Kociewie

Kociewie is an ethnocultural region in the eastern part of Tuchola Forest, in northern Poland, Pomerania, that is inhabited by the Kociewians. Its cultural capital is Starogard Gdański, the biggest town is Tczew, while other major towns include Świecie, and Pelplin. The region has about 250,000 inhabitants. It has well-developed industry and agriculture. Administratively, it is divided between the Pomeranian and Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeships.

Kociewie is bordered by the Chełmno Land in the south, Powiśle in the east, Kashubia and Żuławy Wiślane in the north, and other parts of historic Pomerania in the west.

Prehistory
The earliest inhabitants of what is now Kociewie are believed to have been from the Upper Paleolithic period. Evidence of the Linear Pottery culture has been unearthed in the region, and a neolithic settlement discovered at Barłożno. Archeological evidence from Tczew County indicates that the Kociewian lands were inhabited by people from the prehistoric Funnelbeaker culture. Later Iron Age settlements and cemeteries have also been uncovered in the same area.

Early history
The territory became part of the emerging Polish state in the 10th century during the rule of Mieszko I. Within the Kingdom of Poland and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth it formed part of the Pomeranian Voivodeship with the capital located in Skarszewy in Kociewie, and county seats located in Nowe, Skarszewy, Starogard, Świecie and Tczew. In the 16th and 17th centuries, there were instances of Scottish immigrants living in Gniew, Starogard Gdański and Tczew. In 1762–1765, Józef Wybicki, the author of the lyrics of the Polish national anthem, studied law at the court in Skarszewy. Following the First Partition of Poland in 1772, the region was annexed by Prussia.

19th century
The first known mention of the region in the historical record dates to 10 February 1807 when the name Gociewie was used in correspondence between Jan Henryk Dąbrowski and one of his Lieutenant colonels’ during the Greater Poland Uprising. Although, it is likely that the name Kociewie had been in use since the late Middle Ages.

In the mid-19 century the linguist Florian Ceynowa described the inhabitants of Kociewie; he named the people around Gniew and Pelplin as the Fetrów and Kociewiem respectively, distinguished by their melodic accents, who farmed pigs and horses. To their north were the Pola of the fields around Starogard Gdański.

In 1906–1907, Polish children in Kociewie joined the children school strikes against Germanisation that spread throughout the Prussian Partition of Poland. Following World War I, Poland regained independence and control of Kociewie.

World War II
Following the Nazi German invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, Kociewie was declared part of the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia on 8 October 1939, with its judicial institutions being incorporated into the German system of regional, national, and Higher National courts the following year. Under German occupation, the Polish population was subjected to various crimes, such as mass arrests, imprisonment, slave labor, expulsions, kidnapping of children, deportations to concentration camps and genocide, including the Intelligenzaktion. Major sites of massacres of Poles in the region included Szpęgawsk, Mniszek, Skarszewy and Grupa. The occupiers also murdered the patients of the psychiatric hospitals in Kocborowo (district of Starogard) and Świecie.

Genetics
In a 2013 study, Y-DNA haplogroups among the Polish population indigenous to Kociewie (n=158) were reported as follows:

56.3% R1a, 17.7% R1b, 8.2% I1, 7.6% I2, 3.8% E1b1b, 1.9% N1, 1.9% J and 2% of other haplogroups.

Culture
The region is rich in historic architecture of various styles, including Gothic, Baroque and Art Nouveau. Most notable Gothic landmarks are the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Pelplin and Gniew Castle. John III Sobieski often resided in Gniew as a local starost before he became King of Poland.

Main museums of the region include:
 * Vistula River Museum in Tczew, located in a pre-war agricultural machine factory where during World War II, a transit camp for Poles expelled from the region was established and operated by Nazi Germany.
 * Diocesan Museum in Pelplin, which contains one of the finest collections of medieval art in Poland, and the country's sole copy of the Gutenberg Bible.
 * Museum of Kociewie Land in Starogard Gdański with archaeological, ethnographic and historical collections, located in two medieval defensive towers.