Warszawa, Płock and Rawa Mazowiecka. In a narrower sense, the Mazovian Voivodeship was only the first of them, between 1816 and 1844 another Mazovian Voivodeship existed, encompassing the south of the region. In the Middle Ages the main city of the region was Płock, since 1138 Mazovia had a separate branch of the Piast dynasty and was incorporated to the Polish Crown as late as in the 15th and 16th centuries. As much as over 20% of Mazovian population was the yeomanry, inhabitants of Mazovia are Mazurzy – hence the region of Masuria, settled by them. Mazovia has a landscape without hills and without lakes and it is spread over the Mazovian Lowland, on both sides of the Vistula river and its confluence with Narew and Bug. Forests cover one-fifth of the region, with the large Kampinos Forest, Puszcza Biała, in the north Mazovia borders on the Masurian subregion of former Prussia, in the east on Podlachia, in the south on Lesser Poland and in the west on Greater Poland. The area of Mazovia is 33,500 km2 and it has population of 5 million. When the Slavs came to this region from the area of Polesie, they mingled with the descendants of Vistula Veneti. This created a Lechitic tribe, Mazovians, the historical region of Mazovia in the beginning encompassed only the territories on the right bank of Vistula near Płock and had strong connections with Greater Poland. In the period of the rule of the first monarchs of the Piast State, Płock was one of their seats, in the period 1037–1047 it was the capital of the independent, Mazovian state of Masław. Between 1079 and 1138 this city was de facto the capital of Poland, during the 9th century Mazovia was perhaps inhabited by the tribe of Mazovians, and it was incorporated into the Polish state in the second half of 10th century under the Piast ruler Mieszko I. In 1138 the duchy of Mazovia was established, and during the 12th and 13th centuries it joined temporarily various adjacent lands and endured invasions of Prussians, Yotvingians, and Ruthenians. To protect its northern section Conrad I of Masovia called in the Teutonic Knights in 1226, after the reunification of the Polish state by Władysław I in the early 14th century, Mazovia became its fief in 1351. In the second half of 15th century western Mazovia and in 1526/1529 the main part was incorporated into the Polish state, in the 15th century eastern part of the region was settled, mainly by the yeomanry. Mazovia was considered underdeveloped in comparison with Greater Poland and Lesser Poland, in the Early Modern Times Mazovia was known for exporting grain, timber, and fur. It was also distinct because there was no reformation here, Mazovia was divided into three voivodeships, each of them divided into lands, each of them divided into counties. The Polish-Lithuanian Union of Lublin established Mazovia as the region of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, with Warsaw rising to prominence as the seat of the state legislature
27.
Germans
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Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe, who share a common German ancestry, culture and history. German is the mother tongue of a substantial majority of ethnic Germans. The English term Germans has historically referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages, before the collapse of communism and the reunification of Germany in 1990, Germans constituted the largest divided nation in Europe by far. Ever since the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation within the Holy Roman Empire, of approximately 100 million native speakers of German in the world, roughly 80 million consider themselves Germans. Thus, the number of Germans lies somewhere between 100 and more than 150 million, depending on the criteria applied. Today, people from countries with German-speaking majorities most often subscribe to their own national identities, the German term Deutsche originates from the Old High German word diutisc, referring to the Germanic language of the people. It is not clear how commonly, if at all, the word was used as an ethnonym in Old High German, used as a noun, ein diutscher in the sense of a German emerges in Middle High German, attested from the second half of the 12th century. The Old French term alemans is taken from the name of the Alamanni and it was loaned into Middle English as almains in the early 14th century. The word Dutch is attested in English from the 14th century, denoting continental West Germanic dialects, while in most Romance languages the Germans have been named from the Alamanni, the Old Norse, Finnish and Estonian names for the Germans were taken from that of the Saxons. In Slavic languages, the Germans were given the name of němьci, originally with a meaning foreigner, the English term Germans is only attested from the mid-16th century, based on the classical Latin term Germani used by Julius Caesar and later Tacitus. It gradually replaced Dutch and Almains, the latter becoming mostly obsolete by the early 18th century, the Germans are a Germanic people, who as an ethnicity emerged during the Middle Ages. Originally part of the Holy Roman Empire, around 300 independent German states emerged during its decline after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ending the Thirty Years War and these states eventually formed into modern Germany in the 19th century. The concept of a German ethnicity is linked to Germanic tribes of antiquity in central Europe, the early Germans originated on the North German Plain as well as southern Scandinavia. By the 2nd century BC, the number of Germans was significantly increasing and they began expanding into eastern Europe, during antiquity these Germanic tribes remained separate from each other and did not have writing systems at that time. In the European Iron Age the area that is now Germany was divided into the La Tène horizon in Southern Germany and the Jastorf culture in Northern Germany. By 55 BC, the Germans had reached the Danube river and had either assimilated or otherwise driven out the Celts who had lived there, and had spread west into what is now Belgium and France. Conflict between the Germanic tribes and the forces of Rome under Julius Caesar forced major Germanic tribes to retreat to the east bank of the Rhine, in Roman-held territories with Germanic populations, the Germanic and Roman peoples intermarried, and Roman, Germanic, and Christian traditions intermingled. The adoption of Christianity would later become an influence in the development of a common German identity
28.
