! Extra Information & Clarifications ! 0:03 Painting by Tadeusz Popiel. 0:14 If you can pick I would prefer you would support me on Patreon as A. there's more reward tears on there and B. more of that money actually makes it to the creator than on TH-cam. TH-cam takes a much larger cut than Patreon does. If you want to do just a one time donation you can also do that through TH-cam "Thanks". Thank you very much for any support you give. This year I have been struggling with where I want to go with my life and the donations really help me justify spending time on this whole TH-cam thing which is what I would love to be doing if possible. 1:12 It could mean anything from chattel slavery to 'servus Dei' meaning servant of god, which most medieval monks would consider themselves as being but they are, of course, not 'slaves'. 2:302:40 Paintings by Sergey Ivanov. 3:20 Cotton MS Julius A VI, f. 6v. 3:24 Sometimes they would also add 'et' in between the words, i.e. 'sclavus et captivus'. 3:58 Munich, Bayerische Stattsbibliothek, Clm.4453, fol. 23-24. 4:52 The variations can be attributed to the fact that there was no standardized way of writing the name and medieval authors where most likely just trying to phonetically spell out, the best way they could, the name 'Slovene' which they heard from the Slavs. 5:53 Slavs most certainly also lived within the Lombardic and Gepid Pannonian kingdoms which is why I put the word slav in that area. 6:45 I misspoke, I meant Carinthia not Thuringia. 7:14 Here I am using the word 'Islamic Caliphate' as a catch all for the Rashidun, Umayyad, and Abbasside Caliphates just to simplify things. 7:47 The star of David that is shown in the Khazar Khaganate is supposed to symbolize the superficial conversion of the Khaganate to Judaism. In reality the conversion was very superficial and was primarily only political rather than actually internal. With that said, this superficial outward conversation did play a role in altering the Slavic slave trade in eastern Europe as, for example, Jewish merchants from Al-Andalus made contact with merchants in Khazaria and tried opening a new trade route from Khazaria to Al-Andalus. That is why I think it was still worth mentioning the Jewish connections of the later Khazar Khaganate despite the actual history of their conversation being very nuanced and largely unsuccessful. 'The Archaeology of Slavery in Early Medieval Northern Europe', p. 133. 8:36 Although, by the time of the 11th century these two main divides in trade routes stopped existing as the new Hungarian and Polish kingdoms connected the east trade routes with the west. However, before then the pagan Avars and also, initially, pagan Hungarians, largely blocked the connection of the wester and eastern trade routes along the Danube, while disunited Poland didn't have major trade ports that could connected the greater flat lands of Poland. 9:00 I meant to say Muslim explorers and geographers as not all of these people where Arabs, some where Persian and other ethnicities. 9:07 Ibn Rusta actually called the Varangians the Rus' in his writings. This was not uncommon because, first, the word Rus' initially meant just Norseman living in Eastern Europe and only later became to be applied to the Slavic population and, second, these geographers and explorers didn't always identify the people with the correct term they would have used. Therefore, the context in which these words are being used is very important in determining who they're supposed to refer to. In this case it is very obvious that the word Rus' was supposed to refer to the raiding Varangians of Eastern Europe hence, for simplicity sake, I changed the word to that. 10:40 I accidentally mixed up West and East Francia on the map, sorry. 13:25 Now this argument is extremely nuanced, after all the book has 1000 pages, so I obviously couldn't talk about everything, therefore, go read the book if you want to know more. 13:39 Painting by Sergey Ivanov. 14:05 Of course, this linguistic change didn't happen all at ones everywhere in Europe. It was a gradual process that started in the 9th century and, in some areas like southern Italy, wasn't fully complete until the early 14th century. 14:45 Saqaliba meant 'white slave' mostly in Al-Andalus, while in the rest of the Muslim world it meant just Slav. 14:55 Cantigas de Santa María, fol-221V. 15:24 Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 195, fol. 76v. 15:29 Santa María de Terena. Miniature of the Cantiga #275. 15:30 What I am doing here, i.e. the comparison I stated, would be a bit disingenuous to do within an academic work because it doesn't help us understand slavery as a spectrum nor does it somehow alleviate the suffering of some by saying it wasn't as bad as the suffering of others. But because this video is supposed to be an "introduction", and because it is intended for a lay audience, I felt the need to make some comparison in order to set up some point of reference, even if not perfect. 15:30 Plantation based chattel slavery did exist but was very uncommon during the middle ages. Vast majority of slaves ended up being guards/soldiers, maids, house workers, etc. Often even with the possibility of buying ones own freedom or being able to assimilate into the society they lived in. After all some Saqaliba even managed to become rulers or appointed into very high political positions, 15:39 Cantigas de Santa María, fol-244R. 16:09 Slavs also were the most numerous ethnic group in eastern Europe so by sheer numbers they would have ended up being the majority of the slaves. I just didn't state this fact because there is a whole debate about ethnicity in the middle ages and to what extend "Slavic" was an identifiable ethnicity and how it coalesced to a point to be the most dominant ethnicity in Europe and, therefore, stating this would have brought about more historiographical arguments which would have had to be addressed and for which there wasn't enough time in the video. If you want to know more look up Vienna School, Toronto School, and Oxford School of thought on ethnicity in the middle ages. 17:43 "Thirst for knowledge" Anti-Czech propaganda postcard from around 1910. A Czech school boy has to copy answers from a "smarter" German school boy while Masaryk in the background oversees it all happening. This is a reference to the alleged inferiority of the Slavs. The card was part of a series that was published by the Federation of Germans in Lower Austria. 18:08 Which sounds very similar to the argument for British colonialism I mentioned in my previous video. th-cam.com/video/1Pn8r5gOatg/w-d-xo.html 18:34 “Germans learn Czech!” Anti-Czech propaganda postcard from around 1910 A German schoolboy fails to pronounce a Czech tongue twister. This is a reference to the alleged inferiority of the Slav languages. The card was part of a series that was published by the Federation of Germans in Lower Austria. 19:04 Illustration by Tom Lovell, National Geographic Image Collection There is this idea that most slave trading in medieval Europe was conducted by Jews but this is wholly unsupported by academic research and is mostly just part of fascist propaganda. Jews were just as likely as any other people group to be medieval slave traders no more nor less. Sources for all my videos are in the bibliography of my scripts available for free to download on my Patreon. www.patreon.com/mlaser?filters[tag]=script
@@wiwersewindemer4437 The numbers are a footnote in the script. Download the script and you'll get all the sources in there just like in any academic paper.
