Moravia

Moravia (Czech: Morava, German: Mähren) is the eastern part of Czechia. Its historical capital is Brno.

It is named for one of the first groups of Slavs to come into the area, sometime around 600 AD, and the Morava river around which they settled.

One of the first known Moravian (German: mährisch) rulers was the merchant Samo[?] in around 623-658. Fredegar's "Chronicle" tells us that Samo was a Frankish merchant.

In the ninth century, the Moravian basin began to flourish. With its important north-south trade route, it came under the rule of the Princes Mojmír I[?] (830-846), Rostislav[?] (846-870), Svatopluk[?] (870-894) and Mojmír II[?] (894-904) who built a great empire. The Great Moravian Empire at its peak probably included current Czechia, Slovakia and parts of present day Austria and Hungary. It was during this period that Christianity came to the area. Rostislav asked the Byzantine Emperor to send people who could interpret the teaching of Christ in the Slavic vernacular. Two of the people sent, Cyril and Methodius, laid the foundation of the Slavonic script, and thus of Slavonic literature.

Greater Moravia was invaded by Arnulf of Carinthia, the East Frankish King, in 892. This had two main consequences. Firstly, it meant the end of an independent greater Moravia. Secondly, due to an accord made in 895 between Arnulf and the Duke of Bohemia, Borivoj[?], Bohemia was freed from the danger of invasion. Bohemia, ruled by descendants of Premysl, became an independent dukedom.

Invading Magyars destroyed the weakened empire around 906.