weirdpolis:the III Silesian Upraising, 3rd May - 5th July 1921.In 1918 Poland regained independence

weirdpolis:the III Silesian Upraising, 3rd May - 5th July 1921.In 1918 Poland regained independence after 123 years. However establishing the exact borders of the country took couple more years - one of such disputed regions was Upper Silesia. Historically, it has been part of Poland since it’s early years up to the XIII century, then it became part of Czech and subsequently the Habsburgian empire. Since 1740 it’s been part of Germany and - due to Silesia being rich industrial region - they were determained for it to remain such, despite the majority of the local population considering themselves Polish Silesian. By the Versailles Treaty it was mandated to conduct the plebiscite and let the people decide. German’ repressions of the Polish Silesian population lead to two spontaneous upraisings in 1919 and 1920, thus it became necessary for the allied forces of British, French and Italian troops to supervise the region for a while.The plebiscite was conducted on 20th March 1921, and due to succesful  propaganda and rules allowing for all the people born in the region - yet not living there anymore - to vote, Germany won by the measure of 59% to 41%. In fear of the Interallied Comission giving majority of the Upper Silesia region to the Germany, the third upraising was initiated. The general protest by the industrial workers has started on May 2nd 1921. Over the night Polish Military Unit of Upper Silesia blew up the rail bridges on the Odra river, cutting of the German reinforcements. On May 3rd the Upraising was officially declared, with Wojciech Korfanty as the leader. The Upraising lasted til June 24, and oficially ended on July 5th 1921, when Interallied Forces mediated in. It’s hard to estimate the number of Polish and Silesian insurgents taking part, some sources say in the begining it was roughly 40 000, by the end around 62 000 of people. Polish and Silesian forces succesfully took over a large portion of the region, tho they lost some of it in later half of the month to German counter-offensive. The biggest battle took place by Góra św. Anny (Annaberg), and it ended with peace talks. In the aftermath the Allied were still unable to decide how to divide the region between the two countries, so the League of Nations had to step in. In the end 1/3 of the region returned to Poland, with a considerable amount of autonomy, which was one of the conditions stated by the local Silesian population. Picture: 1. Silesian Insurgents’ Monument in Katowice, Poland, designed by sculptor prof. Gustaw Zemła and architect Wojciech Zabłocki. 2. Silesian Insurgents of 1921. -- source link
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