Dutch people
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The Dutch, occasionally referred to as Netherlanders—a term that is cognate to the Dutch word for Dutch people, Nederlanders—are a Germanic ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a culture and speak the Dutch language. The high degree of urbanization characteristic of Dutch society was attained at an early date. During the Republic the first series of large scale Dutch migrations outside of Europe took place, despite the small size of the Netherlands, the Dutch left behind a legacy in excess of their mere numbers. The traditional art and culture of the Dutch encompasses various forms of music, dances, architectural styles and clothing. Internationally, Dutch painters such as Rembrandt, Vermeer and Van Gogh are held in high regard, the dominant religion of the Dutch is Christianity, although in modern times the majority is no longer religious. Significant percentages of the Dutch are adherents of humanism, agnosticism, atheism or individual spirituality, as with all ethnic groups the ethnogenesis of the Dutch has been a lengthy and complex process. The text below hence focuses on the history of the Dutch ethnic group, for Dutch national history, for Dutch colonial history, see the article on the Dutch Empire. Following the end of the period in the West around 500, with large federations settling the decaying Roman Empire. In the Low Countries, this began when the Franks, themselves a union of multiple smaller tribes. Eventually, in 358, the Salian Franks, one of the three main subdivisions among the Frankish alliance settled the areas Southern lands as foederati, Roman allies in charge of border defense. On a political level, the Frankish warlords abandoned tribalism and founded a number of kingdoms, however, the population make-up of the Frankish Empire, or even early Frankish kingdoms such as Neustria and Austrasia, was not dominated by Franks. Though the Frankish leaders controlled most of Western Europe, the Franks themselves were confined to the Northwestern part of the Empire, the current Dutch-French language border has remained virtually identical ever since, and could be seen as marking the furthest pale of gallicization among the Franks. The medieval cities of the Low Countries, which experienced major growth during the 11th and 12th century, were instrumental in breaking down the already relatively loose local form of feudalism, as they became increasingly powerful, they used their economical strength to influence the politics of their nobility. While the cities were of political importance, they also formed catalysts for medieval Dutch culture. The various city guilds as well as the necessity of water boards in the Dutch delta and it is also around this time, that ethnonyms such as Diets and Nederlands emerge. This process marked a new episode in the development of the Dutch ethnic group, as now political unity started to emerge, consolidating the strengthened cultural, despite their linguistic and cultural unity, and economic similarities, there was still little sense of political unity among the Dutch people. However, the centralist policies of Burgundy in the 14th and 15th centuries, at first violently opposed by the cities of the Low Countries, had a profound impact and changed this
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Flemish people
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They are one of two principal ethnic groups in Belgium, the other being the French-speaking Walloons. Flemish people make up the majority of the Belgian population, historically, all inhabitants of the medieval County of Flanders were referred to as Flemings, irrespective of the language spoken. The contemporary region of Flanders comprises a part of historical county, as well as parts of the medieval duchy of Brabant. The sense of Flemish identity increased significantly after the Belgian Revolution, prior to this, the term Flemings in the Dutch language was in first place used for the inhabitants of the former County of Flanders. Flemish however had been used since the 14th century to refer to the language, the modern Belgian province of Limburg was not part of the treaty, and only came to be considered Flemish in the 19th century. In 1830 the southern provinces of the United Netherlands proclaimed their independence, under French rule, French was enforced as the only official language in public life, resulting in a Frenchification of the elites and, to a lesser extent, the middle classes. The Dutch King allowed the use of both Dutch and French dialects as administrative languages in the Flemish provinces and he also enacted laws to reestablish Dutch in schools. Lastly, Belgian liberals were dissatisfied with William for his despotic behaviour. Following the revolt, the reforms of 1823 were the first Dutch laws to be abolished. After the Hundred Years War many Flemings migrated to the Azores, by 1490 there were 2,000 Flemings living in the Azores. Willem van der Haegen was the sea captain who brought settlers from Flanders to the Azores. Today many Azoreans trace their genealogy from present day Flanders, within Belgium the Flemings form a clearly distinguishable group, set apart by their language and customs. However, the perception of being a single polity