Slovenia 1200-1500






Carantania : Slavic settlement and Frankish conquest



According to traditional historiography, Carantania - Carniola, Carinthia and large parts of Styria - were settled by the Slav Carantanians in the late 6th century. These Slavs were pagans; remaining Roman settlements such as AGUNTUM were destroyed, christian communities erased. Recent publications stress the affinity between the (little known) language and culture of the Veneti and that of the early Slavs, identifying the Slovenians as the Veneti's descendants. The theory explaining the name Wends, Windish as deriving from Veneti may also be correct.
When Charlemagne campaigned against the Avars in 791 and 799, the area was annexed to the Frankish Kingdom, placed under Frankish counts, and christian mission begun. The area was placed under the dukes of Bavaria. Ecclesiastically, most of modern Slovenia came under the administration of the Patriarch of Aquileja. The FREISING MANUSCRIPTS contain the oldest texts written in Slovene; the language was used in religious services. Monks from Freising, Brixen and Salzburg participated in mission work in Slovenia; the aforelisted bishoprics acquired territory there.
In the Frankish partitions of 843/870/880, Carantania was allocated to the East Frankish Kingdom. In the 9th century, Slavic principalities, identified as Slovenian, were documented in the Pannonian plain (thus outside of present Slovenia), on the left bank of the Danube, such as the principalities of Privina (849-862) and of Koselj (Kozel, 862-876). In 895 the pagan Magyars (Hungarians) arrived in the Pannonian plain.





EXTERNAL
LINKS 		Ivan Tomasic, Veneti are the Beginning of the Slovenian Nation
A Brief History of Slovenia, by Stane Granda
History of Carinthia, Görz, Tirol, Steiermark and Krain, scroll down for Vindia - Indo European roots of Slovenian history by Dr. Jozko Savli (for the derivation Veneti-Wends)
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE F.W. Putzger, Historischer Atlas zur Welt- und Schweizer Geschichte, Aarau : Sauerländer 9th edition (1954) 1975


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on March 11th 2005

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