The ties between Poland other countries also increased, as prospective students went abroad to University of Padua, University of Paris and other renown European academies. This was strengthened by other similar trends, as Poles traveled abroad, and foreigners visited Poland. The royal and ducal courts, through diplomatic missions and alliance-forming intermarriage, absorbed foreign cultural influences. Contacts between Polish royal court and those of neighbouring countries – Hungary, Bohemia, the Italian states, France, and the German States increased with time. Poland was also affected by the process of German colonization (Ostsiedlung). As German settlers migrated East, they brought various knowledge and customs (for example the Magdeburg laws). Germans often settled in towns, and thus Polish urban culture became similar to that of the Western Europe. Polish culture, influenced by the West, in turn radiated east, with one of the main consequences being the Polish-Lithuanian Union.