Don't forget, the Slavic people of today are descended from the Slavs who fought against their enemies who were trying to enslave them, remained free and survived. Also, many Slavic women who were taken as slaves became the mothers of the next generation of the Ottoman elite. I believe this mixing of blood gradually changed the attitude of the Ottomans regarding the Slavs due to the presence of an increasing number of people who recognized their dual heritage. Just my theory and can probably be disputed.
@@ГалинаФетисова-ю4м good point but the Russian Empire didn't do shit. We freed ourselves and you only started supporting that when you needed us to help you get political power in the Balkans. Get out of my country fake friends. Go back to Russia and suffer economically for attacking Ukraine
We did not. But the thing which struck me the most in this video was the idea that the slav slave trade built up western economy, which was a precursor to later worldwide colonization and tyranny. Evil breeds more evil it seems :)
@@cherylk.2474 The latter years of the Ottoman empire point towards the Janissaries becoming a ruling class of their own; many of which were abducted from Slavic homelands/families and raised to become the formidable soldier group of the Ottoman empire. I'd imagine these abductions caused increasing animosity towards the ruling Turks from the Slavs who have been tributed to become Janissaries. As their political influence grew, it contributed towards instability in the Ottoman Empire which later led to its collapse. Of course, there were many other factors that caused this collapse, but perhaps it wasn't the best idea to steal children from the Slavic territories they occupied and raise them to become elite soldiers of the Ottoman empire.
@@MrEvan1932 As a Turk, I can say that at the time, Ottomans were multicultural muslims and they believed balkan people (serbs especially) were fierce fighters (but ufortunately(!) infidels). So they used them because of this perceived positivd regard and trusted them to be present in capital (living near sultans palace in fierce education of literature, architecture (also siege equipments, remember mercenary christians in 1453 as craftsmen of bombards) or martial arts
If I remember my medieval etymology right "Slava" (glory) and "slovo" (word) has the same root, as slava has its roots in "someone who is spoken of" (someone who is famous, someone who has glory). So slavs basically means "people who speak our language".
it also fun that the slavs called us germanics niemcy (i think thats how you spell it) which i think means something like mute or no word, because the slavs couldn't understand them
@@SimonNissen94 mate you wrote that in past tense. Germans are still called Njemci and Germany Njemacka (like officially) which would translate as "land of those who cant speak" ...too funny :)
That's a good point. Statistically your ancestors are definetly more likely to be Slavic slave traders than the Slavic slaves, since most of them ended up as eunuchs in the middle east. The ones that remained in Eastern Europe where the ones that avoided being captured or took part in the trading.
@@MLaserHistory idk, there is theory that early Polan state was build on trade slave too. Just to said that, there was quite a large number of Varangians which had served under Polan rulers. These rulers must have been paying them somehow.
In Polish word slave is translated as "niewolnik". "Nie-" part means no, and "-wolnik" from "wola" refers to free will. Niewolnik means quite literally, without free will. It's self explianatory we don't have connection between word for Slavs (Słowianie) and slaves (niewolnik).
@@ulfricheiligestern1326 but in Ukranian slave is also "rab/раб", though. But it's interesting that Ukranian language has no word "rabotat'(work), which clearly has some connection to slavery, but russian language does...
As an East European Slav, I need to thank you for this video. Convincing people in the West that our perspective is important often feels like bashing my head into a concrete wall. This is the sort of foundation I need, just so they'd stop talking over my head and listen. I'm especially grateful that you stressed the anti-Slavic prejudice in Marxism. My experiences with communism are often invalidated by the western speakers, because Marx supposedly said that "communism couldn't work out in my part of the world". There is a strong 'it didn't count' mindset in the western left when it comes to Slavic experience, and an equally strong conviction that our feelings and opinions on the matter don't count, either. I really wish these people would say what Marx and Engels *actually* had to say about my people. It really shows how 'objective' these claims were. There's one thing I really yearned for at the end of the video, though: A nod to the modern human trafficking and slavery. The idea that Slavs are attractive-yet-exploitable targets for slavery is alive and well - and with the influx of Ukrainian war refugees, Slavic human trafficking is sadly on the rise.
I watched this video and it struck me that modern human traffickers seem to be using the same routes. Particularly Slav women trafficked into the sex industry. There's an estimated 50million slaves in the world in 2023. As soon as you start looking into this stuff it gets dark very fast and you have to wonder why it continues so unopposed.
Another part of this denial could be simple fact of education. I am from a slavic country and I can assure you that at least in my school years there was not even a word on slavic slave trade (which is a bit weird to be honest, because we like to self-martyr normally)... We have a strong focus on history post conversion to Christianity. About the period before that, we mostly discussed religious beliefs, some conflicts between tribes and with Western Europe, but nothing about captured people.
Yet another reason why I am disappointed by my Polish education. We covered ancient Egypt like three times, yet there as not a word in all my history lessons about this topic.
Same. Accidentally learned about Slavic slave trade through an Adventure novel(!) that i read for fun. Yet not a single word on the topic in schoolbooks. Was really disappointed in our education system...
