History /
Poles in the Napoleonic era [224]
In many parts of Lower Silesia the Polish were a majority rather than a minority before Frederic the Great.
Do you have any numbers?
Your explanation does not give any clue as to why germanization succeeded there, whereas it did not succed in Upper Silesia; the Polish-speaking area in Upper Silesia started even to expand westwards in the beginning of the 20th century to the great concern of the German authorities.
I can tell you the reason, the so called "germanization" by the mean Germans was neither as brutal as polish nationalists like to paint it.
Again, Prussia was an advanced state with many minorities. Under Prussia Poles grew from a mainly agrarian society to building up an urban middle class for the first time. They grew and prospered, not exactly a sign of brutal opression, isn't it.
Prussia invested heavily also in polish lands, build infrastructure, modernized, educated...name it.
But some Poles can't help themselves, for them Prussia had to be the demon.
For decades Poles immigrated into Prussia...millions wandered westwards, it can't have been that bad.
