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111-600: The name Agathyrsi is the Latinisation of the Ancient Greek name Agathursoi ( Αγαθυρσοι ), which was itself the Hellenized form of a Scythian name whose original form is not attested. The linguist Alexis Manaster Ramer has reconstructed the original Scythian form of this name as *Haxāϑrauš , meaning "prospering the friend/ socius ", with the final part modified into -θυρσος , referring to

222-520: A dialect continuum : It is highly probable that already in the Old Iranic period, there were some eastern Scythian dialects which gave rise to the ancestor(s) of the Sogdian and Yaghnobi languages, although data required to test this hypothesis is presently lacking. The Scythian languages shared some features with other Eastern Iranic languages, such as the use of the suffix -ta to denote

333-628: A Central European Danube Confederation to counter these countries against Germany and Russia. There were also plans to add Bavaria and Württemberg to an enlarged Austria. There were also various resistance movements around Otto von Habsburg that pursued this goal. The group around the Austrian priest Heinrich Maier also planned in this direction, which also successfully helped the Allies to wage war by, among other things, forwarding production sites and plans for V-2 rockets , Tiger tanks and aircraft to

444-549: A Geographical Term ) most Central European states were unable to preserve their political independence and became Soviet satellites . Besides Austria, Switzerland and Yugoslavia, only the marginal European states of Cyprus , Finland , Malta and Sweden preserved their political sovereignty to a certain degree, being left out of any military alliances in Europe. The opening of the Iron Curtain between Austria and Hungary at

555-656: A buffer zone between these regions. In the early nineteenth century, the terms "Middle" or "Central" Europe (known as "Mitteleuropa" in German and "Europe centrale" in French) were introduced in geographical scholarship in both German and French languages. At first, these terms were linked to the regions spanning from the Pyrenees to the Danube, which, according to German authors, could be united under German authority. However, after

666-739: A group of Eastern Iranic languages of the classical and late antique period (the Middle Iranic period), spoken in a vast region of Eurasia by the populations belonging to the Scythian cultures and their descendants. The dominant ethnic groups among the Scythian-speakers were nomadic pastoralists of Central Asia and the Pontic–Caspian steppe . Fragments of their speech known from inscriptions and words quoted in ancient authors as well as analysis of their names indicate that it

777-874: A section of the Agathyrsi were present on the Rhodope Mountains by his mention that the Greeks referred to the Trausi ( Ancient Greek : Τραυσοι , romanized :  Trausoi ; Latin : Trausi , Thrausi ) tribe who lived there as being Agathyrsi. On the Rhodopes, the Trausi initially lived to the north-east of the Thracian tribe of the Bistones . By the early 2nd century BC, the Trausi had migrated to

888-611: A significant trade route, restoring ports and revitalising commercial activity. Before 1870, the industrialization that had started to develop in Northwestern and Central Europe and the United States did not extend in any significant way to the rest of the world. Even in Eastern Europe , industrialization lagged far behind. Russia , for example, remained largely rural and agricultural, and its autocratic rulers kept

999-650: A static spatial one. For example, a fair share of Belarus and Right-bank Ukraine are in Eastern Europe today, but 240 years ago they were in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . Johnson's study on Central Europe received acclaim and positive reviews in the scientific community. However, according to Romanian researcher Maria Bucur , this very ambitious project suffers from the weaknesses imposed by its scope (almost 1600 years of history). The World Factbook defines Central Europe as: Austria,

1110-601: A very broad outline of this complex development. The Agathyrsi thus corresponded to a part of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex, to whose development three main cultural influences contributed to: The Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex thus developed natively in the North Pontic region over the course of the 9th to mid-7th centuries BC from elements which had earlier arrived from Central Asia, due to which it itself exhibited similarities with

1221-556: Is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern , Southern , Western and Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in this region also share historical and cultural similarities. Whilst the region is variously defined, it often includes Austria , Croatia , the Czech Republic , Germany , Hungary , Liechtenstein , Lithuania , Poland , Slovakia , Slovenia , Switzerland and Transylvania as part of Romania . From

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1332-506: Is a part of Europe composed of Austria, Belgium , the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg , Netherlands , Poland, Romania and Switzerland, and northern marginal regions of Italy and Yugoslavia (northern states – Croatia and Slovenia ), as well as northeastern France. The German Ständige Ausschuss für geographische Namen (Standing Committee on Geographical Names), which develops and recommends rules for

1443-580: Is an accepted version of this page Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Scythian languages ( / ˈ s ɪ θ i ə n / or / ˈ s ɪ ð i ə n / or / ˈ s k ɪ θ i ə n / ) are

1554-577: Is an ambiguous German concept. It is sometimes used in English to refer to an area somewhat larger than most conceptions of 'Central Europe'. According to Fritz Fischer Mitteleuropa was a scheme in the era of the Reich of 1871–1918 by which the old imperial elites had allegedly sought to build a system of German economic, military and political domination from the northern seas to the Near East and from

