1.
Polish language
–
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
Polish language
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The oldest printed text in Polish – Statuta synodalia Episcoporum Wratislaviensis printed in 1475 in
Wrocław by Kasper Elyan.
Polish language
–
Polish
Polish language
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The
Jakub Wujek Bible in Polish, 1599 print
2.
Silesian language
–
Silesian or Upper Silesian is a West Slavic lect, part of its Lechitic group. Its vocabulary has been influenced by Central German due to the existence of numerous Silesian German speakers in the area prior to World War II and after. There is no consensus on whether Silesian is a language or a somewhat divergent dialect of Polish. Silesian speakers currently live in the region of Upper Silesia, which is split between southwestern Poland and the northeastern Czech Republic. At present Silesian is commonly spoken in the area between the border of Silesia on the east and a line from Syców to Prudnik on the west as well as in the Rawicz area. Until 1945 Silesian was also spoken in enclaves in Lower Silesia, in 2003, the National Publishing Company of Silesia commenced operations. This publisher was founded by the Alliance of the People of the Silesian Nation and it prints books about Silesia, in July 2007, the Slavic Silesian language was given the ISO 639-3 code szl. On 6 September 2007,23 politicians of the Polish parliament made a statement about a new law to give Silesian the official status of a regional language, the first official National Dictation Contest of the Silesian language took place in August 2007. In dictation as many as 10 forms of writing systems and orthography have been accepted, on 30 January 2008 and in June 2008, two organizations promoting Silesian language were established, Pro Loquela Silesiana and Tôwarzistwo Piastowaniô Ślónskij Môwy Danga. On 26 May 2008, the Silesian Wikipedia was founded, on 30 June 2008 in the edifice of the Silesian Parliament in Katowice, a conference took place on the status of the Silesian language. This conference was a forum for politicians, linguists, representatives of interested organizations and persons who deal with the Silesian language, the conference was titled Silesian — Still a Dialect or Already a Language. Ślabikŏrzowy szrajbōnek is the new alphabet created by the Pro Loquela Silesiana organization to reflect the sounds of all Silesian dialects. It was approved by Silesian organizations affiliated in Rada Górnośląska, ubuntu translation is in this alphabet as is the Silesian Wikipedia. It is used in a few books, including the Silesian alphabet book. Letters, A, Ã, B, C, Ć, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, Ł, M, N, Ń, O, Ŏ, Ō, Ô, Õ, P, R, S, Ś, T, U, W, Y, Z, Ź, Ż. One of the first alphabets created specifically for Silesian was Steuers Silesian alphabet, created in the Interwar period, Silesians phonetic alphabet replaces the digraphs with single letters and does not include the letter Ł, whose sound can be represented phonetically with U. It is therefore the alphabet contains the fewest letters. Large parts of the Silesian Wikipedia, however, are written in Silesians phonetic alphabet, although the morphological differences between Silesian and Polish have been researched extensively, other grammatical differences have not been studied in depth
Silesian language
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Grave inscription at Lutheran cemetery in
Střítež near
Český Těšín. The inscription, which says "Rest in Peace", is in the Cieszyn Silesian dialect.
Silesian language
–
Range of Silesian on a map of
East-Central Europe (marked as G1 and G2, in southern Poland and the eastern Czech Republic).
3.
Czech language
–
Czech, historically also Bohemian, is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group. It is spoken by over 10 million people and is the language of the Czech Republic. Czech is closely related to Slovak, to the point of being intelligible to a very high degree. In the later 18th to mid-19th century, the written standard was codified in the context of the Czech National Revival. The main vernacular, known as Common Czech, is based on the vernacular of Prague, the Moravian dialects spoken in the eastern part of the country are mostly also counted as Czech, although some of their eastern variants are closer to Slovak. The Czech phoneme inventory is moderate in size, comprising five vowels, words may contain uncommon consonant clusters, including one consonant represented by the grapheme ř, or lack vowels altogether. Czech orthography is simple, and has used as a model by phonologists. Czech is classified as a member of the West Slavic sub-branch of the Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family and this branch includes Polish, Kashubian, Upper and Lower Sorbian and Slovak. Slovak is by far the closest genetic neighbor of Czech, the West Slavic languages are spoken in an area classified as part of Central Europe. Around the 7th century, the Slavic expansion reached Central Europe, the West Slavic polity of Great Moravia formed by the 9th century. The Christianization of Bohemia took place during the 9th and 10th centuries, the Bohemian language is first recorded in writing in glosses and short notes during the 12th to 13th centuries. Literary works written in Czech appear in the early 14th century, the first complete Bible translation also dates to this period. Old Czech texts, including poetry and cookbooks, were produced outside the university as well, literary activity becomes widespread in the early 15th century in the context of the Bohemian Reformation. There was no standardization distinguishing between Czech and Slovak prior to the 15th century, the publication of the Kralice Bible between 1579 and 1593 became very important for standardization of the Czech language in the following centuries. In 1615, the Bohemian diet tried to declare Czech to be the official language of the kingdom. After the Bohemian Revolt which was defeated by the Habsburgs in 1620 and this emigration together with other consequences of the Thirty Years War had a negative impact on the further use of the Czech language. In 1627, Czech and German became official languages of the Kingdom of Bohemia and in the 18th century German became dominant in Bohemia and Moravia, the modern standard Czech language originates in standardization efforts of the 18th century. Changes include the shift of í to ej and é to í and the merging of í
Czech language
–
The
Bible of Kralice was the first complete
translation of the Bible into the Czech language. Its six volumes were first published between 1579 and 1593.
Czech language
–
regions where Czech is the language of the majority
Czech language
–
Jan Hus
Czech language
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Josef Dobrovský, whose writing played a key role in reviving Czech as a written language
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
German language
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Old Frisian (Alt-Friesisch)
German language
–
The widespread popularity of the
Bible translated into German by
Martin Luther helped establish modern German
German language
–
Examples of German language in
Namibian everyday life
German language
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German-language newspapers in the U.S. in 1922
5.
Silesian German
–
Silesian German or Lower Silesian is a nearly extinct German dialect spoken in Silesia. It is part of the East Central German language area with some West Slavic influences, variations of the dialect until 1945 were spoken by about seven million people. Most descendents of the Silesian Germans expelled to West and East Germany no longer learned the dialect, in origin, Silesian German appears to derive from 12th-century dialects of Middle High German, including medieval forms of Upper Saxon German, East Franconian German and Thuringian. The inhabitants of Silesia are thought to be descendants of settlers from Upper Lusatia, Saxony, after World War II, local communist authorities forbade the use of the language. After the expulsion of the Germans from Silesia, German Silesian culture, polish authorities banned the use of the German language. Today, Silesian German is a dialect spoken in Upper Lusatia and it can be divided into Gebirgsschlesische Dialektgruppe, Südostschlesische Dialektgruppe, mittelschlesische Dialektgruppe, westschlesische Dialektgruppe and niederländische Dialektgruppe. The nordostböhmische Dialektgruppe belongs to Silesian, too, Silesian German was the language in which the poetry of Karl von Holtei and Gerhart Hauptmann was written, during the 19th century
Silesian German
–
Historical area of distribution of the Silesian German
6.
Latin language
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
Latin language
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Latin inscription, in the
Colosseum
Latin language
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Julius Caesar 's
Commentarii de Bello Gallico is one of the most famous classical Latin texts of the Golden Age of Latin. The unvarnished, journalistic style of this
patrician general has long been taught as a model of the urbane Latin officially spoken and written in the floruit of the
Roman republic.
Latin language
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A multi-volume Latin dictionary in the
University Library of Graz
Latin language
–
Latin and Ancient Greek Language - Culture - Linguistics at
Duke University in 2014.
7.
