Course information

The focus of this course is a general and comparative history of the Central European region in the 10th century. During the selected time the region underwent a serious complex of changes, that transformed the original pagan and pre-state formations of the Bohemian, Hungarian and other Slavic tribes to the three important state formations of Western Christian Europe. From the fall of the Moravian empire, the region was deeply influenced by the Hungarian invasion that lead to a practical Hungarian control of the Danube region for the three or four first decades of the new century. The second third of the century could be characterised as the rise of the new state formations together with the rise of the power of Ottonian Empire. During the 960s and 970s three respective realms were formed at the eastern border of the Ottonian Germanic state. The development of them was related to an institutional Christianisation and participation in the Ottonian project. Although the year of 1000 seems to be a certain peak of the development, it was actually the beginning of the end of this era. The further development of these new states was rather an unprepared move that lead to a huge crisis these three state formations underwent during the first three to four decades of the 11th century. Program: 1. Introduction, Geography, Post-Carolingian Central Europe 2. Point Zero: Fall of Great Moravia 3. The Beginning of the Century: Hungarian Hegemony 4. Rise of Ottonians, Bohemia Enters the Empire 5. Stabilisation of Central Europe in the Age of Otto the Great 6. Central European Realms of the 960s 7. Christianisation, Expansion, Crisis 8. On the Pathways to 1000, New System of the Realms 9. Year 1000: Legends and Facts 10. Comparative Approach to the Emergence of the State 11. Comparative Approach to the Christianisation 12. Economical History: How Expensive is to Establish the State