varies greatly, depending on subject matter, locality. Generally, Flemings will seldom identify themselves as being Dutch and vice versa and this is partly caused by the popular stereotypes in the Netherlands as well as Flanders which are mostly based on the cultural extremes of both Northern and Southern culture. It is the majority language in Belgium, being spoken natively by three-fifths of the population and its various dialects contain a number of lexical and a few grammatical features which distinguish them from the standard language. As in the Netherlands, the pronunciation of Standard Dutch is affected by the dialect of the speaker. All Dutch dialects spoken in Belgium are spoken in adjacent areas of the Netherlands as well, at the same time East Flemish forms a continuum with both Brabantic and West Flemish. Standard Dutch is primarily based on the Hollandic dialect and to an extent on Brabantian
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Danish people
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Danes are the citizens of Denmark, most of whom speak Danish and consider themselves to be of Danish ethnicity. The first mention of Danes are from the 6th century in Jordanes Getica, by Procopius, the first mention of Danes within the Danish territory is on the Jelling Rune Stone which states how Harald Bluetooth converted the Danes to Christianity in the 10th century. Since the formulation of a Danish national identity in the 19th century, Danish national identity was built on a basis of peasant culture and Lutheran theology, theologian N. F. S. Grundtvig and his popular movement played a prominent part in the process. Today, the criterion for being considered a Dane is having Danish citizenship. Frankish annalists of the 8th century often refer to Danish kings, the Bobbio Orosius from the early 7th century, distinguishes between South Danes inhabiting Jutland and North Danes inhabiting the isles and the province of Scania. The first mention of Danes within the Danish territory is on the Jelling Rune Stone which mentions how Harald Bluetooth converted the Danes to Christianity in the 10th century. Between c.960 and the early 980s, Harald Bluetooth established a kingdom in the lands of the Danes, stretching from Jutland to Scania. Around the same time, he received a visit from a German missionary who, by surviving an ordeal by fire according to legend, the following years saw the Danish Viking expansion, which incorporated Norway and Northern England into the Danish kingdom. After the death of Canute the Great in 1035, England broke away from Danish control, canutes nephew Sweyn Estridson re-established strong royal Danish authority and built a good relationship with the archbishop of Bremen — at that time the Archbishop of all of Scandinavia. The Reformation, which originated in the German lands in the early 16th century from the ideas of Martin Luther, had a impact on Denmark. The Danish Reformation started in the mid-1520s, some Danes wanted access to the Bible in their own language. In 1524, Hans Mikkelsen and Christiern Pedersen translated the New Testament into Danish and those who had traveled to Wittenberg in Saxony and come under the influence of the teachings of Luther and his associates included Hans Tausen, a Danish monk in the Order of St John Hospitallers. The Dano-Norwegian Kingdom grew wealthy during the 16th century, largely because of the traffic through the Øresund. The Crown of Denmark could tax the traffic, because it controlled both sides of the Sound at the time, in the centuries after this loss of territory, the populations of the Scanian lands, who had previously been considered Danish, came to be fully integrated as Swedes. Later, in the early 19th century, Denmark suffered a defeat in the Napoleonic Wars, Denmark lost control over Norway, the political and economic defeat ironically sparked what is known as the Danish Golden Age during which a Danish national identity first came to be fully formed. The Danish liberal and national movements gained momentum in the 1830s, a new constitution emerged, separating the powers and granting the franchise to all adult males, as well as freedom of the press, religion, and association. The king became head of the executive branch, Danishness is the concept on which contemporary Danish national and ethnic identity is based. It is a set of values formed through the historic trajectory of the formation of the Danish nation, importantly, since its formulation, Danish identity has not been linked to a particular racial or biological heritage, as many other ethno-national identities have
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Poles
