Slavic

Concerning the name

Two assumptions are generally retained to explain the Slavic word . Remain to be seen which is the good one and if there would not be of it possibly a third:

most obvious and simplest consists in attaching the name to the Slavic old man slava , with the direction of famous , glory . In other words, the Slavic ones would have described themselves as glorious .
the other assumption leaves the Slavic old man slovo (= word, word), the Slavic ones being defined between them as those which can speak, whose language is comprehensible. This assumption is based in particular on the fact that in the Slavic languages the term designating a German is derived from an adjective meaning not-speaking : in Polish and Czech, the words niemy / němý means dumb , and Niemiec / Němec means German .

Always is it that the Slavic word is at the origin of the Slavonie, of the Slovakia and the Slovenia. It is also him which gave French slave (Latin medieval slavus , sclavus ), of many Slavic of the currently East-German, Czech and Polish countries having been reduced in Esclavage during the Early middle ages and in particular in the Carolingian Empire.

With the the Middle Ages, the Slavic ones constituted principalities and powerful kingdoms in Central Europe and Eastern Europe, of which some survive in another form today:

the Large-Moravie Czechoslovakian
the Russia kiévienne or Ruthénie
the kingdom of Poland
the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
the kingdom of Serbia

Origins: Protoslaves

The exact origin and the etymology of the name of Slavic remain dubious: the historical sources on their subject are abundant only from 10th and 11th centuries.

Concerning their ancestors, the majority of the Slavic historians agree to think that the first of them (the Protoslaves) could have been enlisted in the confederations of various other people in migration in the north of the Black Sea: there thus, it could have of Protoslaves among the Scythes and the Iranian Sarmates of the {{S mini|V|E}} with I er, among the Turkish-speaking Huns and the Iranian Alains (4th-5th century), finally among the German-speaking Goths (5th century) then among the Turkish-speaking Avars at 6th and the 7th century (for the latter, it is a certainty attested by the Byzantine chroniclers).

The original cradle of Protoslaves at the end of the Antiquité, if one believes of them archaeological testimonys which these nonGermanic populations left, could be located in the areas ranging between the sources of the the Vistula at the west, the Dniestr to the south, and the course of the Dniepr in the east. These areas of plain, located in Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland, which is those carry the oldest testimonys of a Slavic presence. One is unaware of until where this one extended towards north: certain historians limit it to current Bielorussia, others make it go up to a Saint-Pétersbourg-Moscow line.

With the S, part of Slavic migrates towards the west until the Elba and in the south and until the Carpates and with the the Danube, in the place of German (Goths, Vandales, Gépides, Lombards…) who had moved towards the Roman Empire of Occident. After the reign of Justinien, between 586 and 610, the Slavic ones of the the Danube, combined with the Avars arrived in 567, make irruption in the south of the river, reaching the Roman Empire of the East. They penetrate in the Balkans and reach the Adriatique. Towards 548, they are in Illyrie (in Carinthie, Istrie and Albania), causing the abandonment of the Eastern files . In the basin of the low-Danube and the Balkans, the Slavic ones settle massively in the plains populaires") said " Sclavenies" , of the name of Sclavènes) that gave them the Byzantine chroniclers. Certain Slavic settle to the heart of the Greece and of small groups arrived until in Anatolia, in certain Greek islands, to Italy (or they left patronyms like Schiavenno or Schiano) and even as far as Spain.

The reasons of the movement of Slavic towards the west and the south are the same ones as those of the migrations of the Mongolian : it is about the marked climatic cooling of, which caused all the “cruel migrations” since the borders of the Asia (where prevails during tens of decades, a terrible dryness with prolonged gel, attested by fossil pollens) and since the north of Europe (where the absence of summer caused detectable famines by the state of the people then buried).

Political structures

Enlarging the rows of other people of Iranian origin (the Sarmates), turco-Mongolian (Bulgarian ) or Germanic (the Goths), the old Slavic ones did not form yet, at the beginning, of the “nations” (with the medieval direction of the term).

Á the origin divided into many tribes, undoubtedly of modest size, the Slavic ones especially seem to have been peaceful. The basic unit was probably the family, and beyond this one, the regrouping in agro-pastoral village communities.

