West Slavs
West Slavic countries
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| >82 million | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Central Europe | |
| Religion | |
| Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Lutheranism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other Slavs (especially Slovenes and Croats) |
The West Slavs are a subgroup of Slavic peoples who speak the West Slavic languages. They separated from the common Slavic group in c. the 7th century, and establish independent polities in Central Europe by the 8th to 9th centuries. The West Slavic languages diversify into their historically attested forms during c. the 10th to 14th centuries.
West Slavic speaking nations today include the Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Kashubians, Silesians and Sorbs. They inhabit a contiguous area in Central Europe stretching from the north of the Baltic Sea to the Sudetes and the Carpathian Mountains in the south, historically also across the Eastern Alps into the Apennine peninsula and the Balkan peninsula.
The West Slavic group can be divided into three subgroups: Lechitic, including Polish, Kashubian and extinct Polabian and Pomeranian languages, Lusatian (Sorbian) and Czecho-Slovak. Culturally, West Slavs developed along the lines of other Western European nations due to affiliation with the Roman Empire and Western Christianity. Thus, they experienced a cultural split with the other Slavic groups: while the East Slavs and most South Slavs converted to Orthodox Christianity, thus being culturally influenced by the Byzantine Empire, the West Slavs converted to Roman Catholicism, thus coming under the cultural influence of the Latin Church.
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Wikipedia