THE AREA OF POLISH SPEECH
The struggle for predominance between Poles and Germans along Poland’s western boundary is fully nine centuries old. In the sixteenth century, Slavonic tribes had become widely distributed between the Oder and Elbe, in the course of westerly expansions which correspond to south and west migrations of Teutonic peoples.[107] Place names bestowed by the early Germans in the district between these two rivers have practically disappeared under the layer of Slavic appellations conferred between the second and fourth centuries.[108] The period between 800 and 1300 witnessed the inception of a slow and powerful Germanic drive directed towards the east. Convents and lay feudal establishments participated in this historical movement. Repeated German aggressions brought about the earliest union of all Polish tribes into one nation at the beginning of the eleventh century. It proved, however, of little avail before the fighting prowess of the Knights of the Teutonic Order, who, by the first half of the thirteenth century, had succeeded in adding all Wend territory to Teutonic dominions. This early and northerly phase of the “Drang nach Osten” brought the Germans to the coast of the Gulf of Finland. Their advance was rendered possible in part by the presence of Tatar hordes menacing southern Poland. Teutonic progress was also facilitated by the defenseless condition which marks an open plain. Between the Oder and the Vistula the slightly undulating lowland is continuous and devoid of barriers to communication which the interposition of uplifted or uninhabitable stretches of territory might have provided.
Polish history has been affected both favorably and adversely by this lack of natural bulwarks. The former extension of Polish sovereignty to the shores of the Baltic and Black seas, and to within 50 miles of Berlin and the central plateau of Russia, was a result of easy travel on a plain. This advantage was more than offset by the evident facility with which alien races were able to swarm into the vast featureless expanse forming Polish territory. The dismemberment of the country is in part the result of the inability of the Poles to resort to the protection of a natural fortress, where a prolonged stand against the aggression of foes might have been made.
At the end of the tenth century the entire Polish plain acknowledged the rule of Boleslas the Great, a prince of the Piast dynasty. Kiev then paid a yearly tribute to the Polish crown. A period of internal division follows Boleslas’s rule, but in the beginning of the fourteenth century Poland was once more united under the scepter of King Ladislas. From 1386 to 1772, a period of almost four centuries, Polish frontiers remained remarkably stable. Their fluctuations were slight when compared to the changes which occurred in other European countries during the same period.
At one period of its history Poland was barred from its Baltic sea frontier in the north. In the fourteenth century the invasion of the Teutonic Knights temporarily out off the country from the sea; but apart from this interruption Poland has always had access to the sea to which the drainage of the land naturally led. Under the first members of the Piast dynasty the Poles had control of the Baltic coast.[109] When, in the thirteenth century, the Poles called upon the Knights of the Teutonic Order for assistance in subjugating Prussia, the two parties agreed to equal division of the conquered territory. The successes of the Teutonic Knights, however, emboldened their leaders to claim more land for their share. A state of war ensued between the two former allies until by the treaty of Thorn, in 1466, the Teutonic Knights acknowledged Polish sovereignty. This brought Pomerelia, or Prussian Pomerania, within Polish territory. In 1525 the Prussian districts east of the Vistula became part of the duchy of Albert of Brandenburg and were thus surrounded entirely by Polish territory; but that part of Prussia which extends west of the Vistula remained an integral portion of Poland until 1772.
In the fighting which marked the relations between Poland and Turkey in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Poles succeeded in extending their southern frontiers to within a hundred miles of the Black Sea and in carrying their sphere of influence to the sea itself. The occupation of Kaminiec by the Turks was short-lived. In general Poland’s frontier on the side of the ancient Rumanian principalities remained unchanged during the last four centuries of the country’s sovereign existence.
In the fifteenth century, Poland was the dominating Slavic state. In 1386 it had been united to Lithuania by Wladislas Jagellon, the first prince of the famous dynasty bearing his name. The country at that time was protected from Turkish attacks by Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania. Russia was its rival for the possession of Lithuania; Austria for that of Hungary and Bohemia. Prussia and Livonia were also claimed by Poland from the Order of the Teutonic Knights. The weakness of the country lay in the jealousy of the two peoples of diverse speech from which its ruling body was drawn. The Jagellons were Lithuanian princes. They favored the claims of their countrymen, who preferred the laws of their native land to the Polish legislation which was being forced on them. The Poles likewise had their grievances against the Lithuanians. During the rule of Casimir IV he was frequently taken to task by his countrymen for spending “summer, fall and winter in Lithuania.”
Poland’s easterly expansion with its prolonged and finally disastrous conflicts with Russia began after the battle of Grunwald in 1410. Although the Poles then inflicted a decisive defeat on the Teutonic Knights, the western provinces they had lost could not be regained. In the eastern field the basin of the Dnieper merged without abrupt transition into that of the Vistula, just as the basin of the Oder on the west formed the western continuation of the Baltic plain. Four centuries of struggle with Russia ensued until the Muscovite Empire absorbed the greater portion of Poland.
The German element is slowly spreading eastward throughout the eastern provinces of Prussia which once formed part of the kingdom of Poland. Emigration of Poles to central and western Germany partly accounts for the German gain. From the larger cities of eastern Germany and more especially from Posen, Bromberg and Danzig, a steady stream of emigrants make their way towards the industrial centers of the west, where they find higher wages and generally improved economic conditions. The German government favors this expatriation of its Slav subjects. None of the vexations to which the Poles are subjected by government officials on their native plains are tolerated in the occidental provinces of the Empire. The result is that notable colonies of Poles have sprung up in the vicinity of industrial centers like Düsseldorf or Arnsberg, in the Munster district and the Rhine provinces. From a racial standpoint, these Poles are practically indistinguishable from Teutonic types. Their presence in Rhenish Prussia and Westphalia is no menace to German unity. They are easily assimilated; the second generation, speaking only German, forgets its antecedents and becomes submerged in the mass of the native population. Slav settlements are particularly numerous and dense along the Rhine-Herne canal between Duisburg and Dortmund.[110] They abound in the coal-producing Emscher valley, where their inhabitants form one-fifth of the population. The Polish settlers favor the flatlands and occupy them in preference to hilly regions. They do not confine their work to mining, but provide labor for the industrial plants clustered around the coal-fields. In the beginning of 1911 the number of Polish miners in the 19 mining districts of the “circle” of Dortmund exceeded that of any other nationality.
The heavy preponderance of Poles in certain administrative divisions of eastern Germany has, nevertheless, been unimpaired by the Polish emigration. In the province of Posen the German-speaking inhabitants still constitute the minority. As a rule Germans emigrate more readily than Poles or Masurians in East Prussia.[111] In the city of Posen, Polish nationality was asserting itself with increasing vigor year by year, before the European war. The percentage of Poles grew from about 51 in 1890 to 56 in 1900. Ten years later it exceeded 57. Correspondingly the German percentage fell from 50 in 1890 to under 42 in 1910.