m (Text replacement - "[fF]amily([\s_])[hH]istory[\s_]([lL])ibrary" to "FamilySearch$1$2ibrary") |
m (Text replacement - "the Czech Republic" to "Czechia") |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
== Historical Background == | == Historical Background == | ||
By the end of the Middle Ages, ethnic Germans constituted a signficant minority of most Eastern European countries (the areas now known as Poland, the Baltics, Slovakia, | By the end of the Middle Ages, ethnic Germans constituted a signficant minority of most Eastern European countries (the areas now known as Poland, the Baltics, Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, and Romania). Russia's Germany minority arrived in later centuries and Bulgaria's German population was negligible. | ||
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the second wave of Germanic emigration into Eastern Europe and Russia occurred. Some of the reasons for this is that the 150 year Turkish occupation in Hungary gradually ended around 1700 and the Austrian emperors imported settlers of many nationalities to make empty villages productive again. Additionally, German expansion into Russia, outlying areas of Romania, and elsewhere occurred at the end of the 1700s and was the result of a general increase in European population. | In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the second wave of Germanic emigration into Eastern Europe and Russia occurred. Some of the reasons for this is that the 150 year Turkish occupation in Hungary gradually ended around 1700 and the Austrian emperors imported settlers of many nationalities to make empty villages productive again. Additionally, German expansion into Russia, outlying areas of Romania, and elsewhere occurred at the end of the 1700s and was the result of a general increase in European population. | ||
edits