Main information
The western part of the region historically belonged to the tribe of Wiślanie, and in the 10th century it was incorporated into the Polish state. The eastern part, along the Russian border, was long claimed by Russian dukes but was annexed to Poland during the 14th-century reign of Casimir III. During this period the grain and cloth trade flourished. Swedish, Saxon, Tatar, and Russian invasions in the 17th century, however, destabilized the region and crippled the economy. Following the Partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, and 1795), the whole area (known as Galicia) came under Austrian rule.
During the early 19th century Galicia was the poorest region of Poland. The impoverishment of the rural population and the division of land holdings led to a peasant revolt in 1846. In the late 19th century Galicia was granted autonomy. New roads and railway lines were built, and petroleum reserves near Krosno and Jasło were developed.
Nevertheless, abject poverty and overpopulation in rural areas fueled a wave of emigration to Germany and both North and South America (the so-called “Brazilian Rush”). Following the reestablishment of an independent Poland in 1918, the region was divided between Lwów (Lviv) and Cracow provinces. A number of large industrial plants were opened in Rzeszów, Mielec, Dębica, and Stalowa Wola, which operated as part of the Central Industrial District in the late 1930s and helped remedy the region’s severe unemployment problem. During World War II the Germans established a number of concentration and detention camps in the area. In addition, more than 140,000 people were deported to Germany to work as forced labourers. In the early postwar years the eastern portion of the province was the scene of fighting against the remnants of the Ukrainian Liberation Army, which sought to establish an independent Ukrainian state. In 1947 the Ukrainian and Ruthenian population was relocated to Silesia and to the territories gained from defeated Germany. The mass relocation resulted in the almost total depopulation of the lands in the Bieszczady and Lower Beskid mountains.
britannica.com; podkarpackahistoria.pl; krosno.lasy.gov.pl