1665-594: Is no general agreement either on what geographic area constitutes Central Europe, nor on how to further subdivide it geographically. At times, the term "Central Europe" denotes a geographic definition as the Danube region in the heart of the continent, including the language and culture areas which are today included in the states of Bulgaria , Croatia , the Czech Republic , Hungary , Moldova , Poland , Romania , Serbia , Slovakia , Slovenia and usually also Austria and Germany. The terminology EU11 countries refer

1776-406: Is widely used in German education and media without negative meaning, especially since the end of communism. Many people from the new states of Germany do not identify themselves as being part of Western Europe and therefore prefer the term "Mitteleuropa". During World War II, Central Europe was largely occupied by Nazi Germany. Many areas were a battle area and were devastated. The mass murder of

1887-684: The Carolingian Renaissance , limited to the territories that practised Western Christianity at the time. "European" as a cultural term did not include much of the territories where the Orthodox Church represented the dominant religion until the 19th century. Following the Christianization of various Central European countries, elements of cultural unity emerged within the region, specifically Catholicism and Latin . Eastern Europe remained Eastern Orthodox , and

1998-946: The Caucasus , the Ossetian language belonging to the Scythian linguistic continuum remains in use today , while in Central Asia, some languages belonging to Eastern Iranic group are still spoken, namely Pashto , the Pamir languages and Yaghnobi . Some scholars ascribe certain inscribed objects found in the Carpathian Basin and in Central Asia to the Scythians, but the interpretation of these inscriptions remains disputed (given that nobody has definitively identified

2109-740: The Christianization of Lithuania . It also resulted in the Union of Krewo , signifying a personal union between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland. The union commenced an enduring political alliance between the two entities and laid the foundations for the later establishment of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569. Between the 15th and early 16th centuries, the Kingdom of Croatia, which

2220-610: The Cimmerians , Scythians , Sauromatians , and Sarmatians . The archaeological and historical records regarding these migrations are however scarce, and permit to sketch only a very broad outline of this complex development. The formation of genuine nomadic pastoralism itself happened in the early 1st millennium BC due to climatic changes which caused the environment in the Central Asian and Siberian steppes to become cooler and drier than before. These changes caused

2331-601: The Cold War the countries that make up Central Europe have historically been, and in some cases continue to be, divided into either Eastern or Western Europe. After World War II, Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain into two parts, the capitalist Western Bloc and the socialist Eastern Bloc , although Austria, Switzerland and Yugoslavia (encompassing the territories of present-day Croatia, Slovenia and various other Balkans nations) declared neutrality. The Berlin Wall

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2442-679: The Czechoslovak , Hungarian and Polish presidents was hailed at the time as a major breakthrough in Central European cooperation, but the Visegrád Group became a vehicle for coordinating Central Europe's road to the European Union, while development of closer ties within the region languished. American professor Peter J. Katzenstein described Central Europe as a way station in a Europeanization process that marks

2553-792: The Duchy of Carniola (part of present-day Slovenia), the various German Principalities and the Old Swiss Confederacy were within the Holy Roman Empire . By the end of the 18th century, the Habsburg monarchy , a prominent power within the Holy Roman Empire, came to reign over the territories of Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina , Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia, alongside parts of Serbia , Germany, Italy , Poland and Switzerland. Since

2664-849: The Eastern Bloc countries, as its every result proved the dissimilarity of Central Europe, which was inconsistent with the Stalinist doctrine. On the other hand, the topic became popular in Western Europe and the United States, much of the research being carried out by immigrants from Central Europe. Following the Fall of Communism , publicists and historians in Central Europe, especially the anti-communist opposition, returned to their research. According to Karl A. Sinnhuber ( Central Europe: Mitteleuropa: Europe Centrale: An Analysis of

2775-605: The Frankfurt Parliament , which was established in the wake of the March Revolution of 1848, there were multiple competing ideas for the integration of German-speaking areas, including the mitteleuropäische Lösung (Central European Solution) propagated by Austria, which sought to merge the smaller German-speaking states with the multi-ethnic Habsburg Empire, but was opposed by Prussia and others. An imperialistic idea of Mitteleuropa also became popular in

2886-618: The German Empire established in 1871, which experienced intensive economic growth. The term was used when the Union of German Railway Administrations established the Mitteleuropäische Eisenbahn-Zeit (Central European Railway Time) time zone , which was applied by the railways from 1 June 1891 and was later widely adopted in civilian life, thus the time zone name shortened to the present-day Central European Time . The German term denoting Central Europe

2997-619: The Netherlands ) as its main aim. Another time, the term Central Europe became connected to the German plans of political, economic, and cultural domination. The "bible" of the concept was Friedrich Naumann 's book Mitteleuropa in which he called for an economic federation to be established after World War I. Naumann's proposed a federation with Germany and the Habsburg empire as its centre, eventually uniting all external European nations through economic prosperity. The concept failed after

3108-665: The Pan-European Picnic on 19 August 1989 then set in motion a peaceful chain reaction, at the end of which there was no longer an East Germany and the Eastern Bloc had disintegrated. It was the largest escape movement from East Germany since the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. After the picnic, which was based on an idea by Otto von Habsburg to test the reaction of the USSR and Mikhail Gorbachev to an opening of