Which aspect? The west in general doesnt want to teach about enslavement of slavic peoples. They want to focus on the transatlantic slave trade, and thats it
When I first read about early Czech history in academic sources, it really surprised me how much slave trade was referenced. Contact with Arabic world seemed preposterous at first glance, and through today's lenses, Czechs selling other Slavs from Poland and beyond seemed a silly idea. I thought about it for a bit and slowly started realising how much political and economical sense it made, and how much today's concept of nationality and old 19th-century-style outlook on 'fellow Slavic nations' were colouring my perception right there. I remember the moment quite clearly as the first instance of bias on my own part I recognised, it was a little eye opening. After all, for a 10th century Czech, what did it matter to him whether he was fighting against a Pole or a German or a Magyar? No matter how much we want to think about it like that, people in the 10th century weren't our grandfather's grandfathers - they were almost entirely foreign to us, their values entirely different, no matter how much we try to identify with them. Some people today don't want to think of their ancestors as this distant though, and easily fall back on "my people just don't do that". Slavery seems to be a concept that modern people know just as a Roman thing, or more likely, as the American plantation system. Enslaving within Europe seems inconceivable while you only think within those boundaries. P.S.: My thoughts kinda meandered there. Great video!
Nationalism gave rise to the nation state of homogeneous ethnicity is a totally foreign concept in those days. I guess selling the pagan tribe across the river to the Muslim traders make sense economically, and they fact that they are not from your village / religion means you have no qualms sleeping at night about it. It's like selling an animal you caught in the forest across the river to the Czechs If it helps I suspect the Slavic tribes sell each other to slavery too
The mentality apparently persisted into relatively modern times, which would be why Europeans so eagerly embraced the African slave trade in the 15th and 16th Centuries, even though the markets were mostly across the Atlantic (for the most part, they weren't employed at home). After all, it wasn't their people being enslaved and sold. Outside of the Iberian Peninsula, the slaves weren't even for the local markets (no need to worry about local consequences). Apparently, Europeans didn't even think much about it until the Eighteenth Century.
@@hkchan1339 You can stop suspecting and start being certain. Slavery and general acceptation of treating another people as some sort of goods/propriety were common concepts among both western and eastern Europeans since antiquity all the way through Middle Ages. It didn't look quite as we imagine it nowadays though: chains, whips, brutal violance, dying in ruined cottages after few months of ardous exploitation etc.. In most cases it came down to taking hostages for ransom or kiddnaping peasant and relocating them to your own land as servants. Many such a people assimilated later and became just another locals in generation or two.
I as a slav (Ukrainian) always wondered why in English slaves and Slavs were so similiar words but never found a good video of such quality as yours. Big thank you
its been known for rather long time...but i think cause of the modern view on it aswell but its not really like slavic peoples proudly want to aknowledge it...rest just want to hide the fact probaly cause of negative association why its not a higher topic...
The fact that so many slavs were enslaved is more of a reflection on the cruelty of their neighbors than on any perceived inferiority of the people. During tumultuous times, anyone can be a victim.
As Czech, I do remember being taught at primary school abou adopting christianity en masse around 8th century. But I don't recall them even mentioning slave trade at all. Which is not that surprising, coming from both ends.
the first bohemian state economy was 100% dependent on the slave trade - slaves were sold in Prague (jugoslavske namesti) to the jewish and Arabic traders , the first regular bohemian army was fully financed from slave sales
The main problem with the identification of the words "Slav" and "slave" is that some people believe that the ethnonym comes from the western word while in fact the reverse story is true.
The weird thing is, this is (at least in some slavic countries) not discussed in schools. School history books I and many of my slavic friends went through have no mentions of this. Were it not for this video, I probably wouldn't even know this ever happened. As for the defensiveness, I don't think it's as much of an issue as the video states. Either because, like myself, people don't really know about this, or because this was something that happened long ago, and we got over it. But I think it's a good reminder of what our ancestors went through, of the hardships a medieval person faced, and can even be seen as a sort of victory over the anti-slavic propaganda mentioned. I'm not ashamed of being a slav, nor for the things that happened to those before me. The shame should be on those who were responsible for these immoral acts.
The irony here is that while this hardly mentioned in the eastern Slavic countries over at least last hundred years (the only close thing to that is the early soviet propaganda slogan that can be translated as “we’re not the slaves, the slaves are mute” but it was primarily said in context of working class exploitation before the revolution), the Eastern Europe didn’t forget the meaning even though the etymological context may have been lost or distorted over time. The yesterday barbarians who were partially assimilated by Roman culture and claimed that they inherited the Roman Empire (primarily, German and Frankish states) started to think of Slavs as new barbarians and never stopped since. There were reasons, indeed. Like paganism, ferocity of sorts compared to what Roman Empire brought to those “yesterday barbarians” some centuries ago. It also could’ve been a grudge against the fall of the Empire at the time. The Great Migration of Peoples started from the east. Though, huns and climate minimum were the reasons, when it ended, huns were either killed or assimilated (hello, Hungary), and the Slavic population was of the latest ones to come from the east, at the very end of the Great Migration, and they were pagans. It’s hard, probably even impossible to prove or disprove the statement that Slavic people were blamed for the fall of the Empire. In early Middle Ages that event was thought of as an apocalyptic omen, it explains the whole religious propaganda in Christian Church, denying the materialistic stuff in favour of the immortal soul. People were waiting for the second coming, and of course, they needed someone to blame. Again, this is just a speculation, there are no proofs to that (at least known by me). But we have another people who were blamed and discriminated for centuries for another biblical event: Jews. They were blamed at the time, but it all grew into unprecedented hatred that climaxed in the events of Holocaust. But many people forget (or try not to speak about) that Slavic people were marked as the second most hated ones in Hitler’s propaganda. They were tortured and killed alongside Jews in concentration camps. After the fall of Constantinople, the last Byzantine princess Sophia Paleologos made her way to Moscow and married Ivan III, Moscow was called the Third Rome, and Ivan III proclaimed himself tzar, the word is shortened version of Caesar, meaning Emperor of Rome. Sophia denied propositions from catholic priests who traveled with her to marry the emperor of Holy Roman Empire. This event, I think, started the next round of hatred, this time, towards Russia. History shown that since that time Russia has grown bigger and bigger, despite all turmoil that happened in 17 century. But the cultural gap between Russia and other countries to the west was big. Even after what Peter The Great did, bringing European culture straight to Russia, the gap was still big enough. In 19 century the national idea rose, and by that time Russia had united virtually all eastern Slavic peoples under one banner. For western people Russia equaled Slavs. Even after everything that happened in 20 century Slavs are the lesser people. What we see today doesn’t help at all.
