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Prussia began its existence as a small territory in what is now northern Poland and the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia. The region was sparsely populated by the Prussi. It was an area which soon became subject to German colonization. By the time of its abolition it stretched across the North German Plain from the French, Belgian and Dutch borders on the west to the Lithuanian border and to territories which are now in eastern Poland. At its greatest extent before 1918 it included much of western Poland as well. For a period between 1795 and 1807 Prussia also controlled most of central Poland, including Warsaw.
Before its abolition Prussia included, as well as what might be called "Prussia proper" (the regions of West Prussia and East Prussia, which now lie in Poland and Russia), the regions of Pomerania, Silesia, Brandenburg, Lusatia, Province of Saxony (now state of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany) Hanover, Schleswig-Holstein, Westphalia, parts of Hesse, the Rhineland, and some small detached areas in the south such as Hohenzollern, the home of the Prussian ruling family. However there were some regions even in northern Germany that never became a part of Prussia, such as Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, and the Hanse city-states.
Being predominantly a north and east German state, Prussia had a large Protestant majority, although there were substantial Catholic populations in the Rhineland; also a number of districts East Prussia, Posen, Silesia and West Prussia had populations of predominantly Catholic Poles (and some areas, such as the East Prussian Ermland, of Catholic Germans). This in part explains why the Catholic south German states, especially Austria and Bavaria, resisted Prussian hegemony for so long. Despite its overwhelmingly German character, Prussia's annexations of Polish territory in the late 18th century brought with them a large and troublesome Polish minority. In 1918 most of Polish territories were returned to the newly reconstructed Polish state.
In 1226 Conrad of Mazovia invited a German order of crusading knights, the Order of the Teutonic Knights, from Transylvania to conquer the Prussian tribes on his borders. After struggling against more than a century of resistance from the Prussians they created a semi-independent state, which eventually came to control most of what are now Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as parts of northern Poland. From 1466, the Knights had to acknowledge the sovereignty of the King of Poland and Lithuania. In 1525 the Master of the Order became a Protestant, and converted part of the Order's territories into the Duchy of Prussia within the Kingdom of Poland.
(for more on Prussia's early history see Origins of Prussia, Prussia under the Teutonic Order, Prussian Confederation, Duchy of Prussia)
The territory of the Duchy was at this time confined to the area east of the mouth of the Vistula, near the present border between Poland and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. In 1618 the Duchy was inherited by the Elector John Sigismund of Brandenburg , who with approval of Polish crown was at the same time ruler of Prussia and Brandenburg, a German state centered on Berlin and ruled since the 15th century by the Hohenzollern dynasty. For Hohenzollern, the newly acquired state was very important, since it spread outside the reach of the Holy Roman Empire. This state, known as Brandenburg-Prussia, although divided into two parts separated by Polish territory, was steadily drawn out of the orbit of the declining Polish state. Under Frederick William, known as "the Great Elector," Prussia steadily acquired territories, including Magdeburg and enclaves west of the Rhine.
(for more on this period, see Brandenburg-Prussia and Royal Prussia)
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