Silesia
–
Silesia is a region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is about 40,000 km2, and its population about 8,000,000, Silesia is located along the Oder River. It consists of Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia, the region is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesias largest city and historical capital is Wrocław, the biggest metropolitan area is the Upper Silesian metropolitan area, the centre of which is Katowice. Parts of the Czech city of Ostrava fall within the borders of Silesia, Silesias borders and national affiliation have changed over time, both when it was a hereditary possession of noble houses and after the rise of modern nation-states. The first known states to hold there were probably those of Greater Moravia at the end of the 9th century. In the 10th century, Silesia was incorporated into the early Polish state, in the 14th century, it became a constituent part of the Bohemian Crown Lands under the Holy Roman Empire, which passed to the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy in 1526. Most of Silesia was conquered by Prussia in 1742, later becoming part of the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, the varied history with changing aristocratic possessions resulted in an abundance of castles in Silesia, especially in the Jelenia Góra valley. The remaining former Austrian parts of Silesia were partitioned to Czechoslovakia, in 1945, after World War II, the bulk of Silesia was transferred to Polish jurisdiction by the Potsdam Agreement of the victorious Allied Powers and became part of Poland. The small Lusatian strip west of the Oder-Neisse line, which had belonged to Silesia since 1815 and its centres are Görlitz and Bautzen. Most inhabitants of Silesia today speak the languages of their respective countries. The population of Upper Silesia is native, while Lower Silesia was settled by a German-speaking population before 1945, an ongoing debate exists whether Silesian speech should be considered a dialect of Polish or a separate language. Also, a Lower Silesian German dialect is used, although today it is almost extinct and it is used by expellees within Germany, as well as Germans who were left behind. The names all relate to the name of a river and mountain in mid-southern Silesia, the mountain served as a cultic place. Ślęża is listed as one of the numerous Pre-Indo-European topographic names in the region, according to some Polish Slavists, the name Ślęża or Ślęż is directly related to the Old Slavic words ślęg or śląg, which means dampness, moisture, or humidity. They disagree with the hypothesis of an origin for the name Śląsk from the name of the Silings tribe, in the fourth century BC, Celts entered Silesia, settling around Mount Ślęża near modern Wrocław, Oława, and Strzelin. Germanic Lugii tribes were first recorded within Silesia in the 1st century, Slavic peoples arrived in the region around the 7th century, and by the early ninth century, their settlements had stabilized. Local Slavs started to erect boundary structures like the Silesian Przesieka, the eastern border of Silesian settlement was situated to the west of the Bytom, and east from Racibórz and Cieszyn
Silesia
–
Silesia in an early period of
Poland's fragmentation, 1172–1177
Silesia
–
Historic Silesia, superimposed on modern national borders: The medieval and early modern Bohemian and Habsburg province outlined in cyan, Prussian Silesia in yellow.
Silesia
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First map of Silesia by
Martin Helwig, 1561; north at the bottom
Silesia
–
Coal Mine Bolesław Śmiały, Łaziska Górne
8.
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
Poland
–
Reconstruction of a
Bronze Age,
Lusatian culture settlement in
Biskupin, c. 700 BC
Poland
–
Flag
Poland
–
Earliest known contemporary depiction of a Polish ruler; King
Mieszko II Lambert of Poland being presented with a
Liturgical book by
Matilda of Swabia, 1025–1031
Poland
–
Drawing of the
Battle of Grunwald, which was fought against the
German Order of Teutonic Knights, 15 July 1410
9.
Czech Republic
–
The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, is a nation state in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west, Austria to the south, Slovakia to the east and Poland to the northeast. The Czech Republic covers an area of 78,866 square kilometres with mostly temperate continental climate and it is a unitary parliamentary republic, has 10.5 million inhabitants and the capital and largest city is Prague, with over 1.2 million residents. The Czech Republic includes the territories of Bohemia, Moravia. The Czech state was formed in the late 9th century as the Duchy of Bohemia under the Great Moravian Empire, after the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power transferred from Moravia to Bohemia under the Přemyslid dynasty. In 1002, the duchy was formally recognized as part of the Holy Roman Empire, becoming the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198 and reaching its greatest territorial extent in the 14th century. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the whole Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy alongside the Archduchy of Austria, the Protestant Bohemian Revolt against the Catholic Habsburgs led to the Thirty Years War. After the Battle of the White Mountain, the Habsburgs consolidated their rule, reimposed Roman Catholicism, the Czech part of Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany in World War II, and was liberated in 1945 by the armies of the Soviet Union and the United States. The Czech country lost the majority of its German-speaking inhabitants after they were expelled following the war, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won the 1946 elections. Following the 1948 coup détat, Czechoslovakia became a one-party communist state under Soviet influence, in 1968, increasing dissatisfaction with the regime culminated in a reform movement known as the Prague Spring, which ended in a Soviet-led invasion. Czechoslovakia remained occupied until the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed, on 6 March 1990, the Czech Socialistic Republic was renamed to the Czech Republic. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved, with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, it is a member of the United Nations, the OECD, the OSCE, and it is a developed country with an advanced, high income economy and high living standards. The UNDP ranks the country 14th in inequality-adjusted human development, the Czech Republic also ranks as the 6th most peaceful country, while achieving strong performance in democratic governance. It has the lowest unemployment rate in the European Union, the traditional English name Bohemia derives from Latin Boiohaemum, which means home of the Boii. The current name comes from the endonym Čech, spelled Cžech until the reform in 1842. The name comes from the Slavic tribe and, according to legend, their leader Čech, the etymology of the word Čech can be traced back to the Proto-Slavic root *čel-, meaning member of the people, kinsman, thus making it cognate to the Czech word člověk. The country has traditionally divided into three lands, namely Bohemia in the west, Moravia in the southeast, and Czech Silesia in the northeast. Following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992, the Czech part of the former nation found itself without a common single-word geographical name in English, the name Czechia /ˈtʃɛkiə/ was recommended by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Czech Republic
–
Přemysl Ottokar II,
King of Bohemia (1253–1278) and
Duke of Austria (1251–1278)
Czech Republic
–
Flag
Czech Republic
–
The
Crown of Saint Wenceslas is the 4th oldest in Europe
Czech Republic
–
The
Defenestration of Prague sparked the
Thirty Years' War
10.
