before we start talking about the Slavic
migration to the Balkans during the
fifth and sixth century we have to look
at the area prior to their arrival most
of the Balkans have always been kind of
poorly settled into its mountains and
thick forests the cities and towns that
did exist were either by major inland
routes or the sea the towns below the
slide were a larger Greek worse the
town's a bullet had more mixed
population for example the towns near
the sea were very much Latin as opposed
to the towns which are more inland these
probably still spoke Latin as it was the
main trading language in the area but
they were mostly made up of Illyria 3sh
and Dacia and the remnants is of some
Germanic tribes however when the area
came under the control of the Byzantines
even the northern city started to get
more Hell diced and I we covered the
cities let's look at the countryside but
little of it was populated was mostly
either by the descendants of retired
Roman soldiers which oftentimes at the
end of their service were given land in
the Balkan region and or Illyrians
Thracians dashians Greeks and again some
remnants of Germanic tribes and even
though this may seem like a lot of
people numbers-wise it truly wasn't
there was also no clear predominant
division between these farming
settlements it would be completely
common to find Valley with illyrian
farmers next to a valley of Germanic
farmers next to two more valleys that
were not settled it is also reasonable
to assume that all these people
intermingled in one way or another
creating a small but diverse population
furthermore the reason why the Balkans
were so poorly settled and had a low
economic development was because of its
geography as mentioned before due to the
mountainous and forested nature of the
area and its location right next to the
Pannonian plain meant that many nomadic
tribes could easily right into the
region and then quickly retreat before
any kind of defense could be mounted as
it took a long time to transport troops
in the region now that we have a small
understanding of the area let's look at
the Slavic migration into the Balkans
prior to their main arrival in the 6th
century the Balkans suffered major raids
from the germanic and henyk tribes we
have written records stating that small
towns were abandoned roads were
destroyed and a large chunk of the
population fled the remaining people in
the area lived in sizeable fortified
towns which were mostly left alone
during the raid it is possible that some
Slavs came to the Balkans with these
Germanic and hunting tribes as early as
the 3rd century but even with
that it would be a very small percentage
the main wave of the Slavs came during
the sixth century continuing into the
seventh the migration went either
through the lower Danube region however
due to a more direct Byzantine control
of that area and the fact that it was
more populated as it was largely spared
during the rating period meant that this
wasn't a popular spot of crossing for
the slaves that is why the majority of
the Slavic tribes went through the
Moravian and Zeppelin passes into the
Pannonian Basin and then into the
Balkans now it is important to
understand that this Slavic migration
didn't happen at once it was more than a
century long affair of migration with
intertwine larger and smaller waves of
settlers coming into the region so why
didn't the Byzantines stop the Slavs
well there are multiple reasons why the
Byzantines didn't protect the Balkans
from the Slavic settlers even though it
was under their control first it was
because the Slavs loved the towns and
cities alone settling in the countryside
that wasn't either populated in the
first place or was abandoned due to the
raids this happened on such a large
scale that procopius and other writers
mentioned that cities in the balkans
were like islands in a slavic sea so to
the Byzantines there was nothing really
to protect since the Slavs were taking
up area that was empty in the first
place this also meant that some
Byzantines were happy with the Slavs as
they were rebuilding and resettling the
area that was destroyed before second
reason why the Byzantines didn't stop
the Slavs was because during much of the
early Slavic migration Justinian was
busy reconquering
Italy and even if they had some free
armies to fight the Slavs for copious
rights that it was almost impossible as
if the Byzantines defeated or made a
pact with one tribe the arrangement was
valid for just one small group and had
no effect on any other tribe the Slavic
disunity can be seen in the various ways
they settled the Balkans the first wave
of the Slavs were mostly peaceful
settlers minding their own business but
after them in the 560 Slavic tribes
living outside of the Byzantine Empire
held frequently raids that went as far
as north and Greece and since there were
already some slobs living in the Balkans
it was obvious that many Slavic tribes
didn't care much for each other fighting
between themselves as often as fighting
against others this yearly raids
culminated during the 500 70s and 80s
when avars came to Central Europe and
started to solidify their rule over the
Slavic tribes and
the area as such the stuff that we're
still living on the border with the
Byzantine Empire held much larger rates
