Early peoples
Silesia was inhabited by various peoples belonging to changing archeological cultures in the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age.
The Lugii, Lygii or Ligii (also Lygians, Lugians) were a tribe of likely Celtic or Germanic origin living in procimity of Silesia (modern Poland) north of the Sudetes mountains between Oder and Vistula rivers.
The Lugii or Lygii had earlier Celtic La Tene elements and were actually recorded as a part of the Vandals in Magna Germania, which included territory of later Silesia (named for the Silingi-Vandals). Ptolemy records the continuation of these Germanic tribes. It is possible that the city of Legnica (Liegnitz) in Silesia was named for Lug, Ligo.
The connection between the Lugii and the Slavs is controversial. Some recent authors connect them with Slavs, some with Germans, and still others claim that the Lugii were a compound tribe, or confederation of tribes of different ethnicity. Lugii are probably connected to Lingones, a Celtic tribe in Transalpine Gaul (modern France) and Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy).
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire, and created a state in North Africa, centered on the city of Carthage. The Vandals probably gave their name to the province of Andalusia (originally, Vandalusia), in Spain, where they temporarily settled before pushing on to Africa.
The Goth Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths and regent of the Visigoths, was allied by marriage with the Vandals, as well as with the Burgundians and the Franks under Clovis I.
According to Tacitus, in the 1st century Silesia was inhabited by a multi-ethnic league dominated by the Lugii/Lygii. Also part of this federation were the Silingi, most likely a Vandalic people, that lived south of the Baltic Sea in the Elbe, Oder, and Vistula river area. [edit]
Middle Ages
Early documents mention a couple of tribes most probably living in Silesia. The Bavarian Geographer (ca. 845) specifies the following peoples: Slenzanie, Dzhadoshanie, Opolanie, Lupiglaa and Golenshitse. And a document of Prague bishopric (1086) mentions Zlasane, Trebovyane, Poborane and Dedositze.
In the 9th and 10th centuries the territory later called Silesia was subject to the Moravian and then Bohemian rulers of the neighbouring area covered by today's Czech Republic to the south.
About 990 Silesia was incorporated into Poland by Mieszko I (although some historians are moving the date to 999 and the rule of Boleslaus I, duke of the Polanie and later king of Poland). During Poland's fragmentation (1138–1320) into duchies ruled by different branches of the Piast dynasty, Silesia was ruled by descendants of the former royal family.
In 1146, senior duke Wladislaus II acknowledged the overlordship of the Holy Roman Empire over Poland, but was driven into exile. Seventeen years later, in 1163, his two sons took possession of Silesia with imperial backing, dividing the land between them as dukes of Lower and Upper Silesia. The policy of subdivision continued under their successors, with Silesia being divided into 16 principalities by the 1390s.
In 1241 the region experienced the Mongol invasion. Mongols, after looting the Lesser Poland entered Silesia causing widespread panic and mass migrations. They looted much of region and after brief, unsuccessful siege of Wroclaw castle (they were reportedly fended off by blessed Cheslav's miraculous fireball) they defeated combined forces of Polish and guest knights at Legnica. Achieving that, they returned to their homeland with captives. Ruling Silesian lords decided to rebuild their cities according to latest administrative developments, founding or relocating some 160 cities and 1500 towns with codified German law in place of settlements governed by older, customary Polish laws. They also compensated recent population loss by inviting foreigners - mostly from the Holy Roman Empire. This, and ruling classes adopting German culture, caused considerable ethnic tensions in Silesia. Also, in second half of 13th century various knightly orders settled in Silesia - Knights of the Red Star was first but soon followed by Hospitaller and Teutonic Knights.
In 1335, Duke Henry VI of Wroclaw and the Upper Silesian dukes recognized the overlordship of the king of Bohemia (John of Luxemburg). The last independent Piast duchies in Silesia ceased to exist in 1368, although the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty went extinct only in 1675. From that time Silesia indirectly became a part of the Holy Roman Empire, as Bohemia was itself an autonomous part of the empire. Silesia remained part of the lands of the Bohemian crown until 1740, under kings of Czech, Polish and German dynasties.
Under the emperor and king of Bohemia Charles IV, Silesia and especially Wroclaw gained greatly in importance, and many great buildings and large Gothic churches were built.
Between 1425 and 1435, devastation was caused by the Hussite rebellion in Bohemia proper — Silesia remained largely Catholic, however. The Hussites turned against German population and especially Upper Silesia returned to the Slavic language.
