History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 285

Pomerania, Western Prussia and Silesia continued inviting German settlers to their
territories.
The Thirty Years' War reduced the population of some largely German-speaking lands
by a third; e.g., prior to the war, 2.6 million people inhabited the Kingdom of Bohemia;
afterwards, there remained only approximately 1.55 million in the kingdom.
Nevertheless, as late as the 18th century, countryside people in search for land in
southwetsern Germany some Germans accepted invitations to settle as far away as
the southern Ukraine and the slopes of the Volga River. When, in the 17th and 18th
centuries, the eastern en southern parts of Eastern Prussian were depopulated by
wars and epidemies, colonizers from Gemany were not any longer available and the
Prussian dukes, later on kings, invited Lutheran Austrians, Poles (Mazurians) en
Lithuanians to settle in the empty regions. These col