Greater Poland

The landscape Greater Poland ( Polonia Maior, Wielkopolska ) represents the nucleus of Poland.

History

Polonia Maior, leading to the term Greater Poland derives, in the 9th and 10th centuries was the name of the settlement area of Polans, the Slavic tribe, whose princes, the Piast dynasty, late 10th century founded the first Polish Kingdom and the first kings of Poland presented. The first capital of this kingdom was the great Polish Gniezno.

After the division of the inheritance of the Kingdom of Poland in 1138 duchies the Duchy of Greater Poland was formed. In 1320 the Duchy was dissolved as a feudal dominion territory and divided into two provinces: one based in Poznan, the other in Kalisch ( Palatinatus Posnaniensis and Palatinatus Calisiensis ). The provinces were from there to the main administrative regions of the united Kingdom of Poland.

After the establishment of the First Polish Republic in 1569, a large province called Greater Poland was created, which also Masovia and Royal Prussia included except the eponymous landscape.

With the second partition of Poland in 1793 Greater Poland fell to Prussia and formed until the Peace of Tilsit in 1807, the province of South Prussia. Until 1815 part of the Duchy of Warsaw, the western part became part of the Congress of Vienna the Kingdom of Prussia as the Province of Posen and the eastern the newly created Kingdom of Poland, which initially disempowered to a satellite state, and from 1876 to the province of the Vistula country after the November Uprising in 1830 by the Russian Empire and was established in 1916 under the rule of the Central Powers as regency Kingdom of Poland.

After the Poznań uprising and entry into force of the Treaty of Versailles Greater Poland was part of the newly founded Republic of Poland, to the territory came with the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe again under German rule. In October 1939, the military district of Posen was annexed by the German Reich, and not as a new province in the country Prussia, but in his previous limits as a new Reichsgau poses with administrative headquarters in Poznań, which was renamed in January 1940 in Reichsgau Warta country. In January 1945, Greater Poland was occupied during the Vistula-Oder operation of the Red Army and was with the implementation of the Potsdam Agreement part of the People's Republic of Poland, the predecessor of today's Republic of Poland.

Name and meaning

The German term " Greater Poland " is somewhat misleading, as it is a large, all Polish settlements area encompassing in the sense of irredentism suggests (see Greater Serbia, Greater Germany ). The region is in comparison to other Polish parts of the country rather medium in size, compared with about Lesser Poland, which comprised at least in earlier times a much larger area. In fact, arisen in the Polish language Latin law firm in the 11th century names Polonia Polonia maior and minor are - the later with Wielkopolska and Malopolska ( " Greater Poland " and " Little Poland " ) were translated - nothing to do with territorial expansion. Meant was rather a distinction between maior and minor within the meaning of " older " and " younger " because Polonia minor ( actually "Young Poland " ) around Kraków ( Cracow) end of the 10th century was only connected to the Polish Kingdom, which previously just had only includes Polonia maior (actually " Altpolen " ) to Gniezno ( Gniezno ).

Geography

Greater Poland Greater Poland Voivodeship includes today as well as the southern part ( Kuyavian ) the Kujawsko - Pomerania and the eastern strip of the Lubusz Voivodeship. In Great Poland were with Gniezno ( Gniezno ) and Poznan ( Poznań), the two earliest capitals of the country, to 1038 under Casimir I the innovator Cracow ( Kraków) was the capital of Poland.

Today

Today, Greater Poland Voivodeship, together with the central parts of the country, through which run the major roads in the east-west direction. Most important rivers are the Oder (Odra ), Warta ( Warta ) and the Vistula (Wisła ), important city is next Poznań ( Posen) and Gniezno ( Gniezno ) also Gorzów Wielkopolski ( Landsberg on the Warta River ).