Eastern Silesia, Spis and Orava: Stamps

I am not sure the best wording Steve, but as long as all territories are mentioned. Spis and Orava were never even in Silesia. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire they were part of Hungary, and now Slovakia and Poland. Thanks for the Czechoslovak Philatelist link. I also found some good information in Czechout the journal of the British Czechoslovak group.

Here is where the territories were in the old empire:

Spis

Eastern Silesia J1a, black overprint.

ausbrasilien

history by wikipedia:

After World War I, the easternmost part of Upper Silesia was granted to Poland by the Entente Powers after insurrections by Poles and the Upper Silesian plebiscite. The remaining former Austrian parts of Silesia were partitioned to Czechoslovakia, forming part of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland region, and are today part of the Czech Republic. In 1945, after World War II, most of Silesia was transferred to Polish jurisdiction by the Potsdam Agreement between the victorious Allies and became part of Poland, whose Communist government expelled most of Silesia's population. The small Lusatian strip west of the Oder–Neisse line, which had belonged to Silesia since 1815, remained in Germany.


I have some..(4 actually of Eastern S)..very nice to collect - Enjoy !!

René

I have just posted this research in the Upper Silesia tread, and thought you might find it interesting too:

I found some useful information on my research of today.
Border changes throughout history
Silesia does not have clear natural boundaries hence the fluctuations of the region throughout history with boundary changes around the peripheries.
It is a region originally known to have been populated by multiple ethnic groups including Germanic tribes in the 1st century and clans of Slavonic background in the 6th century. It seems, despite its aspirations, it never managed to found its own state and be a truly independent political entity with the usual national trappings of a logo of some sort such as a flag, coat-of-arms, national anthem, etc. Its culture has been influenced by various ethnic and national groups. It might best be described as a borderland between western and eastern Europe. Its location has resulted in a complicated and tumultuous history that resembles series of continuous wars and take-overs by opportunist surrounding dynasties. It has experienced radical border changes and national affiliations over its history with very little independent political history. It has been calved up and tossed around between hereditary noble houses (monarchies, principalities, duchies, etc), and later, by modern nation states. Historically, it has been a battleground because of its geographical location between Germanic and Slavic people, its considerable coal deposits, and the struggle between Catholicism and Protestantism.

Silesia was seized by the King of Prussia in 1740 and retained after several more wars with Austria. In 1806, Napoleon's army under the command of his brother advanced into Silesia. Breslau (Wroclaw), and Schweidnitz (Swidnica) surrendered without fighting. Others in Silesia held out for varying amounts of time. During the period Napoleon's forces occupied Silesia; i.e., until 1815, it remained the territory of Prussia; however, the French continued their occupation and remained in administrative control, making regular collection of reparations, plundering and mistreating the Silesian population and making themselves very unpopular.In the twentieth century, rapid industrialisation within Silesia resulted in it once more being the object of serious conflicts involving Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia.

Geographically, Silesia, is a region that extends over an area of approximately 380 x 120 kilometres in a north-westerly - south-westerly orientation along the fertile valley of the upper and middle Oder River. It roughly coincides with the southern part of the Oder's drainage basin and its tributaries.
On the south-west, it is bounded by the Sudeten mountains. In the south-east, the Silesian Uplands merge with the Beskids (series of mountain ranges). Silesia was divided historically into three parts:

• Lower Silesia (Niederschlesien), to the northwest, includes rolling lowland valley of Oder. It was primarily agricultural with potatoes, grain, and sugar beets grown. Wroclaw (Breslau) was the most important city in Lower Silesia

• Upper Silesia (Oberschlesien), to the southeast, was characterised by uplands and is a heavily industrialized area with extensive iron, coal, and other mineral deposits. Katowice (Kattowitz) was the most important city in Upper Silesia.

• Austrian Silesia, or Teschen, borders Upper Silesia on the south and was also a coal and iron-mining region

paul1

I believe this is Austria Sc 27,coarse print issued in 1867.Postmarked at Odrau,now Odry in Moravia,Czech Republic.

Anglobob