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'Czech Silesia', one of the three Czech lands, is the Czech part of Silesia. It is located in the north-east of the Czech Republic. In the past it has also been known as 'Moravian Silesia' or, between 1918 and 1945, 'Sudeten Silesia'. Most of its land belonged to Austrian Silesia before 1918.

Contents

Geography

History

People

Geography

The area lies to the east and west of the city of Ostrava and comprises much of the modern Moravian-Silesian Region and, in its far west, a small part of the Olomouc Region around the city of Jeseník. After Ostrava, the most important cities are Opava and Český Těšín, that part of the border city of Cieszyn which lies within the Czech Republic.
It is situated in the Sudetes mountains which become the Carpathians in the east. Its major rivers are the Oder, Opava and Olše (which forms part of the border with Poland).

History

Modern-day Czech Silesia is mainly that small part of Silesia that remained within Austria at the end of the First Silesian War (see War of the Austrian Succession) in 1742, when the rest of Silesia was ceded to Prussia. It was organised as the 'Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia' with its capital at Opava (in German, ''Troppau''). In 1900, the Duchy occupied an area of 5140 km² and had a population of 670,000.
In 1918, the former Duchy formed part of the Sudetenland Province of German Austria along with northern Moravia, but under the Treaty of Saint Germain of 1919, it fell largely to the newly-created state of Czechoslovakia with the exception of land east of the River Olza around Cieszyn which became part of Poland. Hlučínsko (in German ''Hultschiner Ländchen''), formerly part of Prussian Silesia also became 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, although Hlučínsko was re-unified with Prussia and Poland took more land in (Cieszyn Silesia) on the west bank of the Olza. (The Polish gains being lost when Germany occupied Poland the following year).
With the exception of the areas around Cieszyn and Ostrava, Czech Silesia was predominantly settled by ethnic Germans up until 1945. Following the Second World War, the Sudetenland and Hlučínsko were returned to Czechoslovakia and the German-speaking population was expelled (see Expulsion of Germans after World War II). The border with Poland was once again set along the Olza (although this was not confirmed by treaty until 1958).

People

Some of the native Slavic population speak Lach, which is classed by Ethnologue as a dialect of Czech [1], although it also shows some similarities to Polish. In Cieszyn Silesia the Cieszyn Silesian dialect is also spoken, mostly by members of the Polish minority (see: Zaolzie).