In Slavic countries, the term Germanisation is often[quantify] understood to mean the process of acculturation of Slavic- and Baltic-language speakers – after conquest by or cultural contact with Germans in the early Middle Ages; especially the areas of modern southern Austria and eastern Germany to the line of the Elbe.[citation needed] In East Prussia, forced resettlement of the "Old" or "Baltic" Prussians by the Teutonic Order as well as acculturation by immigrants from various European countries – Poles, French and Germans – contributed to the eventual extinction of the Prussian language in the 17th century. Since the flight and expulsion of Germans from Central and Eastern Europe at the end of and after World War II, however, the process of Germanisation has been stopped or reversed in most of these territories.[citation needed]