The historic Malopolska

The historical and ethnographic region of Malopolska (pronounced: Mauåpålska) is located in southern Poland, bordering south to Slovakia, west to Upper Silesia, north to historical regions of Wielkopolska, Mazowsze and Podlasie and east to Ukraine.
The Slavic tribe, the Wislanes, who lived around the upper reaches of the Wisla River, created in the 9th century. a tribal state that encompassed western Malopolska (with centers in Kraków and Wislica). After about 100 years of relations with the Czech princes, the state of the Wislans was incorporated into Poland at the end of the 10th century.
The term Malopolska (“Small-Poland”) were used from the end of the 15th century. Before that time, the names Ziemia Krakowska were used for the southern part and Ziemia Sandomierska for the northern part. From 1138 they became the principals of Kraków and Sandomierz, who later regained their status as counties. In 1474 a new county was created by parts of Sandomierz county: the county of Lublin.
Another name for the regions of southern and southeastern Poland is Galicia (after the Latin name of the city of Halicz), an Austrian name for the lands annexed by Austria-Hungary in the divisions of Poland in 1792, 1795 and later. Eastern Galicia was the area east of the San River. Western Galicia was the land west of San – ie. Malopolska. The borders of Galicia went along the Biala River in the west, along the Wisla up to Zawichost in the north, the Zbrucz River in the east and the Carpathian mountain range in the south.
After World War I, in 1918, the former province of Galicia joined the new Polish state. After World War II, Poland surrendered the eastern part of the area (with the city of Lwów and the country east of it) to Ukraine (USSR).

Sources and literature

Regions of Poland. Past and present
B.Gustawicz: Galicia
Galicia
Short history of Poland
Malopolskie Province
History – Poland
Krótkie spojrzenie after 1000 lat historii Polski
The history of Poland. 1. The rise to power
Wislanie
Malopolska

Read the pages about the modern regions of the area:
Malopolska
Podkarpacie

Translated into English by Google Translate. Spangshus.dk accept no liability for any errors or omissions in translation.