See also Duchy of Silesia.

The Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia () was an autonomous region of the Austrian Empire and part of the Kingdom of Bohemia. It is also known as Austrian Silesia (; ; ), and despite the official name it only included parts of Upper Silesia, while none of Lower Silesia was within its borders. It is largely coterminous with the region of Czech Silesia.

As part of the Kingdom of Bohemia, Silesia was inherited by the House of Habsburg in 1526 after the death of the Bohemian king, Louis II. The First Silesian War, part of the War of the Austrian Succession, was concluded in 1742 with the Treaty of Breslau, in which Silesia was divided. The Kingdom of Prussia received most of the territory, while a small part of southern Silesia remained with the Habsburg Monarchy as the Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia.

In 1918, the Austrian monarchy was abolished and the duchy was partly ceded to the newly-created state of Czechoslovakia, with the exception of Cieszyn Silesia, which was split in 1920 between Poland and Czechoslovakia. Smaller parts of the duchy also became a part of Poland and a part of former Prussian Silesia went to Czechoslovakia (the area of Hlu?ín).

Major towns

Towns with more than 5,000 people in 1880:

Demographics

Austrian Silesia (in yellow) in 1880

• 43 % - Germans
• 31 % - Poles
• 26 % - Czechs

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