Teschen

Teschen, eastern European duchy centred on the town of Teschen (Cieszyn; q.v.) that was contested and then divided by Poland and Czechoslovakia after World War I.

Originally a principality linked to the Polish duchy of Silesia, Teschen was attached with Silesia to the Bohemian crown in 1335; in 1526 it passed with that crown to Habsburg control. Although most of Silesia was seized by Prussia in 1742, Teschen remained under Habsburg rule until Austria-Hungary collapsed at the end of World War I.

Having been one of the richest and most industrialized regions in Austria-Hungary, Teschen was claimed after the war by Poland on the grounds that its prewar population had been 55 percent Polish, as well as by Czechoslovakia, which based its claims on historic arguments. A bitter conflict that erupted into violence when the Czechs forcibly occupied a large portion of Teschen (January 1919) was resolved only when the Allies’ Conference of Ambassadors divided Teschen along the Olše River, giving Poland the eastern districts, including the city of Teschen, while granting Czechoslovakia a larger part of the region, which included a sizable Polish population, the city of Karviná, and the coal-mining basin and major railroad line (July 28, 1920).

Although Poland, which in July 1920 was facing a threatening Soviet military offensive, accepted this division, it remained dissatisfied, and, as a result of the Teschen dispute, relations between Poland and Czechoslovakia remained strained for almost 20 years. Consequently, Poland took advantage of Czechoslovakia’s weakened position at the time of the Munich Conference and, on Sept. 29, 1938, demanded the cession of Teschen, which it occupied by early October. After World War II, however, when Poland tried to retain all of Teschen (June 1945), the Soviet Union intervened and forced the restoration of the 1920–38 border.