Slavic

Slavic peoples appear in Byzantine records as the Sclaveni and Antes in the early sixth century, and by the seventh Slavs held much of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. By the twelfth century the East Slavs lived in Kievan Rus', the West Slavs in Bohemia, Moravia and Poland, and the South Slavs in Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia.

In 1237 the Mongols began their conquest of the Rus' principalities, and Moscow later rose to lead the northeast. In the Balkans the Ottomans overran Serbia and Bosnia in the fifteenth century, and the Czech lands passed to the Habsburgs in 1526.