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The Poles are a nation and West Slavic ethnic group native to Poland who share a common ancestry, culture, history and are native speakers of the Polish language. The population of Poles in Poland is estimated at 37,394,000 out of a population of 38,538,000. Polands population inhabits several historic regions, including Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Mazovia, Silesia, Pomerania, Kuyavia, Warmia, Masuria, a wide-ranging Polish diaspora exists throughout Europe, the Americas and in Australasia. Today the largest urban concentration of Poles is the Katowice urban agglomeration of 2.7 million inhabitants, Poland was also for centuries a refuge for many Jews from all over Europe, a large number emigrated in the twentieth century to Israel. Several prominent Israeli statesmen were born in Poland, including Israels founder David Ben-Gurion, former President of Israel Shimon Peres, the Slavic people have been in the territory of modern Poland for over 1500 years. In the 9th and 10th centuries the tribes gave rise to developed regions along the upper Vistula, the last tribal undertaking resulted in the 10th century in a lasting political structure and state, Poland, one of the West Slavic nations. After 1945 the so-called autochthonous or aboriginal school of Polish prehistory received official backing in Poland, Polish people are the sixth largest national group in the European Union. Estimates vary depending on source, though available data suggest a number of around 60 million people worldwide. There are almost 38 million Poles in Poland alone, there are also Polish minorities in the surrounding countries including Germany, and indigenous minorities in the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus. There are some smaller indigenous minorities in nearby countries such as Moldova, the term Polonia is usually used in Poland to refer to people of Polish origin who live outside Polish borders, officially estimated at around 10 to 20 million. There is a notable Polish diaspora in the United States, Brazil, France has a historic relationship with Poland and has a relatively large Polish-descendant population. Poles have lived in France since the 18th century, in the early 20th century, over a million Polish people settled in France, mostly during world wars, among them Polish émigrés fleeing either Nazi occupation or later Soviet rule. In the United States, a significant number of Polish immigrants settled in Chicago, Ohio, Detroit, New York City, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, the highest concentration of Polish Americans in a single New England municipality is in New Britain, Connecticut. The majority of Polish Canadians have arrived in Canada since World War II, the number of Polish immigrants increased between 1945 and 1970, and again after the end of Communism in Poland in 1989. In Brazil the majority of Polish immigrants settled in Paraná State, smaller, but significant numbers settled in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Espírito Santo and São Paulo. The city of Curitiba has the second largest Polish diaspora in the world and Polish music, dishes and it is estimated that over half a million Polish people have come to work in the United Kingdom from Poland. Since 2011, Poles have been able to work throughout the EU and not just in the United Kingdom, Ireland. The Polish community in Norway has increased substantially and has grown to a number of 120,000
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Peace of Thorn (1411)
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It was signed on 1 February 1411 in Thorn, one of the southernmost cities of the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights. In historiography, the treaty is often portrayed as a failure of Poland–Lithuania as they failed to capitalize on the decisive defeat of the Knights in the Battle of Grunwald in June 1410. The Peace of Thorn was not stable and it took two other brief wars, the Hunger War in 1414 and Gollub War in 1422, to sign the Treaty of Melno that solved the territorial disputes. However, large war reparations were a significant financial burden on the Knights, causing internal unrest, the Teutonic Knights never recovered their former might. In May 1409, an uprising started in Samogitia, which had been in Teutonic hands since the Peace of Raciąż of 1404, Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas supported the uprising. Poland, which had been in a union with Lithuania since 1386. Thus the local uprising escalated into a regional war, the Teutonic Knights first invaded Poland, catching the Poles by surprise and capturing the Dobrzyń Land without much resistance. However, neither side was ready for a war and agreed to a truce mediated by Wenceslaus. When the truce expired in June 1410, allied Poland–Lithuania invaded Prussia, the Knights were soundly defeated, with most of their leadership killed. Following the battle, most Teutonic fortresses surrendered without resistance and the Knights were left only eight strongholds. However, the allies delayed their Siege of Marienburg, giving the Knights enough time to organize defense, the Polish–Lithuanian army, suffering from lack of ammunition and low morale, failed to capture the Teutonic capital and returned home in September. The Knights quickly recaptured their fortresses that were taken by the Poles, Polish King Jogaila raised a fresh army and dealt another defeat to the Knights in the Battle of Koronowo in October 1410. Heinrich von Plauen, new Teutonic Grand Master, wanted to continue fighting, however, the Teutonic Council preferred peace and both sides agreed to a truce, effective between 10 December 1410 and 11 January 1411. Three-day negotiations in Raciąż between Jogaila and von Plauen broke down and Teutonic Knights invaded Dobrzyń Land again, the incursion resulted in a new round of negotiations that ended with the Peace of Thorn. According to the treaty, the borders were returned to their pre-1409 state with exception of Samogitia. The Teutonic Order relinquished its claims to Samogitia, but only temporarily – for the lifetimes of Polish King Jogaila, after their deaths, Samogitia was to return to the Knights. At the time both rulers were aged men, in the south, the Dobrzyń Land, captured by the Knights during the war, was ceded back to Poland. Thus the Knights suffered virtually no territorial losses – a great diplomatic achievement after the defeat in the Battle of Grunwald
