The focus of this course is a general and comparative history of the Central European region in the 10th century.
During the selected time the region underwent a serious complex of changes, that transformed the original pagan and pre-state formations of the Bohemian, Hungarian and other Slavic tribes to the three important state formations of Western Christian Europe.
From the fall of the Moravian empire, the region was deeply influenced by the Hungarian invasion that lead to a practical Hungarian control of the Danube region for the three or four first decades of the new century. The second third of the century could be characterised as the rise of the new state formations together with the rise of the power of Ottonian Empire. During the 960s and 970s three respective realms were formed at the eastern border of the Ottonian Germanic state. The development of them was related to an institutional Christianisation and participation in the Ottonian project.
Although the year of 1000 seems to be a certain peak of the development, it was actually the beginning of the end of this era. The further development of these new states was rather an unprepared move that lead to a huge crisis these three state formations underwent during the first three to four decades of the 11th century.