PRUSSIA Maps

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Prussia/Pomerania on-line map - Multimap.com mapping web site.

Maps of PRUSSIAN growth: 1440 to 1795 and 1807 to 1866
Notice the Pomerania areas marked in yellow outline.

PRUSSIAN name origin history: In 1234, veterans of the Christian Crusades in the Middle East were invited to stop the invasion by pagan Prussians (a Baltic cousin of the Lithuanians) and convert them to Christianity. The group establishes itself as the Teutonic Knights. In 1284 Teutonic Knights fully subjugate the Prussians, who eventually become extinct as a people and are assimilated by Germans, Poles and Lithuanians. The German conquerors adopt the name "Prussians" for themselves. In remembering the fall of Rome to barbarians in 479, the campaigns against the heathen peoples of Europe were justified as defensive wars against a potential threat. Many people saw the Crusades as pilgrimages to unknown exotic lands, many believed they were doing the will of God, many were there for the plunder, but all participated in a fascinating period in history.

Prussia (Source: The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy)

• Prussia was a former state in north-central Germany. At the height of its power, Prussia occupied more than half of present-day Germany, stretching from The Netherlands and Belgium in the west to Lithuania in the east.
• During the eighteenth century, Prussia established its independence from Poland, built up a strong army, and undertook a successful conquest of north-central Europe.
• In the nineteenth century, Prussia led the economic and political unification of the German states, establishing itself as the largest and most influential of these states, with Berlin as the capital of the German Empire.
• After Germany’s defeat in World War II, Prussia was abolished as a state, and its territory was divided among East Germany, West Germany, the Soviet Union, and Poland.
• Prussians are often depicted as authoritarian, militaristic, and extremely orderly, a characterization based on the unswerving obedience of their army.