Greater Moravia
–
Great Moravia, the Great Moravian Empire, or simply Moravia, was the first major state that was predominantly Slavonic to emerge in the area of Central Europe. Its core territories were located on the Morava river which gave its name to the kingdom, Morava in both Czech and Slovak refers to both the river and the land of Moravia - the medieval Margraviate of Moravia, which is now the eastern part of the Czech Republic. The kingdom saw the rise of the first ever Slavic literary culture in the Old Church Slavonic language, after the fall of Great Moravia, its core territory was gradually divided between the newly ascending Czech Kingdom and Hungarian Kingdom, the frontier was originally settled on the Morava river. After this, the Czech-Hungarian border shifted east to the White Carpathians, záhorie also boasts the only surviving building from Great Moravian times - the chapel at Kopčany just across the Morava from the archaeological site of Mikulčice. The core of Great Moravia was established, according to legend, in the early 830s, when Prince Mojmír I crossed the Morava and conquered the principality of Nitra. The former principality of Nitra was used as the údelné kniežatsvo, or the given to, and ruled by. The extent and location of Great Moravia are a subject of debate, rival theories place the heart of it either south of the river Danube or on the Great Hungarian Plain. The exact date when the Moravian state was founded is also disputed, but it occurred in the early 830s under Prince Mojmír I. Moravia reached its largest territorial extent under Svätopluk I, who ruled from 870 to 894, separatism and internal conflicts emerging after Svätopluks death contributed to the fall of Great Moravia, which was overrun by the Hungarians. The exact date of Moravias collapse is unknown, but it occurred between 902 and 907, Moravia experienced significant cultural development under Prince Rastislav, with the arrival in 863 of the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius. Rastislav had asked the Byzantine emperor to send a teacher to introduce literacy, the brothers Cyril and Methodius introduced a system of writing and Slavonic liturgy, the latter eventually formally approved by Pope Adrian II. The language, termed Old Church Slavonic, was the ancestral language for Bulgarian. Old Church Slavonic, therefore, differed somewhat from the local Slavic dialect of Great Moravia which was the idiom to the later dialects spoken in Moravia. Later, the disciples of Cyril and Methodius were expelled from Great Moravia by King Svätopluk I, arriving in the First Bulgarian Empire, the disciples continued the Cyrilo-Methodian mission and the Glagolitic script was superseded by Cyrillic. The meaning of the name has been subject to debate, the designation Great Moravia – megale Moravia in Greek – stems from the work De Administrando Imperio written by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos around 950. The emperor only used the adjective megale in connection with the polity when referring to events that occurred after its fall, according to a third theory, the megale adjective refers to a territory located beyond the borders of the Byzantine Empire. Finally, the historian Lubomír E. Havlík writes that Byzantine scholars used this adjective when referring to homelands of nomadic peoples, Morava is the Czech and Slovak name for both the river and the country. In modern German, the land of the medieval Margraviate of Moravia is called Mähren, as the territory was inhabited by Germanic tribes before the Slavs settled there, the name is possibly of Germanic origin, with the ending -ava usually explained as coming from the Germanic -ahwa
Greater Moravia
–
Certain and disputed borders of Great Moravia under
Svatopluk I (r. 870–894)
Greater Moravia
–
Püspöki-Nagy's conception of the two Moravias (1986)
Greater Moravia
–
Early Slavic artefacts in
Bohemia,
Moravia and
Slovakia from the 6th century
11.
Bohemia
–
Bohemia is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech lands in the present-day Czech Republic. Bohemia was a duchy of Great Moravia, later an independent principality, a kingdom in the Holy Roman Empire, and subsequently a part of the Habsburg Monarchy, after World War I and the establishment of an independent Czechoslovak state, Bohemia became a part of Czechoslovakia. Between 1938 and 1945, border regions with sizeable German-speaking minorities of all three Czech lands were joined to Nazi Germany as the Sudetenland, in 1990, the name was changed to the Czech Republic, which become a separate state in 1993 with the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. Until 1948, Bohemia was a unit of Czechoslovakia as one of its lands. Bohemia was bordered in the south by Upper and Lower Austria, in the west by Bavaria and in the north by Saxony and Lusatia, in the northeast by Silesia, and in the east by Moravia. In the 2nd century BC, the Romans were competing for dominance in northern Italy, the Romans defeated the Boii at the Battle of Placentia and the Battle of Mutina. After this, many of the Boii retreated north across the Alps, much later Roman authors refer to the area they had once occupied as Boiohaemum. The earliest mention was by Tacitus Germania 28, and later mentions of the name are in Strabo. The name appears to include the tribal name Boi- plus the Germanic element *haimaz home and this Boiohaemum was apparently isolated to the area where King Marobods kingdom was centred, within the Hercynian forest. The Czech name Čechy is derived from the name of the Slavic ethnic group, the Czechs, Bohemia, like neighbouring Bavaria, is named after the Boii, who were a large Celtic nation known to the Romans for their migrations and settlement in northern Italy and other places. Another part of the nation moved west with the Helvetii into southern France, to the south, over the Danube, the Romans extended their empire, and to the southeast in Hungaria, were Sarmatian peoples. In the area of modern Bohemia the Marcomanni and other Suebic groups were led by their king Marobodus and he took advantage of the natural defenses provided by its mountains and forests. In late classical times and the early Middle Ages, two new Suebic groupings appeared to the west of Bohemia in southern Germany, the Alemanni, many Suebic tribes from the Bohemian region took part in such movements westwards, even settling as far away as Spain and Portugal. With them were also tribes who had pushed from the east, such as the Vandals, other groups pushed southwards towards Pannonia. These are precursors of todays Czechs, though the amount of Slavic immigration is a subject of debate. The Slavic influx was divided into two or three waves, the first wave came from the southeast and east, when the Germanic Lombards left Bohemia. Soon after, from the 630s to 660s, the territory was taken by Samos tribal confederation and his death marked the end of the old Slavonic confederation, the second attempt to establish such a Slavonic union after Carantania in Carinthia. Other sources divide the population of Bohemia at this time into the Merehani, Marharaii, Beheimare, Christianity first appeared in the early 9th century, but only became dominant much later, in the 10th or 11th century
Bohemia
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Karlštejn Castle
Bohemia
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Historical map with Bohemia proper outlined in pink,
Moravia in yellow, and
Austrian Silesia in orange.
Bohemia
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The more extreme Hussites became known as
Taborites, after the city of
Tábor that became their center.
Bohemia
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Bohemia as the heart of
Europa regina, 1570
12.
History of Poland during the Piast dynasty
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The period of rule by the Piast dynasty between the 10th and 14th centuries is the first major stage of the history of the Polish nation. The dynasty was founded by a series of dukes listed by the chronicler Gallus Anonymous in the early 12th century, (Siemowit, Lestek and it was Mieszko I, the son of Siemomysł, who is now considered the proper founder of the Polish state at about 960 AD. The ruling house then remained in power in the Polish lands until 1370, Mieszko converted to Christianity of the Western Latin Rite in an event known as the Baptism of Poland in 966, which established a major cultural boundary in Europe based on religion. He also completed a unification of the West Slavic tribal lands that was fundamental to the existence of the new country of Poland. Mieszkos son Bolesław I Chrobry established a Roman Catholic Archdiocese in Gniezno, the first Piast monarchy collapsed with the death of Mieszko II Lambert in 1034, followed by its restoration under Casimir I in 1042. In the process, the dignity for Polish rulers was forfeited. Bolesław III, the last duke of the period, succeeded in defending his country. Upon his death in 1138, Poland was divided among his sons, the resulting internal fragmentation eroded the initial Piast monarchical structure in the 12th and 13th centuries and caused fundamental and lasting changes. Konrad I of Masovia invited the Teutonic Knights to help him fight the Baltic Prussian pagans, which led to centuries of Polands warfare with the Knights and the German Prussian state. In 1320, the kingdom was restored under Władysław I the Elbow-high, the western provinces of Silesia and Pomerania were lost after the fragmentation, and Poland began expanding to the east. The period ended with the reigns of two members of the Capetian House of Anjou between 1370 and 1384, the consolidation in the 14th century laid the base for the new powerful kingdom of Poland that was to follow. Accelerated rebuilding of old tribal fortified settlements, construction of new ones. The Polish state developed from these roots in the second half of the century. According to the 12th-century chronicler Gallus Anonymus, the Polans were ruled at this time by the Piast dynasty, in existing sources from the 10th century, Piast ruler Mieszko I was first mentioned by Widukind of Corvey in his Res gestae saxonicae, a chronicle of events in Germany. Widukind reported that Mieszkos forces were defeated in 963 by the Veleti tribes acting in cooperation with the Saxon exile Wichmann the Younger. Under Mieszkos rule, his tribal state accepted Christianity and became the Polish state, the viability of the Mieszkos emerging state was assured by the persistent territorial expansion of the early Piast rulers. Beginning with a small area around Gniezno, the Piast expansion lasted throughout most of the 10th century. The Polanie tribe conquered and merged with other Slavic tribes and first formed a tribal federation, after the addition of Lesser Poland, the country of the Vistulans, and of Silesia, Mieszkos state reached its mature form, including the main regions regarded as ethnically Polish
History of Poland during the Piast dynasty
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Important early stages in the history of the Polish state and church took place on the island of
Ostrów Tumski. Remnants of the original
palatium –chapel complex of Poland's first Christian ruling couple have been found beneath the church in the foreground. The
Poznań Cathedral is located on the right.
