Teschen

Teschen (tĕ`shən), Czech Tĕšín, Pol. Cieszyn, former principality (c.850 sq mi/2,200 sq km), now divided between the Czech Republic and Poland. Teschen was its chief town. A part of Silesia, the principality was under Bohemia from 1292 to 1625, when it came under Hapsburg rule. It remained part of Austria until 1918. Its important coal mines (the Karviná basin) and iron deposits and its strategic concentration of several major rail lines made it an object of dispute between Poland and Czechoslovakia, each of which claimed Teschen on ethnic grounds. After World War I the Conference of Ambassadors, a body formed to help implement the Versailles Treaty, divided (1920) Teschen, giving the western section, including the Karviná basin, to Czechoslovakia and the eastern agricultural section to Poland. The town of Teschen also was divided into a Polish section, Cieszyn, and a Czech section, Ceský Tĕšín. Poland, however, continued to claim the Czech section and seized it (Oct., 1938) after the Munich Pact. During World War II the entire region was annexed to Germany, but in 1945 the status quo as of 1920 was restored despite Polish claims.

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Teschen

Former eastern European duchy. It was originally a principality linked to the Polish duchy of Silesia, and passed in 1526 to the Habsburgs. Though most of Silesia was seized by Prussia in 1742, Teschen remained under Habsburg rule until the end of World War I. In 1920 Poland and Czechoslovakia contested and then divided the region; Poland received the eastern district, including the city of Teschen (now Cieszyn), while Czechoslovakia received the rest. The Czechs were forced to cede their section to Poland in 1938. Germany occupied the entire region until after World War II, when the 1920 borders were restored.