Pomerania

Map of Pomerania. Poland and Germany are seen, Pomerania is marked by a yellow line.

Pomerania Beach (Darss).

Pomerania (Pommern in German, Pomorze in Polish) is a region on the Baltic Sea. It is now part of two countries, Germany and Poland.

Prehistoric tribes

20,000 years ago, the territory of present-day Pomerania was covered with ice, which did not start to recede until the late period of the Paleolithic, or Upper Stone Age, some 10,000 years BC, when the Scandinavian glacier receded to the north. Various archaeological cultures developed in the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age.

Classical antiquity

Since around 500 BC and before 500 AD, Pomerania had been dominated by East Germanic tribes including several tribes of Goths, who, as per archeological evidence of the Wielbark culture and their own tradition, originated from Scandinavia. Goths and Rugians were recorded by Roman historians in the areas of Pomerania in 98 AD. The Vistula Veneti, a non-Germanic tribe, which later assimilated with Slavs, were recorded by Ptolemy and Pliny the Elder around Vistula in first century AD. By the 7th century, Slavic tribes including the Wends and Pomeranians settled the area.

Polish conquest

Pomerania was first conquered by the Polish duke Mieszko I in the second half of the 10th century. Pagan uprisings in 1005 and 1038 resulted in independence for Western Pomerania and Pomerelia, respectively. Regained by Poland in 1116/1121, the Polish could not hold the Pomeranian duchy longer than 1135, whereas Pomerelia after the 1138 partition of Poland among the sons of Boleslaus Wrymouth became a part of the Polish seniorat, which was declared fief of the Holy Roman Empire in 1156. The Western part, the Duchy of Pomerania, was declared part of the Holy Roman Empire (1181). After a brief period of Danish rule (1168 / 1186–1227), it remained part of Holy Roman Empire until 1806. 1000 years of history of areas between river Elbe, Oder and Vistula.

West Slavs, 9th–10th century.

Borders of Polish states and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (union state of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania).

Related pages

• Lithuania
• Eastern Europe
• Slavic languages
• Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth