Editing History of Slovakia (section)

===Great Moravia===
{{Main|Great Moravia}}

[[File:Great Moravia.svg|thumb|right|210px|Sure and disputed borders of Great Moravia under Svatopluk I (according to modern historians)]]

Moravia emerged along the borders of the Avars' territory.{{sfn|Berend|Urbańczyk|Wiszewski|2013|pp=55-56}} Great Moravia arose around 830 when [[Mojmir I of Moravia|Mojmír I]] unified the Slavic tribes settled north of the Danube and extended the Moravian supremacy over them.<ref name='Europe'>{{cite book | last1 = Angi | first1 = János | last2 = Bárány | first2 = Attila | last3 = Orosz  | first3 = István | last4 = Papp | first4 = Imre | last5 = Pósán | first5 = László | title = Európa a korai középkorban (3-11. század) ''(Europe in the Early Middle Ages - 3–11th centuries)'' | publisher = dup, Multiplex Media - Debrecen U. P. | year = 1997 | location = Debrecen | page = 360 | isbn = 978-963-04-9196-9}}</ref> When Mojmír I endeavoured to secede from the supremacy of the king of [[East Francia]] in 846, King [[Louis the German]] deposed him and assisted Mojmír's nephew, [[Rastislav of Moravia|Rastislav]] (846–870) in acquiring the throne.{{sfn|Kristó|1994|p=467}}

The new monarch pursued an independent policy: after stopping a Frankish attack in 855, he also sought to weaken influence of Frankish priests preaching in his realm. Rastislav asked the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine Emperor]] [[Michael III]] to send teachers who would interpret Christianity in the Slavic vernacular. Upon Rastislav's request, two brothers, Byzantine officials and missionaries [[Saints Cyril and Methodius]] came in 863. [[Saint Cyril the Philosopher|Cyril]] developed the [[Glagolitic alphabet|first Slavic alphabet]] and translated the Gospel into [[Old Church Slavonic]]. Rastislav was also preoccupied with the security and administration of his state. Numerous fortified castles built throughout the country are dated to his reign and some of them (''e.g.'', ''Dowina'' - [[Devín Castle]])<ref name='worldarcheology'>{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/00438243.1978.9979728|title=The Origins of Christianity in Slavonic Countries North of the Middle Danube Basin|journal=World Archaeology|year=1978|first=Josef|last=Poulik|volume=10|issue=2|pages=158–171}}</ref>{{sfn|Čaplovič|2000|pp=147-156}}<ref name="GoogleBooks-316474">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nY4jAAAAMAAJ&q=dowina+devin |title=Starosloviensky jazyk, Zväzok 1 |date=1978 |access-date=26 April 2014 |first=Ján |last=Stanislav}}</ref><ref name="GoogleBooks-5051532">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H7q4AAAAIAAJ&q=dowina+devin |title=Veľkomoravské záhady |isbn=978-80-2220195-7 |date=1990 |access-date=26 April 2014 |first=Milan |last=Ferko|publisher=Tatran }}</ref><ref name="GoogleBooks-8837506">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bvBNAAAAMAAJ&q=dowina+devin |title=Bratislavský hrad |isbn=978-80-8881100-8 |date=1995 |access-date=26 April 2014 |first1=Andrej |last1=Fiala |first2=Jana |last2=Šulcová |first3=Peter |last3=Krútky|publisher=Vydavatel̕stvo Alfa-Press }}</ref> are also mentioned in connection with Rastislav by Frankish chronicles.{{sfn|Kristó|1994|pp=167, 566}}<ref name="fulda">{{cite book| title =Annales Fuldenses, sive, Annales regni Francorum orientalis ab Einhardo, Ruodolfo, Meginhardo Fuldensibus, Seligenstadi, Fuldae, Mogontiaci conscripti cum continuationibus Ratisbonensi et Altahensibus / post editionem G.H. Pertzii recognovit Friderious Kurze; Accedunt Annales Fuldenses antiquissimi| publisher =Imprensis Bibliopolii Hahniani| year =1978| location =Hannover| url =http://www.medievalsources.co.uk/fulda.htm| access-date =26 February 2010| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20100226063634/http://www.medievalsources.co.uk/fulda.htm| archive-date =26 February 2010| url-status =dead| df =dmy-all}}."</ref>

