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| - For a long time, the history of Prussia was practically synonymous with that of the Teutonic Order. In 1227, the Teutonic Order came into the Kulmer Land (East Prussia, at the Vistula), after they had been thrown out of Transsylvania. In 1237, they united with the Livonian Brotherhood of the Sword. The OTL battle of Liegnitz (where many knights fell) never happened, so the Order hadn't to pay a high blood toll; OTOH, the stronger Russia also deterred them from attacking, so there never was an Alexander called Nevsky.
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| abstract
| - For a long time, the history of Prussia was practically synonymous with that of the Teutonic Order. In 1227, the Teutonic Order came into the Kulmer Land (East Prussia, at the Vistula), after they had been thrown out of Transsylvania. In 1237, they united with the Livonian Brotherhood of the Sword. The OTL battle of Liegnitz (where many knights fell) never happened, so the Order hadn't to pay a high blood toll; OTOH, the stronger Russia also deterred them from attacking, so there never was an Alexander called Nevsky. Since 1247, they interfered in the Hessian-Thuringian War of Succession, supporting Sophie of Brabant and her son Heinrich "the Child". 1254, they defeated and killed Count Otto I of Nassau, so his brother Walram II got all of Nassau. But most of their work was done in pagan Prussia and Lithuania. They were supported in this by Otakar Przemysl, after whom the city of Herzogsberg (at the site of OTL Königsberg) was named in 1255. For example, he helped them personally suppressing a big uprising of the Prussians in 1257. In 1260, the latter were subjugated. 1263, the (converted) Lithuanian leader Mindaugas was murdered by his own people, who became pagan again. The stronger settlement of Germans in Prussia made them feel threatened. Although they probably could've been quite successful if they had hidden in their dense forests, they dared to leave them and attack the Teutonic knights on their own turf. This only lead to their defeat. 1270, the Teutonic Knights decided to subjugate the Lithuanians too, as they had done with the Prussians. For a start, in 1277, Zemgale and Samogitia were conquered by them. All the time, the headquarter of the Order had still been in Akko, Palestine. Only after the fall of the Crusader States in 1281, they moved it from Akko to Venice, and in 1300 they went to Marienburg at the Vistula. 1289, all of Lithuania was subjugated and since then administered by the Teutonic Knights. Later, it would become the province of Littauen. At the moment, however, the Teutonic Knights were mostly restricted to the valley of Memel / Nyemen river. 1301, Poland started to feel threatened by the Order (which they had once called) and the Przemyslids. Boleslaw V tried to fight them to break free, so a coalition of the Teutonic Order, Bohemia, Moravia and the HRE under king Otto IV of Brandenburg formed against him. In 1308, the war between Germans and Poles didn't end in the latter's favor. In the peace, the Teutonic Order acquired Pommerellen (OTL West Prussia, the Poles also call it Eastern Pomerania), cutting Poland off from the sea.
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