It is probably in contact with the foreign people that the Slavic ones discovered and adopted their political structures of the Middle Ages.

Formation of the first Slavic “States” (VIIe-XIe centuries)

At the 10th century, following the first and second waves of invasions " barbares" , the “Slavic field” reaches its historical extension (and maximum towards the west): the Slavic languages then start to diverge, having acquired during the invasions of the different characters making it possible to distinguish among them Western, southernmost and Eastern tribes (on the linguistic level).

The pressure of the Germanic People in north and the west (at the time Carolingian, the Francs stops them on Elba; at the time ottonienne, the Saxons start to extend towards the east), and that of the Peuples of the steppes in the east and the south seems to have put a term at the expansion of Slavic and to have fixed them in space.

The role of the evangelization of Slavic in the formation of their identity

Initiated at the same time since Byzance in the south, and since Rome in the west, the evangelization of the Slaves also extends from the beginning of the 9th century until worms the end 11th century essentially of them, at least.

The action of Cyrille and Méthode - the first having completed to bring to Slavic writing derived from the Greek : the Cyrillic alphabet - was that which had the most consequences.

Consequently, the Slavic ones of the west and part of Slavic of the south (Croatian , Slovenien and the Dalmates), which had embraced the catholic religion Christian defined by Rome, had a destiny political distinct from the other Slavic ones (of the east or south) which had embraced the primitive Christian religion, said " orthodoxe" , defined by the 4 other patriarchs (Jerusalem, Constantinople, Antioche and Alexandria, joined soon by Moscow).

Establishments and Slavic “States” of the Early middle ages

The political structures installation at the Early middle ages by the Slavic ones, or the people which framed them, did not last a long time and are rather little known. These " Sclavénies" were generally of small communities called Kniazats (or Canesats in the Latin chronicles), but sometimes also Banats (“autonomous Hungarian duchies”) or Woïwodies (“autonomous provinces” within other States, not to confuse with Voévodats Rumanian, whose name is also of Slavic origin, but which is principalities).

As for the majority of the people which took part in the invasions, the term of State sometimes conferred on these structures is contestable insofar as the khanats, kingdoms or principalities of this period, were quite far away from ancient LMBO publica , confusing under the same term the territories, the dependence of the men with regard to a personal capacity and the goods of this capacity.

The kingdom of the Handles on the Gift: a “state” protoslave

According to Procope de Césarée, Jordanès and Maurice the strategist, the first Slavic ones counted Vénètes, Wendes, the Sloveniens and the Handles. The latter, escaping the domination from the Goths from 3rd and 4th centuries thanks to the arrival from the Huns would have finally constituted a first State between Dniepr and the Don of 523 with 602. This one was crushed by the Avars, people of the steppes newcomer in the invasions " barbares".

The Slavic ones of Balkans

The beginnings of the Slavic presence in the Byzantine Empire probably date from the end of the 5th century, whereas the Antes arrive in current the Valachie and the Sloveniens in the Illyrie and the Roman Dalmatie.

Their incursions into the empire probably many but were spaced. The Handles ended up accepting the statute of federate and the Sloveniens had to start with helléniser.

Between the end of the 6th century and the beginning of the 7th century, the irruption of Avars comes to upset this relative stability, but it seems that the Slavic ones had started again their movements before: the Syrian chronicles go back to 551 mention one second wave of invasion which reaches the Aegean Sea. Á the end of the 6th century, Jean d' Éphèse writes that all Greece is occupied by the Slavic ones.

In any case, it is undoubtedly because of the invasion of Avars that the Danubian files is crossed again by the Slavic ones at the beginning of the 7th century: in 609, 617 and 619. In 617, the suburbs even of Constantinople are threatened.

But, it is especially in the Balkans that the latter will leave a particular print which persists until our days.

Sloveniens, the Serb ones and Croats of Illyrie and Dalmatie

Quickly majority on the demographic level - if one excludes the mountainous Albania and soils Valaques like Romania Planina close to Sarajevo -, the Slavic ones had transformed the Illyrie and the ancient Dalmatie at the 6th century.