3219-838: The Pontic-Caspian Steppe regions, where they formed new tribal confederations which constituted the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex . Among these tribal confederations were the Agathyrsi in the Pontic Steppe, as well as the Cimmerians in the Caspian Steppe, and possibly the Sigynnae in the Pannonian Steppe. The archaeological and historical records regarding these migrations are however scarce, and permit to sketch only

3330-506: The Samogitians , Aukštaitians and Curonians . The Holy Roman Empire was founded at the turn of the 9th century, following the coronation of Charlemagne by Pope Leo III . At its inception, it incorporated present-day Germany and nearby regions, including parts of what is now Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Switzerland. Three decades later, Great Moravia , centred in present-day Czech Republic and Slovakia, became one of

3441-583: The Yaz culture (ca. 1500–1100 BC) in Central Asia . The Scythians migrated from Central Asia toward Eastern Europe in the 8th and 7th century BC, occupying today's Southern Russia and Ukraine and the Carpathian Basin and parts of Moldova and Dobruja . They disappeared from history after the Hunnish invasion of Europe in the 5th century AD, and Turkic ( Avar , Batsange , etc.) and Slavic peoples probably assimilated most people speaking Scythian. However, in

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3552-468: The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire around 1800, there was a consolidation of power among the Habsburgs and Hohenzollerns as the two major states in the area. They had much in common and occasionally cooperated in various channels, but more often competed. One approach in the various attempts at cooperation, was the conception of a set of supposed common features and interests, and this idea led to

3663-402: The 11th and 15th centuries, not only did Christianization influence the cultures within Central Europe, but well-defined social features were also implemented in the region based on Western characteristics. The keyword of Western social development after the turn of the millennium was the spread of Magdeburg rights in some cities and towns of Western Europe. These began to spread in the middle of

3774-642: The 13th century in Central European countries, bringing about self-governments of towns and counties. In 1335, the Kings of Poland , Bohemia and Hungary and Croatia met in the castle of Visegrád and agreed to cooperate closely in the field of politics and commerce, inspiring the post- Cold War Visegrád Group . In 1386, Jogaila , the Grand Duke of Lithuania , converted to Christianity (specifically Catholicism) and subsequently became King of Poland through marriage to Queen Jadwiga of Poland . This initiated

3885-517: The 6th century BC, the Agathyrsi were organising into fortified settlements, such as the ones at Stâncești and Cotnari , which acted as important centres of the Getae. A section of the displaced Agathyrsi might also have migrated more southwards into Thrace proper, where a group of this people was located on the Haemus Mons by Stephanus of Byzantium . Stephanus of Byzantium also suggested that

3996-626: The Adriatic had not been approved by the Western Allied chiefs of staff. As a result of the military situation at the end of the war, Stalin's plans prevailed and much of Central Europe came under Russian control. Following World War II , parts of Central Europe became part of the Eastern Bloc . The boundary between the two blocks was called the Iron Curtain . Austria, Switzerland and Yugoslavia remained neutral. The post-World War II period brought blocking of research on Central Europe in

4107-534: The Agathyrsi by the Scythians is expressed in the genealogical myth by how the Snake-Legged Goddess banished her two eldest sons, Agathyrsus and Gelonus, from her country and instead crowned as king her youngest son, Scythes, who was the ancestor of the Scythians proper. From the 9th to the late 8th or early 7th centuries BC, the Agathyrsi occupied the eastern sections of the Pontic Steppe on

4218-416: The Caucasian Steppe, which started in the 9th century BC, when a significant movement of the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppe started after the early Scythians were expelled out of Central Asia by either the Massagetae , who were a powerful nomadic Iranic tribe from Central Asia closely related to the Scythians, or by another Central Asian people called the Issedones , thus forcing the early Scythians to

4329-402: The Central European area is subject to debates. Very often, the definition depends on the nationality and historical perspective of its author. The concept of "Central Europe" appeared in the 19th century. It was understood as a contact zone between the Southern and Northern areas, and later the Eastern and Western areas of Europe. Thinkers portrayed "Central Europe" either as a separate region, or

4440-457: The Central, Eastern and Baltic European member states which accessed in 2004 and after: in 2004 Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, and Slovakia; in 2007 Bulgaria, Romania; and in 2013 Croatia. The choice of states that make up Central Europe is an ongoing source of controversy. Although views on which countries belong to Central Europe are vastly varied, according to many sources (see section Definitions )

4551-404: The Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex itself to strongly influence the Hallstatt culture of Central Europe: among these influences was the adoption of trousers, which were not used by the native populations of Central Europe before the arrival of the Central Asian steppe nomads. Within the western sections of the Eurasian Steppe, the Agathyrsi lived in the part of the Pontic Steppe situated on

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4662-431: The Ciscaucasian Steppe, the Scythians over the course of the 8th to 7th centuries BC conquered the Pontic and Crimean Steppes to the north of the Black Sea up to the Istros river , whose mouth henceforth formed the western boundary of Scythian territory. The conquest of their territories by the Scythians from the east pushed the Agathyrsi westwards, out of the Pontic Steppe, with the Scythians themselves replacing them as