During Rastislav's reign, the Principality of Nitra was given to his nephew Svätopluk as an appanage.{{sfn|Čaplovič|2000|pp=147-156}} The rebellious prince allied himself with the Franks and overthrew his uncle in 870. Similarly to his predecessor, Svätopluk I (871–894) assumed the title of the king (''rex''). During his reign, the Great Moravian Empire reached its greatest territorial extent, when not only present-day Moravia and Slovakia but also present-day northern and central Hungary, Lower Austria, Bohemia, Silesia, Lusatia, southern Poland and northern Serbia belonged to the empire, but the exact borders of his domains are still disputed by modern authors.<ref name="stefanovicova"/>{{sfn|Tóth|1998|p=199}} Svätopluk also withstood attacks of the seminomadic [[Hungarians|Hungarian]] tribes<ref name="Kirschbaum"/> and the [[First Bulgarian Empire|Bulgarian Empire]], although sometimes it was he who hired the Hungarians when waging war against East Francia.{{sfn|Benda|1981|p=51}}

In 880, [[Pope John VIII]] set up an independent ecclesiastical province in Great Moravia with Archbishop [[Saint Methodius of Thessaloniki|Methodius]] as its head. He also named the German cleric [[Wiching]] the Bishop of Nitra.

After the death of King Svätopluk in 894, his sons [[Mojmir II of Moravia|Mojmír II]] (894–906?) and [[Svatopluk II]] succeeded him as the King of Great Moravia and the Prince of Nitra respectively.{{sfn|Čaplovič|2000|pp=147-156}} However, they started to quarrel for domination of the whole empire. Weakened by an internal conflict as well as by constant warfare with Eastern Francia, Great Moravia lost most of its peripheral territories.

In the meantime, the Hungarian tribes, having suffered a defeat from the nomadic [[Pechenegs]], left their territories east of the Carpathian Mountains, invaded the Pannonian Basin and started to occupy the territory gradually around 896.{{sfn|Tóth|1998|pp=189–211}} Their armies' advance may have been promoted by continuous wars among the countries of the region whose rulers still hired them occasionally to intervene in their struggles.{{sfn|Kristó|1996|pp=84–85}}

Both Mojmír II and Svätopluk II probably died in battles with the Hungarians between 904 and 907 because their names are not mentioned in written sources after 906. In [[Battle of Bratislava|three battles]] (4–5 July and 9 August 907) near [[Battle of Pressburg#Location|Brezalauspurc]]<ref name="GoogleBooks-3191479">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3orG2yZ9mBkC&pg=PA23 |title=Slovak History |isbn=978-0-86516-444-4 |date=January 2002 |publisher=Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers |page=23 |author1=Viliam Cicaj |author2=Vladimir Seges |author3=Julius Bartl |author4=Dusan Skvarna |author5=Robert Letz |author6=Maria Kohutova}}</ref> (now Bratislava), the Hungarians routed [[Bavaria]]n armies. Historians traditionally put this year as the date of the breakup of the Great Moravian Empire.

Great Moravia left behind a lasting legacy in Central and Eastern Europe. The [[Glagolitic script]] and its successor [[Cyrillic]] were disseminated to other Slavic countries, charting a new path in their cultural development. The administrative system of Great Moravia may have influenced the development of the administration of the [[Kingdom of Hungary]].<ref>Kurhajcová, A. (2015). The representation of great moravia and its fall in Hungarian/Magyar historiography during the period of dualism. Codrul Cosminului, 21(2), 169-188.</ref>