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Countries > Czech Republic
Although a Czechoslovak state did not emerge until 1918, its
roots go back many centuries. The earliest records of Slavic inhabitants in
present-day Czechoslovakia date from the fifth century A.D. The ancestors of the
Czechs settled in present-day Bohemia and Moravia, and those of the Slovaks
settled in presentday Slovakia. The settlers developed an agricultural economy
and built the characteristically circular Slavic villages, the okroulice.
The peaceful life of the Slavic tribes was shattered in the sixth century by the
invasion of the Avars, a people of undetermined origin and language who
established a loosely connected empire between the Labe (Elbe) and Dnieper
rivers. The Avars did not conquer all the Slavic tribes in the area, but they
subjugated some of them and conducted raids on others. It was in response to the
Avars that Samo--a foreigner thought to be a Frankish merchant--unified some of
the Slavic tribes and in A.D. 625 established the empire of Samo. Although the
territorial extent of the empire is not known, it was centered in Bohemia and is
considered the first coherent Slavic political unit. The empire disintegrated
when Samo died in 658.
A more stable polity emerged in Moravia. The Czech tribes of Moravia helped
Charlemagne destroy the Avar Empire (ca. 796) and were rewarded by receiving
part of it as a fief. Although the Moravians paid tribute to Charlemagne, they
did enjoy considerable independence. Early in the ninth century, Mojmir--a
Slavic chief--formed the Moravian Kingdom. His two successors expanded its
domains to include Bohemia, Slovakia, southern Poland, and western Hungary. The
expanded kingdom became known as the Great Moravian Empire. Its importance to
Czechoslovak history is that it united in a single state the ancestors of the
Czechs and Slovaks.
The Great Moravian Empire was located at the crossroad of two civilizations: the
German lands in the West and Byzantium in the East. From the West the Franks (a
Germanic people) conducted destructive raids into Moravian territory, and German
priests and monks came to spread Christianity in its Roman form among the Slavs.
Mojmir and his fellow chiefs were baptized at Regensburg in modern-day Germany.
Rostislav (850-70), Mojmir's successor, feared the German influence as a threat
to his personal rule, however, and turned to Byzantium. At Rostislav's request,
Emperor Michael of Byzantium dispatched the monks Cyril and Methodius to the
Great Moravian Empire to introduce Eastern Christian rites and liturgy in the
Slavic language. A new Slavonic script, the Cyrillic alphabet, was devised.
Methodius was invested by the pope as archbishop of Moravia. But Svatopluk
(871-94), Rostislav's successor, chose to ally himself with the German clerics.
After the death of Methodius in 885, the Great Moravian Empire was drawn into
the sphere of influence of the Roman Catholic Church. As a result, the Czechs
and Slovaks adopted the Latin alphabet and became further differentiated from
the Eastern Slavs, who continued to use the Cyrillic alphabet and adhered to
Eastern Orthodoxy.
Renovation of the Charles Bridge in Prague, which began last
year in conjunction with the bridge's 650-year anniversary,
continues. The bridge, which connects the Old Town and Prague
Castle, remains open (and crossable) even during construction.
Eastern Europe somehow feels like a modernized Old World and a
new frontier all at once. Whether you're rambling the Riva or
strolling across Charles Bridge, fascinated by modern history or
marzipan, Eastern Europe is full of surprises for the
intentional traveler.
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