According to archaeologists, the Gdańsk stronghold was built in the 980s by Mieszko I of Poland, after a series of wars against the local tribes. In 1997, the city celebrated the millennial anniversary of the year 997 when Saint Adalbert of Prague baptized the inhabitants of the town on behalf of Boleslaw the Brave of Poland. Gdańsk soon became the main centre of a splinter duchy known as Pomerelia, meaning the land by the sea. The most famous local ruler, Swantipolk II, granted an autonomy charter to the town in ca. 1235, which at the time had about 2,000 inhabitants. Eleven years prior, in 1224, the town had already developed an urban charter similar to that of Lübeck which obtained its municipal constitution (Lübisches Stadtrecht) in 1226. The governors of Pomerelia gradually gained more and more power and evolved into semi-independent dukes, and ruled the duchy independently until 1294. By 1308 the city had become a flourishing trading port with some 10,000 inhabitants, and on November 13, 1308, was seized by the Teutonic Order. This led to a series of wars between the Order and the Kingdom of Poland, ending with the Treaty of Kalisz (1343) when the Order acknowledged that it would hold Pomerania as an alm from the Polish king. Although it left the legal basis of their possession of the province in some doubt, the agreement permitted the foundation of the municipality in 1343 and the development of increased export of grain (especially wheat), timber, potas, tar, and other goods of forestry from Poland via the Vistula River trading routes. While under the control of the Teutonic Order, the city and its trade prospered, German migration increased, and the city became a full member of the Hanseatic League in 1361. A new war broke out in 1409, ending with the Battle of Grunwald (1410), and the city came willingly under the control of the Kingdom of Poland. A year later, with the first First Peace of Thorn, it returned to the Teutonic Order. In 1440, the city participated in the foundation of the Prussian Confederation which led to the Thirteen Years' War of independence from the Teutonic Order (1454-1466). This intermittent warfare ended on May 25, 1457, when the city received the privileges of an autonomous city within the Kingdom of Poland, granted by King Casimir IV the Jagiellonian.[10][11] Gaining free access for the first time to Polish markets, the seaport prospered while simultaneously trading with the other Hanseatic cities. After the Second Peace of Thorn (1466) and the incorporation of Royal Prussia by the Kingdom of Poland the warfare between the Polish crown and the Teutonic Order ended permanently, and the city continued to enjoy a large degree of internal autonomy (reconfirmed in 1577). The 16th and 17th centuries were a Golden Age for trade and culture of the city. Beside the German majority, the city was home to a large number of Poles, Jews, and Dutch. In addition, a number of Scotsmen took refuge or immigrated to and received citizenship in the city. During the Protestant Reformation, the German inhabitants adopted Lutheranism. The city suffered a slow economic decline due to the wars of the 18th century, when it was taken by the Russians after the Siege of Danzig in 1734. Danzig was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1793, but returned to the status of a free city in 1807-1815 amidst the Napoleonic Wars. Returned to Prussia afterward, the city became the capital of Regierungsbezirk Danzig within the province of West Prussia from 1815. The city's longest serving Regierungspräsident was Robert von Blumenthal, who held office from 1841, through the revolutions of 1848, until 1863. The city became part of the German Empire in 1871. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danzig