I just want to point out how great it is that you drew out all those maps so we can just passively watch how things changed over time. That was a lot of extra work for you, and it makes things so much easier for us viewers! Maybe this seems like an odd thing for me to be so excited about but the main trouble I have when reading history is keeping track of maps. Thanks for another excellent video! I'm not sure why I wasn't already subscribed, but I am now.
The word "slava" is literally translated to "glory", the word "slovo" is literally translated to "a letter" and the word "slaviti" is "to celebrate | to glorify". -> From that you can undeniably see that it is asociated of the glory or the people. And the reason people are defensive is because we know that most of the western audience is not intelligent enough to realize that Slav doesn't really mean slave in the native language (they tend to believe that all languages come from English), which is the only language that matters when discussing root of the word.
words are what we want them to be, there might be that it always hasn't had the same meaning as they have today 'cause as with everything words evolve to.
@@Hejirah It is exactly like I said then. The root of "slovo" is "a letter" or "a word", the root of slava is "glory/celebrate/fame". You may have misunderstood, by letter I don't mean post letter but a character symbol for a voice - things that make up a word.
I feel like ppl get defensive because they somehow flip it in their minds from "Slave comes from Slav" to "Slav comes from Slave" and get offended by that. To me it simply shows either a severe problem with their skill to comprehend whatever it is they're reading/listening to OR they're just bad at English.
Brother your videos are immaculate. I came from Oversimplified, and the first video I watched was the Vienna Coffee House Scene. From that point on, I was hooked. I like that video a lot, I still watch it again and again. And your ethnicity series is my most favourite. Keep going!
Concept that the word Slav is the origin of the word slave is accepted in Slavic countries, but often than not, westerners reverse it, and say, that Slav is hailed from slave, this is where Slavic people have problem.
Ditto for this one! Something so simple can be used by people to paint a picture, and in a world where propaganda and bots reign supreme it can be difficult to have straight conversations with people.
Incredibly well done video. I always wondered why the first Polish Kingdom (I'm Polish) was so empty compared to Germany or anyone in the west and why the west was so much richer right from the start of medieval history. This explains both. But it's extremely upsetting.
Saying that Poland was 'empty' and Western Europe was 'richer' because of slave trade is not factual. Maybe it played some part in Western Europe getting richer, but definetly was not source of the difference. Lands beyond what Romans called Germania were just more isolated form the rest of the world, more forested, less urbanized etc. they did not had any Roman influence which played a major part in Western Europe being more advanced in early and high Middle Ages as well as no direct contact with Byzantine and Arabic worlds. There was less people in the lands that would became Poland and it was poorer before the Slavic slave trade even started.
Yeah but look what our people then did - since Bolesław Chrobry, Polish (and later Polish-Lithuanian) kings would grant privileges to groups from Western or Southern Europe who wanted to bring their technology and work our land. Instead of raiding them, we took in all the Germans, Jews, Tatars, Dutch, French, etc. who didn't like their lords and their wars, and built a pretty good republic where most lands participated voluntarily as opposed to being conquered. It worked pretty well for a few centuries. (Except all the pańszczyzna stuff ig.)
@@TheGeneralGrievous19 Idk, how can you really measure population of early medieval europe? What was the real difference between lands of poland and germany, when they had basically the same climate, and were populated by the same farmer societies? The "slave trade damage hypothesis" really does stand ground when we consider a precedence of eastern slavs being under the same pressure. Eastern slavs which lived in modern ukraine had the best soil in europe, but they constantly suffered from slave trade around Azov sea, and they didn't had large settlements only until they were conquered from the north by Novgorod, so, until they were offered some relative safety. It's not that some places were father away from romans (especially when we consider that amber road was a pretty important trade route during the time), but that some peoples were under sovereignty of empire (like Karolingian), and others were not.
In Swedish, the two words are spelled and pronounced exactly the same. To the point of it feeling strange to ask someone if they're Slavic in the noun form. Since you're literally asking them if they're a slave. Or the other way around I guess.
There are some words that are way to similar for a coincidence. Like: oganj (fire) Croatian -ugn (oven) Swedish - agni (fire) in Sanskrt. Or: jamrati (to whine, moa) Slovene, jämra sig (moan, whine) Swedish. Pretty freaky if you ask me. But then, proto Indo European is our common ancestor language, so...