into the Balkans than before we have an
account of one of these raised by John
of Ephesus but we know there were more
raids than just one these rates were
different than the ones prior to this
first because they were much larger
involving hundreds of thousands of
people and second after the raiding stop
instead of going back to the of our
controlled territory the Slavs just
stayed at the Balkans devar Stein wanted
to be left out from all the raiding also
started to raid the Balkans including
the newly settled Slavs all of this was
possible at the time because Byzantine
army was fighting the persons in the
east there were basically no soldiers
left to protect the western regions of
the Empire when the Persians were ended
in 591 Emperor Maryse finally could
address the 'var and Slavic problem in
the year 600 to manage to drove out the
Avars
along with some of the Slavs but the
majority of them have already settled
into a farming life in the area at this
point numbering hundreds of thousands if
not millions and even though the
Byzantines tried the age-old roman
tactic of resettling tribes throughout
the empire sending some Slavs to
Anatolia and even the Caucasus it didn't
prove effective as these were small
numbers compared to the actual Sabich
population of the Balkans at this point
during the seventh century as the wars
between the Avars & Byzantines continued
so did the constant flow of Slavic
people fleeing the American aid and
settling into the Balkans the north now
being almost completely Slavic and the
south starting to get more and more
settlements there were even some
accounts of Slavs trying to raid and
settle Greek islands it was also during
the stand on many cities and towns which
held out like islands to Slavic
assimilation started to be slowly
quote-unquote converted now it is
important to note that even though some
of these towns where militarily
conquered most of them were just
peaceful they assimilated over time into
the much larger Slavic population it is
also important to recognize that during
this time there was also fighting and
power grabbing in the Balkans so even
though the recognized area of Byzantine
control was this there were lots of
autonomous area some of which still saw
themselves as part of the empire some of
which didn't sell which were subdued by
the Byzantines some of which were not
and then at the Avars for even more
complications
so the Balkans were in this constant
flux of uncertain political control by
various groups
by far the Byzantines usually ended up
having the upper hand in the end the
Vulcans now almost completely settled by
the Slavs formed a dialect continuum
this means that even though we are
certain the numerous Slavic tribes had
many different dialects they still can
understand each other and even though
this continuum still exists in a
different form to this day there are
clear differences from the one now to
the one in the early 7th century one of
these changes to this continuum was the
arrival of the crowds and the Serbs they
arrived around the early to middle 7th
century to find numerous Slavic tribes
already living in the Balkans where the
crowds and serbs came from is very much
still debated we know for sure they came
from the lands north of the Danube but
this is where all the Slavs in the
Balkans came from how are the specifics
of why they decided to come to the
Balkans and how they managed to become
so prominent in a sea of many different
Slavic tribes is still largely unknown
the likeliest origin is that the Serbs
and Croats just as many other Slavic
tribes were honoured a bar controlled
going into the seventh century they
didn't use the commotion and the
candidates and stability during the
Samos independence were to migrate into
a more favorable area and the Balkans
this theory is supported by the fact
that the formation of Samos kingdom
correlates with the days of our presumed
understanding of Serbian and Croatian
arrival into the Balkans it is also very
much possible that this wasn't just a
single one of migration by these two
groups and the trickle of Serbian and
Croatian people continued into the 8th
and 9th century once the two tribes
establish themselves they quickly
started to influence the people around
them which can be seen today by the fact
that the people in the area speak a
variation of the serbo-croatian language
also during this time some of the people
in this area migrated Northwest into
today Slovenia here they found Western
Slavic tribes from Moravia which came to
the area during the first Slavic wave in
the 6th century however more waves may
have occurred all the way to the fall of
Samos Empire this mix of Slavic tribes
resulted in a unique sylvania culture
and language which today is an e-2
Western Slavic nor serbo-croatian this
area was at start controlled by the
Byzantines then conquered by the avars
and briefly vassal eyes by Samos Kingdom
but when someone died large part of the
area fell back to the avars
nonetheless a small county Chaeronea
managed to remain independent partly due
to the natural mountainous protection
and
I related to the Frankish influence in
the area then in 745 being threatened by
the avars and most likely pressured by
the Bavarians the county first became
part of Bavaria and then annexed by the
ecology and Empire along with the lands
