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:''This article is about the historical region. For the former Prussian province, see Province of Upper Silesia.''

'Upper Silesia' (; ; Latin: ''Silesia Superior''; ; Silesian: ''Gůrny Ślůnsk'') is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia; Lower Silesia is to the northwest. Throughout its history Upper Silesia has been under the control of Poland, Bohemia, Austria, Prussia, and Germany. It is currently split between Poland (Opole and Silesian Voivodeships) and the Czech Republic (Czech Silesia, or the Silesian-Moravian Region).
Upper Silesia is situated in the Silesian highlands, between the upper Oder and upper Vistula rivers. The total population of the Upper Silesian Industry Area is 3,487,000.
Opole Silesia, Cieszyn Silesia, and Austrian Silesia are historical parts of Upper Silesia. The territory of Opole Silesia composes much of Opole Voivodeship.

Contents

History

Major cities and towns

Literature

See also

External links

History

At the time of Svatopluk I and King Arnulf of Carinthia, Silesia was a part of Greater Moravia and after its destruction it was conquered by Bohemia. A number of earlier inhabitants of Silesia, the Silingi, remained throughout and they concentrated around the Zobten mountain and in a settlement named Niempsch (derived from a Slavic name for Germans).
Upper Silesia was then conquered by the newly installed dukes of the Polans and was 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 non-Polish land. In 1335 it came back under the rule of the Kingdom of Bohemia. Settlers from German lands of the Holy Roman Empire had already come to Silesia in the 1200s, such as to Breslau (Wrocław). Many towns were destroyed by the Mongols at the Battle of Legnica 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 the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg-Ansbach. The Roman Catholic Holy Roman Emperors of the Habsburg dynasty reintroduced Catholicism, led by the Jesuits.
Lower Silesia and most of Upper Silesia became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1742 during the First Silesian War. A small part remained within the Habsburg-ruled Bohemian Crown as the Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia, colloquially called Austrian Silesia.
In the 19th century Upper Silesia became an industrial area using its plentiful coal and iron ore.
In 1919 after World War I, 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. From 1919-1921 three Silesian Uprisings occurred among the Polish-speaking populace of Upper Silesia.
After 1945 almost all of Upper Silesia became part of Poland. Most of the German-speaking population was expelled to western Germany and replaced with Poles. The remainder was part of Czechoslovakia as Czech Silesia.

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)

★ Wodzisław Śląski (Loslau) (50,500)

★ 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)

Literature

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

★ Krzysztof Gwozdz (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.

See also

★ Lower Silesia

★ Silesian Interurbans

★ Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union

★ Upper Silesian Industrial Area

★ Upper Silesian Coal Basin

★ Wojciech Korfanty

External links

★ Silesian Autonomy Movement

★ Silesian Digital Library