Yes, indeed, you *have* introduced me to an interesting topic. Even though I consider myself to be somewhat knowledgeable in history, I didn't even know about the Slavic slave trade! Thanks, great video and a good start to learn about the topic!
this is a very interesting topic imo because we all know about the what the western european did when we talk about slavery but rarely talk about stuff like this
When I started learning English, I was surprised that the Slav (славянин, славянка) and the slave (раб) are spelled similarly, but to be fair, these words are read differently. It is noteworthy that in my Russian language, a Slav is consonant with the word glory, and the Slavs (славяне) can literally be understood as glory guys. And the word slave (раб) in Russian is cognate word with words like work (работа), employee (работник) and mb robot (робот). I want to say that in Russian these two words are not connected in any way, they do not have a common etymology and are not related to each other. In the Russian Empire there was a type of slavery - serfdom (крепостничество). The owner of a serf (крепостной, крепостная) could sell, lose at cards, or marry against the will of his/her serf. But again, these words are also not related to the subject.
@@levingoodberg in Slavic tradition the card is past down the father. If the house recognized the offspring as a descendant a name would be given and father's name and clan's name passed down.
Great video! If I may add something, I think that another reason why Slavic people often react negatively to the mentioning of the etymological connection between 'Slav' and 'slave', is that it's often presented in a simplified (like in your thumbnail) or reversed way, implying that Slavs _means_ slaves. As you explained in the video the etymology of the ethnonym Slav and its equivalents in other languages (including the original Slavic endonyms) is different. We are "the people of the word (and/or glory)", while others, like Germans, are "mutes". 😉 Edit: The thumbnail picture was apparently changed. I also think that the early modern Ottoman-related slave trade in the Black Sea region, which you briefly mentioned near the end (and which inspired the painting _Tatar Captives_ by Tadeusz Popiel used in the video) is a large, interesting, complex, and underappreciated topic, which could get its own video. I can recommend the paper _Slave hunting and slave redemption as a business enterprise: the northern Black Sea region in the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries_ by Dariusz Kołodziejczyk as a good source. Finally, I really like that you distinguished between slavery and serfdom. Explaining exactly how and why these systems are not the same thing could easily be the topic of yet another video, maybe combined with explaining why serfdom survived longer and even intensified in much of Eastern (and Central, depending on the definition) Europe while disappearing in the Western part.
Nice explanation of origins of word Slavic. Would also add that in times before Christianity there was a custom of respecting dead ancestors among Slavs - remnant of that is visible in today ortodox Serbs who have custom "Slava" where they venerate saint protector of their family which took origins of venerating ancestors
“Slava” appears to have a parallel etymology to latin “fame” - both are variations of “speak” in respective language branches. (I think it’s safe and easy to see the connection between “famous” and “spoken of”.) In contrast, “gloria” has different origins, and “chwala/chvala/xvala” yet another.
The simple explanation of why serfdom survived longer in yhe east is usually given as 'black death killed more people in the west than the east, creating worker shortage, in turn creating better treatement and rights for those who would work'. I agree that a deeper dive into the subject would be a great video. I'm sure there are also cultural reasons too, and I'm looking here towards Muscovy specifically, where serfdom survived extremly long.
The research involved in this is very impressive, but this format obscures just how much thought and investigation went into this video presentation. Thank you for all you have done.
As an ethnic Slav, I am glad that someone talks about this subject. It is hardly ever touched upon in Polish historiography - a feeling of shame, perhaps?
It's because of the Catholic church impacting our education and focusing on the mass conversion to Christianity as a good thing, not a means of desperate salvation for the very victims of the brutal Christian west. So all history of our lands is taught more extensively post-conversion. Greetings from Croatia :)
Hands down, one of the best videos every made. I will have it shown in some friends who are history teachers' classrooms. Well researched and the presentation is amazing for those who love and know history. Bravo!
Thank you for making this video, I actually learned something today (as some historical TH-cam videos feel like shortened versions of longer videos on other TH-cam channels) I could see how some history TH-cam channels would avoid the topic altogether, and being Slavic (Polish) myself, I appreciate an historical video that is based on history Keep up the good work, even if it means taking a risk that the comment section of the video could become a super controversial discussion area I can't wait for the next video!
Thank you for this video. I also had a pushback towards the idea of "slave" deriving from "slav", but your video changed my mind. I didn't have any prejudice against the etymology itself, but there were a lot of empty spaces, especially with "servus" which you made very clear.
This is so good! Such underated topic worth exploring and my favourite TH-cam historian just dropped a gem. Thank you as always for a great and well put video and hope you've recovered from your illness. P.S.:Thanks for added anti-Czech posters. I did not have an idea something like that even existed.
So true, all of it, I'm sure. As i have been long aware of Slavic Slavery, i was not clued up on the detail. This is highly edifying for me, as a Ukrainian Slav. Many thanks.
See my ancestor who came to America had the surname Zerbe and change our family name Servis. Zerbe came from the Zerben area of Eastern Germany where many Sorb lived. Sorbs being relatives to Serbs. My family has always thought themselves german but really we're slavs.
This really puts the whole Afroamerican Slave Trade and that 20th century Eugenics movement into context. Even before that bigoted ‘White supremacy’ was a notion, it seems ‘Saxon and Germanic supremacy’ fathered it. Or rather, ‘slavery’ as a whole is as antiquated an system as the cultures that thrived on it. But it’s certainly more complex than expected. History doesn’t always repeat, but it always rhymes…
one thing is for certain, the concept of what we today would call slavery has been going on since the dawn of human civilization and is sadly still going on all over the world today....
More Americans should see this and take history in account when talking about slavery... When you watch Americans talk about it it look like slavery only happened in Usa
Yes, or even that only sub-Saharan African people were victims of the "white colonizers" (as if the Americans did not originate from them...), when in reality slavery affected everyone and was implemented by anyone.
And, of course we were asshats to you as well, when you wanted to get free. Just as you have forgotten that and tried to take colonies of your own. Everyone has been at it, at one point or another.