4773-481: The Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland. The German Encyclopaedia Meyers Grosses Taschenlexikon ( Meyers Big Pocket Encyclopedia ), 1999, defines Central Europe as the central part of Europe with no precise borders to the East and West. The term is mostly used to denominate the territory between the Schelde to Vistula and from the Danube to the Moravian Gate . According to Meyers Enzyklopädisches Lexikon , Central Europe

4884-453: The Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland. The Columbia Encyclopedia includes: Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland. While it does not have a single article defining Central Europe, Encyclopædia Britannica includes the following countries in Central Europe in one or more of its articles: Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,

4995-402: The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania and Yugoslavia. The main proposed regional definitions, gathered by Polish historian Jerzy Kłoczowski , include: Former University of Vienna professor Lonnie R. Johnson points out criteria to distinguish Central Europe from Western, Northern, Eastern and Southern Europe: He also thinks that Central Europe is a dynamic historical concept, not

5106-405: The Franco-Prussian war of 1870, the French began to exclude France from this area, and later the Germans also adopted this perspective by the end of World War I. The concept of "Central" or "Middle Europe", understood as a region with German influence, lost a significant part of its popularity after WWI and was completely dismissed after WWII. Two defeats of Germany in the world wars, combined with

5217-441: The German defeat in World War I . The revival of the idea may be observed during the Hitler era . The interwar period (1918–1938) brought a new geopolitical system, as well as economic and political problems, and the concept of Central Europe took on a different character. The centre of interest was moved to its eastern part – particularly to the countries that had (re)appeared on the map of Europe. Central Europe ceased to be

5328-418: The Germans have not played an exclusively negative role in the region. Most Central European Jews embraced the enlightened German humanistic culture of the 19th century. Jews of turn of the 20th century Central Europe became representatives of what many consider to be Central European culture at its best, though the Nazi conceptualisation of "Mitteleuropa" sought to destroy this culture. The term "Mitteleuropa"

5439-405: The Graeco-Roman author Claudius Ptolemy and an inscription from Rome, both from the middle of the 1st century AD, mentioned the Agathyrsi. The Agathyrsi appear to have eventually become fully assimilated into the Geto-Thracian populations among whom they lived, and the Getic groups organised around the Agathyrsian fortified settlements eventually evolved into the Dacian culture, with a large part of

5550-457: The Greek historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus described them, in the 5th century BC, the Agathyrsi were living in the region which later became known as Dacia and is presently known as Transylvania , as well as in the region of the Carpathian Mountains and to their east and north of the Danube river where was located the source of the Maris river, that is in the regions corresponding to present-day Moldavia and Oltenia, and they may have been one of

5661-599: The Jews depopulated many of their centuries-old settlement areas or settled other people there and their culture was wiped out. Both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin diametrically opposed the centuries-old Habsburg principles of "live and let live" with regard to ethnic groups, peoples, minorities, religions, cultures and languages and tried to assert their own ideologies and power interests in Central Europe. There were various Allied plans for state order in Central Europe for post-war. While Stalin tried to get as many states under his control as possible, Winston Churchill preferred

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5772-506: The Low Countries through the steppes of Russia to the Caucasus. Later on, professor Fritz Epstein argued the threat of a Slavic "Drang nach Westen" (Western expansion) had been a major factor in the emergence of a Mitteleuropa ideology before the Reich of 1871 ever came into being. In Germany the connotation was also sometimes linked to the pre-war German provinces east of the Oder-Neisse line . The term "Mitteleuropa" conjures up negative historical associations among some people, although

5883-445: The Pannonian Steppe where lived the Sigynnae and later into the mountainous regions where lived the Agathyrsi. The relations between the Celtic incomers and the Iranic nomads appear to have remained peaceful, with the Celts later intermarrying with the local populations of the Pannonian Basin, thus exposing the Celts to the influence of the beliefs, practices and art styles of the steppe nomads so that motifs borrowed from and influenced by

5994-440: The Persians pursuing them. At some point between c.  475 and c.  460 BC , Ariapeithes was killed by the Agathyrsian king Spargapeithes . In the middle of the 5th century BC, the Hallstatt culture developed into the La Tène culture , whose people are identified with the Celts , who by the late 5th century BC were moving to the east along the upper Istros and initially settled in Transistria before moving into

6105-402: The Pontic-Caspian Steppes were able to gradually infiltrate into Central and Southeast Europe and therefore expand deep into this region over a very long period of time, so that the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex covered a wide territory ranging from Central Europe and the Pannonian Plain in the west to Caucasia in the east, including present-day Southern Russia . This in turn allowed

6216-503: The Russian and Ukrainian steppe have Scythian links. For example, Vasmer associates the name of the river Don with an assumed/reconstructed unattested Scythian word * dānu "water, river", and with Avestan dānu- , Pashto dand and Ossetian don . The river names Don , Donets , Dnieper , Danube , and Dniester , and lake Donuzlav (the deepest one in Crimea ) may also belong with the same word-group. Recorded Scythian place names include: Central Europe Central Europe

