Province of Posen Prowincja Poznańska Provinz Posen |
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Province of Prussia | ||||||
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Posen (red) within Prussia (white) and the German Empire (white, beige and red) | ||||||
Capital |
Posen 52°24′N 16°55′E / 52.400°N 16.917°ECoordinates: 52°24′N 16°55′E / 52.400°N 16.917°E |
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History | ||||||
• | Established | 1848 | ||||
• | Disestablished | 1919 | ||||
Area | ||||||
• | 1910 | 28,970 km2(11,185 sq mi) | ||||
Population | ||||||
• | 1910 | 2,099,831 | ||||
Density | 72.5 /km2 (187.7 /sq mi) | |||||
Political subdivisions |
Posen Bromberg |
The Province of Posen (German: Provinz Posen, Polish: Prowincja Poznańska) was a province of Prussia from 1848 and as such part of the German Empire from 1871 until 1918. The area, roughly corresponding to the historic region of Greater Poland annexed during the 18th century Polish partitions, was about 29,000 km2 (11,000 sq mi). For more than a century, it was part of the Prussian Partition, with a brief exception during the Napoleonic Wars.
Incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Posen after the 1815 Congress of Vienna, the territory was administered as a Prussian province upon the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848. In 1919 according to the Treaty of Versailles, Germany had to return the bulk of the province to the newly established Second Polish Republic.
The land is mostly flat, drained by two major watershed systems; the Noteć (German: Netze) in the north and the Warta (Warthe) in the center. Ice Age glaciers left moraine deposits and the land is speckled with hundreds of "finger lakes", streams flowing in and out on their way to one of the two rivers.
Agriculture was the primary industry, as one would expect for the 19th century. The three-field system was used to grow a variety of crops, primarily rye, sugar beet, potatoes, other grains, and some tobacco and hops. Significant parcels of wooded land provided building materials and firewood. Small numbers of existed, including geese, but a fair amount of sheep were herded.