Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship - II RP

The Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship (Polish: Autonomiczne Województwo Śląskie, German: Autonome Woiwodschaft Schlesien) was an autonomous region of Poland created as the result of the popular Upper Silesia plebiscite in 1921, the treaty in Geneva, three Upper Silesian Uprisings, and the partition of Upper Silesia between Poland, Germany and then-Czechoslovakia. Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship was the richest and best developed of all provinces of... more

The Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship (Polish: Autonomiczne Województwo Śląskie, German: Autonome Woiwodschaft Schlesien) was an autonomous region of Poland created as the result of the popular Upper Silesia plebiscite in 1921, the treaty in Geneva, three Upper Silesian Uprisings, and the partition of Upper Silesia between Poland, Germany and then-Czechoslovakia. Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship was the richest and best developed of all provinces of interbellum Poland. It owed its wealth to rich deposits of coal, which resulted in construction of numerous coal mines and steelworks. For this reason, this Voivodeship was crucial to Polish armament production. However, its location - right on the border with Germany, made it vulnerable. So, in mid-1930s, Polish government decided to move some sectors of heavy industry to the nation's heartland, creating Centralny Okreg Przemyslowy. With highly effective agriculture, Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship also was a major producer of food, despite... less