HISTORY. Silesia was inhabited in ancient times hp the Germanic Quadi and Lygii, who were succeeded by Slavic tribes. In the tenth century it came under Polish rule and was soon Christianized. From 1163 the greater part of Silesia was ruled by dukes of the Polish line of Nast. (See POLAND.) These dukes, to repeople the country. which had been devastated by the numerous civil wars, encouraged the settlement of German colonies, especially in Lower Silesia. The practice of division and subdivision of terri tory prevailed so extensively in Silesia that at the beginning of the fourteenth century it had no fewer than 17 independent dukes. Famous among the Silesian dukes was Henry II. of Lower Silesia. who fell in battle against the Mongols on the field of the WallMatt in 1241. In the course of the fourteenth century these petty rulers, who were constantly at war with each other, placed themselves under the over lordship of the King of Bohemia, and Silesia was thenceforth part of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1537 the Duke of Liegnitz, one of the numer ous Silesian princes, entered into an agreement of mutual succession (Erbecrbriiderung) with the Elector of Brandenburg on the extinction of either reigning line. The other ducal lines be coming gradually extinct, their possessions fell to Liegnitz or to Bohemia, or lapsed to the Em peror. In 1675, when the last (Neal family,
that of Liegnitz, failed. the duchies of Liegnitz, Brieg, and WW1lau would have fallen to Prussia; but the Emperor Leopold I. refused to recognize the validity of the agreement of 1537, and took possession of the Liegnitz dominions, as a lapsed fief of Bohemia. The remainder of Silesia was thus incorporated into the Austrian dominions. In 1740 Frederick II. of Prussia, advan tage of the helpless condition of Maria Theresa of Austria, laid claim. on the strength of the agreement of 1537, to certain portions of Si lesia. Without declaring war, he marched into and took possession of the province, maintaining his hold despite the utmost efforts of Austria in the struggles of 1740-42 and 1744-45, called the first and second Silesian wars. At the close of the Seven Years' War (q.v.), in 1763, the bulk of Silesia was definitively ceded to Prussia.
nil taammArn Y, Sell ml lcr, Ne/ilesiun (Glogau, 1885-88) ; Kosinan1, Obcsc•plesicn, scin Land and seine Industrie (Gleiwitz, 1888) : Ncllcsictn nach seinen physikalischen, topograph ischcn and stutistisehen l'crhiilnnisscn (7th ed.. Breslau, 1893) ; Partsch, Ncblcsicn, eine bind cskioule oaf trissenschaftlieher Grundlage (Bres lau. 1896) c Gruenhagen, Gcschichte Selacsiens (Gotha. 1884-86).