6327-426: The Scythian kingdom's headquarters. The arrival of the Scythians corresponded to a disturbance of the development of the Cimmerian peoples' Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex, which was thus replaced over the course of c.  750 to c.  600 BC by the early Scythian culture in southern Europe, which itself nevertheless still showed links to the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex. From their base in

6438-441: The Scythian languages a part of the Eastern Iranic languages too. This relies principally on the fact that the Greek inscriptions of the Northern Black Sea Coast contain several hundreds of Sarmatian names showing a close affinity to the Ossetian language . Some scholars detect a division of Scythian into two dialects: a western, more conservative dialect, and an eastern, more innovative one. The Scythian languages may have formed

6549-550: The Scythian languages had experienced an evolution of the Proto-Iranic sound /d/ into the Proto-Scythian sound /ð/, which in the Cimmerian and Pontic dialects of Scythian became the sound /l/. Scythian shares the evolution of Proto-Iranic sound /d/ into /ð/ with all Eastern Iranic languages with the exception of Ossetian , Yaghnobi , and Ishkashimi ; and the later evolution of /ð/ into /l/ is also present in several Eastern Iranic languages such as Bactrian , Pashto , Munjani , and Yidgha . Early Eastern Iranic peoples originated in

6660-474: The Scythian toponyms, tribal names, and numerous personal names in the ancient Greek texts and in the Greek inscriptions found in the Greek colonies on the Northern Black Sea Coast. These names suggest that the Sarmatian language had close similarities to modern Ossetian. Recorded Scythian personal names include: Cognate with Ossetian Æхсæртæг ( Æxsærtæg ) and Æхсæртæггатӕ ( Æxsærtæggatæ ). *Spargapis and *Spargapaiϑah are variants of

6771-427: The Scythians. According to the Greek author Herodotus of Halicarnassus, during the campaign the fleeing Scythians and the Persian army pursuing them passed through the territories of the Melanchlaeni, Androphagi, and Neuri, before they reached the borders of the Agathyrsi, who refused to let the Scythian divisions to pass into their territories and find refuge there, thus forcing the Scythians to return to Scythia with

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6882-455: The Scythic Agathyrsi into the Getic population of the areas they had settled in is attested by how their culture combined Iranic and Thracian elements. Unlike the nomads of the Pontic Steppe, the Pannonian Basin nomads such as the Agathyrsi appear to not have possessed an elite class. Reflecting their Scythic origin, the names of the kings of Agathyrsi, such as Agathyrsus and Spargapeithes, were Iranic . Herodotus of Halicarnassus claimed that

6993-500: The Soviet sphere of influence in the late 1940s–1980s. For the most part, this geographical framework lost its attraction after the end of the Cold War. A number of Post-Communist countries rather re-branded themselves in the 1990s as "Central European.", while avoiding the stained wording of "Middle Europe," which they associated with German influence in the region. This reinvented concept of "Central Europe" excluded Germany, Austria and Switzerland, reducing its coverage chiefly to Poland,

7104-412: The USA. Otto von Habsburg tried to relieve Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and northern Yugoslavia (particularly the territories of present-day Croatia and Slovenia) from Nazi German, and Soviet, influence and control. There were various considerations to prevent German and Soviet power in Europe after the war. Churchill's idea of reaching the area around Vienna before the Russians via an operation from

7215-420: The alphabet or translated the content). The Issyk inscription is not yet certainly deciphered, and is probably in a Scythian dialect, constituting one of very few autochthonous epigraphic traces of that language. János Harmatta , using the Kharoṣṭhī script, identified the language as a Khotanese Saka dialect spoken by the Kushans , tentatively translating: The primary sources for Scythian words remain

7326-478: The area of German aspiration to lead or dominate and became a territory of various integration movements aiming at resolving political, economic, and national problems of "new" states, being a way to face German and Soviet pressures. However, the conflict of interests was too big and neither Little Entente nor Intermarium ( Międzymorze ) ideas succeeded. Hungarian historian Ádám Magda wrote in her study Versailles System and Central Europe (2006): "Today we know that

7437-427: The arrival of the first wave of steppe nomads of Central Asian origin into Europe. The role of the Agathyrsi as the oldest Scythic population of the Pontic Steppe was reflected in the Scythian genealogical myth of the Scythians proper, according to which Agathyrsus was the eldest of the three ancestors of the Scythian peoples born of the union of the god Targitaos and the Snake-Legged Goddess . The displacement of

7548-471: The bane of Central Europe was the Little Entente , military alliance of Czechoslovakia , Romania and Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia), created in 1921 not for Central Europe's cooperation nor to fight German expansion, but in a wrong perceived notion that a completely powerless Hungary must be kept down". The events preceding World War II in Europe —including the so-called Western betrayal / Munich Agreement were very much enabled by

7659-432: The border, tens of thousands of media-informed East Germans set off for Hungary. The leadership of the GDR in East Berlin did not dare to completely block the borders of their own country and the USSR did not respond at all. This broke the bracket of the Eastern Bloc and Central Europe subsequently became free from communism. According to American professor Ronald Tiersky , the 1991 summit held in Visegrád attended by

