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Has Abstract
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(Pol., Śląsk; Ger., Schlesien; Cz., Slezsko), a region at the borders of Prussia, Saxony, Bohemia, Moravia, and Poland. Silesia was disputed territory from the tenth century. Around 990, it was separated from the Bohemian lands and became part of Poland. In the period of the regional fracturing of Poland, the majority of the Silesian princes accepted the sovereignty of the Czech king, which Kazimierz the Great eventually acknowledged, abdicating Silesia to Bohemia. The Habsburgs ruled it from 1526, and as a result of the Silesian Wars (1740–1763), the majority of its territory came under Prussian rule, with only the southeastern regions remaining in the realm of the Habsburgs. The latter region, Austrian Silesia—comprising the principalities of Teschen (Pol., Cieszyn; Cz., Těšín), Troppau (Pol., Opawa; Cz., Opava), and Jägerndorf (Pol., Karniów, Cz., Krnov)—remained under Habsburg rule from 1742 to 1918. After World War I, the Opava and Krnov areas of Austrian Silesia became part of Czechoslovakia, while the Cieszyn region was to be divided according to the results of a plebiscite, which never took place, however, due to the earlier annexation of the western part of this region by Czechoslovakia during the Polish–Soviet war in 1920. The remaining part of Cieszyn region, together with the eastern strip of Prussian Upper Silesia, became Polish and was made the Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship in 1922. This was enlarged with the annexation from Czechoslovakia of the western part of Cieszyn region in 1938. The majority of Upper Silesia and all of Lower Silesia remained part of Germany. After World War II, all of German Silesia was annexed to Poland.
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