History of Poland during the Piast dynasty
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Roma,
Gallia,
Germania and
Sclavinia (
Slavic province of Europe) bring offerings to
Emperor Otto III, approaching him in that order. However, they appear to be given equal rank (size), which is a reflection of
imperial policies at that time.
History of Poland during the Piast dynasty
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An image on the
Gniezno Doors at the entrance to
Gniezno Cathedral depicts
Bolesław buying
Adalbert's body back from the
Prussians
History of Poland during the Piast dynasty
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Mieszko II shown allegorically with Duchess Mathilda von Schwaben
13.
Lands of the Bohemian Crown
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Under the rule of Ferdinand I from 1526, the lands of the Boheman Crown became a constituent part of the Habsburg Monarchy. Later they passed to the Austrian Empire and the Cisleithanian half of Austria-Hungary, by the Czechoslovak declaration of independence in 1918, the remaining Czech lands became part of the First Czechoslovak Republic. The Bohemian Crown was neither a personal union nor a federation of equal members, rather, the Kingdom of Bohemia had a higher status than the other incorporated constituent countries. There were only some common institutions of the Bohemian Crown. The most important of them was the Bohemian Court Chancellery which was united with the Austrian Chancellery in 1749, the Lands of the Bohemian Crown are called země Koruny české or simply Koruna česká and České země in Czech language, the adjective český referring to both Bohemian and Czech. The German term Länder der Böhmischen Krone is likewise shortened to Böhmische Krone or Böhmische Kronländer, native names include Silesian, Korana Czeskigo Krůlestwa, Lower Sorbian, zemje Českeje krony, and Upper Sorbian, kraje Čěskeje Króny. The denotation lands of the Crown of Saint Wenceslas refers to the Crown of Saint Wenceslas, in the 10th and 11th century the Duchy of Bohemia, together with Moravia and Kłodzko Land were consolidated under the ruling Přemyslid dynasty. Duke Ottokar I gained the royal title in 1198 from the German king Philip of Swabia for his support. The regality was ultimately confirmed by Philips nephew King Frederick II in the Golden Bull of Sicily issued in 1212 and he also achieved the enfeoffment with the Upper Lusatian lands of Bautzen and Görlitz by the German king Louis IV. King Johns eldest son Charles IV was elected King of the Romans in 1346, Charles IV created the Bohemian Crown, together with the incorporated provinces in 1348. The Luxembourg dynasty reached its point, when Charles was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1355. By his Imperial authority he decreed that the united Bohemian lands should endure regardless of dynastic developments, in 1367 he purchased Lower Lusatia from his stepson Margrave Otto V of Brandenburg. With King Wenceslaus, the decline of the Luxembourg dynasty began, nevertheless, the joint rule of the Bohemian Lands outlived the Hussite Wars and the extinction of the Luxembourg male line upon the death of Emperor Sigismund in 1437. In 1479 both kings signed the Treaty of Olomouc, whereby the unity of the Bohemian crown lands was officially retained unchanged, upon the death of King Matthias in 1490, Vladislas ruled the Bohemian crown lands and the Kingdom of Hungary in personal union. Attempts by the Bohemian Protestant estates to build up an autonomous confederation dashed at the 1620 Battle of White Mountain, whereafter the administration was centralised at Vienna. In the modern era, the crown lands of Bohemia, Moravia and Austrian Silesia became constituent parts of the Austrian Empire in 1804. After World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, Austrian Silesia with the Hlučín Region is today known as Czech Silesia, with the exception of eastern Cieszyn Silesia which passed to the Second Polish Republic in 1920. The Brandenburg Electorate, acquired by Charles IV from Margrave Otto V in 1373, Charles son Sigismund lost Brandenburg in 1415 to Frederick I, Elector of Brandenburg
Lands of the Bohemian Crown
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Lands of the Bohemian Crown (1893)
14.
Holy Roman Empire
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The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The title was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne, some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, the office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806, after the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon, before 1157, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, by the end of the 18th century, the term Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had fallen out of official use. As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control, by the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel’s son Pepin became King of the Franks, the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768 Pepin’s son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, on Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the west for the first time in over three centuries. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, according to Regino of Prüm, the parts of the realm spewed forth kinglets, and each part elected a kinglet from its own bowels. After the death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled only territories in Italy, the last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924. Around 900, autonomous stem duchies reemerged in East Francia, on his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony, who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919. Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade, Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing dynasty, would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowlers death, Otto, his son and designated successor, was elected King in Aachen in 936 and he overcame a series of revolts from an elder brother and from several dukes. After that, the managed to control the appointment of dukes. In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her. In 955, Otto won a victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld
Holy Roman Empire
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The Holy Roman Empire at its maximal extent, in the 13th century
Holy Roman Empire
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Imperial Banner
Holy Roman Empire
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An illustration from
Schedelsche Weltchronik depicting the structure of the Reich: The Holy Roman Emperor is sitting; on his left are three ecclesiastics; on his right are four secular electors.
Holy Roman Empire
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Double-headed eagle with coats of arms of individual states, symbol of the Holy Roman Empire (painting from 1510)
15.
Habsburg Monarchy
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The Monarchy was a composite state composed of territories within and outside the Holy Roman Empire, united only in the person of the monarch. The dynastic capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, from 1804 to 1867 the Habsburg Monarchy was formally unified as the Austrian Empire, and from 1867 to 1918 as the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The two entities were never coterminous, as the Habsburg Monarchy covered many lands beyond the Holy Roman Empire, the monarchy had no official name. The entity had no official name, Austrian Empire, This was the official name. Note that the German version is Kaisertum Österreich, i. e. the English translation empire refers to a territory ruled by an emperor, Austria-Hungary, This was the official name. An unofficial popular name was the Danubian Monarchy also often used was the term Doppel-Monarchie meaning two states under one crowned ruler, Crownlands or crown lands, This is the name of all the individual parts of the Austrian Empire, and then of Austria-Hungary from 1867 on. The Hungarian parts of the Empire were called Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen or Lands of Holy Stephens Crown, the Bohemian Lands were called Lands of the St. Wenceslaus Crown. Burgenland came to Austria in 1921 from Hungary, Salzburg finally became Austrian in 1816 after the Napoleonic wars. Vienna, Austrias capital became a state January 1,1922, after being residence, Upper and Lower Austria, historically, were split into Austria above the Enns and Austria below the Enns. Upper Austria was enlarged after the Treaty of Teschen following the War of the Bavarian Succession by the so-called Innviertel, formerly part of Bavaria. Hereditary Lands or German Hereditary Lands or Austrian Hereditary Lands, In a narrower sense these were the original Habsburg Austrian territories, i. e. basically the Austrian lands, in a wider sense the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were also included in the Hereditary lands. The term was replaced by the term Crownlands in the 1849 March Constitution, within the Habsburg Monarchy, each province was governed according to its own particular customs. Until the mid 17th century, not all of the provinces were even necessarily ruled by the same members of the family often ruled portions of the Hereditary Lands as private apanages. An even greater attempt at centralization began in 1849 following the suppression of the revolutions of 1848. For the first time, ministers tried to transform the monarchy into a bureaucratic state ruled from Vienna. The Kingdom of Hungary, in particular, ceased to exist as a separate entity, in this system, the Kingdom of Hungary was given sovereignty and a parliament, with only a personal union and a joint foreign and military policy connecting it to the other Habsburg lands. When Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed, it was not incorporated into either half of the monarchy, instead, it was governed by the joint Ministry of Finance. Austria-Hungary collapsed under the weight of the various unsolved ethnic problems that came to a head with its defeat in World War I, to these were added in 1779 the Inn Quarter of Bavaria, and in 1803 the Bishoprics of Trent and Brixen
Habsburg Monarchy
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Growth of the Habsburg Monarchy
Habsburg Monarchy
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Flag
Habsburg Monarchy
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Europa regina, symbolizing a Habsburg-dominated Europe.
