German Texan
German Texan is both a term to describe immigrants who arrived in the Republic of Texas from Germany from the 1830s onward and an ethnic category which includes their descendants in today's state of Texas. The arriving Germans tended to cluster in ethnic enclaves; as of 1990, about three million Texans considered themselves at least part ethnic German, a subgroup of German Americans. Emigration in force began during the period of the Republic of Texas following the establishment in 1842 of the Adelsverein by a group of Germans dedicated to colonizing Texas; the Adelsverein helped establish German colonies throughout the state, including purchasing the Fisher–Miller Land Grant, some 5000 square-miles between the Colorado and Llano Rivers. In 1847, John O. Meusebach, acting as commissioner of the Adelsverein, negotiated the Meusebach–Comanche Treaty to settle German colonists on the land grant, it remains the only unbroken treaty between Native Americans. A large portion of the early settlers following statehood were Forty-Eighters, emigres from the Revolutions of 1848 who dispersed into areas of Central Texas.
After generations, German Texans spoke what became known as Texas German, a German language dialect, tied to the historic period of highest immigration. In Germany, the language developed differently than it did among the isolated ethnic colony in the US; the dialect has died out since the First and Second World Wars, as have many US German dialects. After a period of ethnic activism during the 1850s, Civil War and Reconstruction, the Germans lived in relative obscurity as teachers, civil servants, musicians and ranchers, they founded the towns of Bulverde, New Braunfels, Fredericksburg and Comfort in Texas Hill Country, Schulenburg and Weimar to the east. German-American cultural institutions in Texas include the Sophienburg Museum in New Braunfels, the Pioneer Museum in Fredericksburg, the Witte-Schmid Haus Museum in Austin County, the German-Texan Heritage Society, the Texas German Society. List of German Texans Texas German History of Fredericksburg, Texas German immigration to Mexico German Palatines Pennsylvania Dutch History of Germany Biesele, Rudolph Leopold, The History of the German Settlements in Texas: 1831–1861.
1930, 1964. Reprint, San Marcos: German-Texan Heritage Society, 1987. Jordan, Terry G; the German Settlement of Texas after 1865. Southwestern Historical Quarterly. Vol. 73, No. 2, Oct. 1969, pp. 193–212. Jordan, Terry G. German Seed in Texas Soil: Immigrant Farmers in Nineteenth-Century Texas. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1966, 1975, etc. Lich, Glen E; the German Texans. San Antonio: University of Texas at San Antonio Institute of Texan Cultures, 1981. Lonn, Ella Foreigners in the Confederacy. First published in 1940, it remains the only work on the subject, republished February 2002 The German Texans. San Antonio: University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio, 1970, 1987. German-Texan Heritage Society Texas German Society Wanderlust: From German to Texan, exhibit at the Witte Museum "German Texans: Curriculum for Students". Germanic studies, University of Texas at Austin Austin Genealogical Society German Texan Families German immigration to Texas materials, hosted by the Portal to Texas History How Luckenbach, Texas Got Its Name
Czech Texans
Czech Texans are residents of the state of Texas who are of Czech ancestry. Although Czechs were present in Texas prior to 1848, a changing political climate in Central Europe fueled immigration. After a brief interruption during the Civil War, Czechs moved to Texas, forming the basis of the Czech Texan heritage. Concentrated in Central Texas Fayette County and the surrounding area, the Czech Texan identity has been preserved through the Painted Churches of Texas, traditional Czech events, bakeries specializing in Czech pastries; as of the 2000 U. S. Census, there are 187,729 Czech-Americans living in Texas, the largest number of any state. Czech Moravian settlements were found in Central Texas. "Czechs first settled in Texas in the 1840's, traveling from Bohemia and Austrian Silesia... Czech settlers identified themselves as Austrian, Bohemian, Slovak or Moravian." Although many Czech-Texans have experienced cultural assimilation, Czech celebrations and events continue to be held. In the 1840s, the Austrian Empire, which included Czech lands, was still run by a feudal system, despite the wave of democratic ideals sweeping across western Europe.
