The Question of Upper Silesia

Abstract

It is important to distinguish clearly between an official Upper Silesia, that is, the entire district of Oppeln, and a more narrowly defined Upper-Silesia comprising only the southeastern part of this district most of it being on the right bank of the Oder from Rosenberg to Ratibor, the great industrial region included. After the Hussite Wars (1420-31) Polish law gradually began to prevail among farmers and peasants. It was utilized by magnates after the Thirty Years War (1618-48) in acquiring more and more land, as independent farmers, primarily Germans, lost out; a number of these emigrated to the north and west. The magnates, no more than eight or ten at that time on the right bank of the Oder, were pleased with the Polish laws that favored them and so they employed primarily Polish farmhands, who were completely at the mercy of their masters.