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.
History
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.[1] 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.[2]
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.[5] Although, it is likely that the name Kociewie had been in use since the late Middle Ages.[6]
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.[7]
In 1906–1907, Polish children in Kociewie joined the children school strikes against Germanisation that spread throughout the Prussian Partition of Poland.[8] Following World War I, Poland regained independence and control of Kociewie.
World War II
Former Nazi German transit camp for Poles expelled from the region, now Vistula River Museum in Tczew
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.[13]
Museum of Kociewie Land in Starogard Gdański with archaeological, ethnographic and historical collections, located in two medieval defensive towers.[14]
^Wijaczka, Jacek (2010). "Szkoci". In Kopczyński, Michał; Tygielski, Wojciech (eds.). Pod wspólnym niebem. Narody dawnej Rzeczypospolitej (in Polish). Warszawa: Muzeum Historii Polski, Bellona. p. 202. ISBN978-83-11-11724-2.
^Korda, Krzysztof (2019). "Strajk szkolny na Kociewiu 1906–1907". Kociewski Magazyn Regionalny (in Polish). Vol. 2, no. 105. p. 5.
^Helmin, Maciej (2021). "The Organisation and Functioning of the Polish Justice System in the Districts of Tczew and Starogard Gdański in the Years 1945-1950: A Contribution to the History of the Justice System in Pomerania (Kociewie)". Biuletyn Stowarzyszenia Absolwentów i Przyjaciół Wydziału Prawa Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego. XVI (18 (2)): 107. doi:10.32084/sawp.2021.16.2-6. ISSN2719-3128.
^Wardzyńska, Maria (2009). Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion (in Polish). Warszawa: IPN. pp. 145–153, 167, 182.