This led to the Revolutions of 1848, which did little to improve the economic status of peasants who still found it difficult to gain wealth. The revolutions, together with factors such as religious persecution and mandatory military service, fueled a wave of emigration from Austria beginning in 1852. Immigrants to America were unfamiliar with the concept of American democracy due to their lack of experience with democratic ideals; the concepts of states' rights and slavery were foreign to the immigrants. In January of 1861, as tensions between northern and southern states over slavery and states' rights reached a breaking point, a convention was called in Austin, TX to draft a secession document, approved by a vote of the citizens in February; the recency of the Czech immigration meant that most Czechs living in Texas were not naturalized citizens, were therefore unable to vote in the decision for secession. Texas became a member of the Confederacy in March of 1861, in April of 1861, the first battle of the Civil War took place at Fort Sumter, SC.
In July of 1861, a Union blockade of the Southern coast reached Texas and stopped all immigration, Czech or otherwise. By the time of the blockade, the Czech population in Texas had grown from 74 in 1852 to over 700. In 1861, as the war was beginning, more than 600 men in Fayette County and 160 men in Austin County volunteered for either active duty or military reserve service. Of those enrolled, only nine in Fayette County and zero in Austin County were definitively Czech; this changed in 1862, when conscription laws for military service were enforced. Under the Confederate Constitution, military service was a legal method of obtaining Confederate citizenship for those who were not American citizens, but aliens, unlike citizens, were not required to serve in the regular military; the exemptions for aliens were determined by the Confederate War Department to apply only to aliens who were not permanent settlers and had not renounced their native allegiance. This did not apply to the majority of Czechs.
As a result, Czechs were conscripted to serve in the Confederate Army. To avoid conscription, some chose to join the Union Army. For many Czechs, an alternative to conscription was to carry cotton to Mexican markets as a revenue source for the Confederacy. Another alternative that arose in Fayette County was to form a stay-at-home company of troops. Czech women were familiar with hard work, so while their husbands were serving in the military or in hiding, they managed to keep their farms running despite their lack of physical strength. In addition to the regular farm responsibilities, families had to produce homemade commodities to substitute for expensive goods such as coffee and sugar. Josef Lidumil Lesikar was instrumental in organizing two groups of about 160 Czechs to immigrate to Texas in 1851 and 1853. Although about half of the first group died, his wife, their four sons reached Galveston with the second group on board the Suwa in late December 1853; the family bought farmland in Austin County.
The men felled trees and built a log house that still stands, with a Texas historical marker before it. Lesikar wrote articles for periodicals published in various parts of the United States as well as in his native land, his writings encouraged many Czechs to come to America; as one of the founders of Národní hoviny, a Czech newspaper published in St. Louis, he helped to lay the foundation for Czech journalism in America. In his writing he opposed secession, he is buried in the New Ulm Cemetery. Anthony M. Dignowity was a Czech immigrant who traveled to Texas in 1835 and worked in many professions before becoming a physician in San Antonio, he opposed the Texas Revolution, viewing it as a means to increase the power of slave states in the United States, thus did not settle in Texas until after it was admitted to the US. During the Civil War, his anti-slavery views led to him becoming a target for lynching parties, causing him to flee Texas and travel to Washington, D. C. where he stayed for the rest of the war working for the Department of the Interior.
While in D. C. Dignowity proposed a plan to Congress detailing the capture and reinstatement of Texas based on the support of immigrant groups, such as the Czechs and Germans, who opposed slavery, but Congress did not act upon it. Meanwhile, Dignowity's son, Anthony Francis D
Dutch people
Dutch people or the Dutch are a Germanic ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Aruba, Guyana, Curaçao, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, the United States; the Low Countries were situated around the border of France and the Holy Roman Empire, forming a part of their respective peripheries, the various territories of which they consisted had become autonomous by the 13th century. Under the Habsburgs, the Netherlands were organised into a single administrative unit, in the 16th and 17th centuries the Northern Netherlands gained independence from Spain as the Dutch Republic; the high degree of urbanization characteristic of Dutch society was attained at a early date. During the Republic the first series of large-scale Dutch migrations outside of Europe took place; the Dutch have left behind a substantial legacy despite the limited size of their country. The Dutch people are seen as the pioneers of capitalism, their emphasis on a modern economy, a free market had a huge influence on the great powers of the West the British Empire, its Thirteen Colonies, the United States.
The traditional arts and culture of the Dutch encompasses various forms of traditional music, architectural styles and clothing, some of which are globally recognizable. Internationally, Dutch painters such as Rembrandt and Van Gogh are held in high regard; the dominant religion of the Dutch was Christianity, although in modern times the majority are no longer religious. Significant percentages of the Dutch are adherents of humanism, atheism or individual spirituality; as with all ethnic groups, the ethnogenesis of the Dutch has been a complex process. Though the majority of the defining characteristics of the Dutch ethnic group have accumulated over the ages, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact emergence of the Dutch people; the text below hence focuses on the history of the Dutch ethnic group. For Dutch colonial history, see the article on the Dutch Empire. In the first centuries CE, the Germanic tribes formed tribal societies with no apparent form of autocracy, beliefs based Germanic paganism and speaking a dialect still resembling Common Germanic.
Following the end of the migration period in the West around 500, with large federations settling the decaying Roman Empire, a series of monumental changes took place within these Germanic societies. Among the most important of these are their conversion from Germanic paganism to Christianity, the emergence of a new political system, centered on kings, a continuing process of emerging mutual unintelligibility of their various dialects; the general situation described above is applicable to most if not all modern European ethnic groups with origins among the Germanic tribes, such as the Frisians, Germans and the North-Germanic peoples. In the Low Countries, this phase began when the Franks, themselves a union of multiple smaller tribes, began to incur the northwestern provinces of the Roman Empire. In 358, the Salian Franks, one of the three main subdivisions among the Frankish alliance settled the area's Southern lands as foederati. Linguistically Old Frankish or Low Franconian evolved into Old Dutch, first attested in the 6th century, whereas religiously the Franks converted to Christianity from around 500 to 700.
On a political level, the Frankish warlords abandoned tribalism and founded a number of kingdoms culminating in the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne. However, the population make-up of the Frankish Empire, or early Frankish kingdoms such as Neustria and Austrasia, was not dominated by Franks. Though the Frankish leaders controlled most of Western Europe, the Franks themselves were confined to the Northwestern part of the Empire; the Franks in Northern France were assimilated by the general Gallo-Roman population, took over their dialects, whereas the Franks in the Low Countries retained their language, which would evolve into Dutch. The current Dutch-French language border has remained identical since, could be seen as marking the furthest pale of gallicization among the Franks; the medieval cities of the Low Countries, which experienced major growth during the 11th and 12th century, were instrumental in breaking down the relatively loose local form of feudalism. As they became powerful, they used their economical strength to influence the politics of their nobility.
During the early 14th century, beginning in and inspired by the County of Flanders, the cities in the Low Countries gained huge autonomy and dominated or influenced the various political affairs of the fief, including marriage succession. While the cities were of great political importance, they formed catalys
Russians
Russians are a nation and an East Slavic ethnic group native to European Russia in Eastern Europe. Outside Russia, notable minorities exist in other former Soviet states such as Belarus, Moldova and the Baltic states. A large Russian diaspora exists all over the world, with notable numbers in the United States, Germany and Canada; the Russians share many cultural traits with other East Slavic ethnic groups Belarusians and Ukrainians. They are predominantly Orthodox Christians by religion; the Russian language is official in Russia, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, spoken as a secondary language in many former Soviet states. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as "Russians". One is "русский", which most means "ethnic Russians". Another is "россияне", which means "citizens of Russia"; the former word refers to ethnic Russians, regardless of what country they live in and irrespective of whether or not they hold Russian citizenship. Under certain circumstances this term may or may not extend to denote members of other Russian-speaking ethnic groups from Russia, or from the former Soviet Union.