lost to the Avars
after the death of Sam Oh during the 8th
century Byzantine Scots herbs and avars
all had some sort of political flower
match within today serbo-croatian area
however due to the unreliable and sparse
written records there's nothing we can
say for certain about this area during
this time it is most likely that during
the struggle the Serbs and quads
established some political autonomy but
the extent of that autonomy is unknown
nevertheless we can presume that the
Serbian vast emitter which dynasty was
established and the precursor to the
Croatian touches of Pannonia and amatzia
may have started to form shape although
this wouldn't have been actual duchies
as feudalism still wasn't in the area
they would have been more of a coalition
of tribes trying to fight for autonomy
against the Avars Byzantines and other
surrounding tribes but while all of this
was happening there was another group
which shaped South Slavic history and
one we have more reliable sources about
the bull cars were a coalition of
nomadic turkic tribes originating
somewhere from Central Asia over time
this group also absorbed some Iranian
hunnic and other indo-european people
but their lifestyle remained very much
nomadic during the early 7th century
they inhabited the area of today's
eastern Ukraine but were under the
control of the Avars
that all started to change when the
Avars and sassanids made an entire
Byzantine alliance the Romans feeling
threatened quickly started to look for
allies of their own they made friends
with the powerful bull gardulla clan and
as a sign of friendship the clans and
some of its children to the Byzantine
Court one of these children was Kubrat
who was said to be a quick learner and
had great admiration for the Byzantines
while the Roman court Kubrat was said to
have converted to Christianity before
returning back home once Kubrat returned
he used what he learned from the Romans
and managed to unite the other bull
tribes under one banner promising to
freedom from the Avars
then presumably during the Byzantine
Sasson at war when avars were busy
raiding the Balkans Kubrat rebelled and
won quickly after this victory he
solidified his power and became the
ruler of what we call great Bulgaria
continuing on great Bulgaria
the Byzantines had a close relationship
and ku brats reign was very prosperous
for the Bulgarian people he eventually
died around 600 50s and 60s leaving the
kingdom to his sons with their distrust
of each other combined with the Khazar
aggression the brothers divided up the
kingdom and led their people to settle
different areas within Europe one of
these brothers Apsara who traveled along
the Black Sea quickly came into a
dispute with the Byzantines after a few
battles the most decisive one being the
battle uncle he managed to win and
settle the area of lower danube and 681
which is regarded as the foundation year
of modern bulgaria few years later
another brother of espero Cooper who
first went to the Pannonian plain and
became a Navarre vas who rebelled and
migrated with his people to an area of
modern-day Macedonia here after a few
battles he became a Byzantine vassal
around the end of six hundred and eighty
s and this is where all written records
about kokuboro and his people and
presumably settling and assimilating
into the Baku population this population
being overwhelmingly Slavic in fact the
Slavic population and the land settled
by the bull guards were so numerous that
after just two centuries the bulgar
language died off and what remains to
this day is a Bulgaria Macedonian Slavic
language but the Bulgars managed to
achieve in the next two centuries as
impressive and could easily have its own
video in a very brief way they
established the first volgar empire and
even though it had some setbacks on
occasion with some internal strife they
managed to expand into much of
southeastern europe by the 9th century
they accomplished this through carefully
crafted diplomatic actions numerous
military victories and expansion into
the former of our territory
this meant that Bulgaria stretched from
the Black Sea to pest from the kneestr
to the Ionian Sea but Bulgaria had a
problem it was still pagan and an
increasingly Christianized world war is
the first new that converting would
result in far better diplomatic
relations but he was already afraid of
the increasing Byzantine influence in
his realm so his first idea was to
convert to Roman Catholicism rather than
Eastern Orthodox powered esprit flirted
with Catholicism didn't last because in
864 Boris lost the war with the
Byzantines and in the peace treaty
agreed to convert to Eastern Orthodox
along with his people that
no one was happy as Boris didn't want to
increase Byzantine influence over
Bulgaria and the Bulgarian people didn't
want to change from their pagan beliefs
but Boris had a plan in mind
he quickly suppressed a rebellious
populace and then invited date cell
disciples of Cyril and Methodius which
were no longer welcomed in Moravia he
then ordered them to translate the Greek
liturgy into old Bulgarian using the
glycolytic alphabet this way Boris could
expel the Greek priest and replaced them
with his own Bulgarian priests all while
not breaking the treaty the clerics
quickly got to work but glycolytic
