ABSTRACT
The German settlement was preceded in some areas by military conquest and the ejection of the indigenous population. Elsewhere, however, it was the native princes who invited in settlers and even expelled part of the indigenous population to make way for the newcomers. The German settlement affected not only the rural economy but prompted an intensification of urban growth. Although often founded on the top of earlier settlements, German towns were larger and were locked into a network of trading relations with merchant communities farther west. Although the impact of the German settlement on the lands of Central and Eastern Europe was immense, interpretations of it have been varied. The rulers of Central and Eastern Europe frequently employed church institutions to found the earliest German settlements. Monasteries, convents and chapters were allocated land, often in deserted frontier regions, on condition that they cleared and cultivated the new properties.