The latter word refers to all people holding citizenship of Russia, regardless of their ethnicity, does not include ethnic Russians living outside Russia. Translations into other languages do not distinguish these two groups; the name of the Russians derives from the Rus' people. According to the most prevalent theory, the name Rus', like the Finnish name for Sweden, is derived from an Old Norse term for "the men who row" as rowing was the main method of navigating the rivers of Eastern Europe, that it could be linked to the Swedish coastal area of Roslagen or Roden, as it was known in earlier times; the name Rus' would have the same origin as the Finnish and Estonian names for Sweden: Ruotsi and Rootsi. According to other theories the name Rus' is derived from Proto-Slavic *roud-s-ь, connected with red color or from Indo-Iranian; until the 1917 revolution, Russian authorities never called them "Russians", calling them "Great Russians" instead, a part of "Russians". The modern Russians formed from two groups of East Slavic tribes: Northern and Southern.
The tribes involved included the Krivichs, Ilmen Slavs, Radimichs and Severians. Genetic studies show that modern Russians do not differ from Belarusians and Ukrainians; some ethnographers, like Dmitry Konstantinovich Zelenin, affirm that Russians are more similar to Belarusians and to Ukrainians than southern Russians are to northern Russians. Russians in northern European Russia share moderate genetic similarities with Uralic peoples, who lived in modern north-central European Russia and were assimilated by the Slavs as the Slavs migrated northeastwards; such Uralic peoples included the Muromians. The territory of Russia has been inhabited since 2nd Millennium BCE by Indo-European, Ural-Altaic, various other peoples. Outside archaeological remains, little is known about the predecessors to Russians in general prior to 859 AD when the Primary Chronicle starts its records, it is thought that by 600 AD, the Slavs had split linguistically into southern and eastern branches. The eastern branch settled between the Dnieper Rivers in present-day Ukraine.
Both Belarusians and South Russians formed on this ethnic linguistic ground. From the 6th century onwards, another group of Slavs moved from Pomerania to the northeast of the Baltic Sea, where they encountered the Varangians of the Rus' Khaganate and established the important regional center of Novgorod; the same Slavic ethnic population settled the present-day Tver Oblast and the region of Beloozero. With the Uralic substratum, they formed the tribes of the Ilmen Slavs. Kievan Rus' was a loose federation of states. Modern Russians derive their name and cultural ancestry from Kievan Rus'. In 2010, the world's Russian population was 129 million people of which 86% were in Russia, 11.5% in the CIS and Baltic countries, with a further 2.5% living in other countries. 111 million ethnic Russians live in Russia, 80% of whom live in the European part of Russia, 20% in the Asian part of the country. After the Dissolution of the Soviet Union an estimated 25 million Russians began living outside of the Russian Federation, most of them in the former Soviet Republics.
