Editing Central Europe (section)

===Middle Ages and early modern period===
In the early Middle Ages, Central Europe had a diverse landscape, with various ethnic groups inhabiting the region. [[Germanic peoples|Germanic tribes]], among them the [[Franks]], [[Alemanni|Alemans]] and [[Bavarians]], were predominantly situated in the west, and [[List of early Slavic peoples|Slavic tribes]] were predominantly in the east.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Central Europe (including Germany), 500–1000 A.D. {{!}} Chronology {{!}} Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History {{!}} The Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/06/euwc.html#:~:text=Overview,Roman%20and%20Byzantine%20imperial%20power. |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History}}</ref> However, the region encompassed a wide spectrum of additional tribes and communities.

From the late 6th century to the early 9th century, the area roughly corresponding to the [[Pannonian Basin|Carpathian Basin]] was part of the Avar Khaganate, the realm of the [[Pannonian Avars]].<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Saag |first1=Lehti |last2=Staniuk |first2=Robert |date=2022 |title=Historical human migrations: From the steppe to the basin |url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10153156/9/Staniuk_2022_Saag&Staniuk_finaldraft.pdf |access-date=2024-01-03 |website=University College London |page=3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=1,400 years old mystery of origins of Avars elucidated with ancient DNA |url=https://www.elte.hu/en/content/1-400-years-old-mystery-of-origins-of-avars-elucidated-with-ancient-dna.t.2211 |access-date=2024-01-03 |website=Eötvös Loránd University}}</ref> While the Avars dominated the east of what is now Austria, its north and south were under Germanic and Slavic influence, respectively.<ref>{{Citation |last=Štih |first=P. |title=VII. The Carantanians – An Early Medieval Slavic Gens Between East And West |date=2010-01-01 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789004187702/Bej.9789004185913.i-463_009.xml |work=The Middle Ages between the Eastern Alps and the Northern Adriatic |pages=108–122 |access-date=2023-12-15 |publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-18770-2}}</ref> Meanwhile, the territories now comprising Germany and Switzerland were under the influence of the [[Merovingian dynasty]], and later the [[Carolingian dynasty]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Merovingian dynasty {{!}} Frankish Kings & Legacy|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Merovingian-dynasty |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=britannica.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Griffith |first=Michael |title=Carolingian Dynasty |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Carolingian_Dynasty/ |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=World History Encyclopedia}}</ref> Various Slavic tribes that inhabited eastern Central Europe established settlements during this period, primarily in present-day Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web |last=Kazanski |first=Michel |date=2020 |title=Archaeology of the Slavic Migrations |url=https://hal.science/hal-02902087/file/Kazanski_Archaeology-Slavic%20Migrations_2020.pdf}}</ref> The territory of Lithuania was inhabited by [[Balts|Baltic]] tribes. Amongst them were the [[Samogitians]], [[Lithuanians (tribe)|Lithuanians]] and [[Curonians]].<ref name=":14">{{Cite web |title=Samogitian {{!}} people|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Samogitian |access-date=2023-12-27 |website=britannica.com}}</ref>

The [[Holy Roman Empire]] was founded at the turn of the 9th century, following the coronation of [[Charlemagne]] by [[Pope Leo III]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Holy Roman Empire - Charlemagne, Coronation, Empire|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Holy-Roman-Empire/Coronation-of-Charlemagne-as-emperor |access-date=2023-12-26 |website=britannica.com}}</ref> At its inception, it incorporated present-day Germany and nearby regions, including parts of what is now Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Switzerland. Three decades later, [[Great Moravia]], centred on present-day Czech Republic and Slovakia, became one of the first West Slavic states to be founded in Central Europe. In the late 9th Century, the [[Magyar tribes|Hungarian tribes]], originating on the [[Asian Steppe]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Fóthi |first1=Erzsébet |last2=Gonzalez |first2=Angéla |last3=Fehér |first3=Tibor |last4=Gugora |first4=Ariana |last5=Fóthi |first5=Ábel |last6=Biró |first6=Orsolya |last7=Keyser |first7=Christine |date=January 2020 |title=Genetic analysis of male Hungarian Conquerors: European and Asian paternal lineages of the conquering Hungarian tribes |journal=Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences |language=en |volume=12 |issue=1 |page=31 |doi=10.1007/s12520-019-00996-0 |issn=1866-9557|doi-access=free |bibcode=2020ArAnS..12...31F }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Orsolya |first=Kuli |date=2024-04-02 |title=Egy fideszes képviselő megmondta: évszázadok óta tartó rejtély után kiderült, a magyarok tényleg leszármazottai-e a hunoknak |url=https://index.hu/tudomany/2024/04/02/kutatas-tanulmany-hunok-magyarsag/ |access-date=2025-02-13 |website=index.hu |language=hu}}</ref> settled in the Carpathian Basin and established the [[Principality of Hungary]].<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Cloet |first1=Pierre-Robert |last2=Legue |first2=Benedicte |last3=Martel |first3=Kerstin |date=2018 |title=Hungary |url=https://institutdelors.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/flag-anthem-hungary.pdf |website=Institut Jacques Delors}}</ref>

The earliest recorded concept of Europe as a cultural sphere, instead of simply a geographic term, was formed by [[Alcuin of York]] in the late 8th century during the [[Carolingian Renaissance]] and was limited to the territories that practised [[Western Christianity]] at the time. "European" as a cultural term did not include much of the territories in which the Orthodox Church represented the dominant religion until the 19th century.<ref>{{cite book |author=Sanjay Kumar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iGc9EAAAQBAJ |title=A Handbook of Political Geography |publisher=K.K. Publications |year=2021 |pages=125–127}}</ref>