Fun fact: the term 'servus' is also used in (eastern) Austria as a greeting and/or as a goodbye. Sometimes changed to 'serwas' in dialect, it is a greeting for people who know each other or are of about the same social standing. You could greet someone not fitting this criteria (like a policeman in service, student to teacher [though that depends on the teacher], government official, ...) which would be seen as impolite, though not necessarily unfriendly. The background/meaning behind this greeting is to imply to the receiver of the greeting that they would be happy to help/serve if they would need something.
This greeting may have a connection with the hungarian greeting szervus, which basicallly means hello, and usually used between firends. Hungary from the 11 century until 1920 had a big influence in eastern austria mainly in burgerland or in hungarian őrvidék which was under the hungrian crown for 400-500 years and inhabited by hungarians for a millenium
The Italian greeting 'ciao' has the same meaning, only that actually comes from 'slave'. It was originally a Venetian term, from 's-ciavo' (from 'sclavo'). It also means 'at your service, how can I help you', but unlike 'servus' it is the general greeting used for informal circumstances.
@@andraslukacs1344 yeah but could you go to the root of the word and find the Hungarian origin? I think it is still the root is still the Romanic word for slave/slav
I think that slav coming from the word for "word" makes more sense, since it would mean "that which can speak" while the other people, were called non-speaking (even today, the Polish word for Germans is "Niemcy")
Just recently in Poland we started to grasp how the founder of Poland, Mieszko I had gained his wealth and power. He was a slave supplier for the west and Caliphate. Most probably the profits allowed him to gather a personal army to further enslave more other Slavic tribes and to protect those who fell under his rule.
As a Slav from Czechia, I don't find the word "slave" offensive at all. I find it rather educative these days. It lets people know that slavery affected Caucasian white people so much that it was actually named after that broad ethnic group. This dismisses the ideology that pushes it as something that affected mostly Black people and that stems from racism. And all this just takes a person looking for etymology of the word "slave". It's all contained there.
It actually brings light on the Black slave trade too - they were targeted because they were not Christians in the same way the Slavs were not Christians too. Not because of racism but because of religion. In the Middle Ages religion was way more important than skin color. Unfortunately skin color became important later in history.
@@flexparachute Quite honestly, even if race was important in some era, today it isn't nearly as important as the far right or far left wants us to believe. For an employer seeking cheap labor, your skin tone is not very important. Your work ethics and your willingness to put up with their s**t is what they care about. And in some cases it's pretty close to slave labor or human trafficking.
Really an informative video. Also, as a Sardinian I didn't know that Sardinians were the slaves of choice for the Genoese in the Middle Ages. And I studied Medieval Sardinian History at the University... sometimes they don't tell you the whole picture. Glad I got this on my notifications.
I´m curious, what tells in sardinia about the andalusian pirates presence? because in spain we learn that the coast of corsica and sardinia were controlles by the raiders from Almeria, were the interior was in control of the sardinian judicati. Some great Taifa kings were saqaliba from sardinia, like Muyahid of denia, who tries to conquer the island.
@@juanbarbosasiguenza5883 We do know about the Saracens from North Africa and the Emirate of Denia and all that. I would say that there are some inaccuracies in some maps about Sardinia being part of the Caliphate (which is not true). But yeah, we talk about how we asked Pisa and Genoa to help us get rid of the "Arabs", but I wouldn't say they had control over the coasts. Yes, it was unsafe, dangerous even, to live close to the sea, but the Muslim raiders never established full control. There is, however proof of Muslim people living in Cagliari because we found inscriptions in Arabic on some tombs...
No worries Słowianie/Slovanský/Cлавянскія , Słowianin/Славян/Slovan an indigenous inhabitant of Europe does not come from Niewolnik/otrok/раб(servus/sclavus....).The evidence for this is simple but not to be groundless(gołoSŁOWNYM) it takes a lot of words(SŁÓW). SAVE YOUR LIFE IT'S NO SŁOWIANIN/Славян/Slovan !.
This is an interesting time, we can now compare stories we’ve been told and weren’t told. Sort of like finally laying the pieces to a massive puzzle that’s been built up for thousands of years
The self-designation Slovani is likely derived from Slovo (word, speech), since Germans in pretty much all of the Slavic languages are called Němci, which literally means mutes or mute people, meaning that Slovani are the ones who speak an understandable language, while Němci (mutes) speak an unknown language. The word Němci may have even been used to refer to anyone who isn't a Slav, but became specifically used for Germans, the most constant and active of the Slavs' neighbors, as well as, historically, their main rivals EDIT: Also, the word Slava (fame, glory) may also derive from Slovo (word), since it may mean something like "being spoken about", just like the word fame itself is derived from the Latin word for rumor, fama. In Czech, there is also a synonym for fame "věhlas", whose root is "hlas" (voice)
@@Pepper0ni You're the very first person I've ever witnessed suggesting that. If that were true, I reckon the word would be formed something like Nemějci or Nemajci, instead of Němci. Not to mention that the word Němec is not actually used for someone who is literally mute (instead you use the core adjective, "němý", to refer to such person), while Němec would be used to emphasize that you're not referring to an actual mute person, but to a member of a tribe(s) of "mutes", and most Slavs probably don't even realize they're calling Germans mutes, since the exonym Němci LOST the meaning "mute", not the other way around, so calling it modern is a bit weird. Where have you learned this? And are you a Slav yourself?