Ethnic Russians migrated throughout the area of former Russian Empire and Soviet Union, sometimes encouraged to re-settle in borderlands by the Tsarist and Soviet government. On some occasions ethnic Russian communities, such as Lipovans who settled in the Danube delta or Doukhobors in Canada, emigrated as religious dissidents fleeing the central authority. After the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War starting in 1917, many Russians were forced to leave their homeland fleeing the Bolshevik regime, millions became refugees. Many white émigrés were participants in the White movement, although the term is broadly applied to anyone who may have left the country due to the change in regime. Today the largest ethnic Russian diasporas outside Russia live in former
Fredericksburg, Texas
Fredericksburg is the seat of Gillespie County, in the U. S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 10,530. Fredericksburg was named after Prince Frederick of Prussia. Old-time German residents referred to Fredericksburg as Fritztown, a nickname, still used in some businesses; the town is notable as the home of Texas German, a dialect spoken by the first generations of German settlers who refused to learn English. Fredericksburg shares many cultural characteristics with New Braunfels, established by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels the previous year. Fredericksburg is the birthplace of Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, it is the sister city of Germany. On October 14, 1970, the Fredericksburg Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in Texas. Fredericksburg is located east of the center of Gillespie County at 30°16′27″N 98°52′19″W, it is 70 miles north of San Antonio and 78 miles west of Austin. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 8.6 square miles, of which 8.6 square miles are land and 0.05 sq mi, or 0.55%, is covered by water.
Enchanted Rock is a geographical landmark 17 mi north of Fredericksburg in Llano County. The rock is a huge, pink granite exfoliation dome that rises 425 ft above the surrounding land, has a summit elevation of 1,825 ft above sea level, covers 640 acres, it is one of the largest batholiths in the United States, was declared a National Natural Landmark in 1970. In 1994, the State of Texas opened it as Enchanted Rock State Natural Area after adding facilities; the same year, Enchanted Rock was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Balanced Rock was a famous local landmark that perched atop Bear Mountain 10 mi north of Fredericksburg; the natural wonder stone pillar, about the size of a small elephant, precariously balanced on its small tip. It fell prey to vandals, who dynamited it off its base in April 1986; the first known record of Cross Mountain was in 1847 by Dr. Ferdinand von Roemer. Native Americans used the location to signal each other about intrusions into their territory; the area was part of settler Dr. John Christian Durst's 10-acre allotment.
Durst found a timber cross on the mountain, indicating that Spanish missionaries had once used the site. Durst named Cross Mountain. In 1849, Father George Menzel erected a new cross. In 1946, St. Mary's Catholic Church erected a concrete cross; the mountain has been used both for Easter sunrise services. It was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark 1976; the Vereins Kirche, the Pioneer Museum Complex, Pioneer Memorial Library, other architecture. On January 3, 1913, the San Antonio and Northern Railway was chartered to connect Fredericksburg with the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway near Waring. A 920-foot long railroad trestle was built, still exists as the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Old Tunnel bat habitat at 10619 Old San Antonio Rd, with provided picnic and restroom facilities for visitors; the cost of the tunnel sent the railroad into receivership on October 28, 1914. It was sold under foreclosure on December 31, 1917 to Martin Carle who deeded the property to the Fredericksburg and Northern Railway, chartered on December 26 of that year.
The train operated until July 27, 1942. The Fredericksburg-Stonewall area has become known as the Peach Capital of Texas and Benjamin Lester Enderle is known as the Father of the Hill Country Peach Industry, he was Gillespie County Surveyor and a math and science teacher at Fredericksburg High School when he planted five peach trees and began selling the fruit in 1921. Enderle worked to develop the Hale, Burbank and Stark varieties, he began marketing them through the H-E-B grocery chain, had 5,000 producing peach trees on 150 acres. Growers claim the taste is due to the area having the right combination of elevation, sandy soil, climate to produce flavorful clingstone and freestone peaches; the fruit ripens May–August, consumers can either buy picked fruit, or pick their own. Herb farms, grape culture, lavender production, wildflower seeds have become burgeoning businesses in Fredericksburg. Combinations of agribusiness with day spas, wedding facilities, or bed-and-breakfast accommodations are not unusual.