7770-453: The common people. The Agathyrsi had followed Thracian customs such as tattooing , which the aristocracy of the Agathyrsi performed to distinguish themselves from the common people: the tattoos of the Agathyrsi consisted of checkered designs in blue-black ink on their faces and limbs, and their intensity, intricacy and vibrancy was proportional to their bearers' social status and the prestige of their lineage. Scythian languages This

7881-428: The composite vegetal wand of Bacchus , in Greek because the ancient Greeks associated Scythian peoples with Bacchic rites . The arrival of the Agathyrsi in Europe was part of the larger process of westwards movement of Central Asian Iranic nomads towards Southeast and Central Europe which lasted from the 1st millennium BC to the 1st millennium AD, and to which also later participated other Iranic nomads such as

7992-549: The division of Germany, an almost complete disappearance of German-speaking communities in these countries, and the Communist-led isolation of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Yugoslavia from the Western world, turned the concept of "Central/Middle Europe" into an anachronism. On the other side, the non-German areas of Central Europe were almost universally regarded as "Eastern European" primarily associated with

8103-591: The early 16th century until the early 18th century, parts of present-day Croatia and Hungary were under Ottoman rule. During the 17th century, the empire also occupied southern parts of present-day Slovakia. During the Early Modern period, the territories of Poland and Lithuania were part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . Meanwhile, the Archduchy of Austria , the Kingdom of Bohemia (Czech Republic),

8214-667: The east of the Hebrus river in the hinterland of Maroneia and Aenus , and they soon disappeared from history after being conquered by the kingdom of the Sapaei . In the 6th century BC, some splinter Scythian groups followed the earlier route of the nomads of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk wave, passed through the passes of the Carpathian Mountains, and settled in the Pannonian Basin, where some of them settled in

8325-604: The east. However, the region encompassed a wide spectrum of additional tribes and communities. From the late 6th century to the early 9th century, the area roughly corresponding to the Carpathian Basin was part of the Avar Khaganate, the realm of the Pannonian Avars . While the Avars dominated the east of what is now Austria, its north and south were under Germanic and Slavic influence, respectively. Meanwhile,

8436-659: The first West Slavic states to be founded in Central Europe. In the late 9th Century, the Hungarian tribes , originating in the Ural Mountains and Western Siberia , settled in the Carpathian Basin and established the Principality of Hungary . The earliest recorded concept of Europe as a cultural sphere (instead of simply a geographic term) was formed by Alcuin of York in the late 8th century during

8547-412: The first discussions of a Mitteleuropa in the mid-nineteenth century, as espoused by Friedrich List and Karl Ludwig Bruck . These were mostly based on economic issues. Mitteleuropa may refer to a historical concept or a contemporary German definition of Central Europe. As a historical concept, the German term Mitteleuropa (or alternatively its literal translation into English, Middle Europe )

8658-544: The kings of the peoples surrounding his kingdom to a council to decide how to deal with the Persian invasion. The Budini , Geloni and Sauromatians joined the Scythian-led alliance in resisting the Persian invasion, and Idanthyrsus led the joint forces of the Scythians and their allied neighbours in resisting the Persian invasion. Meanwhile, the Agathyrsi, Androphagi , Melanchlaeni , Neuri and Tauri refused to support

8769-482: The known linguistic landscape as follows: Unfortunately, we know next to nothing about the Scythian of that period [Old Iranian] – we have only a couple of personal and tribal names in Greek and Persian sources at our disposal – and cannot even determine with any degree of certainty whether it was a single language. Ossetian is an Eastern Iranic language. The vast majority of Scythological scholars agree in considering

8880-593: The late 6th century BC, the Achaemenid Persian Empire started expanding into Europe, beginning with the Persian annexation of all of Thrace, after which the Achaemenid king of kings Darius I crossed the Istros river in 513 BC and attacked the Scythian kingdom with an army of 700,000 to 800,000 soldiers, possibly with the goal of annexing it. In response, the Scythian king Idanthyrsus summoned

8991-538: The later Dacian people being consequently descended from the Agathyrsi. The Agathyrsi hence disappeared from history in a process typical of most Scythic peoples who back then formed the substrate of the many powerful tribal federations of the Ponto-Danubian region. The peoples of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex of which the Agathyrsi were part of introduced the use of trousers into Central Europe, whose local native populations did not wear trousers before

9102-513: The legal development or the social, cultural, economic, and infrastructural developments in these countries. The avant-garde movements of Central Europe contributed to the evolution of modernism, reaching its peak throughout the continent during the 1920s. The Sourcebook of Central European avantgards (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) contains primary documents of the avant-gardes in the territories of Austria, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia from 1910 to 1930. With

9213-474: The main population of the Pontic Steppe, thus completing the process of the Scythians becoming the main dominant population of the Pontic-Steppe over the course of c.  650 to c.  600 BC . The Agathyrsi henceforth became the immediate neighbours of the Scythians to their west and the relations between these two tribes remained hostile. After their displacement, the Agathyrsi settled in

9324-460: The men of the Agathyrsi had their wives in common so that all of their people would be each other's siblings and members of a single family living together without jealousy or hatred. The clothing of the Agathyrsi likely included the use of trousers , which was a typical part of steppe nomads' dress. The Agathyrsi lived in luxury and wore gold jewellery. The aristocracy of the Agathyrsi dyed their hair dark blue to distinguish themselves from