an interesting and well researched video that confirms my more shallow investigations. this is a lesser known but significant part of European history. it is my opinion that a quiet/unspoken and more civilized untermensch attitude towards Slavs is still present in Western and Northern Europe, primarily in Germanic countries. long forgotten history has a long perserverance in informal culture. on the other hand, the mentality and governance in most of Eastern Europe still has a significant post-slavery aspect that provides a feedback loop to that. but things are changing via the new big mixing up due to open borders, interaction, peace, freedom and prosperity, thankfully
I only had a surface level awareness of this topic before watching the video. Might want to look into this more (once the ongoing cramming period of this uni semester is done ofc). An interesting piece of trivia, since al-Andalus was mentioned here: the (mostly) Slavic Saqaliba slaves there became an important part of the Andalusi army and government, even becoming a political faction / interest group to rival and vie for influence with the existing Mawali (Arabic), Berber and Muwallad (mixed or native Iberian muslim) factions in the establishment. When the caliphate of Cordoba broke apart into the First Ta'ifa Period, some of the new states were ruled by Saqaliba, with those among them who weren't eunuchs (rare) even forming relatively-short-lived dynasties. Most notable were the Amirids of Denia, who had a large fleet, raided their neighbours, and their founder, Mujahid, even tried invading Sardinia (tho ultimately he was rebuffed by a Pisan-Genoese-Papal intervention)
Yes, that's true. It's because Muslims often used slaves as troops, presumably more loyal to their master because of (initial) lack of clan-belonging (cf. Mamluks, Jannisaries, etc.) A variant of that type of slave promotion was also used by Charlemagne, who made many of his slaves into nobles (to the grudge of his established nobles) also because they had no other loyalties and thus were generally more trustworthy.
Very true, also the centralization of th estae under the caliphate mades that the caliph tries to weakened the jund (arab hereditary proffesional army) and iqta'dar (more or less feudal armies) arab and muwalladi armies in favor of a proffesional armies of saqaliba mamluks loyal to their own and berber and galician mercenaries, not related to the power gropus in cordoba. A little side note the mawali were not arabs, but clients of any ethnic origin. For example the conqueror of Cordoba was a sirian-Roman Mawali called Mugith.
As a Black Man, I will say that this content is highly valuable and needed --- because it all ties into the dominance of Western Civilization on a global scale. And it makes sense, because the U.S. and subsequently Europe, didn't become industrialized until the 18th or 19th Century (give or take). All the European powers did was expand the slave trade into Africa, turned it into "race" for religious and psuedo-scientific purposes, and built on the model they established in Europe. I know you've had this up for a month, but if you get to read this comment, I would like to say thanks, job well done!
@@daniel5730 I never said it was. I said it ties into. Maybe you should read the comment. The point is that slavery wasn't unique to one region or group --- it was the way things were done in ancient times, so it makes sense from that perspective that the European powers would continue that policy into the conquest of the Western hemisphere...
Servus is used as a greeting by Germans mostly. I am of Slavic origin and this slav = slave thing was on my mind for some time, thanks for covering this topic. :)
Respect ! As a british black man of Caribbean decent, I'm so glad that the truth of a global trade is smashing the myth that black people were somehow the only or most traded of ethnicities as some of us use this to bash white (loose term), and other ethnicities into somehow feeling guilty of their part in the trade (largely with the complicity of Africans of the time).
I think there's one more reason why some Slavs can be very defensive about Slavic slave trade. I think some of oi comes from school history education, where Slavs often represented as some sort of super warriors, who instilled fear in neighboring nations, and all they did was either raiding Greeks or successfully defended their motherland from hordes of nomads from the East. And I don't recall any mention of slavery in Russian school history books. Note, that I'm talking from a Russian perspective, and it can be different in other countries.
Hey, I'm from Croatia and we were taught this slave thing at school. I remember doing an essay about it. If anything - they actually emphasised/exaggerated on how much we were victimised and forgot to tell us how we also pestered other nations around us. I only later found out that that we pillaged and conquered around (some of our kings even went against Arabs?!). So, a bit of an opposite to your experience! Interesting.
You skipped alot of history lessons, atleast these where was talked 'bout mongol invasion, and fighting with crimean khanate. And later 'bout suppression slave trading on caucasus region.
@@bijelimedved2983 Došao si kenjati krivoj osobi. Mislim da tražiš nekoga poput sebe, bez visokog obrazovanja i/ili ikakvog znanja o povijesti i lingvistici. Njima možeš možda prodati te svoje gluposti.
@@bijelimedved2983 Bijeli medved *dodje na video o tome kako su Slaveni bili hvatani i prodavani kao roblje.* Isto Bijeli medved (na užasnom engleskom): “Slaveni nisu imali roblje!!! Zapadna propaganda!!!” 😂 O čemu ti uopće pričaš, jebo te Perun?
@@FinestFantasyVI E vidiš, nama je 80% gradiva bila internacionalna svjetska povijest. A u srednjoj (MIOC) čak i više. Vjerojatno se to razlikuje od škole do škole, ali definitivno nam nisu zaboravili spomenuti kako su nas svi gazili i uopće nas nisu učili kao Ruse tamo neku propagandu da smo mi kao najbolji.
In much of southern Germany "Servus" is still used a greeting to this day. With slightly informal connotation, due to it being percieved as a local dialect/oddity. It´s use like that dates back to the noted High Middle Age, where it entered the general German vocabulary as a formal greeting with the inital literal meaning of "at (your) service".
@@EskalanteIn Hungarian, we also use servus, (szervusz) and ciao (csáó), but that latter is considered very informal, it's almost weird if you are older then 30 and use it
Great video! I am glad someone shine some light on us Slavs. Nice explanation that the word slave came after Slavic ethnic group and not the other way around.
Fantastic video, I love that you highlighted which cities were slave trade hubs. In America slave markets get marked on maps these days because chattel slavery was so recent and so horrible. With Europe I'm guessing not even memory remains
I think some place names still hint at it. The Riva degli Schiavoni in Venice (meaning Slavs' Waterfront) comes to mind, it was named after the Slavic merchants that traded there, maybe in slaves. Other than that, I can't say.