Most Western of them, of the Sloveniens, who gave their name to the current Slovenia, were confronted with the Bavarois. The latter had to stop the Slavic expansion towards the west. Same the Sloveniens fell then under the domination from Avars at the 7th century. Their surface of initial distribution covered all the west of current Hungary (principalities of Pribina and Kozel).

From 610 with 641, they were released from Avars with the assistance from their neighbors, Croatian Serbes and :

the Croatian , which appear initially in Poland (" Croats blancs"), had been established in the south of the Save. They constituted a State bearing their name at the 9th century.
the Serbes, which appear initially in current Eastern Germany (" white Serbia "), had been established in the center and the east of the Illyrie, occupying of the enclaves at the sides of the Sloveniens as far as Eastern Greece.

Their languages were very close (the linguists call them " serbo-croates"). Other people slavophones, for certain missings, shared the remainder of old the Roman provinces: the Bosniates, the Carantaniens, the Doukliènes and the Narentanes on the Dalmatian coast. It should be noted that it circulates about the Slavic ones of the south of noesic” or “Indo-Aryan” assumptions historical known as the “which make go up their origins well before the appearance of the Slavic languages, and place them at the Caucasus or in current Iran: one finds in certain books (and sometimes on Wikipedia) of the references to oldest Aryan of the old Persian Empire or to wire of Noah.

The first Bulgarian kingdom (681 - 1018)

In 642, the Bulgarian initially Turkish-speaking - were attacked in the east by the Khazars, another Turkish-speaking people, but converted with the Judaism, established along the the Volga. Having ebbed towards the Byzantine Empire and having overcome the emperor Constantin IV Porphyrogénète, the Bulgarian Eastern ones were installed in Mésie Eastern on the Black Sea (close to Varna, in Bulgaria). There, they subjected the population already mainly trained of Slavons, of which they will end up adopting the language (the Macedonian and the Bulgarian current one derive both from the slavon).

Under the “reign” of their khan , Asparuch, the Bulgarian ones constituted a first kingdom, semi-Slavon, mid- Valaque by its population (681). The fusion which took place between Slavons of the plains, Valaques of the mountains, Bulgares of the aristocracy of Khân and Greeks of the coasts, was made with the profit of the language first, even if testimonys epigraphic show that many Bulgarian, Latin or Greek elements cultural survived at least until the 10th century. Religieusement, they were the Greeks who gave to the kingdom his orthodoxe Christian religion.

The new Empire thus made up was one of the most frightening rivals of Byzance. At the 9th century, two of its sovereigns, Boris Ier which accepted the baptism and took the name of Michel, then Siméon Large the even tried to take the title of Basileus . They failed, not without to have conquered the major part of the Balkan Peninsula. Finally, the emperor Basile II crushed the Bulgarian ones and took the title of Bulgaroctone (“massacror the Bulgarian ones”) In 1018, the Bulgarian Empire disappeared in spite of the efforts from his last sovereign, the Tzar (" César") Samuel.

The Slavic ones of Thessalie and Empire

The Slavic ones which “had slavisé” Greece at the beginning of the 7th century, among which were in particular Slovenien and Serbes ran up against the resistance of the Valaques (in Greek Vlahi) Latin and of Illyriens (Albanian).

Under Justinien II, then under its successors of the dynasty isaurienne (717 - 775), the Greeks regained the lost ground. Applying a Draconian policy, they off-set whole populations in north of the Danube (in particular of the Valaques) and in minor Asia (in particular of Slavons). these measurements were accompanied by the installation of new administrative structures in defensive matter: “topics”, at the same time military and civil districts controlled by “strategists”.

Thus, partly under the indirect action of Slavic and having lost its populations latinophones, the Roman Empire of the East transformed into Byzantine Empire, i.e. primarily Greek.

The Slavic ones of Central Europe

The Slavic Westerners undoubtedly reached the area of Dresden with the Sorabes at the 6th century: they have today still a local autonomy in Lusace, in Eastern Germany.

At their sides were then:

the Obodrites,
the Wendes,
Czech ,
Moravian ,
Slovak .

The Polanes (future Poles) followed towards the east, themselves close to the Drezvlianes (future Belorusses) close to the Vyatiches, established around Moscow) (future Russians).