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Second Peace of Thorn (1466)
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Both sides agreed to seek confirmation from Pope Paul II and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, but the Polish side stressed that this confirmation would not be needed for validation of the treaty. The Order also acknowledged the rights of the Polish Crown for Prussias western half, eastern Prussia, later called Duchy of Prussia remained with the Teutonic Order until 1525, as a Polish fief. The treaty stated that Royal Prussia became the property of the Polish king. Later some disagreements arose concerning certain prerogatives that Royal Prussia and the cities held, the region possessed certain privileges such as the minting of its own coins, its own Diet meetings, its own military, and its own administrative usage of the German language. A conflict over the right to name and approve Bishops in Warmia, eventually, Royal Prussia became integrated into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, but retained some distinctive features until the partitions of Poland in the late 18th century. The area became known as the Duchy of Prussia, peace of Thorn List of treaties Photocopy of the treaty Latin text, In nomine domini amen. Cum inter humane voluntatis desideria, que in aliquid citra Deum finem atque rerum omnium opificem
34.
Mary, mother of Jesus
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Mary, also known by various titles, styles and honorifics, was a 1st-century Galilean Jewish woman of Nazareth and the mother of Jesus, according to the New Testament and the Quran. The gospels of Matthew and Luke in the New Testament and the Quran describe Mary as a virgin, the miraculous birth took place when she was already betrothed to Joseph and was awaiting the concluding rite of marriage, the formal home-taking ceremony. She married Joseph and accompanied him to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, the Gospel of Luke begins its account of Marys life with the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel appeared to her and announced her divine selection to be the mother of Jesus. According to canonical gospel accounts, Mary was present at the crucifixion and is depicted as a member of the early Christian community in Jerusalem. According to the Catholic and Orthodox teaching, at the end of her life her body was assumed directly into Heaven. Mary has been venerated since Early Christianity, and is considered by millions to be the most meritorious saint of the religion and she is claimed to have miraculously appeared to believers many times over the centuries. The Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches believe that Mary, there is significant diversity in the Marian beliefs and devotional practices of major Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church holds distinctive Marian dogmas, namely her status as the Mother of God, her Immaculate Conception, her perpetual virginity, many Protestants minimize Marys role within Christianity, based on the argued brevity of biblical references. Mary also has a position in Islam, where one of the longer chapters of the Quran is devoted to her. Marys name in the manuscripts of the New Testament was based on her original Aramaic name ܡܪܝܡ. The English name Mary comes from the Greek Μαρία, which is a form of Μαριάμ. Both Μαρία and Μαριάμ appear in the New Testament, in Christianity, Mary is commonly referred to as the Virgin Mary, in accordance with the belief that she conceived Jesus miraculously through the Holy Spirit without her husbands involvement. The three main titles for Mary used by the Orthodox are Theotokos, Aeiparthenos as confirmed in the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, Catholics use a wide variety of titles for Mary, and these titles have in turn given rise to many artistic depictions. For example, the title Our Lady of Sorrows has inspired such masterpieces as Michelangelos Pietà, the title Theotokos was recognized at the Council of Ephesus in 431. However, this phrase in Greek, in the abbreviated form ΜΡ ΘΥ, is an indication commonly attached to her image in Byzantine icons. The Council stated that the Church Fathers did not hesitate to speak of the holy Virgin as the Mother of God, some Marian titles have a direct scriptural basis. For instance, the title Queen Mother has been given to Mary since she was the mother of Jesus, the scriptural basis for the term Queen can be seen in Luke 1,32 and the Isaiah 9,6. Queen Mother can be found in 1 Kings 2, 19-20 and Jeremiah 13, other titles have arisen from reported miracles, special appeals or occasions for calling on Mary
35.
