Silesia, a province of Prussia, lying in the extreme south-east corner of the kingdom, and having Brandenburg and Posen on the N., the Polish provinces of Russia and Austria on the E., and Austrian Silesia, Bohemia, and the kingdom of Saxony on the S. Area, 15,557 sq. m.; pop. (1875) 3,863,699; (1890) 4,223,807, including more than 820,000 Poles, some 55,000 Bohemians (Czechs), and 32,000 Wends. By religion more than one- half are Roman Catholics and somewhat less than two millions Evangelical Protestants. The province is drained almost entirely by the Oder (navigable from Ratibor), which traverses it from south-east to north-west; this river forms in the middle part of its course a deep valley, and this valley has a westward extension from near Liegnitz. The south-western parts are broken and made uneven by the Sudetic Mountains and their outlying ranges. On the northern and eastern sides of the Oder and in the west of the province there are extensive tracts of a marshy and a sandy character, on which large forests grow (29 per cent. of the total area). But between the Oder and the Sudetic Mountains the soil is exceptionally fertile, producing the usual cereals, besides flax, beet-root, chicory, hops, oil-plants, and orchard fruit. There are several very large estates in the province, the owners of which have done much to encourage the breeding of sheep, horses, and cattle. Silesia embraces in its south-eastern extremity one of the most productive coal-mining regions of Prussia (530 sq. m. in extent; annual output 16 million tons, valued at nearly 7 millions sterling). Zinc is also extracted to the annual value of £354,000, and lead of £365,000. In point of industrial activity Silesia ranks high amongst the provinces of Prussia; more than 35 per cent. of the population find employment in industrial pursuits. The most important departments are in linen and cotton; next in order of importance come the metal industries and the manufacture of cloth and woollens, beet-root sugar, glass, tobacco, and a great variety of other articles. The commerce is greatly hampered by the near proximity of the Russian frontier and its vexatious tariff regulations. Breslau, the capital, is the seat of a university, and gives title to a prince-bishop of the Roman Catholic Church.
Early in the 10th century Silesia, except the extreme western districts, was under the dominion of Poland, and towards the end of the 12th century was divided into two duchies (Breslau or Lower Silesia and Ratibor or Upper Silesia) ruled by Polish dynasties. In the following century great numbers of German immigrants settled in the country and gradually Germanised its semi-Slavic inhabitants. Duke Henry II. of Lower Silesia perished in the memorable battle of Liegnitz (1241), in conflict with the Mongol invaders. By the beginning of the 14th century Silesia was divided up amongst a score of petty rulers, nearly all of whom acknowledged King John of Bohemia as their feudal superior instead of the king of Poland in the years 1327-29. The Silesian dukes put no obstacles, as a rule, in the way of the reformation; but the emperors, who as the heirs to the kingdom of Bohemia became the suzerains of Silesia, treated the people with cruel intolerance, and pursued that policy down to the first decade of the 18th century. The great duel between Austria and Prussia for the mastership of the Silesian territories grew out of a contract by which in 1537 the Duke of Liegnitz left his lands to the Elector of Brandenburg in the eventuality of his house becoming extinct in the male line. On the conclusion of the first Silesian war (1742) the duchies were divided pretty much in the way they are at the present time, Prussia getting by far the greater number and greater area; and the result of the second Silesian war and the desperate struggle of the Seven Years' War confirmed Frederick the Great in the possession of the lands he had so greatly coveted. Frederick, however, took the most active and judicious measures to improve his conquest, and reform its administration and put it on a sound basis. Silesia took a very zealous part in the final struggle against Napoleon in the early years of the 19th century. For the
Silesian Schools of Literature, see GERMANY (Vol. V. p. 187), and OPITZ.
See Grunhagen's Geschichte Schlesiens (2 vols. Gotha, 1884-86); Adamy's Schlesien nach seinen physikalischen, topographischen, und statistischen Verhältnissen (6th ed. Breslau, 1885); and Schroller's Schlesien (3 vols. Glogau, 1885-88).