9435-458: The mere artistic influence of the steppe nomads, but also of the borrowing by the Celts of Iranic steppe nomad belief systems expressed through the image of predatory beasts. The Agathyrsi were barely mentioned again in outside sources after Herodotus of Halicarnassus described them in the 5th century BC, and it is unknown for how long they were able to maintain their Agathyrsian identity. However,

9546-628: The northern shore of the Maeotian Sea , while their neighbours to the east, in the Ciscaucasian Steppe and the steppe regions to the north of the Caspian Sea were the Cimmerians , who themselves also belonged to the grouping of Iranic nomads of Central Asian origin belonging to the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex. A second wave of migration of Iranic nomads corresponded arrival of the early Scythians from Central Asia into

9657-405: The northern shores of the Maeotian Sea . The neighbours of the Agathyrsi to the east, in the Ciscaucasian Steppe and the steppe regions to the north of the Caspian Sea were the Cimmerians , who themselves also belonged to the grouping of Iranic nomads of Central Asian origin belonging to the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex and were therefore closely related to the Agathyrsi. At the time when

9768-589: The other early nomadic cultures of the Eurasian steppe and forest steppe which existed before the 7th century BC, such as the Aržan culture , so that these various pre-Scythian early nomadic cultures were thus part of a unified Aržan-Chernogorovka cultural layer originating from Central Asia. Thanks to their development of highly mobile mounted nomadic pastoralism and the creation of effective weapons suited to equestrian warfare, all based on equestrianism , these nomads from

9879-403: The peasants in serfdom. The concept of Central Europe was already known at the beginning of the 19th century, but it developed further and became an object of intensive interest towards the 20th century. However, the first concept mixed science, politics, and economy – it was strictly connected with the aspirations of German states to dominate a part of European continent called Mitteleuropa . At

9990-784: The peoples who had free access to the Wallachian and Moldavian Plains along with the Scythians. The eastern neighbours of the Agathyrsi were the Pontic Scythians , while their northern neighbours were the Neuri , who were a Baltic population. By the time the Agathyrsi were living in the Balkans, they had become a people of mixed Scytho-Thracian origin, composed of a Geto - Thracian population with an Iranic -Scythic ruling class, as attested by how their kings, such as Agathyrsus and Spargapeithes, were Iranic. The assimilation of

10101-424: The plural form, which is also present in Sogdian , Chorasmian , Ossetian , and Yaghnobi . The Pontic Scythian language possessed the following phonemes: This article uses cursive theta ⟨ϑ⟩ to denote the Scythian voiceless dental fricative (IPA / θ /), and regular theta ⟨θ⟩ to denote the Greek aspirated , voiceless dental plosive (IPA / tʰ /). The western dialects of

10212-448: The region includes some or all of the states listed in the sections below: Depending on the context, Central European countries are sometimes not seen as a specific group, but sorted as either Eastern or Western European countries. In this case Austria, Germany and Switzerland are often placed in Western Europe, while Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia are placed in Eastern Europe. Croatia

10323-631: The regions surrounding the Eastern Carpathian Mountains corresponding to the territories presently called Moldavia , Oltenia and Transylvania , although they also may have been one of the peoples who had free access to the Wallachian and Moldavian Plains along with the Scythians. In these regions, the Agathyrsi established themselves as a ruling class over the indigenous population, who were Geto - Thracians , and intermarried with these local peoples and gradually assimilated into these local peoples' culture. And, beginning in

10434-479: The rising nationalism and ethnocentrism that typified that period. The interwar period brought new elements to the concept of Central Europe. Before World War I, it embraced mainly German-speaking states, with non-German speaking territories being an area of intended German penetration and domination – German leadership was to be the 'natural' result of economic dominance. Post-war, the Eastern part of Central Europe

10545-588: The same migration general path as the first wave of Central Asian Iranic nomads who had formed the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex. The westward migration of the Scythians brought them to the lands of the Cimmerians, after which the Scythians settled between the Araxes river to the east, the Caucasus mountains to the south, and the Maeotian Sea to the west, in the Ciscaucasian Steppe where were located

10656-470: The same name. *Spargapaiϑah and *Spargapis are variants of the same name. Recorded Scythian tribal names include: Ancient Greek : Σκυθαι , romanized :  Skuthai From the Proto-Indo-European root skewd- , itself meaning lit.   ' shooter, archer ' , whence also English " shoot ". Some scholars believe that many toponyms and hydronyms of

10767-558: The sedentary mixed farmers of the Bronze Age to become nomadic pastoralists, so that by the 9th century BC all the steppe settlements of the sedentary Bronze Age populations had disappeared, and therefore led to the development of population mobility and the formation of warrior units necessary to protect herds and take over new areas. These climatic conditions in turn caused the nomadic groups to become transhumant pastoralists constantly moving their herds from one pasture to another in

