High Middle Ages · Europe · War

1283

Teutonic Knights complete Prussian conquest

1283

After decades of bloody crusading, the Teutonic Order broke the last Old Prussian resistance. A brother state based at Marienburg rose to rule the Baltic shore, importing German peasants and converting or exterminating pagan tribes. Christianity arrived at the end of a long lance. The Old Prussian language and culture were so thoroughly obliterated that the Prussian name itself was appropriated by the German colonists who replaced them.