Modest agglomerations, named gorods , grods or grads , were founded in great number everywhere where they were and are known for the period kiévienne.

The Kingdom of Samo (623 - 658)

The Slavic benches on the territories of old GDR, the current Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria, suffered at the 7th century from the domination from the Avars on the area and from the hostility from the Francs in the west: in 623, they revolted and elected commercial frankly named Samo like their chief. This quasi-State disappeared with dead from this last, towards 658.

The Large-Moravie (833 - 907)

After the Avars were crushed by the Francs (in the west), by the Bulgarian ones (in the east) and by the Moravians and the Slovak ones (in north), the principality of Moravie (as a Czech Republic Eastern and Slovakia Western current) increases initially principality of Nitrated (which included/understood Slovakia, Hungary of north, and the subcarpathic Ukraine), later of Bohemia (890-894) and the south of current Poland. Thus the Large-Moravie in was formed 833. This roughcast State “of strengthened cities and strong castles” (Denise Eckaute) had to fight the Saxons in north and the Bavarois in the south: it lasted less than one century in this form. The empire, directed by Mojmir I, Ratislav, Slavomir, Svatopluk (871-894) and Mojmir II, disappeared indeed in 907, due to internal quarrels and under the blows of the Hungarian tribes, the Magyars , recently arrived in the area since the Ukrainian steppe (Etelköz) located at the east of the Carpates.

It is in particular on the initiative of Ratislav that the missionaries Cyrille and Méthode were dispatched in 863 by the emperor Michel III for évangéliser the Slavic ones.

The Principality of Bohemia (end of the 9th century-11th century)

The kingdom of Bohemia was constituted around Prague at the end of the 9th century. The area, which had been attached to Large Moravie in 888/890 - 894 under the reign of Svatopluk, became a State tributary of the Francie Orientale in 895.

At the 10th century, the dynasty of the Premyslides affirmed there its capacity under the reign of Venceslas I {{er}} of Bohemia (921-935). Venceslas, confronted with powerful the Saxony, became the vassal one of Henri the Bird-catcher and placed himself under the protection of the pope in order to consolidate his capacity. Running up against the opposition of noble and its brother because of this policy which reinforced the central authority, it was killed by this last in 935 and became martyrdom at the end of the century.

The fratricide Boleslav and its successors, in particular Boleslav II (972 - 999), continued with less success the work of Venceslas, limited by the Saint Roman Empire, to which the principality belonged, and by the Polish power. Prague became one évêché in 973, Moravie current was conquered in 1019 and it is finally under the reign of Vratislav II (1061-1092) that the dynasty obtained in 1089 the crown of the hands of the emperor Henri IV to have taken its party at the time of the quarrel of the nominations (1075-1122) with the pope.

The kingdom of Gniezno (10th century)

Shortly after the middle of the 10th century was also formed the first Polish “State” around Gniezno, under the reign of Miesko Ier (or Mieszko , 920 - 992) which took the title of king, accepted the baptism and married the sister of the duke of Bohemia, Boleslas Ier, in 966. Thus, it chooses to marry the Christianity directly of Rome to avoid falling under the domination saxonne.

Miezko had been intended with the margrave Saxon Gero (death in 965) to subject the Slavic ones of the Baltic. Having unified the Slavic ones of the Vistula, it could benefit successively from the crushing of the Magyars by Otton I {{er}} with the Lechfeld (955), then Italian defeat of Otton II with the course Colonne (982), just like its successors would benefit from the weakening of the Hohenstaufen at the 11th century, to make recognize its royalty by the emperor and to constitute a Polish kingdom which was going to extend from Gdańsk to Cracow.

Populate slavized

The slavized people are:

the Serb ones of Iranian origin (srbinda (rig veda))(sarban (Afghanistan), sirbika (Iran), serboisarmate (the Caucasus), Serb white (Allegmane of the Lusace North-East), Serb (Balkans)) slavized with the 6em century in Germany of the North-East lusace

Croats of origin undoubtedly Iranian at the same time as Serb the

the Bulgarian ones of origin tatar-Mongolian

See too

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