proved that ideal for old Bulgarians and
so the new Zurich alphabet based off of
the older Glagolitic was created from
their surelly quickly spread through the
Slavic Orthodox lands replacing
glycolytic as the main Slavic alphabet
although there were some continuous
reminiscence of the use of glycolytic
all the way to the 19th century mainly
in Croatian church services the
Bulgarian Golden Age wooden tower last
forever first my dear arrived at a tenth
century threatening the Bulgarian
borders second the new powerful Kiev a
nurse starts to take much Bulgarian
trade and influence and lastly the
continuous Byzantine hostility all
culminated in the Bulgarian vassal
ization by the Byzantines in the early
11th century going back to the end of
the eighth century in the serbo-croatian
region we're starting to gain more
sources which is correlated with the
arrival of Franks and Christianity into
the region we learn of vicious Slav of
Serbia the first reliable mention of a
ruler of the Serbian bus terminal which
dynasty starting in around 700 AD and
was most likely overseen and one way or
another by the Byzantines
we also learned a vicious level Croatia
or more precisely demacia who lived
around the same time and is most well
known for his early attempt of trying to
convert de mazia to Christianity and his
eventual defeat at the hands of the
Franks after rich Croatian demacia
became part of the Frankish Empire and
Croatian Pannonia became a vassal
so at the beginning of the ninth century
the area can have looked like this with
the Slavic lands being ruled by Slavic
rulers but overall very much under the
sphere of influence by the two major
powers at least until the u-dub it
became Duke of Pannonia and
10 he was rated by the Frankish Duke of
Friuli and after the Emperor Louis the
pious decided not to punish the Duke and
raged leaderless reveled in 819 he
quickly started to recruit allies most
notably from the slovenian caitanya
after making some initial gains to
triple armies of the Frankish king the
Duchy of Friuli and the Croatian demacia
which was now ruled by Brona the
successor of vicious love of demacia
proved to be overwhelming for a little
bit who lost an ADA in 22 and escaped to
the Serbian lands he was welcomed by the
successor of vicious love of Serbia
radoslav but Lee David had different
plans
he killed radoslav and tried to take
control of Serbia
what exactly happened after that we
don't know but presumably didn't go well
as lead of it in 1823 escaped Croatian
demacian our route by Luther missile but
Luther missile just as his predecessor
Brona was loyal to the Franks and so he
promptly killed a little bit ending the
croatian rebellion with that the
Frankish rule over Croatia was
solidified and the Croatian Serbian
border became to divide between the
Frankish sphere of influence and the
Byzantine sphere of influence which can
be kind of seen today in the division of
religion and alphabet in the Balkans
later on in Croatian Dom a theater
premiered the first to establish the
tripi me know which dynasty that ruled
Croatian totin 91 would successfully
gain autonomy by pulling the Byzantines
and franks off of each other however the
recognized autonomous kingdom of Croatia
wouldn't be established until the
demacian annexation of Croatian Pannonia
and 920 425 it was also during this time
that Catholics Church influence in the
area solidified and pagan practices over
all ended in Croatia and Serbia on the
other hand the succession crisis caused
by the debate was quickly solved by
blasting Mir who consolidated his power
in Serbia around 800 and 30s but still
remained under the influence of the
Byzantines he was also faced with the
problem of bulgar advancement towards
the Serbian lands but against all odds
defended his realm supposedly with no
Byzantine help during the rest of his
reign was Stephen consolidating his
power and managed to gain Serbian
independence from the Byzantines how
exactly he did that we have no written
sources about after his death in late
840 s his sons started a long succession
war which was won by multimeter
multimeter went on to oversee even more
successful campaigns
against the bull gars and also the
Christianization of the country into the
eastern orthodoxy and even though
there's countless of events I could talk
about going on from here or address your
comments of why I didn't talk about why
Croatia are white Serbia which are just
foundation myths I will leave it off
here with full cars starting there
Golden Age and ruling over there
macedonian brothers to serbs finally
independent from the byzantine relations
free from the Frankish sphere of
influence and Slovenian swell under
German control for a long time this is
not to say that all these lands were
just lobbying at this point there were
still most likely some remnants of Roman
Illyria and German etc settlements
however compared to the bigger overall
picture they were a small speck in the
bulk and Slovak political sphere please
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you can read my full script with sources
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there's more historical information and
clarification in the description my name
is Emma lazer and please join me next
time when I will look at the early
history of Eastern Slavs