Habsburg Monarchy
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Soldiers of the
Military Frontier against the incursions of the Ottoman Turks, 1756
16.
Kingdom of Prussia
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It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1871 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918. Although it took its name from the region called Prussia, it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the kings of Prussia were from the House of Hohenzollern. Prussia was a power from the time it became a kingdom, through its predecessor, Brandenburg-Prussia. Prussia continued its rise to power under the guidance of Frederick II, more known as Frederick the Great. After the might of Prussia was revealed it was considered as a power among the German states. Throughout the next hundred years Prussia went on to win many battles and it was because of its power that Prussia continuously tried to unify all the German states under its rule. Attempts at creation of a federation remained unsuccessful and the German Confederation collapsed in 1866 when war ensued between its two most powerful states, Prussia and Austria. The North German Confederation which lasted from 1867–1871, created a union between the Prussian-aligned states while Austria and most of Southern Germany remained independent. The North German Confederation was seen as more of an alliance of military strength in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War, the German Empire lasted from 1871–1918 with the successful unification of all the German states under Prussian hegemony. This was due to the defeat of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, in 1871, Germany unified into a single country, minus Austria and Switzerland, with Prussia the dominant power. Prussia is considered the predecessor of the unified German Reich. The Kingdom left a significant cultural legacy, today notably promoted by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, in 1415 a Hohenzollern Burgrave came from the south to the March of Brandenburg and took control of the area as elector. In 1417 the Hohenzollern was made an elector of the Holy Roman Empire, after the Polish wars, the newly established Baltic towns of the German states including Prussia, suffered many economic setbacks. Many of the Prussian towns could not even afford to attend political meetings outside of Prussia, the towns were poverty stricken, with even the largest town, Danzig, having to borrow money from elsewhere to pay for trade. Poverty in these towns was partly caused by Prussias neighbors, who had established and developed such a monopoly on trading that these new towns simply could not compete and these issues led to feuds, wars, trade competition and invasions. However, the fall of these gave rise to the nobility, separated the east and the west. It was clear in 1440 how different Brandenburg was from the other German territories, not only did it face partition from within but also the threat of its neighbors. It prevented the issue of partition by enacting the Dispositio Achillea which instilled the principle of primogeniture to both the Brandenburg and Franconian territories, the second issue was solved through expansion
Kingdom of Prussia
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Prussian territorial acquisitions in the 18th century
Kingdom of Prussia
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Flag
Kingdom of Prussia
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Prussia (orange) and its territories lost after the
War of the Fourth Coalition (other colours).
Kingdom of Prussia
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Prussian King's Crown (
Hohenzollern Castle Collection)
17.
German Empire
–
The German Empire was the historical German nation state that existed from the unification of Germany in 1871 to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918, when Germany became a federal republic. The German Empire consisted of 26 constituent territories, with most being ruled by royal families and this included four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, and one imperial territory. Although Prussia became one of kingdoms in the new realm, it contained most of its population and territory. Its influence also helped define modern German culture, after 1850, the states of Germany had rapidly become industrialized, with particular strengths in coal, iron, chemicals, and railways. In 1871, it had a population of 41 million people, and by 1913, a heavily rural collection of states in 1815, now united Germany became predominantly urban. During its 47 years of existence, the German Empire operated as an industrial, technological, Germany became a great power, boasting a rapidly growing rail network, the worlds strongest army, and a fast-growing industrial base. In less than a decade, its navy became second only to Britains Royal Navy, after the removal of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck by Wilhelm II, the Empire embarked on a bellicose new course that ultimately led to World War I. When the great crisis of 1914 arrived, the German Empire had two allies, Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy, however, left the once the First World War started in August 1914. In the First World War, German plans to capture Paris quickly in autumn 1914 failed, the Allied naval blockade caused severe shortages of food. Germany was repeatedly forced to send troops to bolster Austria and Turkey on other fronts, however, Germany had great success on the Eastern Front, it occupied large Eastern territories following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 was designed to strangle the British, it failed, but the declaration—along with the Zimmermann Telegram—did bring the United States into the war. Meanwhile, German civilians and soldiers had become war-weary and radicalised by the Russian Revolution and this failed, and by October the armies were in retreat, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire had collapsed, Bulgaria had surrendered and the German people had lost faith in their political system. After at first attempting to control, causing massive uprisings. This left a republic to manage a devastated and unsatisfied populace, the German Confederation had been created by an act of the Congress of Vienna on 8 June 1815 as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, after being alluded to in Article 6 of the 1814 Treaty of Paris. German nationalism rapidly shifted from its liberal and democratic character in 1848, called Pan-Germanism and he envisioned a conservative, Prussian-dominated Germany. The war resulted in the Confederation being partially replaced by a North German Confederation in 1867, the new constitution and the title Emperor came into effect on 1 January 1871. During the Siege of Paris on 18 January 1871, William accepted to be proclaimed Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. The second German Constitution was adopted by the Reichstag on 14 April 1871 and proclaimed by the Emperor on 16 April, the political system remained the same
German Empire
German Empire
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Flag
German Empire
–
Otto von Bismarck
German Empire
–
A postage stamp from the
Carolines
18.
Second World War
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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
Second World War
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Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the
Battle of Wanjialing, Australian
25-pounder guns during the
First Battle of El Alamein, German
Stuka dive bombers on the
Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the
Lingayen Gulf,
Wilhelm Keitel signing the
German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the
Battle of Stalingrad
Second World War
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The
League of Nations assembly, held in
Geneva,
Switzerland, 1930
Second World War
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Adolf Hitler at a German
National Socialist political rally in
Weimar, October 1930
Second World War
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Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
19.
Oder
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The Oder is a river in Central Europe. It rises in the Czech Republic and flows through western Poland, the river ultimately flows into the Szczecin Lagoon north of Szczecin and then into three branches that empty into the Gulf of Pomerania of the Baltic Sea. Ptolemy knew the modern Oder as the Συήβος – a name derived from the Suebi. While he also refers to an outlet in the area as the Οὐιαδούα Ouiadoua, the name Suebos may be preserved in the modern name of the Świna river – an outlet from the Szczecin Lagoon to the Baltic. In the Old Church Slavonic language, the name of the river is Vjodr, the Oder is 854 kilometres long,112 km in the Czech Republic,742 km in Poland and is the second longest river in Poland. It drains a basin of 118,861 square kilometres,106,056 km2 of which are in Poland,7,217 km2 in the Czech Republic, channels connect it to the Havel, Spree, Vistula system and Kłodnica. It flows through Silesian, Opole, Lower Silesian, Lubusz, and West Pomeranian voivodeships of Poland, the main branch empties into the Szczecin Lagoon near Police, Poland. The Szczecin Lagoon is bordered on the north by the islands of Usedom, between these two islands, there is only a narrow channel going to the Bay of Pomerania, which forms a part of the Baltic Sea. The largest city on the Oder is Wrocław, in Lower Silesia, the Oder is navigable over a large part of its total length, as far upstream as the town of Koźle, where the river connects to the Gliwice Canal. The upstream part of the river is canalized and permits larger barges to navigate between the sites around the Wrocław area. Further downstream the river is flowing, passing the towns of Eisenhüttenstadt. Downstream of Frankfurt the river Warta forms a connection with Poznań. At Hohensaaten the Oder–Havel Canal connects with the Berlin waterways again, near its mouth the Oder reaches the city of Szczecin, a major maritime port. The river finally reaches the Baltic Sea through the Szczecin Lagoon, the river in Germania Magna was known to the Romans as the Viadrus or Viadua in Classical Latin, as it was a branch of the Amber Road from the Baltic Sea to the Roman Empire. In German language it was and is called the Oder, written in older records as Odera or Oddera in Medieval Latin documents and it was mentioned in the Dagome iudex, which described territory of the Duchy of Poland under Mieszko I of Poland ca. 990, as a part of western frontier. Before Slavs settled along its banks, Oder was an important trade route, a document of the Bishopric of Prague mentions Zlasane, Trebovyane, Poborane, and Dedositze in Silesia. In the 13th century, the first dams were built to protect agricultural lands, the Finow Canal, built for the first time in 1605, connects Oder and Havel
Oder
–
Oder between Kienitz and Zollbrücke, Germany
Oder
–
Oder in
Wrocław,
Ostrów Tumski
Oder
–
Oder in
Wrocław
Oder
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Oder River view from Ziegenwerder Island in
Frankfurt (Oder), Germany to
Słubice, Poland
20.
