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History
Although a Czechoslovak state did not emerge until 1918, its roots go back many centuries.
The earliest records of Slavic inhabitants in the modern republics of Czech and Slovakia
date from the fifth century C.E. The ancestors of the Czechs settled in present-day
Bohemia and Moravia, and those of the Slovaks in present-day Slovakia. The settlers
developed an agricultural economy and built circular villages called ?okroulice? that are
characteristic among Slavic groups.
The peaceful life of the Slavic tribes was shattered in the sixth
century by the invasion of the Avars, a people |
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of undetermined origin and language who established
a loosely connected empire between the Labe (Elbe) and Dnieper rivers. The Avars did not
conquer all the Slavic tribes in the area, but they subjugated some and conducted raids on
others. It was in response to the Avars that Samo ? a foreigner thought to be a Frankish
merchant ? unified some of the Slavic tribes and, in 625 C. E., established the empire of
Samo. Although the te-rritorial extent of the empire is not known, it was cen-tered in
Bohemia and is considered the first coherent Slavic political unit. The empire
disintegrated when Samo died in 658 C.E. |
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