Upper Silesia

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Map of Upper Silesia, 1746

Upper Silesia (Czech: Horní Slezsko; German: Oberschlesien; Latin: Silesia Superior; Polish: Górny Śląsk; Silesian: Górny Sloonsk) was a southeastern part of Silesia, a historical and geographical region of Magna Germania, Greater Moravia, Kingdom of Bohemia, Poland, Holy Roman Empire, Prussia, Germany (Opole Voivodeship and Silesian Voivodeship) and to the Czech Republic (Silesian-Moravian Region). The region is situated in the Silesian highlands, between the upper Oder and upper Vistula rivers. Total population of the Upper Silesian Industry Area is 3,487,000.

1 Major cities and towns
2 Cieszyn and Opole Silesia
3 History
4 The Silesian Uprisings
5 Literature
6 See also
7 Links

[edit] Major cities and towns

(All in Poland unless otherwise indicated; population figures are for 1995)

Katowice (Kattowitz) (354,200)
Ostrava (Mährisch Ostrau) (320,000) - Czech Republic (eastern districts, Cieszyn Silesia)
Bytom (Beuthen) (227,600)
Gliwice (Gleiwitz) (214,000)
Zabrze (Hindenburg O.S.) (201,600)
Bielsko-Biała (Bielitz) (180,307)
Ruda Śląska (Ruda) (166,300)
Rybnik (Rybnik) (144,300)
Tychy (Tichau) (133,900)
Opole (Oppeln) (130,600) - the historical capital of Upper Silesia
Chorzów (Königshütte) (125,800)
Jastrzębie Zdrój (Bad Königsdorff-Jastrzemb) (103,500)
Mysłowice (Myslowitz) (80,000)
Siemianowice Śląskie (Siemianowitz) (78,100)
Kędzierzyn-Koźle (Kandrzin-Cosel) (70,700)
Tarnowskie Góry (Tarnowitz) (67,200)
Piekary Śląskie (Deutsch Piekar) (67,200)
Żory (Sohrau) (66,300)
Racibórz (Ratibor) (65,100)
Opava (62,000) (Troppau) - Czech Republic
Świętochłowice (Schwientochlowitz) (59,600)
Nysa (Neisse) (49,000)
Mikołów (Nikolai) (38,900)
Cieszyn (Teschen) (37,300)
Czechowice-Dziedzice (Czechowitz-Dzieditz) (35,600)
Pszczyna (Pleß) (34,600)
Kluczbork (Kreuzburg) (26,900)
Lubliniec (Lublinitz) (26,900)
Krnov (25,400) (Jägerndorf) - Czech Republic
Rydułtowy (Rydultau) (24,100)
Łaziska Górne (Ober-Lazisk) (23,000)
Bieruń (Bierun) (22,100)
Pyskowice (Peiskretscham) (21,900)
Strzelce Opolskie (Groß Strehlitz) (21,900)

[edit] Cieszyn and Opole Silesia

Opole and especially Cieszyn Silesia are historical parts of Upper Silesia. Opole nowadays is a major part of Opole Voivodeship.

[edit] History

At the time of Svatopluk I and emperor Arnulf of Carinthia Silesia was a part of Greater Moravia and after its destruction it became a part of Bohemia, who's dukes were also subject to the German Holy Roman Empire kings and emperors. A number of earlier inhabitants of Silesia, the Silingi remained throughout and they concentrated around the Zobten mount and in a settlement named Niempsch (derived from Slavic name for Germans).

Upper Silesia was then conquered by the newly installed dukes of the Polans and for some time a province of Poland. This fell apart and at the renewal of Poland under Casimir the Great, all of Silesia was specifically excluded as none-Polish land. In 1335 it came under direct rule of the Holy Roman Empire and a part thereof, the Kingdom of Bohemia in the Late Middle Ages. Settlers from other parts of Germany had already come to Silesia in the 1200s, such as to Breslau/Wroclaw. They were burned down by Mongols at the Battle of Liegnitz but rebuilt. By the 1300s influx of settlers to Upper Silesia stopped, because of the plague. Latin and German language were used for towns and cities and only in the 1550s with the Protestant Reformation did records with Polish names also appear. A large number of Silesians became Protestants, when all of Upper Silesia belonged to Brandenburg-Ansbach Hohenzollerns. All of Silesia was inherited by Brandenburg about 1575, but emperor Ferdinand went against this and strict Catholic Habsburgs on the throne of the Holy Roman Empire reintroduced Catholicism and Jesuits.

Since 1742 Lower and Upper Silesia were part of the Kingdom of Prussia.

In the 19th century Upper Sileria became a big industrial area using its plentiful coal and iron ore.

After 1919 the eastern part, which was partially ethnic Polish, came under Polish rule as the Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship, despite a 60 to 40 percent vote against this, while the mostly German-speaking western part remained part of Germany as the Province of Upper Silesia.

After 1945 virtually entire Upper Silesia became part of Poland and the German populations were expelled by force and deported to West Germany.

[edit] The Silesian Uprisings

see: Silesian Uprisings

[edit] Literature

H. Förster, B. Kortus (1989) "Social-Geographical Problems of the Cracow and Upper Silesia Agglomerations", Paderborn. (Bochumer Geographische Arbeiten No. 51)

Krzysztof Gwosdz (2000) "The Image of Upper Silesia in geography textbooks 1921-1998", in: Boleslaw Domanski (Ed.), Prace Geograficzne, No. 106, Institute of Geography of the Jagiellonian University Kraków. pp. 55-68

Rudolf Carl Virchow. "Report on the Typhus Epidemic in Upper Silesia." (1848) Am J Public Health 2006;96 2102-2105.

http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/extract/96/12/2102?etoc Excerpted from: Virchow RC. Collected Essays on Public Health and Epidemiology. Vol 1. Rather LJ, ed. Boston, Mass: Science History Publications; 1985:204–319.