A Texas Hill Country Lavender Trail has been designated. Lady Bird Johnson's passion for Texas wildflowers not only lives on in the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, but sparked a high demand for seed; the 200-acre Wildseed Farms in Fredericksburg was founded by John R. Thomas in 1983 as a result of that high demand, produces 88 varieties of wildflower seeds, it is the largest family-owned wildflower seed farm in the United States and host of an annual Wildflower Celebration. In 1994, the Seventy-third Texas Legislature passed H. B. No. 1425, allowing brewpub operations within Texas. Fredericksburg Brewing Company began operations shortly thereafter. A number of vineyards and related industries have arisen in the post-LBJ era of Fredericksburg; the designated American Viticultural Areas of Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country AVA and the much larger Texas Hill Country AVA both include Fredericksburg inside their boundaries. Fredericksburg is a common starting point or destination for tourists visiting wineries in the Texas Hill Country.
The city of Fredericksburg is served by the Fredericksburg Independent School District. The school's t
Ireland
Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, St George's Channel. Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, the twentieth-largest on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom. In 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.6 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.8 million live in the Republic of Ireland and just over 1.8 million live in Northern Ireland. The island's geography comprises low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland, its lush vegetation is a product of its mild but changeable climate, free of extremes in temperature. Much of Ireland was woodland until the end of the Middle Ages. Today, woodland makes up about 10% of the island, compared with a European average of over 33%, most of it is non-native conifer plantations.
There are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland. The Irish climate is influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and thus moderate, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, although summers are cooler than those in continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant; the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century AD; the island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the 12th century Norman invasion, England claimed sovereignty. However, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, was extended during the 18th century. With the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. A war of independence in the early 20th century was followed by the partition of the island, creating the Irish Free State, which became sovereign over the following decades, Northern Ireland, which remained a part of the United Kingdom.
Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s. This subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, as part of it, did the same. Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures in the field of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, a strong indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music and the Irish language; the island's culture shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, sports such as association football, horse racing, golf. The names Éire derive from Old Irish Eriu; this in turn comes from the Proto-Celtic *Iveriu, the source of Latin Hibernia. Iveriu derives from a root meaning'fat, prosperous'. During the last glacial period, up until about 10,000 BC, most of Ireland was periodically covered in ice. Sea levels were lower and Ireland, like Great Britain, formed part of continental Europe.
By 16,000 BC, rising sea levels due to ice melting caused Ireland to become separated from Great Britain. Around 6000 BC, Great Britain itself became separated from continental Europe; the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC, demonstrated by a butchered bear bone found in a cave in County Clare. It is not until about 8000 BC, that more sustained occupation of the island has been shown, with evidence for Mesolithic communities around the island; these Mesolithic communities lived as hunter-gatherers across the island until about 4000 BC. Some time before 4000 BC, Neolithic settlers arrived introducing cereal cultivars, domesticated animals such as cattle and sheep, large timber building, stone monuments; the earliest evidence for farming in Ireland or Great Britain is from Co.. Kerry, where a flint knife, cattle bones and a sheep's tooth were carbon-dated to c. 4350 BC. Field systems were developed in different parts of Ireland, including at the Céide Fields, preserved beneath a blanket of peat in present-day Tyrawley.
An extensive field system, arguably the oldest in the world, consisted of small divisions separated by dry-stone walls. The fields were farmed for several centuries between 3500 BC and 3000 BC. Wheat and barley were the principal crops; the Bronze Age – defined by the use of metal – began around 2500 BC, with technology changing people's everyday lives during this period through innovations such as the wheel. According to John T. Koch and others, Ireland in the Late Bronze Age was part of a maritime trading-network culture called the Atlantic Bronze Age that included Britain, western France and Iberia, that this is where Celtic languages developed; this contrasts with the traditional view that their origin lies in mainland Europe with the Hallstatt culture. During the Iron Age, a Celtic language and culture emerged in Ireland. How and when the island became Celtic has been debated for close to a century, with the migrations of the Celts being one of the more enduring themes of archaeological and linguistic studies.
