East Prussia

East Prussia Ostpreußen
Province of the Kingdom of Prussia (until 1918) and the Free State of Prussia
← 1772–1829 1878–1945 →   →
Flag Coat of arms
East Prussia (red), within the Kingdom of Prussia, within the German Empire, as of 1871.
Capital		Königsberg
History
•	Established	31 January 1773
•	Province of Prussia	3 December 1829
•	Province restored	1 April 1878
•	Soviet capture	1945
Area
•	1905	36,993 km2(14,283 sq mi)
Population
•	1905	2,025,741
	Density	54.8 /km2  (141.8 /sq mi)
Political subdivisions		Gumbinnen Königsberg Allenstein (from 1905) West Prussia (1922–1939) Zichenau (from 1939)
Today part of		Russia  Poland  Lithuania

East Prussia (German: Ostpreußen, pronounced [ˈɔstˌpʁɔʏsən]; Latin: Borussia orientalis; Russian: Восточная Пруссия) was a province of Prussia from 1773–1829 and from 1878–1945. Its capital city was Königsberg (present-day Kaliningrad). East Prussia was the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast.

East Prussia enclosed the bulk of the ancestral lands of the Baltic Old Prussians. During the 13th century, the native Prussians were conquered by the crusading Teutonic Knights. The indigenous Balts who survived the conquest were gradually converted to Christianity. Because of Germanization and colonisation over the following centuries, Germans became the dominant ethnic group, while Poles and Lithuanians formed minorities. From the 13th century, East Prussia was part of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights. After the Second Peace of Thorn in 1466 it became a fief of the Kingdom of Poland. In 1525, with the Prussian Homage, the province became the Duchy of Prussia. The Old Prussian language had become extinct by the 17th or early 18th century.

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