Following the Christianization of various Central European countries, elements of cultural unity emerged within the region, specifically [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]] and [[Latin]]. Eastern Europe remained [[Eastern Orthodox]], and was dominated by [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] cultural influence. After the [[East–West Schism]] in 1054, significant parts of Eastern Europe developed cultural unity and resistance to Catholic Western and Central Europe within the framework of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]], [[Church Slavonic]] and the [[Cyrillic alphabet]].{{sfn|Magocsi|2002|loc=chapter 11}}<ref name="Greyerz">{{cite book |title=Religion and Culture in Early Modern Europe |author=Kasper von Greyerz |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SmEpMnfYZ-oC&q=%22all+of+central+Europe%22 |isbn=978-0-19-804384-3 |pages=38– |date=2007 }}</ref><ref name="Sedlar">{{cite book |title=East Central Europe in the Middle Ages, 1000–1500 |author=Jean W Sedlar |publisher=University of Washington Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3o5lrvuwOVwC&q=%22estrangement+to+be+permanent%22 |isbn=0-295-97291-2 |pages=161– |year=1994 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://biblio.hiu.cas.cz/documents/161327|trans-title=The shape of Europe. The spirit of unity through culture in the eve of Modern Europe|title=Uspořádání Evropy – duch kulturní jednoty na prahu vzniku novověké Evropy|language=cs|url-access=registration |last=Dumitran|first=Adriana|year=2010|location=[[Czech Republic]]|publisher=Bibliography of the History of the Czech Lands, The Institute of History, [[Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic]]}}</ref>

<gallery mode="center">
Francia 814.svg|[[Frankish Empire]] and its [[Tributary state|tributaries]] in 814
East Francia 843.svg|[[East Francia]] in 843
Great moravia svatopluk.png|Possible furthest extent of [[Great Moravia]] under [[Svatopluk I]] (870–894)
Duchy of Poland 1000.svg|[[History of Poland during the Piast dynasty|Duchy of Poland]] under the [[Piast dynasty]] in 1000
Duchy of Bohemia 1000.svg|[[Duchy of Bohemia]] (Czech Duchy) in 1000
Kingdom of Germany 1004.svg|[[Kingdom of Germany]] in 1004
Kingdom of Hungary 1190.svg|[[Kingdom of Hungary]] in 1190
Croatia 1260.png|[[Croatia in personal union with Hungary|Kingdom of Croatia]] in 1260
Holy Roman Empire (c. 1600).svg|[[Holy Roman Empire]] in 1600
Map of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1619–1621).png|[[Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth]] and its [[fief]]s in 1619
</gallery>

According to the historian [[Jenő Szűcs]], Central Europe at the end of the 1st millennium became influenced by Western European developments. Szűcs argued that between the 11th and 15th centuries, Christianization influenced the cultures within Central Europe, and well-defined social features were also implemented in the region based on Western characteristics. The keyword of Western social development after the turn of the millennium was the spread of [[Magdeburg rights]] in some cities and towns of Western Europe. They began to spread in the mid-13th century in Central European countries and brought about self-governments of towns and counties.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://unipub.lib.uni-corvinus.hu/1162/1/Zsinka_2013b.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://unipub.lib.uni-corvinus.hu/1162/1/Zsinka_2013b.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|author=László Zsinka|title=Similarities and Differences in Polish and Hungarian History|access-date=15 January 2015}}</ref>

In 1335, the [[King of Poland|Kings of Poland]], [[King of Bohemia|Bohemia]] and [[Charles I of Hungary|Hungary and Croatia]] met in the castle of [[Visegrád]]<ref name=Halman /> and agreed to cooperate closely in the field of politics and commerce. That has inspired the post-[[Cold War]] [[Visegrád Group]].<ref name=Halman>{{cite book|last=Halman|first=Loek|author2=Wilhelmus Antonius Arts|title=European values at the turn of the millennium|url=https://archive.org/details/europeanvaluesat00arts|url-access=limited|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=2004|page=[https://archive.org/details/europeanvaluesat00arts/page/n145 120]|isbn=978-90-04-13981-7}}</ref>

In 1386, [[Władysław II Jagiełło|Jogaila]], the [[Grand Duke of Lithuania]], converted to Christianity (specifically Catholicism) and subsequently became King of Poland through marriage to [[Jadwiga of Poland|Queen Jadwiga of Poland]]. That initiated the [[Christianization of Lithuania]] and resulted in the [[Union of Krewo]], signifying a personal union between the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]] and the Kingdom of Poland. The union commenced an enduring political alliance between the two entities and laid the foundations for the later establishment of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Frost |first=Robert |title=The Oxford history of Poland-Lithuania. Volume 1: The making of the Polish-Lithuanian Union, 1385-1569 |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-19-880020-0 |edition=First published in paperback |location=Oxford |pages=47–57 |chapter=5}}</ref>

Between the 15th and the early 16th centuries, the Kingdom of Croatia, which was then in [[Croatia in personal union with Hungary|personal union]] with the Kingdom of Hungary, served as a significant maritime gateway of Central Europe, with its ports facilitating key trade routes between Central Europe and the Mediterranean.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Krekić |first=Bariša |title=Dubrovnik in the 14th and 15th centuries: a city between East and West |date=1972 |publisher=Univ. of Oklahama Press |isbn=978-0-8061-0999-2 |series=Centers of civilization series |location=Norman}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Dubrovnik |url=https://www.adrijo.eu/en/port/dubrovnik |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=Remember Adrijo}}</ref> The [[Republic of Ragusa]] emerged as a prominent hub for cultural exchange during this time.<ref name=":12" /> Following the Ottoman and Habsburg wars of the 16th and 17th centuries, the Kingdom of Croatia, [[Kingdom of Croatia (Habsburg)|under Habsburg rule]], began to regain its position as a significant trade route, restoring ports and revitalising commercial activity.