Podlasie w świetle współczesnych badań nad geografią historyczną Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego (do 1569 r.)

Historical geography, treated as a separate auxiliary science of history, gives historians the opportunity to recreate the past of a specific region in the field of settlement and economic activity of people, as well as territorial changes of states and their administrative divisions. It should be emphasized that the development of Podlasie in terms of settlement and economics, especially politics, was inseparably connected with the conditions of the local geographical environment. Their reconstruction, especially in term of the natural landscape of the region, is the starting point for any consideration of the historical geography of the area (similar to other areas subjected to historical analyses) leading through the reconstruction of the cultural landscape to reconstruct its historical and political landscape. It is therefore the initial stage of any research on the settlement, economy and political history of the region, and is quite often omitted in the analyses carried out by historians. The subject of the article is a wide panorama of contemporary achievements of researchers focusing their interest on the reconstruction of the historical and geographical landscape of Podlasie until the end of the 16th century with a particular emphasis on the natural landscape and an outline of research postulates in relation to the region’s analysis of the landscape. This will make it possible to complement its unique past characteristic of the borderland, a crucible in which nations, cultures and religions were mixed together, creating a unique social, political and economic structure.