Moravian Gate
–
The Moravian Gate is a geomorphological feature in the Moravian region of the Czech Republic. It is formed by the depression between the Carpathian Mountains in the east and the Sudetes in the west, the drainage divide between the upper Oder river and the Baltic Sea in the north and the Bečva River of the Danube basin runs through it. It stretches from Moravia towards Czech Silesia north-eastward in the length of about 65 km and is bordered by the confluence of the Olza and its crest is located between the villages of Olšovec and Bělotín at 310 m. Because of its low altitude, the Moravian Gate has been a natural pass between the Sudetes and the Carpathians since ancient times, here ran the most important trade routes from southern Europe to the Baltic Sea and also routes from the Czech lands to Upper Silesia and Lesser Poland. Today the D1 highway leads from the Moravian capital Brno to Ostrava, further to the north the road reaches the border with Poland near the town of Racibórz and Wodzisław Śląski. The Austrian Northern Railway built in 1847 from Vienna to Bohumín also traverses the Moravian Gate, vyškov Gate Subcarpathia Moravia Danube–Oder Canal Brama Morawska at PrzyrodaPolska. pl
Moravian Gate
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Moravian Gate on the map of the Czech Republic
21.
Moravia
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Moravia is a historical country in the Czech Republic and one of the historical Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. Moravia has an area of over 22,348.87 km2 and about 3 million inhabitants, the statistics from 1921 states, that the whole area of Moravia including the enclaves in Silesia covers 22,623.41 km2. The people are historically named Moravians, a subgroup of Czechs, the land takes its name from the Morava river, which rises in the northern tip of the region and flows southward to the opposite end, being its major stream. Moravias largest city and historical capital is Brno, however before being sacked by the Swedish army during the Thirty Years War, though officially abolished by an administrative reform in 1949, Moravia is still commonly acknowledged as a specific land in the Czech Republic. Moravian people are aware of their Moravian identity and there is some rivalry between them and the Czechs from Bohemia. Moravia occupies most of the part of the Czech Republic. Moravian territory is naturally strongly determined, in fact, as the Morava river basin, with effect of mountains in the west and partly in the east. Moravia occupies a position in Central Europe. All the highlands in the west and east of part of Europe run west-east. Moravia borders Bohemia in the west, Lower Austria in the south, Slovakia in the southeast, Poland very shortly in the north and its natural boundary is formed by the Sudetes mountains in the north, the Carpathians in the east and the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands in the west. The Thaya river meanders along the border with Austria and the tripoint of Moravia, Austria and Slovakia is at the confluence of the Thaya, the northeast border with Silesia runs partly along the Moravice, Oder and Ostravice rivers. Between 1782–1850, Moravia also included a portion of the former province of Silesia – the Austrian Silesia. Geologically, Moravia covers an area between the Bohemian Massif and the Carpathians, and between the Danube basin and the North European Plain. Its core geomorphological features are three wide vales, namely the Dyje-Svratka Vale, the Upper Morava Vale and the Lower Morava Vale, the former two form the westernmost part of the Subcarpathia, the latter one is the northernmost part of the Vienna Basin. The vales surround the low range of Central Moravian Carpathians, the highest mountains of Moravia are situated on its northern border in Hrubý Jeseník, the highest peak is Praděd. Second highest are the Moravian-Silesian Beskids at the very east, with Smrk, the White Carpathians along the southeastern border rise up to 970 m at Velká Javořina. The spacious, but moderate Bohemian-Moravian Highlands on the west reach 837 m at Devět skal. The fluvial system of Moravia is very cohesive, as the border is similar to the watershed of the Morava river
Moravia
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Mikulov, a town in Moravia
Moravia
Moravia
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The historical Flag of Moravia
Moravia
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Šance, part of the
Moravian-Silesian Beskids
22.
Silesian Beskids
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Silesian Beskids is one of the Beskids mountain ranges in Outer Western Carpathians in southern Silesian Voivodeship, Poland and the eastern Moravian-Silesian Region, Czech Republic. Most of the lies in Poland. It is separated from the Moravian-Silesian Beskids by the Jablunkov Pass, the Polish part of the range includes the protected area called Silesian Beskids Landscape Park. Silesian Beskids have 20 mountains with a highest point above 1000 m, beskidzkie gronie nad Olzą i Wisłą
Silesian Beskids
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View of
Skrzyczne from the watchtower on
Barania Góra
Silesian Beskids
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Panorama of the Silesian Beskids
23.
Vistula
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The Vistula is the longest and largest river in Poland, at 1,047 kilometres in length. The drainage basin area of the Vistula is 194,424 km2, the remainder is in Belarus, Ukraine and Slovakia. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in the south of Poland,1,220 meters above sea level in the Silesian Beskids, where it begins with the White Little Vistula and the Black Little Vistula. It empties into the Vistula Lagoon or directly into the Gdańsk Bay of the Baltic Sea with a delta, the name was first recorded by Pomponius Mela in AD40 and by Pliny in AD77 in his Natural History. Mela names the river Vistula, Pliny uses Vistla, the root of the name Vistula is Indo-European *u̯eis- to ooze, flow slowly and is found in many European rivernames. The diminutive endings -ila, -ula, were used in many Indo-European languages, in writing about the Vistula River and its peoples, Ptolemy uses the Greek spelling Ouistoula. Other ancient sources spell it Istula, ammianus Marcellinus refers to the Bisula, note the absence of the -t-. Jordanes uses Viscla, while the Anglo-Saxon poem Widsith refers to it as the Wistla, the Vistula river basin covers 194,424 square kilometres, its average altitude rising to 270 metres above sea level. In addition, the majority of its basin is located at heights of 100 to 200 m above sea level. The highest point of the basin lies at 2,655 metres. The asymmetry of the basin is 73–27%. The most recent glaciation of the Pleistocene epoch, which ended around 10,000 BC, is called the Vistulian glaciation or Weichselian glaciation in regard to north-central Europe. The river forms a delta called the Żuławy Wiślane around the town of Biała Góra near Sztum, about 50 km from the mouth. In the city of Gdańsk the Head of the Leniwka branch separates again into the Szkarpawa branch, the so-called Dead Wisła divides again into the Przegalinie branch flowing into Gdańsk Bay. Until the 14th century the Vistula was divided into an eastern branch, the Elbląg Vistula, and the smaller western branch. Since 1371 the Vistula of Gdańsk is the main artery. After the flood in 1840 an additional branch formed called the Śmiała Wisła, in 1890 through 1895, additional waterworks were carried out up the Świbna. The history of the River Vistula and her valley spans over 2 million years, the river is connected to the geological period called the Quaternary, in which distinct cooling of the climate took place
Vistula
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Confluence of the
Narew and the Vistula at
Modlin,
Poland
Vistula
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Vistula River in the vicinity of
Płock, Poland
Vistula
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Vistula River flowing through
Kraków, Poland
Vistula
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Medieval
Wawel Castle in
Kraków seen from the Vistula river
24.