10878-536: The steppe nomads started appearing in La Tène Celtic art . Among these borrowed artistic influences were images of predatory carnivores, sometimes attacking herbivorous beasts, as well as motifs of pairs of animals facing each other, giving rise to Celtic motif of the "dragon pairs" which decorated the tops of Celtic sword scabbards. Another motif borrowed by Celtic art from steppe art are pairs of predatory birds around shield circular bosses, reflecting not only

10989-556: The steppe, and to search for better pastures to the west, in Ciscaucasia and the forest steppe regions of western Eurasia. The Agathyrsi originated as a section of the first wave of the nomadic populations who originated in the parts of Central Asia corresponding to eastern Kazakhstan or the Altai-Sayan region , and who had, beginning in the 10th century BC and lasting until the 9th to 8th centuries BC, migrated westwards into

11100-531: The territories now comprising Germany and Switzerland were under the influence of the Merovingian dynasty , and later the Carolingian dynasty . Various Slavic tribes that inhabited eastern Central Europe established settlements during this period, primarily in present-day Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. The territory of Lithuania was inhabited by Baltic tribes. Amongst them were

11211-460: The territory of the Agathyrsi while others moved into the Pannonian Steppe and settled in the territory of the Sigynnae, and subsequently intermarried with the local populations while remaining in contact with the Pontic Steppe through trade. These migrations and trade connections contributed to the transformation of the culture of the Agathyrsi and the Sigynnae into a more Scythian-like form. In

11322-501: The transformation process of the Visegrád Group countries in different, though comparable ways. According to him, in Germany's contemporary public discourse "Central European identity" refers to the civilizational divide between Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. He argued that there is no precise way to define Central Europe and that the region may even include Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and Serbia. The issue of how to name and define

11433-411: The uniform use of geographical names, proposes two sets of boundaries. The first follows international borders of current countries. The second subdivides and includes some countries based on cultural criteria. In comparison to some other definitions, it is broader, including Luxembourg, Estonia, Latvia, and in the second sense, parts of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Italy, and France. There

11544-619: The west, across the Araxes river and into the Caspian and Ciscaucasian Steppes. This western migration of the early Scythians lasted through the middle 8th century BC, and archaeologically corresponded to the movement of a population originating from Tuva in southern Siberia in the late 9th century BC towards the west, and arriving in the 8th to 7th centuries BC into Europe , especially into Ciscaucasia, which it reached some time between c.  750 and c.  700 BC , thus following

11655-502: Was accelerated by writers and other intellectuals, who recognized the societal paralysis of decaying dictatorships and felt compelled to speak up against Soviet oppression. In the early Middle Ages, Central Europe had a diverse landscape, with various ethnic groups inhabiting the region. Germanic tribes , among them the Franks , Alemans and Bavarians , were predominantly situated in the west, while Slavic tribes were predominantly in

11766-590: Was an Indo-European language , more specifically from the Iranic group of Indo-Iranic languages. Most of the Scythian languages eventually became extinct, except for modern Ossetian (which descends from the Alanian dialect of Scytho-Sarmatian), Wakhi (which descends from the Khotanese and Tumshuqese forms of Scytho-Khotanese ), and Yaghnobi (which descends from Sogdian ). Alexander Lubotsky summarizes

11877-579: Was at the time in personal union with the Kingdom of Hungary, served as a significant maritime gateway of Central Europe, with its ports facilitating key trade routes between Central Europe and the Mediterranean. The Republic of Ragusa emerged as a prominent hub for cultural exchange during this time. Following the Ottoman and Habsburg wars of the 16th and 17th centuries, the Kingdom of Croatia, under Habsburg rule , began to regain its position as

11988-671: Was dominated by Byzantine cultural influence. After the East–West Schism in 1054, significant parts of Eastern Europe developed cultural unity and resistance to Catholic Western and Central Europe within the framework of the Eastern Orthodox Church , Church Slavonic language and the Cyrillic alphabet . According to historian Jenő Szűcs , at the end of the first millennium Central Europe became influenced by Western European developments. Szűcs argued that between

12099-679: Was one of the most visible symbols of this division. Respectively, countries in Central Europe have historical, cultural and geopolitical ties with these wider regions of Europe. Central Europe began a "strategic awakening" in the late 20th and early 21st century, with initiatives such as the Central European Defence Cooperation , the Central European Initiative , Centrope , and the Visegrád Four Group . This awakening

12210-697: Was placed at the centre of the concept. At that time the scientists took an interest in the idea: the International Historical Congress in Brussels in 1923 was committed to Central Europe, and the 1933 Congress continued the discussions. According to Emmanuel de Martonne , in 1927, Central Europe encompassed Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Switzerland, northern Italy and northern Yugoslavia. The author uses both Human and Physical Geographical features to define Central Europe, but he doesn't take into account

12321-735: Was so fashionable that other languages started referring to it when indicating territories from Rhine to Vistula , or even Dnieper , and from the Baltic Sea to the Balkans . An example of this vision of Central Europe may be seen in Joseph Partsch 's book of 1903. On 21 January 1904, Mitteleuropäischer Wirtschaftsverein (Central European Economic Association) was established in Berlin with economic integration of Germany and Austria (with eventual extension to Switzerland, Belgium and

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