[edit] Early Modern Period
The Protestant reformation took an early hold, and most of Silesia became Lutheran. In 1526 Ferdinand made the elected crown of Bohemia an inherited possession of the Habsburg family. In 1537 the rulers of Brandenburg and Silesia concluded an inheritance treaty, but it was vetoed by the emperor Ferdinand I.
The second "Defenestrations of Prague", in 1618, sparked the Thirty Years' War, caused by attempts of the Catholic Habsburg ruler to restore Catholicism and stamp out Protestantism. After the end of the Thirty Years' War, the Habsburgs greatly encouraged Catholicism, and succeeded in reconverting around sixty percent of the population of Silesia. By 1675 the last Silesian Piast rulers had died out.
In 1740 the seizure of Silesia by Friedrich II of Prussia began the War of the Austrian Succession, which ended in 1748. At the end of this war, Prussia had conquered almost all of Silesia. (Some parts of Silesia in the extreme southeast remained possessions of Austria.) The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) confirmed this result. Silesia became a province of Prussia. In 1815 the area around Görlitz was made a part of that province in an administrative reform.
[edit] Silesia in Germany
Silesia became part of the German Empire when Germany was unified (1871). There was considerable industrialization in Upper Silesia, and many people moved there. A majority of the population of Lower Silesia, including its capital, Breslau (today: Wroclaw), was German-speaking. However, there were areas, such as Opole county or Upper Silesia where a larger proportion or even a majority was Polish-speaking and Roman Catholic. In Silesia as a whole Poles were about 30% of the population. The Kulturkampf set Catholics in opposition to the government and sparked Polish revival in the province.
After Germany's and Austria's defeat in World War I the Austrian parts of Silesia were divided between Poland and Czechoslovakia. In the Treaty of Versailles it was decided that the population of German Upper Silesia should hold a plebiscite in order to determine the future of the province, with the exception of a 333km2 area around Hultschin (now Hlučín), which was in 1920 granted to Czechoslovakia, despite having a German majority. The plebiscite between Germany and Poland, organised by the League of Nations, was held in 1921. The outcome was 706,000 votes for Germany, and 479,000 for Poland. However, in the southeastern areas which were the backbone of economy and industry, there was a strong majority for Poland.
After the referendum, there were three Silesian Insurrections, and as a result of them the League of Nations decided that the province should be split and areas that voted for Poland should become an autonomous area within Poland, organised as the Silesian Voivodship (Wojewodztwo Śląskie). Silesia was then reorganised within the two Prussian provinces of Upper and Lower Silesia.
In October 1938 Cieszyn Silesia (the disputed area West of Olza river, so called Zaolzie - 906km² 258,000 inhabitants) was retaken by Poland from Czechoslovakia, in accord with the Munich Agreement.
Germany took possession of these parts of Silesia again in 1939, when the attack on Poland marked the beginning of the Second World War. The Silesian Poles were killed or deported, and German settlers were brought to their homes subsequent to these atrocities.
In 1945 all of Silesia was occupied by Soviet troops; by then a large proportion of the German population had fled Silesia, but many returned after the German capitulation. Under terms of the agreements at Yalta and Potsdam in 1945, most of Silesia east of the rivers Oder (Odra) and Neisse (Nysa) were transferred to Poland. Most of the surviving Silesian Germans, who before World War II numbered about 4 million, were forcibly expelled. A small part of Silesia surrounding the city of Görlitz remained part of the German Democratic Republic and is now part of the Federal State of Saxony in the Federal Republic of Germany.
[edit] Silesia after WWII
The industry of Silesia was after rebuilt after the war, and the region was populated by Poles from other areas (mostly by Poles who were themselves expelled from lands annexed by the Soviet Union). Today more than 20 % of the entire population of Poland lives in Silesia
LOL, I know perfectly well what it says in Wikipedia. Lugii's origins are rather obscure - noone really knows what ethnicity they really were. Most of sources I know claims them being of Celtic origin. Other tribes like Slenzanie, Dzhadoshanie, Opolanie and Golenshitse cited by Bavarian Geographer happen to be purely Slavic tribes, too. Pity you don't know what their names mean. They derive from Western Slavic roots in case you didn't know. Most of all, please mark the fragment where it says it Silesia was German since the IV century. I'll be waiting...Regards.