Losses in population were compensated by migration of Protestant settlers or refugees from Scotland, Salzburg (expulsion of Protestants 1731), France (Huguenot refugees after the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685), and especially from the counterreformed Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, including Polish brethren expelled from Poland in 1657.
Masuria became part of a newly created administrative province of East Prussia upon its creation in 1773.
Masurians referred to themselves during that period as "Polish Prussians" or as "Staroprusaki" (Old Prussians) During the Napoleonic Wars and Polish national liberation struggles, in 1807, several towns of northern and eastern Masuria were taken over by Polish troops under the command of generals Jan Henryk Dąbrowski and Józef Zajączek.
The name Masuria began to be used officially after new administrative reforms in Prussia after 1818.
The last group of refugees to emigrate to Masuria were the Russian Philipons (as 'Old Believers' opposed to the State Church) in 1830, when King Frederick William III of Prussia granted them asylum. After the death of Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia in 1618, his son-in-law John Sigismund, Margrave of Brandenburg, inherited the duchy (including Masuria), combining the two territories under a single dynasty and forming Brandenburg-Prussia.
Some Masurians showed considerable support for the Polish uprising in 1831, and maintained many contacts with Russian-held areas of Poland beyond the border of Prussia, the areas being connected by common culture and language; before the uprising people visited each other's country fairs and much trade took place, with smuggling also widespread Nevertheless, their Lutheran belief and a traditional adherence to the Prussian royal family kept Masurians and Poles separated.
Some early writers about Masurians - like Max Toeppen - postulated Masurians in general as mediators between German and Slav cultures. Germanisation policies in Masuria included various strategies, first and foremost they included attempts to propagate the German language and to eradicate the Polish (Masurian) language as much as possible; German became the obligatory language in schools from 1834 on.
The Lutheran churches and their vicars principally exerted their spiritual care in Masurian as concerned to Masurian mother tongue parishioners ==== Ethno-linguistic structure ==== Mother tongue of the inhabitants of Masuria, by county, during the first half of the 19th century: === German Empire === After the Unification of Germany into the German Empire in 1871, the last lessons that made use of the Polish language were removed from schools in 1872.
However, a minority of Masurians did exist who expressed Polish identity After 1871 there appeared resistance among the Masurians towards Germanisation efforts, the so-called Gromadki movement was formed which supported use of Polish language and came into conflict with German authorities; while most of its members viewed themselves as loyal to the Prussian state, a part of them joined the Pro-Polish faction of Masurians.
The Lutheran churches and their vicars principally exerted their spiritual care in Masurian as concerned to Masurian mother tongue parishioners ==== Ethno-linguistic structure ==== Mother tongue of the inhabitants of Masuria, by county, during the first half of the 19th century: === German Empire === After the Unification of Germany into the German Empire in 1871, the last lessons that made use of the Polish language were removed from schools in 1872.
The programme of Germanisation started to unite and mobilise Polish people in Polish-inhabited territories held by Germany including Masuria A Polish-oriented party, the Mazurska Partia Ludowa ("People's Party of Masuria"), was founded in 1897.
In 1910, the German language was reported by German authorities as used by 197,060, Polish by 30,121 and Masurian by 171,413.
After the plebiscite in German areas of Masuria attacks on Polish population commenced by German mobs, and Polish priests and politicians were driven from their homes After the plebiscite at least 10,000 Poles had to flee German held Masuria to Poland. === Polish Masuria — the Działdowo county === The region of Działdowo (Soldau), where according to the official German census of 1910 ethnic Germans formed a minority of 37.3%, was excluded from the plebiscite and became part of Poland.
So the province could be presented as - so called - 'purely German'; in reality the Masurian dialect was among bilinguals still in use. Throughout industrialisation in the late 19th century about 10 percent of the Masurian populace emigrated to the Ruhr Area, where about 180,000 Masurians lived in 1914.
Wattenscheid, Wanne and Gelsenkirchen were the centers of Masurian emigration and Gelsenkirchen-Schalke was even called Klein (little)-Ortelsburg before 1914.
Masurian newspapers like the Przyjaciel Ewangeliczny and the Gazeta Polska dla Ludu staropruskiego w Westfalii i na Mazurach but also the German language Altpreußische Zeitung were published. During World War I, the Battle of Tannenberg and the First and Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes between Imperial Germany and the Russian Empire took place within the borders of Masuria in 1914.
Masurians who expressed sympathy for Poland were deemed "national traitors" by German public opinion, especially after 1918 when the new Polish republic laid claims to, up to then German, areas inhabited by Polish speakers.
They were to be found as a majority in the villages around the capital Allenstein, the same were Polish cultural activism got hold between 1919 and 1932.
However, the last result may have been a result of politics at the time, the desire of the population to be German after the trauma evoked by 1920 plebiscite.
After the war, the League of Nations held the East Prussian plebiscite on 11 July 1920 to determine if the people of the southern districts of East Prussia wanted to remain within East Prussia or to join the Second Polish Republic.
In 1925, German authorities reported 40,869 inhabitants as having declared Masurian as their native tongue and 2,297 as Polish.
The Nazi Party, having absorbed the conservative one, became the strongest party already in the Masurian constituencies in the elections of 1930 and received its best results in the poorest areas of Masuria with the highest rate of Polish speakers.
Jerzy Lanc, a teacher and Polish national who had moved to Masuria in 1931 to establish a Polish school in Piassutten (Piasutno), died in his home of carbon monoxide poisoning, most likely murdered by local German nationalists.
They were to be found as a majority in the villages around the capital Allenstein, the same were Polish cultural activism got hold between 1919 and 1932.
Especially in the elections of 1932 and 1933 they reached up to 81 percent of votes in the district of Neidenburg and 80 percent in the district of Lyck.
in the 1932 elections the Polish Party received 147 votes in Masuria proper.
Especially in the elections of 1932 and 1933 they reached up to 81 percent of votes in the district of Neidenburg and 80 percent in the district of Lyck.
Within six years a new renaming would take place after Poland annexed Masuria in 1945. According to German author Andreas Kossert, Polish parties were financed and aided by the Polish government in Warsaw, and remained splintergroups without any political influence, e.g.
Over 50% of the population of Masuria died within the years 1656–1657, 23,000 were killed, another 80,000 died of diseases and famine, 3,400 people were enslaved and deported to Russia.^ Jacek Płosiński, Potop szwedzki na Podlasiu 1655-1657, Inforteditions Publishing, 2006.
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