Editing History of Slovakia (section)

===Principality of Nitra===
{{Main|Principality of Nitra}}
[[File:Nitra moravia 833.png|thumb|right|alt=Map of Moravia and Nitra|A map presenting Moravia and the Principality of Nitra.]]

The ''[[Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum]]'', written around 870, narrates that [[Mojmir I of Moravia|Moimir]], the leader of the [[Great Moravia#|Moravians]], expelled one [[Pribina]], forcing him to cross (or come up) the Danube and join [[Radbod, Prefect of the Ostmark|Radbod]], who was the head of the [[March of Pannonia]] in the [[Carolingian Empire]] from around 830.{{sfn|Bowlus|2009|pp=314, 318}}{{sfn|Curta|2006|p=133}} Radbod presented Pribina to King [[Louis the German]] who ordered that Pribina be instructed in the Christian faith and baptised.{{sfn|Bowlus|2009|p=318}}{{sfn|Curta|2006|p=133}} Three of the eleven extant copies of the ''Conversio'' also contain an out of context statement which says that Adalram, who was [[Archbishop of Salzburg]] between 821 and 836, had once consecrated a church on Pribina's "estate at a place over the Danube called Nitrava".{{sfn|Bowlus|2009|p=319}} According to a widely accepted scholarly theory, "Nitrava" was identical with Nitra in present-day Slovakia{{sfn|Berend|Urbańczyk|Wiszewski|2013|p=56}} and the forced unification of Pribina's [[Principality of Nitra]] with Mojmir's Moravia gave rise to the development a new state "[[Great Moravia]]".{{sfn|Kirschbaum|1996|p=25}}

Between 800 and 832, a group of Slavic forthills in Slovakia quickly arose and disappeared.{{sfn|Třeštík|2001|p=135}} Archaeological research confirmed the fall of several important central forthills approximately around the time when Pribina was expelled, e.g. [[Pobedim]] or [[Čingov]].{{sfn|Rábik|Labanc|Tibenský|2013|p=14}} The lack of written sources does not allow to finally conclude if these events were caused by internal changes or by Moravian expansion.{{sfn|Třeštík|2001|p=135}} Pribina could be a ruler of an independent entity (the [[Principality of Nitra]]){{sfn|Kirschbaum|1996|p=25}} or in the case that Moravian expansion preceded his expulsion, he was a member of "Moravian" aristocracy.{{sfn|Třeštík|2001|p=135}}

Other historians write that [[Principality of Nitra#On the location of Pribina's Nitrava|Pribina's Nitrava cannot be identified with Nitra]].{{sfn|Berend|Urbańczyk|Wiszewski|2013|p=56}}{{sfn|Boba|1993|p=26}} Charles Bowlus says that a letter, written by [[Dietmar I, Archbishop of Salzburg|Theotmar]], [[Archbishop of Salzburg]] and his [[suffragan bishop]]s in about 900, strongly suggests that Nitra was only conquered by [[Svatopluk I of Moravia]] only in the 870s. However, according to Třeštík, this information can be explained as a reasonable mistake of the Frankish bishops who knew that the territory was in the past a separate "regnum" different from Moravia and because it was ruled by [[Svatopluk I of Moravia|Svatopluk I]], they incorrectly assumed that he also conquered it.{{sfn|Třeštík|2001|p=116}} According to archaeologist Béla Miklós Szőke, no source substantiates either the theory that Pribina was the head of an independent polity or the identification of Nitrava with Nitra.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Barotányi |first=Zoltán |title="Feltehetően nyugatra menekülnek" – Szőke Béla Miklós régész a magyarok bejöveteléről ["They allegedly flee for the West" - Archaeologist Béla Miklós Szőke on the arrival of the Hungarians] |journal=Magyar Narancs |volume=41 |date=9 October 2014|language=hu |url=http://magyarnarancs.hu/tudomany/feltehetoen-nyugatra-menekulnek-92063# |access-date=19 May 2015}}</ref>

Richard Marsina writes that the Slovak nation emerged in that principality during Pribina's reign.{{sfn|Kirschbaum|1996|p=25}} Regarding the 9th century, the archaeological researches successfully established a distinction between "9th-century Slavic-Moravian" and "steppe" burial horizons in Slovakia.{{sfn|Ota|2014|p=172}}