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30-850: First plans for a railway in Upper Silesia date to the early 19th century, but the construction work began only in 1841. The railway was built by the Oberschlesische Eisenbahn AG (OSE), a private company, with support from the Prussian government. Operated by the OSE, the Upper Silesian Railway ( Oberschlesische Eisenbahn ) was the first railway line in Poland. In 1842 it extended from Wrocław via Oława to Brzeg . The train from Wrocław to Oława on 1 May 1842,

60-517: Is a river in southern Poland . The 29 km (18 mi) long Biala is a right tributary of the Vistula . It is the main river of the city of Bielsko-Biała and used to be historically important as a border river dividing not only Bielsko and Biała but also for several centuries the states of Bohemia (succeeded by the Habsburg monarchy ) and Poland . Two sources of the river are located on

90-550: Is estimated that the bulk cargo moved by the railway equalled that moved by roads and waterways. The Upper Silesian Railway was connected to Frankfurt an der Oder by 1 September 1846 through the Lower Silesian-Mark Railway line, which gave access to Berlin . Shortly afterward, on 1 September 1848, OSE was connected to the Austrian Kraków and Upper Silesian Railway and by 13 October that year,

120-737: The Czech Republic . The area is predominantly known for its heavy industry (mining and metallurgy). Upper Silesia is situated on the upper Oder River, north of the Eastern Sudetes mountain range and the Moravian Gate , which form the southern border with the historic Moravia region. Within the adjacent Silesian Beskids to the east, the Vistula River rises and turns eastwards, the Biała and Przemsza tributaries mark

150-776: The Bohemian kingdom . During the re-establishment of Poland under King Casimir III the Great , all Silesia was specifically excluded as non-Polish land by the 1335 Treaty of Trentschin becoming a land of the Bohemian Crown and — indirectly — of the Holy Roman Empire. By the mid-14th century, the influx of German settlers into Upper Silesia was stopped by the Black Death pandemic. Unlike in Lower Silesia,

180-637: The Duchy of Opava was established on adjacent Moravian territory, ruled by the Přemyslid duke Nicholas I , whose descendants inherited the Duchy of Racibórz in 1336. As they ruled both duchies in personal union , Opava grew into the Upper Silesian territory. In 1327 the Upper Silesian dukes, like most of their Lower Silesian cousins, had sworn allegiance to King John of Bohemia , thereby becoming vassals of

210-605: The Germanization process was halted; still a majority of the population spoke Polish and Silesian as their native language, often together with German ( Silesian German ) as a second language. In the southernmost areas, also Lach dialects were spoken. While Latin, Czech and German language were used as official languages in towns and cities, only in the 1550s (during the Protestant Reformation ) did records with Polish names start to appear. Upper Silesia

240-763: The Opole Voivodeship , except for the Lower Silesian counties of Brzeg and Namysłów , and the western half of the Silesian Voivodeship (except for the Lesser Polish counties of Będzin , Bielsko-Biała , Częstochowa with the city of Częstochowa , Kłobuck , Myszków , Zawiercie and Żywiec , as well as the cities of Dąbrowa Górnicza , Jaworzno and Sosnowiec ). Divided Cieszyn Silesia as well as former Austrian Silesia are historical parts of Upper Silesia. According to

270-613: The Prussian state railways in 1883. Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( Polish : Górny Śląsk [ˈɡurnɘ ˈɕlɔw̃sk]  ; Silesian : Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk ; Czech : Horní Slezsko ; German : Oberschlesien [ˈoːbɐˌʃleːzi̯ən]  ; Silesian German : Oberschläsing ; Latin : Silesia Superior ) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia , located today mostly in Poland , with small parts in

300-557: The "Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia", colloquially called Austrian Silesia . Incorporated into the Prussian Silesia Province from 1815, Upper Silesia became an industrial area taking advantage of its plentiful coal and iron ore . Prussian Upper Silesia became a part of the German Empire in 1871. The earliest exact census figures on ethnolinguistic or national structure (Nationalverschiedenheit) of

330-907: The 1620 Battle of White Mountain , the Catholic Emperors of the Habsburg dynasty forcibly re-introduced Catholicism, led by the Jesuits . Lower Silesia and most of Upper Silesia were occupied by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1742 during the First Silesian War and annexed by the terms of the Treaty of Breslau . A small part south of the Opava River remained within the Habsburg-ruled Bohemian Crown as

