AHC:Silesia as a Belgium

Is it possible for Silesia and Lusatia to end up as a Belgium.

The Poles in Silesia are in the position as the Walloons
The Germans are in the Position of the Dutch
The Czechs and Lusatians are treated as a minority

Is this even possible, what POD is required?
 
Here is my idea.

belgianized_silesia___remake_by_kazumikikuchi-d94ix7r.png
 
How exactly would the polish be in the position of the Walloons? Historically the Germans were dominate in Silesia. (In Belgium historically the Walloons were the minority but the ones with political power, as opposed to the mostly rural Flemish)
 
How exactly would the polish be in the position of the Walloons? Historically the Germans were dominate in Silesia. (In Belgium historically the Walloons were the minority but the ones with political power, as opposed to the mostly rural Flemish)



My question is how..
 
I personally don't know how, but the most plausible way for a kingdom of Silesia to work properly would probably be German-dominant. (so if you're going that way change all the town names to their German equivalents). If you're not going for that, I dunno. The poles didn't really develop proto-industrial towns based on craftsmanship like the Germans did, so it would be really hard to justify a polish upper class. (Wallonia is (was) industrialized, while Flanders was rural, the German bit in Silesia was the most industrialized, the polish bit was rural) Most of that "mix race" area historically spoke German, enough that you shouldn't make the 2/3 west half in the mixed race bit anyway.

EDIT: never mind what I said about the mixed race bits, the map confused me >8(. The far left should be counted as German too (why is it mixed race?).
 
I personally don't know how, but the most plausible way for a kingdom of Silesia to work properly would probably be German-dominant. (so if you're going that way change all the town names to their German equivalents). If you're not going for that, I dunno. The poles didn't really develop proto-industrial towns based on craftsmanship like the Germans did, so it would be really hard to justify a polish upper class. (Wallonia is (was) industrialized, while Flanders was rural, the German bit in Silesia was the most industrialized, the polish bit was rural) Most of that "mix race" area historically spoke German, enough that you shouldn't make the 2/3 west half in the mixed race bit anyway.

EDIT: never mind what I said about the mixed race bits, the map confused me >8(. The far left should be counted as German too (why is it mixed race?).

The far left is bilingual due to the lusatian sorbs, perhaps if the Austrians imported more Poles to the Polish parts of Silesia, I think that is probable in some way since the Austrians can use the poles against the czechs.
 
The far left is bilingual due to the lusatian sorbs, perhaps if the Austrians imported more Poles to the Polish parts of Silesia, I think that is probable in some way since the Austrians can use the poles against the czechs.

There may not be any need to import them. It seems that in the early 19th century nearly all of Silesia east of Wrocław/Breslau was Polish-speaking. If the germanization under Prussian rule could be avoided, the western half of this area might not germanize as it did in OTL.
 
Also, it could be nice to have Silesia becoming independent the same way Belgium did: first we need to increase the slav population in both Bohemia-Moravia and second we need to make Silesia religiously different from Bohemia and last we need a nothern country like Scandinavian kingdom or Sweden to support the German aristocracy and manage to fuel a big rebellion. I know is not what kasumigenx asked but it resembles more Benelux, with a German/Walloon aristocracy being supported by Slavs/Dutch with the same religion against Slavs/Dutch of different one.
 
There may not be any need to import them. It seems that in the early 19th century nearly all of Silesia east of Wrocław/Breslau was Polish-speaking. If the germanization under Prussian rule could be avoided, the western half of this area might not germanize as it did in OTL.

The Problem is that those Poles are already a minority in Middle Silesia with Polish majority areas near the border of PLC, the area that had a Polish Majority is in Opole and Cieszyn, alot of the Poles in Silesia left because of the wars there.

Also, it could be nice to have Silesia becoming independent the same way Belgium did: first we need to increase the slav population in both Bohemia-Moravia and second we need to make Silesia religiously different from Bohemia and last we need a nothern country like Scandinavian kingdom or Sweden to support the German aristocracy and manage to fuel a big rebellion. I know is not what kasumigenx asked but it resembles more Benelux, with a German/Walloon aristocracy being supported by Slavs/Dutch with the same religion against Slavs/Dutch of different one.

A Silesia with a Catholic German Aristocracy and Polish Szlachta.

The Hussite Revolt in Silesia is anti-polish in character, we can maintain Protestantism in Silesia to be Anti-Polish in character, well the Protestant Poles are either nationalistic or germanophile but the Catholic Poles can be used against the Czechs and Protestant Germans.

We need to prevent the Szlachta in Silesia from leaving and encourage more Catholic Poles and Polish Catholic Szlachta to settle in Silesia in order to increase the Polish Population and perhaps we can also Polonize the Germans living in the areas where Poles live.


I think the Habsburgs did learn from their mistakes in Silesia in Galicia-Lodomeria, the Habsburgs became very kind to the Poles there.
 
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Wouldn't the polish speaking areas be silesian (slansk, add accents) speaking?

My family is from Silesia and apparently my very limited polish is actually silesian. Mutually understandablee, but still quite a difference.
 
Wouldn't the polish speaking areas be silesian (slansk, add accents) speaking?

My family is from Silesia and apparently my very limited polish is actually silesian. Mutually understandablee, but still quite a difference.

Yes, they would be speaking the silesian dialects..the Polish Silesians would play a similar role to the Wallonians in the Independent Silesian state.
 
Kas, what's with that jagged border south of Opava. Doesn't look right to me for some reason. Also, shouldn't the 'bilingual' and 'German community' bits be swapped?

there are also germans in the Czech and Polish community but they are a minority.
 
We still haven't found a good reason to have the poles be economically dominate over the Germans. They didn't otl because the Germans had a craftsman town tradition for centuries and the polish really didn't, so to remedy that a pod of 500+ years back would be needed. And I'm not sure that is what the challenge wants. Were the sorbs really that big of an ethnic group anyway?
 
We still haven't found a good reason to have the poles be economically dominate over the Germans. They didn't otl because the Germans had a craftsman town tradition for centuries and the polish really didn't, so to remedy that a pod of 500+ years back would be needed. And I'm not sure that is what the challenge wants. Were the sorbs really that big of an ethnic group anyway?
Personaly I would have the Germans dominate the Poles. Part of the reason that the Walloons dominate the Flemish was because French was far more prestiges than Dutch and because France was far more powerful and richer than the Netherlands was. The upper and middle classes in Belgium (including the Flemich upper class) looked towards France, not towards the Netherlands. Also Germany (however it would look in this timeline, probably split into several smaller countries that would not be able for various reasons to just annex Silesia) would probably support the German minority, which would be harder to do for Poland.

The most important way to change it would be for Poland to be more prestiges than "Germany". Maybe a 30-year war POD might help, which created a split between the protestant north and the catholic south, thus ending the HRE and create (several?) different cultural identities within that area (causing Lower Saxon to become its own seperate language). If you combine that with France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden eating up parts of Germany, while Poland remains an important power, I could see Polish as more prestiges.
 
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