Society of Jesus
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The Society of Jesus Latin, Societas Iesu, S. J. SJ or SI) is a religious congregation of the Catholic Church which originated in Spain. The society is engaged in evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 nations on six continents, Jesuits work in education, intellectual research, and cultural pursuits. Jesuits also give retreats, minister in hospitals and parishes, and promote social justice, Ignatius of Loyola founded the society after being wounded in battle and experiencing a religious conversion. He composed the Spiritual Exercises to help others follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, ignatiuss plan of the orders organization was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540 by a bull containing the Formula of the Institute. Ignatius was a nobleman who had a background, and the members of the society were supposed to accept orders anywhere in the world. The Society participated in the Counter-Reformation and, later, in the implementation of the Second Vatican Council, the Society of Jesus is consecrated under the patronage of Madonna Della Strada, a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and it is led by a Superior General. The Society of Jesus on October 3,2016 announced that Superior General Adolfo Nicolás resignation was officially accepted, on October 14, the 36th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus elected Father Arturo Sosa as its thirty-first Superior General. The headquarters of the society, its General Curia, is in Rome, the historic curia of St. Ignatius is now part of the Collegio del Gesù attached to the Church of the Gesù, the Jesuit Mother Church. In 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the first Jesuit Pope, the Jesuits today form the largest single religious order of priests and brothers in the Catholic Church. As of 1 January 2015, Jesuits numbered 16,740,11,986 clerics regular,2,733 scholastics,1,268 brothers and 753 novices. In 2012, Mark Raper S. J. wrote, Our numbers have been in decline for the last 40 years—from over 30,000 in the 1960s to fewer than 18,000 today. The steep declines in Europe and North America and consistent decline in Latin America have not been offset by the significant increase in South Asia, the Society is divided into 83 Provinces with six Independent Regions and ten Dependent Regions. On 1 January 2007, members served in 112 nations on six continents with the largest number in India and their average age was 57.3 years,63.4 years for priests,29.9 years for scholastics, and 65.5 years for brothers. The current Superior General of the Jesuits is Arturo Sosa, the Society is characterized by its ministries in the fields of missionary work, human rights, social justice and, most notably, higher education. It operates colleges and universities in countries around the world and is particularly active in the Philippines. In the United States it maintains 28 colleges and universities and 58 high schools and he ensured that his formula was contained in two papal bulls signed by Pope Paul III in 1540 and by Pope Julius III in 1550. The formula expressed the nature, spirituality, community life and apostolate of the new religious order, the meeting is now commemorated in the Martyrium of Saint Denis, Montmartre
36.
Albert, Duke of Prussia
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Albert was the first European ruler to establish Lutheranism, and thus Protestantism, as the official state religion of his lands. He proved instrumental in the spread of Protestantism in its early stage. That arrangement was confirmed by the Treaty of Kraków in 1525, Albert pledged a personal oath to the King and in return was invested with the duchy for himself and his heirs. Alberts rule in Prussia was fairly prosperous, Albert established schools in every town and founded Königsberg University in 1544. He promoted culture and arts, patronising the works of Erasmus Reinhold, during the final years of his rule, Albert was forced to raise taxes instead of further confiscating now-depleted church lands, causing peasant rebellion. The intrigues of the court favourites Johann Funck and Paul Skalić also led to various religious, Albert spent his final years virtually deprived of power and died at Tapiau on 20 March 1568. His son, Albert Frederick, succeeded him as Duke of Prussia, Alberts dissolution of the Teutonic State caused the founding of the Duchy of Prussia, paving the way for the rise of the House of Hohenzollern. He is therefore seen as the father of the Prussian nation. Albert was born in Ansbach in Franconia as the son of Frederick I. His mother was Sophia, daughter of Casimir IV Jagiellon, Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland, and his wife Elisabeth of Austria. He was raised for a career in the Church and spent some time at the court of Hermann IV of Hesse, Elector of Cologne, who appointed him canon of the Cologne Cathedral. Not only was he quite religious, he was interested in mathematics and science. His career was forwarded by the Church, however, and institutions of the Catholic clerics supported his early advancement, turning to a more active life, Albert accompanied Emperor Maximilian I to Italy in 1508 and after his return spent some time in the Kingdom of Hungary. Duke Frederick of Saxony, Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, the new Grand Master, aware of his duties to the empire and to the papacy, refused to submit to the crown of Poland. As war over the orders existence appeared inevitable, Albert made strenuous efforts to secure allies, the ill-feeling, influenced by the ravages of members of the Order in Poland, culminated in a war which began in December 1519 and devastated Prussia. Albert was granted a four-year truce early in 1521, the dispute was referred to Emperor Charles V and other princes, but as no settlement was reached Albert continued his efforts to obtain help in view of a renewal of the war. For this purpose he visited the Diet of Nuremberg in 1522, the Grand Master then journeyed to Wittenberg, where he was advised by Martin Luther to abandon the rules of his order, to marry, and to convert Prussia into a hereditary duchy for himself. The Estates of the land then met at Königsberg and took the oath of allegiance to the new duke and this transition did not, however, take place without protest
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Protestantism