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360-701: The 9th century Bavarian Geographer , the West Slavic Opolanie tribe had settled on the upper Oder River since the days of the Migration Period , centered on the gord of Opole . It is possible that during the times of Prince Svatopluk I (871–894), Silesia was a part of his Great Moravian realm. Upon its dissolution after 906, the region fell under the influence of the Přemyslid rulers of Bohemia , Duke Spytihněv I (894–915) and his brother Vratislaus I (915–921), possibly

390-508: The Polish prince Bolesław III Wrymouth (1107–1138) came to terms with Duke Soběslav I of Bohemia , when a peace was made confirming the border along the Sudetes . However, this arrangement fell apart when upon the death of Bolesław III and his testament the fragmentation of Poland began, which decisively enfeebled its central authority. The newly established Duchy of Silesia became

420-434: The Prussian part of Upper Silesia, come from year 1819. The last pre-WW1 general census figures available, are from 1910 (if not including the 1911 census of school children - Sprachzählung unter den Schulkindern - which revealed a higher percent of Polish-speakers among school children than the 1910 census among the general populace). Figures ( Table 1. ) show that large demographic changes took place between 1819 and 1910, with

450-697: The Upper Silesian Duchy of Racibórz as an allodium from the hands of his elder brother Duke Bolesław I the Tall of Silesia. In the struggle around the Polish throne, Mieszko additionally received the former Lesser Polish lands of Bytom , Oświęcim , Zator , Siewierz and Pszczyna from the new Polish High Duke Casimir II the Just in 1177. When in 1202 Mieszko Tanglefoot had annexed the Duchy of Opole of his deceased nephew Jarosław , he ruled over all Upper Silesia as Duke of Opole and Racibórz . In

480-798: The ancestral homeland of the Silesian Piasts , descendants of Bolesław's eldest son Władysław II the Exile , who nevertheless saw themselves barred from the succession to the Polish throne and only were able to regain their Silesian home territory with the aid of the Holy Roman Emperor . The failure of the Agnatic seniority principle of inheritance also led to the split-up of the Silesian province itself: in 1172 Władysław's second son Mieszko IV Tanglefoot claimed his rights and received

510-741: The border between Polish and the Bohemian Crown (since 1526 part of the Habsburg Monarchy). Upon the First Partition of Poland in 1772 the river ceased to be a state border and continued as a regional border between Austrian Silesia to the west and Galicia to the east. After World War I and the 1919 Polish–Czechoslovak War it separated the Polish part of Cieszyn Silesia in the Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship from Lesser Polish Kraków Voivodeship . This Silesian Voivodeship location article

540-519: The course of the Ostsiedlung , establishing numerous cities according to German town law . The plans to re-unify Silesia shattered upon the first Mongol invasion of Poland and the death of Duke Henry II the Pious at the 1241 Battle of Legnica . Upper Silesia further fragmented upon the death of Duke Władysław Opolski in 1281 into the duchies of Bytom , Opole, Racibórz and Cieszyn . About 1269

570-662: The early 13th century the ties of the Silesian Piasts with the neighbouring Holy Roman Empire grew stronger as several dukes married scions of German nobility. Promoted by the Lower Silesian Duke Henry I the Bearded , from 1230 also regent over Upper Silesia for the minor sons of his late cousin Duke Casimir I of Opole , large parts of the Silesian lands were settled with German immigrants in

600-551: The eastern border with Lesser Poland . In the north, Upper Silesia borders on Greater Poland , and in the west on the Lower Silesian lands (the adjacent region around Wrocław also referred to as Middle Silesia ). It is currently split into a larger Polish and the smaller Czech Silesian part, which is located within the Czech regions of Moravia-Silesia and Olomouc . The Polish Upper Silesian territory covers most of

630-471: The first section of the Upper Silesian Railway to be opened, was also the first train ride within the borders of modern Poland. By August that year it reached Brzeg , and by 29 May next year, Opole . The construction slowed afterward and the next section, to Gliwice , was opened on 2 November 1845, reaching Świętochłowice later that month. In the years thereafter it was steadily expanded until it reached Katowice and Mysłowice by 3 October 1846, by which time