Przemsza
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Przemsza is a river in the south of Poland, a tributary of the Vistula. According to one theory, it originates at the confluence of the Black Przemsza and White Przemsza, for about 24 km it flows southwards to its Vistula mouth at Czarnuchowice. Another theory stipulates that it has the length of 88 kilometers and it is one of the most polluted rivers of Poland. It carries industrial waste from Upper Silesian and Zagłębie Dąbrowskie Coal Basin, furthermore, due to high level of pollution, the Przemsza does not freeze in winter. Among cities located along the Przemsza are Dąbrowa Górnicza, Mysłowice, Jaworzno, Chełmek, and Jezor, the Przemsza has been used for water transport since mid-18th century. By mid-19th century, it emerged as one of the most important waterways of the region, special kind of flat-bottomed, large rowboats, called galar, was used for transport of goods along the Przemsza to the Vistula. One galar took up to 70 tons of coal or stone from quarries at Jelen or Dzieckowice, in June 1926, Piast Mine from Lędziny began mass water transport of its coal, using a specially constructed port, located at the village of Chelm Maly. Other mines followed Piast, opening their own loading facilities, by 1937, there were eight such facilities along the Przemsza. Government of the Second Polish Republic had far-reaching plans about the river, a river port at Niwka was to be built, a canal Mysłowice - Spytkowice - Kraków, and a waterway to the Baltic Sea. The outbreak of World War Two terminated these plans Since the 12th century, from 1846 until 1918, on the so-called Three Emperors Corner, at the confluence of Black and White Przemsza marked the tripoint of Kingdom of Prussia, Austrian Empire and Russian Empire. Nowadays the lower Przemsza forms the border between Silesian Voivodeship in the west and Lesser Poland Voivodeship in the east, the White Przemsza is 63.9 kilometers long, and begins in a bog near Wolbrom. It flows towards the southwest, in a wide valley, the Upper White Przemsza has very clean water, which changes in the village of Klucze. Among others, the White Przemsza flows through the Błędów Desert, the Black Przemsza is 64.2 kilometers long, and its source is in Bzow, which is a district of Zawiercie since 1977. In its upper course, the water of the river is clean, but its quality gets worse in Przeczyce. Both rivers were named after the color of the water, in the past, the Black Przemsza’s bed near Bedzin was made of shallow deposits of coal. At the same time the White Przemsza flowed through limestone hills in the area of Olkusz, so its bottom was white
Przemsza
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Three Emperors' Corner
25.
Lesser Poland
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Lesser Poland is a historical region of Poland, its capital is the city of Kraków. It should not be confused with the modern Lesser Poland Voivodeship, historical Lesser Poland is much bigger than the current voivodeship which bears its name, stretching from Bielsko-Biała in the south-west as far as to Siedlce in the north-east. It consisted of three voivodeships with the capitals in Kraków, Sandomierz and Lublin and it is almost 60,000 km2 in area and has about 9,000,000 inhabitants. Its landscape is hilly, with Karpaty mountains in the south. It has been famous for its mighty aristocracy and rich nobility, in the wider sense, Lesser Poland from the 14th century also encompassed Red Ruthenia, and from the 16th century Podlachia, Podolia and parts of modern Ukraine. In the era of partitions, its part was Galicia, was sometimes also called Lesser Poland. As a result of this division, many inhabitants of the northern part of the pre-partition region of Poland dont recognize their Lesser Polish identity. Although, Lublin has been declared independent Voivodeship as early as in 1474, flat are northern and central areas of the province – around Tarnobrzeg, Stalowa Wola, Radom and Siedlce, also valleys of the main rivers – the Vistula, the Pilica, and the San. Apart from Rysy, there are other peaks located in the province – Pilsko, Babia Góra, Turbacz. Southern part of the province is covered by the Carpathian Mountains, which are made of smaller ranges, such as Pieniny, Tatry, almost whole area is located in the Vistula Basin, with the exception of western and southern parts, belonging to the Odra and Dunaj Basins. Main rivers of the province are the Vistula, upper Warta, Soła, Skawa, Raba, Dunajec, Wisłok, Wisłoka, San, Wieprz, Przemsza, Nida, Kamienna, Radomka, and Pilica. Major lakes of the province are, Lake Rożnów, Lake Czchów, Lake Dobczyce, Lake Czorsztyn, Lake Czaniec, Lake Międzybrodzie, Lake Klimkówka, most of them are man-made reservoirs. Lesser Poland stretches from the Carpathians in the south to Pilica and it borders Mazovia to the north, Podlaskie to the northeast, Red Ruthenia to the east, Slovakia to the south, Silesia to the west, and Greater Poland to the northwest. In Silesian Voivodeship, the border between Silesia and Lesser Poland is easy to draw, because with few exceptions, it goes along boundaries of local counties. In the south, it goes along western boundary of ancient Duchy of Teschen, with the borderline along the Biała river, where Zwardoń, Milówka, and Rajcza are in Lesser Poland. Bielsko-Biała is a city made of two parts – Lesser Polands Biala, makes eastern half of the city, and only in 1951 it merged with Silesian Bielsko. Further north, the border goes along boundaries of cities of Jaworzno. Then it goes northwest, leaving Czeladź, Siewierz, Koziegłowy, Blachownia, Kłobuck, from Krzepice, the border goes eastwards, towards Koniecpol, and along the Pilica river, with such towns as Przedborz, Opoczno, Drzewica, Białobrzegi, and Kozienice within Lesser Poland
Lesser Poland
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Wawel Castle in
Kraków
Lesser Poland
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Lesser Poland (in the basic meaning)
Lesser Poland
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The 1507 Lesser Poland and
Red Ruthenia Map (Polonia Minor, Russia) by
Martin Waldseemüller
Lesser Poland
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Kazimierz Dolny on the right bank of the Vistula river.
26.