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Protestantism is a form of Christianity which originated with the Reformation, a movement against what its followers considered to be errors in the Roman Catholic Church. It is one of the three divisions of Christendom, together with Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The term derives from the letter of protestation from German Lutheran princes in 1529 against an edict of the Diet of Speyer condemning the teachings of Martin Luther as heretical. Although there were earlier breaks from or attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church—notably by Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, Protestants reject the notion of papal supremacy and deny the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, but disagree among themselves regarding the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Five solae summarize the reformers basic differences in theological beliefs, in the 16th century, Lutheranism spread from Germany into Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Baltic states, and Iceland. Reformed churches were founded in Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland and France by such reformers as John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, the political separation of the Church of England from Rome under King Henry VIII brought England and Wales into this broad Reformation movement. Protestants developed their own culture, which made major contributions in education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy and the arts, some Protestant denominations do have a worldwide scope and distribution of membership, while others are confined to a single country. A majority of Protestants are members of a handful of families, Adventism, Anglicanism, Baptist churches, Reformed churches, Lutheranism, Methodism. Nondenominational, evangelical, charismatic, independent and other churches are on the rise, and constitute a significant part of Protestant Christianity. Six princes of the Holy Roman Empire and rulers of fourteen Imperial Free Cities, the edict reversed concessions made to the Lutherans with the approval of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V three years earlier. During the Reformation, the term was used outside of the German politics. The word evangelical, which refers to the gospel, was more widely used for those involved in the religious movement. Nowadays, this word is still preferred among some of the historical Protestant denominations in the Lutheran and Calvinist traditions in Europe, above all the term is used by Protestant bodies in the German-speaking area, such as the EKD. In continental Europe, an Evangelical is either a Lutheran or a Calvinist, the German word evangelisch means Protestant, and is different from the German evangelikal, which refers to churches shaped by Evangelicalism. The English word evangelical usually refers to Evangelical Protestant churches, and it traces its roots back to the Puritans in England, where Evangelicalism originated, and then was brought to the United States. Protestantism as a term is now used in contradistinction to the other major Christian traditions, i. e. Roman Catholicism. Initially, Protestant became a term to mean any adherent to the Reformation movement in Germany and was taken up by Lutherans. Even though Martin Luther himself insisted on Christian or Evangelical as the only acceptable names for individuals who professed Christ, French and Swiss Protestants preferred the word reformed, which became a popular, neutral and alternative name for Calvinists
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Old Prussian language
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Old Prussian is an extinct Baltic language, once spoken by the Old Prussians, the indigenous peoples of Prussia, now northeastern Poland and the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia. Old Prussian began to be written down in the Latin alphabet in about the 13th century, a small amount of literature in the language survives. In addition to Prussia proper, the territory of the Old Prussians might have included eastern parts of Pomerelia. Old Prussian was closely related to the other extinct Western Baltic languages and it is related to the Eastern Baltic languages such as Lithuanian and Latvian, and more distantly related to Slavic. Compare the Old Prussian semmē, Latvian zeme and Lithuanian žemė, groups of people from Germany, Poland, Lithuania, France, Scotland, England, and Austria found refuge in Prussia during the Protestant Reformation and thereafter. Such immigration caused a decline in the use of Old Prussian, as the Prussians adopted the languages of their more recently arrived co-citizens. Georg Gerullis undertook the first basic study of names in Die altpreußischen Ortsnamen, written and published with the help of Walter de Gruyter. Separate words found in historical documents. Vernacularisms in the former German dialects of East and West Prussia, as well as words of Old Curonian origin in Latvian, the so-called Basel Epigram, the oldest written Prussian sentence. It reads, This jocular inscription was most probably made by a Prussian student studying in Prague, found by Stephen McCluskey in manuscript MS F. V.2, 63r, stored in the Basel University library. 100 words of the Vocabulary by a friar Simon Grunau, a historian of the Teutonic Knights, apart from those words Grunau also recorded an expression sta nossen rickie, nossen rickie. The so-called Elbing Vocabulary, which consists of 802 thematically sorted words, peter Holcwesscher from Marienburg copied the manuscript around 1400, the original dates from the beginning of the 14th or the end of the 13th century. It was found in 1825 by Fr, neumann among other manuscripts acquired by him from the heritage of the Elbing merchant A. Grübnau, it was thus dubbed the Codex Neumannianus. The three Catechisms printed in Königsberg in 1545,1545, and 1561 respectively, the first two consist of only 6 pages of text in Old Prussian – the second one being a correction of the first into another Old Prussian dialect. The third catechism, or Enchiridion, consists of 132 pages of text, will himself knew little or no Old Prussian, and his Prussian interpreter was probably illiterate, but according to Will spoke Old Prussian quite well. The text itself is mainly a translation, and Will phonetically recorded Megotts oral translation. With other monuments being merely word lists, the grammar of Old Prussian is reconstructed chiefly on the basis of the three Catechisms. There is no consensus on the number of cases that Old Prussian had, there are traces of a vocative case, such as in the phrase O Deiwe Rikijs O God the Lord, reflecting the inherited PIE vocative ending *-e
39.
