Portal:Silesia/Intro

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Silesia (Czech: Slezsko; German: Schlesien (help·info); Latin: Silesia; Polish: Śląsk; Silesian: Ślónsk) is a region in central Europe. Most of it is now within the borders of Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Silesia is located along the upper and middle Oder (Odra) River, upper Vistula River, and along the Sudetes, Carpathian (Silesian Beskids) mountain range. The largest cities of Silesia are Wrocław and Katowice.

Slavic people arrived to this territory around the 6th century. It became the territory of Greater Moravia and Bohemia. Rulers of Bohemia received ducal authority by pledging allegiance to Emperor Otto I in 950 AD. With the establishment of the Piast Poland shortly thereafter, Boleslaw I Chrobry reunited Silesia with the rest of his territories.

In the Middle Ages, Silesia was divided between many independent duchies ruled by a cadet branch of the Piast dynasty. During this time, cultural and ethnic German influence increased due to immigrants from the Holy Roman Empire. It subsequently became a possession of the Bohemian crown under the Holy Roman Empire in the 14th century, and passed with that crown to the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria in 1526. The Duchy of Crossen was inherited by Brandenburg in 1476 and, with the renunciation by King Ferdinand I in 1538, it became an integral part of Brandenburg.

In 1742, most of Silesia was seized by King Frederick the Great of Prussia in the War of the Austrian Succession. This part of Silesia constituted the Province of Silesia (later the Prussian provinces of Upper and Lower Silesia) until 1945, when most of the German part of Silesia was seized by the Soviets and transferred to Poland after World War II. Austrian Silesia, the small portion of Silesia retained by Austria after the Silesian Wars, is now within the borders of the Czech Republic.