The most recent genetic research s
Slovaks
The Slovaks are a nation and West Slavic ethnic group native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture and speak the Slovak language. In Slovakia, c. 4.4 million are ethnic Slovaks of 5.4 million total population. There are Slovak minorities in Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and sizeable populations of immigrants and their descendants in the United States and the United Kingdom, collectively referred to as the Slovak diaspora; the name Slovak is derived from *Slověninъ, plural *Slověně, the old name of the Slavs. The original stem has been preserved in all Slovak words except the masculine noun; the first written mention of adjective slovenský is in 1294. The original name of Slovaks Slovenin/Slovene was still recorded in Pressburg Latin-Czech Dictionary, but it changed to Slovák under the influence of Czech and Polish language; the first written mention of new form in the territory of present-day Slovakia is from Bardejov. The mentions in Czech sources are older; the change is not related to the ethnogenesis of Slovaks, but to linguistic changes in the West Slavic languages.
The word Slovak was used later as a common name for all Slavs in Czech and Slovak language together with other forms. In Hungarian "Slovak" is Tót, an exonym, it was used to refer to all Slavs including Slovenes and Croats, but came to refer to Slovaks. Many place names in Hungary such as Tótszentgyörgy, Tótszentmárton, Tótkomlós still bear the name. Tóth is a common Hungarian surname; the Slovaks have historically been variously referred to as Slovyenyn, Sclavus, Slavus, Winde, Wende, or Wenden. The final three terms are variations of the Germanic term Wends, used to refer to any Slavs living close to Germanic settlements; the early Slavs came to the territory of Slovakia in several waves from the 5th and 6th centuries and were organized on a tribal level. Original tribal names are not known due to the lack of written sources before their integration into higher political units. Weakening of tribal consciousness was accelerated by Avars, who did not respect tribal differences in the controlled territory and motivated remaining Slavs to join together and to collaborate on their defense.
In the 7th century, Slavs founded larger tribal union: Samo's empire. Regardless of Samo's empire, the integration process continued in other territories with various intensities; the final fall of the Avar Khaganate allowed new political entities to arise. The first such political unit documented by written sources is the Principality of Nitra, one of the foundations of common ethnic consciousness. At this stage in history it is not yet possible to assume a common identity of all Slovak ancestors in the territory of eastern Slovakia if it was inhabited by related Slavs; the Principality of Nitra become a part of a common state of Moravians and Slovaks. The short existence of Great Moravia prevented it from suppressing differences which resulted from its creation from two separate entities, therefore a common "Slovak-Moravian" ethnic identity failed to develop; the early political integration in the territory of present-day Slovakia was however reflected in linguistic integration. While dialects of early Slovak ancestors were divided into West Slavic and non-West Slavic, between the 8th and 9th centuries both dialects merged, thus laying the foundations of a Slovak language.
The 10th century is a milestone in the Slovak ethnogenesis. The fall of Great Moravia and further political changes supported their formation into a separate nation. At the same time, with the extinction of the Proto-Slavic language, between the 10th and 13th centuries Slovak evolved into an independent language; the early existence of the Kingdom of Hungary positively influenced the development of common consciousness and companionship among Slavs in the Northern Hungary, not only within boundaries of present-day Slovakia. The clear difference between Slovaks and Hungarians made adoption of specific name unnecessary and Slovaks preserved their original name, used in communication with other Slavic peoples. In political terms, the medieval Slovaks were a part of the multi-ethnic political nation Natio Hungarica, together with Hungarians, Germans and other ethnic groups in the Kingdom of Hungary. Since a medieval political nation did not consist of ordinary people but nobility, membership of the privileged class was necessary for all these peoples.
Like other nations, the Slovaks began to transform into a modern nation from the 18th century under the idea of national romanticism. The modern Slovak nation is the result of radical processes of modernization within the Habsburg Empire which culminated in the middle of the 19th century; the transformation process was slowed down by conflict with Hungarian nationalism and the ethnogenesis of the Slovaks become a political question regarding their deprivation and preservation of their language and national rights. In 1722, Mich