Crimean Khanate
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The Crimean Khanate was a Turkic vassal state of the Ottoman Empire from 1478 to 1774, the longest-lived of the Turkic khanates that succeeded the empire of the Golden Horde. The khanate was located in present-day Russia and Ukraine, Ottoman forces under Gedik Ahmet Pasha conquered all of the Crimean peninsula and joined it to the khanate in 1475. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Crimean Khanate was an important center of the slave trade. In 1774, it was released as a independent state, following the Russo-Turkish Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca. English-speaking writers during the 18th and early 19th centuries often called the territory of the Crimean Khanate, the name Little Tartary distinguished the area from Tartary - those areas of central and northern Asia inhabited by Turkic peoples or Tatars. The Khanate included the Crimean peninsula and the adjacent steppes, mostly corresponding to the parts of South Ukraine between the Dnepr and the Donets. The Crimean Khanate originated in the early 15th century when certain clans of the Golden Horde Empire ceased their nomadic life in the Desht-i Kipchak and decided to make Crimea their yurt. At that time, the Golden Horde of the Mongol empire had governed the Crimean peninsula as an ulus since 1239, the local separatists invited a Genghisid contender for the Golden Horde throne, Hacı Giray, to become their khan. Hacı Giray accepted their invitation and traveled from exile in Lithuania and he warred for independence against the Horde from 1420 to 1441, in the end achieving success. But Hacı Giray then had to fight off internal rivals before he could ascend the throne of the khanate in 1449, the khanate included the Crimean Peninsula as well as the adjacent steppe. The sons of Hacı I Giray contended against each other to succeed him, the Ottomans intervened and installed one of the sons, Meñli I Giray, on the throne. Menli I Giray, took the imperial title Sovereign of Two Continents, in 1475 the Ottoman forces, under the command of Gedik Ahmet Pasha, conquered the Greek Principality of Theodoro and the Genoese colonies at Cembalo, Soldaia, and Caffa. Thenceforth the khanate was a protectorate of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman sultan enjoyed veto power over the selection of new Crimean khans. The Empire annexed the Crimean coast but recognized the legitimacy of the rule of the steppes. In 1475, the Ottomans imprisoned Meñli I Giray for three years for resisting the invasion, after returning from captivity in Constantinople, he accepted the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, Ottoman sultans treated the khans more as allies than subjects, the khans continued to have a foreign policy independent from the Ottomans in the steppes of Little Tartary. The khans continued to mint coins and use their names in Friday prayers and they did not pay tribute to the Ottoman Empire, instead the Ottomans paid them in return for their services of providing skilled outriders and frontline cavalry in their campaigns. Later on, Crimea lost power in this relationship as the result of a crisis in 1523, during the reign of Meñlis successor and he died that year and beginning with his successor, from 1524 on, Crimean khans were appointed by the Sultan
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Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
Mazury (help·info), German: Masuren, Masurian: Mazurÿ) is a region in northern Poland famous for its 2,000 lakes. Before the end of World War II, it was mostly inhabited by Polish-speaking (Masurian dialect) Lutheran Masurians and constituted a part of East Prussia. Masuria occupies much of the Masurian Lake District. Administratively, it belongs to Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, its biggest city is Ełk, often regarded as its capital. It has territory of about 10,000 km2 and population of 59 790 (2013).
