In March 1440 a Prussian Confederation (German Preussischer Bund, Polish: Związek Pruski) was organisation of cities, gentry and clergy of Prussia formed under the leadership of the Hanseatic cities Gdansk (Danzig), Elblag (Elbing), and Torun (Thorn). The cities and gentry of Prussia tried to obtain independence from the Teutonic Knights who, after the conquest of Prussia and PolishPomerania, had ruled the area for two hundred years. (although their legal status was questioned by the Polish kings).
In February 1454 the Prussian Confederation rose against the Teutonic order's rule, accepting the protection of king Casimir IV (Polish: Kazimierz IV) of Poland in return for a guarantee of their continued city rights and privileges for gentry. The resulting Thirteen Years' War ended in the Order's defeat and its surrender to the Polish crown (Second Treaty of Thorn, October 1466) of its rights over western Prussia. Eastern Prussia remained under the Knights' rule, but under the overlordship of the Polish king.
In 1440 Gdańsk participated in the foundation of the PrussianUnion which led to the Thirteen Years War (1454-1466) and the incorporation of Royal Prussia to the direct rule of the Polish Crown.
In contrast to the independent period, under the Prussian administration Gdańsk became a relatively unimportant city dominated by the military garrison and the administration officials.
Ten years later the Gdańsk Shipyard was the birthplace of the Solidarity trade union movement, whose opposition to the government led to the end of communist party rule (1989); Solidarity's leader Lech Wałęsa became the Polish president in 1990.
Prussian troops were accordingly marched into Holstein; and, the diet having on the 12th of April recognized the provisional government of Schleswig and commissioned Prussia to enforce its decrees, General Wrangel was ordered to occupy Schleswig also.
The negotiations broke down, however, on the refusal of Denmark to yield the principle of the indissoluble union with the Danish crown; on the 23rd of February the truce was at an end, and on the 3rd of April the war was renewed.
The Prussian police, indeed, developed an almost superhuman capacity for detecting optants: and since these pariahs were mingled indistinguishably with the mass of the people, no household and no business was safe from official inquisition.
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