History of Pomerania

The history of Pomerania, an area in modern-day Germany and Poland, dates back more than 10,000 years. Settlement in the area started by the end of the Vistula Glacial Stage, about 13,000 years ago. Archeological traces have been found of various cultures during the Stone and Bronze Age, of Veneti and Germanic peoples during the Iron Age and, in the Middle Ages, Slavic tribes and Vikings. Starting in the 10th century, Piast Poland on several occasions acquired parts of the region from the southeast, while the Holy Roman Empire and Denmark augmented their territory from the west and north.

In the High Middle Ages, the area became Christian and was ruled by local dukes of the House of Pomerania and the Samborides, at various times vassals of Denmark, the Holy Roman Empire and Poland. From the late 12th century, the Griffin Duchy of Pomerania stayed with the Holy Roman Empire and the Principality of Rugia with Denmark, while Denmark, Brandenburg, Poland and the Teutonic Knights struggled for control in Samboride Pomerelia. The Teutonic Knights succeeded in attaching Pomerelia into their monastic state in the early 14th century. Meanwhile the Ostsiedlung started to turn Pomerania into a German-settled area; the remaining Wends, who became known as Slovincians and Kashubians, continued to settle within the rural East. In 1325 the line of the princes of Rugia (Rügen) died out, and the principality was inherited by House of Pomerania, themselves involved in the Brandenburg-Pomeranian conflict about superiority in their often internally divided duchy. In 1466, with the Teutonic Order's defeat, Pomerelia became subject to the Polish Crown as a part of Royal Prussia. While the Duchy of Pomerania adopted the Protestant reformation in 1534, Kashubia remained with the Roman Catholic Church. The Thirty Years' and subsequent wars severely ravaged and depopulated most of Pomerania. With the extinction of the Griffin house during the same period, the Duchy of Pomerania was divided between the Swedish Empire and Brandenburg-Prussia in 1648.

Prussia gained the southern parts of Swedish Pomerania in 1720,. It gained the remainder of Swedish Pomerania in 1815, when French occupation during the Napoleonic Wars was lifted. The former Brandenburg-Prussian Pomerania and the former Swedish parts were reorganized into the Prussian Province of Pomerania, while Pomerelia in the partitions of Poland was made part of the Province of West Prussia. With Prussia, both provinces joined the newly constituted German Empire in 1871. Following the empire's defeat in World War I, Pomerelia became part of the Second Polish Republic (Polish Corridor) and the Free City of Danzig was created. Germany's Province of Pomerania was expanded in 1938 to include northern parts of the former Province of Posen–West Prussia, and in 1939 the annexed Polish territories became part of the Nazi Germany known as Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. The Nazis deported the Pomeranian Jews to a reservation near Lublin and mass murdered Jews, Poles and Kashubians in Pomerania, planning to eventually exterminate Jews and Poles and Germanise the Kashubians.

After Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II, the German–Polish border was shifted west to the Oder–Neisse line and all of Pomerania was placed under Soviet military control. The area west of the line became part of East Germany, the other areas part of the People's Republic of Poland. The German population of the areas east of the line was expelled, and the area was resettled primarily with Poles (some themselves expellees from former eastern Poland) and some Ukrainians (resettled under Operation Vistula) and Jews. Most of Western Pomerania (Vorpommern) today forms the eastern part of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Federal Republic of Germany, while the Polish part of the region is divided between West Pomeranian Voivodeship and Pomeranian Voivodeship, with their capitals in Szczecin and Gdańsk, respectively. During the late 1980s, the Solidarnosc and Die Wende movements overthrew the Communist regimes implemented during the post-war era. Since then, Pomerania has been democratically governed.

Read more about History Of Pomerania:  Prehistory and Antiquity, Early Middle Ages, High Middle Ages, Late Middle Ages, Early Modern Age, Modern Age, Nazi Era, Communist Era and Recent History

Other articles related to "history of pomerania, pomerania":

History Of Pomerania - Communist Era and Recent History - Timeline 1945–present
... over administration to Polish officials, Farther Pomerania and the Stettin area reorganized in the Polish Szczecin Voivodeship 1945–1950 expulsion of nearly all Germans east of the ... nearly doubles due to influx of expellees 1945/46 Land reform in German Pomerania (Bodenreform) 1950 Koszalin Voivodeship split off Szczecin Voivodeship. 1989 Die Wende movement results in a collapse of Communist rule in East Germany 1990 Western Pomerania becomes part of the newly re-established state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern prior to the German reunification 1995 ...

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