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660-799: The founder and name giver of the Silesian capital Wrocław ( Czech : Vratislav ). By 990 the newly installed Piast duke Mieszko I of the Polans had conquered large parts of Silesia. From the Middle Silesia fortress of Niemcza , his son and successor Bolesław I the Brave (992–1025), having established the Diocese of Wrocław , subdued the Upper Silesian lands of the pagan Opolanie, which for several hundred years were part of Poland , though contested by Bohemian dukes like Bretislaus I , who from 1025 invaded Silesia several times. Finally, in 1137,

690-461: The international Warsaw–Vienna railway . This was the first railway connection between Berlin and Vienna , also linking the two (at that point, both former) Polish capitals of Kraków and Warsaw . The OSE company was nationalized by Prussia in 1857, as the German government wanted to fix the prices at a low level to speed up the region's industrialization . The company was eventually merged into

720-492: The line was declared complete. At that time the line was 196.3 kilometres (122.0 mi) long, and its tracks spanned 104 new bridges. The line significantly shortened travel times in Upper Silesia: the trains, travelling at 30–40 km/h, took between 5 and 7 hours to traverse the route, while stage coaches took several days. The transport was also much faster than that on the Silesian waterways, and already by 1847 it

750-637: The north-east slopes of the Klimczok mountain in the Silesian Beskids on the elevation of around 1,020 and 900 metres (3,350 and 2,950 ft). The upper part the river, known as Białka (diminutive form of Biała ), has characteristics of a mountain stream. The first settlement it runs through is the village of Bystra . Before Mikuszowice it joins with Biała stream beginning on eastern slopes of Magura mountain in Little Beskids , then

780-1074: The region's total population quadrupling, the percent of German-speakers increasing significantly, and that of Polish-speakers declining considerably. Also, the total land area in which Polish language was spoken, as well as the land area in which it was spoken by the majority, declined between 1790 and 1890. Polish authors before 1918 estimated the number of Poles in Prussian Upper Silesia as slightly higher than according to official German censuses. (67.2%) (61.1%) (62.0%) (62.6%) (62.1%) (58.6%) (58.1%) (58.1%) (58.6%) (58.7%) (57.3%) (59.1%) (59.8%) or up to 1,560,000 together with bilinguals (29.0%) (37.3%) (36.1%) (35.6%) (36.3%) (36.8%) (37.4%) (37.2%) (36.5%) (36.5%) (38.1%) (36.3%) (36.8%) (3.8%) (1.6%) (1.9%) (1.8%) (1.6%) (4.6%) (4.5%) (4.7%) (4.9%) (4.8%) Bia%C5%82a (Vistula) The Biała ( German : Bialka )

810-468: The river veers north and on the length of 15.7 km (9.8 mi) it forms a pivotal line of the city of Bielsko-Biała, afterward it flows in between Czechowice-Dziedzice to the west and Gmina Bestwina to the east, and empties to Vistula River on the elevation of 240 metres (790 ft). In the 13th century both banks of the river belonged to the Silesian Duchy of Opole and Racibórz but

840-529: The river, including foundation of the town of Bielsko. Mieszko I, Duke of Cieszyn , the first ruler of the duchy, died in 1315 and afterwards his sons divided its land into two parts alongside Biała River: diminished Duchy of Teschen to west and Duchy of Oświęcim to east. In the middle of the 15th century Duchy of Oświęcim was bought into the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and so the river constituted henceforth

870-448: The valley of the river was yet sparsely populated defining a natural border between castellanies of Cieszyn and Oświęcim and ecclesiastical border between dioceses of Wrocław and Kraków . In 1290, in the process of feudal fragmentation of Poland the Duchy of Cieszyn , encompassing both Cieszyn and Oświęcim and so also both banks of the river, was split from it. Roughly at that time several new settlements were established alongside

900-817: Was hit by the Hussite Wars and in 1469 was conquered by King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary , while the Duchies of Oświęcim and Zator fell back to the Polish Crown as a part of Lesser Poland . Upon the death of the Jagiellonian king Louis II in 1526, the Bohemian crown lands were inherited by the Austrian House of Habsburg . In the 16th century, large parts of Silesia had turned Protestant , promoted by reformers like Caspar Schwenckfeld . After

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