Greater Poland
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Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska is a historical region of west-central Poland. The boundaries of Greater Poland have varied throughout history. Since the Middle Ages the proper or exact/strict Wielkopolska included the Poznań, in the wider sense it encompassed also Sieradz, Łęczyca, Brześć Kujawski and Inowrocław voivodeships. One another meaning included also Mazovia and Royal Prussia, after the Partitions of Poland, Greater Poland was often identified with the Grand Duchy of Posen. The region in the proper sense roughly coincides with the present-day Greater Poland Voivodeship, because Greater Poland was the settlement area of the Polans and the core of the early Polish state, the region was at times simply called Poland. The more specific name is first recorded in the Latin form Polonia Maior in 1257 and its original meaning was the Older Poland, as opposed to Lesser Poland, a region in south-eastern Poland with its capital at Kraków which became the main center of the state later. Greater Poland comprises much of the area drained by the Warta River and its tributaries, the region is distinguished from Lesser Poland with the lowland landscape, and from both Lesser Poland and Mazovia with its numerous lakes. In the strict meaning, it covers an area of about 33,000 square kilometres, in the wider sense, it has almost 60,000 square kilometres, and 7 million inhabitants. The regions main metropolis is Poznań, near the centre of the region, on the Warta. Other cities are Kalisz to the south-east, Konin to the east, Piła to the north, Ostrów Wielkopolski to the south-east, Gniezno to the north-east, and Leszno to the south-west. An area of 75.84 square kilometres of forest and lakeland south of Poznań is designated the Wielkopolska National Park, the region also contains part of Drawa National Park, and several designated Landscape Parks. For example, the Rogalin Landscape Park is famous for about 2000 monumental oak trees growing on the plain of the river Warta. Greater Poland formed the heart of the 10th-century early Polish state, in the testament of Bolesław III Krzywousty, which initiated the period of fragmentation of Poland, the western part of Greater Poland was granted to Mieszko III the Old. The eastern part, with Gniezno and Kalisz, was part of the Duchy of Kraków, however, for most of the period the two parts were under a single ruler, and were known as the Duchy of Greater Poland. The region came under the control of Władysław I the Elbow-High in 1314, in the reunited kingdom, and later in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the country came to be divided into administrative units called voivodeships. In the case of the Greater Poland region these were Poznań Voivodeship, the Commonwealth also had larger subdivisions known as prowincja, one of which was named Greater Poland. However, this covered an larger area than the Greater Poland region itself, also taking in Masovia. In 1768 a new Gniezno Voivodeship was formed out of the part of Kalisz Voivodeship
Greater Poland
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Poznań Town Hall
Greater Poland
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The proper Greater Poland
Greater Poland
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Palace of the Raczyński family in
Rogalin, within the
Rogalin Landscape Park
Greater Poland
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Gniezno cathedral
27.
Lower Silesia
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Lower Silesia is the northwestern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, Upper Silesia is to the southeast. Throughout its history Lower Silesia has been under the control of the medieval Kingdom of Poland, the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy from 1526. After 1945 the main part of the former Prussian Province of Lower Silesia fell to the Republic of Poland, Lower Silesia is located mostly in the basin of the middle Oder River with its historic capital in Wrocław. To the north, Lower Silesia originally stretched up to Świebodzin and Krosno Odrzańskie, the Barycz river forms the border with historic Greater Poland in the northeast, the Upper Silesian lands lie to the southeast. They are topographically divided into Western, Central and Eastern Sudetes, the adjacent Silesian Lowland includes the Silesian Lowlands and the Silesian-Lusatian Lowlands. The southern part of the Lowland includes The Sudeten Foreland, consisting of quite low Wzgórze Strzegomskie,232 m or 761 ft, Grupa Ślęży, Lower hills occur also in areas of Obniżenie Sudeckie, Świdnik, and Kotlina Dzierżoniowska. The eastern part of Silesian Lowland consists of the wide Silesian Lowlands, the eastern part includes also Równina Wrocławska with its surrounding lands, Równina Oleśnicka, Wysoczyzna Średzka, Równina Grodkowska and Niemodlińska. From the North, the lowlands are delimited by Wał Trzebnicki, consisting of hills that are 200 km long and over 150 m high, in comparison to neighboring lowlands, the range of hills includes, Wzgórza Dalkowskie, Wzgórza Trzebnickie, Wzgórza Twardogórskie, and Wzgórza Ostrzeszowskie. Obniżenie Milicko-Głogowskie, with Kotlina Żmigrodzka and Milicka, is located in the northern part, the region of the lowlands is coated with a thick layer of glacial elements that covers more diverse relief of the older ground. Generally flat and wide bottoms of the valleys are padded with river settlements, slopes of the hills over 180–200 m are coated with fertile clays and therefore, to begin with the Paleozoic era, they became the lands for people to settle and cultivate intensively. Later form of economy caused almost complete deforestation of the slopes, not only fertile grounds, but also mild climate is conductive to development of agriculture and market gardening. The annual average temperature of the Wrocław area is 9.5 °C, average temperature of the hottest month is 19 °C, and −0.5 °C of the coldest month. The average amount of rainfall is 500–620 millimetres, with its maximum in July, the snow layer disappears after 45 days. The winds, similar to those appearing in the West side of Poland, are West and Southwest, Sudeten rivers are characterized by changeable water rates, and high pollution resulting from large industrialization of the area. There is also the largest right-bank tributary of the area, Barycz, the other guite large rivers—Bóbr, Kwisa, and Lusatian Neisse—flow into Oder River beyond Lower Silesian borders. The majority of the rivers is regulated and their basins are improved, the characteristic feature of the lowlands landscape is the lack of lakes. The region of Legnica is the place where a dozen or so of small lakes survived. The largest one is Jezioro Kunickie, Jezioro Koskowickie, Jezioro Jaśkowickie, in contrast to the number of lakes, there are large groups of artificial ponds founded in Barycz basin, in the Middle Ages
Lower Silesia
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Śnieżka
Lower Silesia
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Silesian coat of arms, as drawn by
Hugo Gerard Ströhl (1851–1919)
Lower Silesia
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Traditional Silesian costumes
Lower Silesia
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Duchy of Silesia–Wrocław under the rule of
Henry I the Bearded (1201-1238)
28.
Middle Silesia
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Middle Silesia was a colloquial designation for the Regierungsbezirk Breslau subdivision in the Prussian province of Silesia from 1813 to 1945. It comprised the eastern parts of the historic Lower Silesia region, in 1813, the administrative Regierungsbezirk was established in Prussian Silesia, with its capital in Breslau. The western half of Lower Silesia was incorporated into Regierungsbezirk Liegnitz, after World War I, the state of Czechoslovakia arose on the southern border, while Greater Poland in the north became part of the Second Polish Republic. At the same time, the Prussian Silesia Province was divided, historically, most residents spoke the Czech language, German, or Polish. Upon the 1945 Potsdam Agreement, the fell to the Republic of Poland. The region is today the part of the Polish Lower Silesian Voivodeship. The major cities in Middle Silesia are, Wrocław Wałbrzych Świdnica Kłodzko Namysłów Brzeg Stadtkreise Breslau Stadtkreise Brieg Stadtkreise Schweidnitz Stadtkreise Waldenburg
Middle Silesia
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1905 map of the Middle Silesia region, Regierungsbezirk Breslau outlined
29.
Czech Silesia
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Czech Silesia is the name given to the part of the historical region of Silesia presently located in the Czech Republic. While not today an administrative entity in itself, Czech Silesia is, together with Bohemia and Moravia, in this context, it is often mentioned as Silesia even though it is only around one tenth of the area of the historic land of Silesia. It lies in the north-east of the Czech Republic, predominantly in the Moravian-Silesian Region, Czech Silesia borders Moravia in the south, Poland in the north and Slovakia in the southeast. After Ostrava, the most important cities are Opava and Český Těšín, historically Český Těšín is the western part of the city of Cieszyn which nowadays lies in Poland. Situated in the Sudetes, it is cornered by the Carpathians in the east and its major rivers are the Oder, Opava and Olše. The first Germanic settlements were built in the second century, later the Germanic tribes moved west and Slavs came into the country. It was re-organised as the Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia, in 1900, the Duchy occupied an area of 5,140 km² and had a population of 670,000. Hlučín Region, formerly part of Prussian Silesia, also part of Czechoslovakia under the Treaty of Versailles in 1920. Following the Munich Agreement of 1938, most of Czech Silesia became part of the Reichsgau Sudetenland and Poland occupied the Zaolzie area on the west bank of the Olza. With the exception of the areas around Cieszyn, Ostrava and Hlučín, following the Second World War, Czech Silesia and Hlučínsko were returned to Czechoslovakia and the ethnic Germans were expelled. The border with Poland was once again set along the Olza, the population mainly speaks Czech with altered vowels. Some of the native Slavic population speak Lach, which is classed by Ethnologue as a dialect of Czech, in Cieszyn Silesia a unique dialect is also spoken, mostly by members of the Polish minority there
Czech Silesia
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Moravian-Silesian Beskids
.jpg)
