Greater Poland, sometimes called the "cradle of Poland," formed the heart of the 10th-century
early Polish state.
Poznań and
Gniezno were early centers of royal power, but following the region's devastation by
pagan rebellion in the 1030s, and an invasion by
Bretislaus I of Bohemia in 1038, the capital was moved by
Casimir the Restorer from Gniezno to
Kraków. The two cities are seats of Poland's oldest diocese (
Poznań, est. in 968) and archdiocese (
Gniezno, est. in 1000), playing a crucial role in the
Christianization of Poland. in Greater Poland In the
testament of Bolesław III Wrymouth, which initiated the period of fragmentation of Poland (1138–1320), the western part of Greater Poland (including Poznań) was granted to
Mieszko III the Old. The eastern part, with Gniezno and
Kalisz, was part of the
Duchy of Kraków, granted to
Władysław II the Exile. However, for most of the period the two parts were under a single ruler, and were known as the
Duchy of Greater Poland (although at times there were separately ruled duchies of Poznań, Gniezno,
Kalisz and
Ujście). It was one of the leading and fastest developing regions of Poland, with
municipal rights modeled after Poznań and Kalisz becoming the basis of municipal form of government for several towns in the region, as two of five local Polish variants of medieval town rights. The region came under the control of
Władysław I the Elbow-High in 1314, and thus became part of the reunited Poland of which Władysław was crowned king in 1320. In the reunited kingdom, and later in the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the country came to be divided into administrative units called
voivodeships. In the case of the Greater Poland region these were
Poznań Voivodeship and
Kalisz Voivodeship. The Commonwealth also had larger subdivisions known as
prowincja, one of which was named
Greater Poland. However, this
prowincja covered a larger area than the Greater Poland region itself, also taking in
Kuyavia,
Masovia and
Royal Prussia. (This division of
Crown Poland into two entities called Greater and
Lesser Poland had its roots in the
Statutes of Casimir the Great of 1346–1362, where the laws of "Greater Poland" – the northern part of the country – were codified in the
Piotrków statute, with those of "Lesser Poland" in the separate
Wiślica statute.) In 1768, a new
Gniezno Voivodeship was formed out of the northern part of Kalisz Voivodeship. However more far-reaching changes would come with the
Partitions of Poland. In the first partition (1772), northern parts of Greater Poland along the
Noteć (German
Netze) were taken over by
Prussia, becoming the
Netze District. In the second partition (1793) the whole of Greater Poland was absorbed by Prussia, becoming part of the province of
South Prussia. It remained so in spite of the first
Greater Poland Uprising (1794), part of the unsuccessful
Kościuszko Uprising directed chiefly against the
Russian Empire. More successful was the
Greater Poland Uprising of 1806, which led to the region's becoming part of the Napoleonic
Duchy of Warsaw (forming the
Poznań Department and parts of the
Kalisz and
Bydgoszcz Departments). However, following the
Congress of Vienna in 1815, Greater Poland was again partitioned, with the western part (including Poznań) going to Prussia. The eastern part joined the Russian-controlled
Kingdom of Poland, where it formed the
Kalisz Voivodeship until 1837, then the
Kalisz Governorate (merged into the
Warsaw Governorate between 1844 and 1867). Within the Prussian empire, western Greater Poland became the
Grand Duchy of Posen (Poznań), which theoretically held some autonomy. Following an unrealized
uprising in 1846, and the more substantial but still unsuccessful
uprising of 1848 (during the
Spring of Nations), the Grand Duchy was replaced by the
Province of Posen. The authorities made efforts to
Germanize the region, particularly after the founding of Germany in 1871, and from 1886 onwards the
Prussian Settlement Commission was active in increasing German land ownership in formerly Polish areas. of 1918–1919 Following the end of World War I, the
Greater Poland uprising (1918–1919) ensured that most of the region became part of the newly independent Polish state, forming most of
Poznań Voivodeship (1919–1939). Northern and some western parts of Greater Poland remained in Germany, where they formed much of the province of
Posen–West Prussia (1922–1938), whose capital was Schneidemühl (
Piła). Following the
German invasion of 1939, Greater Poland was incorporated into
Nazi Germany, becoming the province called
Reichsgau Posen, later Reichsgau Wartheland (
Warthe being the German name for the
Warta river). The Polish population was oppressed, with many former officials and others considered potential enemies by the Nazis being imprisoned or executed, including at the notorious
Fort VII concentration camp in Poznań. The Polish population was also subjected to
expulsions,
kidnapping of children and
forced labour. Germany also operated the
Stalag XXI-A,
Stalag XXI-C,
Stalag XXI-D and other
prisoner-of-war camps for Polish,
French, British, Moroccan, Algerian, Dutch, Belgian, Serbian,
Italian, American, Norwegian, and Soviet POWs. Poznań was declared a stronghold city
(Festung) in the closing stages of the war, being taken by the
Red Army in the
Battle of Poznań, which ended on 22 February 1945. After the war, Greater Poland was fully within the
Polish People's Republic, as
Poznań Voivodeship. With the reforms of 1975 this was divided into smaller provinces (the voivodeships of
Kalisz,
Konin,
Leszno and
Piła, and a smaller Poznań Voivodeship). The present-day Greater Poland Voivodeship, again with Poznań as its capital, was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former
Poznań,
Kalisz,
Konin,
Piła and
Leszno Voivodeships, pursuant to the
Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998. == Cities and towns ==