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Polish Corridor

(Encyclopedia)Polish Corridor, strip of German territory awarded to newly independent Poland by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The strip, 20 to 70 mi (32–112 km) wide, gave Poland access to the Baltic Sea. It ...

Frederick II, king of Prussia

(Encyclopedia)Frederick II or Frederick the Great, 1712–86, king of Prussia (1740–86), son and successor of Frederick William I. Frederick was tolerant in religious matters, personally professing atheism to h...

Tczew

(Encyclopedia)Tczew chĕf [key], Ger. Dirschau, town (1992 est. pop. 60,000), Pomorskie prov., N Poland, a port on the Vistula River. It is a rail junction, with railroad workshops and shipyards located there. Char...

Gdynia

(Encyclopedia)Gdynia gədĭnˈyə [key], Ger. Gdingen, city (1994 est. pop. 252,100), Pomorskie prov., N Poland, a port on the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Danzig. It is the port of a larger urban area that includes ...

Katowice

(Encyclopedia)Katowice kätôvēˈtsĕ [key], Ger. Kattowitz, city (1993 est. pop. 366,200), capital of Śląskie prov., S Poland. One of the chief mining and industrial centers of Poland, it has industries produci...

Oliva, Peace of

(Encyclopedia)Oliva, Peace of ōlēˈvə, –vä [key], 1660, treaty signed at Oliva (now a suburb of Gdańsk) by Poland and Sweden. John II of Poland renounced the theoretical claim of his line to the Swedish crow...

Jadwiga

(Encyclopedia)Jadwiga yädvēˈgä [key], 1374–99, Polish queen (1384–99), daughter of Louis I of Hungary and Poland. To satisfy Polish demands for autonomy at Louis's death, she reigned in Poland and her siste...

Oder-Neisse line

(Encyclopedia)Oder-Neisse line, frontier established in 1945 between Germany and Poland; it followed the Oder and W Neisse rivers from the Baltic Sea to the Czechoslovak border. The boundary, desired by most Poles ...

Bytom

(Encyclopedia)Bytom bĭˈtôm [key], Ger. Beuthen, city (1994 est. pop. 232,400), Śląskie prov., SW Poland, in the Katowice mining region. An important heavy industrial center, it has iron- and steelworks and the...

Toruń

(Encyclopedia)Toruń tôˈro͞onyə [key], Ger. Thorn, city (1993 est. pop. 201,700), capital (with Bydgoszcz) of Kujawsko-Pomorskie prov., N central Poland, on the Vistula River. It is a river port and a railway j...