It does remain but this video only shallowly touched on that: Prague first and Krakow later were the main slave trading hubs and very related to the expansion of Ashkenazi Jews (who were very active in the slave trade) eastwards (they were originally from France). In the East Byzantium (Constantinople) and the mentioned Crimean holdings (later in Genoese hands) were fundamental, as well as the Rus (Kiev, Novgorod) and Khazar (Saray, Astrakhan) cities. There was also early African slave trade in the Muslim areas, largely provided by the almost never mentioned Kanem-Bornu realm (since the 8th century) in the Chad region with routes heading to Egypt primarily.
It's barely mentioned in history class, instead there is given great importance to specific political conflicts during the middle ages, then when it comes to Nazism, that gets flipped and it's all about guilt-tripping. I vaguely remember hearing that being a serf wasn't good and that many weren't allowed to leave a certain area, but nothing about slavery, be it Vikings or Germanics or Barbary Corsairs.
Your story may not have such a happy beginning, but that doesn't make you who you are. It is the rest of your story....Who you choose to be. (I love this quote from Kung Fu Panda😀)
Very interesting video! I actually knew the etymology of the word "slave" but I didn't know the full story behind it, which you thoroughly described here. As a curiosity, I can add that in Italy we have a lot of last names referring to the meaning of Slav through old Italian "schiavo" or "schiavone": these last names and all their variations are a little ambiguous nowadays cause the word "schiavo" only means "slave" in modern Italian, while Slav or Slavic is translated to "slavo". As family names, they arguably refer to an ethnic origin (Slavic) rather than a social status (slave), just like a lot of Italian last names referring to several ethnic origins (for instance Greco, Albanese, Spagnolo, Tedesco, Franzese, Turco, Ungaro, Saracino, etc.).
So you think that "Schiavo" as surname does not necessarily mean slave origins? I would think that makes sense in the Venetian sphere, where many areas (Friuli but also Istria and Dalmatia) used to be Slavic (are still in the Croatian cases), however elsewhere it's almost certain that it would mean "slave". This should be particularly true in the case of Genoese roots because, for what I've found, they were the most active slave traders (Crimean holdings, which became strangled after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks) and were pivotal in the shift from Medieval Slavic slave trade to the Modern African slave trade, typically via their establishment in Portugal (Columbus is paradigmatic in this).
@@LuisAldamiz I actually assume that both of these two origins merged into the spread of such last names in Italy. If you ask me which one has been more influential though, I think the ethnic one is and not only in the Venetian sphere, which was certainly affected by the Slavic culture and heritage, but also elsewhere in the country. Last names like Schiavo and Schiavone, for example, are common in some Southern Italian regions such Apulia, Campania and Sicily: Schiavone in particular is less ambiguous than Schiavo since it only meant Slavic in old Italian and is widespread in Apulia, which lies just across the Adriatic coastline (close enough to former Yugoslavia). Slavs also founded some towns (Peschici in Northern Apulia is an example), even though they didn't reach the same extent of the Albanian-Italian communities of Southern Italy (so-called Arbereshe communities), which still exist to this day and preserve their own culture.
Great video. That debate about the slave trade and the orgins of the Western European economic boost sounds interesting. Don't know much about it, but like you said, if it is even being discussed in an academic way it is worth taking a look at.
My understanding of Medieval Economic shifts in Europe is that it was much more based on the textile trade first along the Champagne fairs (which linked Provence and thus Italy) with the Frankish heartland in the Low Rhine area, via Lyon and North France, and later around the growth of Flanders and also the Italian city-states of the Renaissance. However, such emphasis on the textiles may be only part of the picture because the slave trade is rather taboo (it does occasionally gets mentioned but not as economic driver, rather as a side-note). Another key issue that is brought up when studying Medieval economic history of Europe is the huge agricultural development of "Northern Europe" (rather mid-Northern, i.e. not so much Scandinavia but around Belgium again) thanks to the heavy plough and the horse collar (both probably invented by the Chinese), which allowed the deep soils of Atlantic Europe to become fully productive, while it had no impact in the shallow Mediterranean soils instead. That's probably why "Northern Europe" became more and more important economically: not so much trade but productive economy, which was largely agricultural and to lesser but growing extent manufacturer (textiles, metallurgy/weapons).
Very interesting indeed! I always suspected my ancestors have slavic roots, even though we are originary of Catalonia in northeastern Spain, since both my mother and grandmother, for example, who traveled a lot worldwide were often taken for russian women. I think that maybe larger scale genetic tests among western and southern europeans will someday probably confirm this.
Amazing video, thank you! And for people who get upset at the etymology of the word Slav in English, yes, in Slavic languages, slovani/slavyani/slovyani/slaveni and other variants derives from slovo/slava. But that doesn't mean that it does so in English as well, otherwise it would likely be something like Slovans, Slavians...
This is some very high quality content. I have recently listened through a series of Audible courses, including a history of the Viking, a History of the Steppe peoples, Early medieval history of Eurasia, History of the early Byzantine Empire and others. I think this video gives a great overview of all these lectures as seen through the lens of the word Slave. You mention the birth of feudalism in the west through the breakdown of clear, legal slavery. The new trade routes that would spring up in the death of the roman empires fall. Vikings who used the rivers, and Steppe peoples on horseback were able to ocver the distance that had been served by Roman roads. The rebirth of a currency economy through the economic demand of golden age early caliphate The political situation of the slavs as a Pagan, non centralized kingdom which, unlike the Vikings who were protected by forest, ice and mountains, could be easily raided. All around great video about an era in the world many people dont know about
I've only heard mention of Slavic slave trade in films and series about Vikings. After living in Denmark from a bit a lecturer (not lecturing history) claimed Rus ppl were named what they r by Vikings. I have no idea how true this one is tho. I still find it interesting that Northern Europeans seem to be only ones acknowledging Slav slaves
Yes, the word Rus' comes from Old Norse meaning "to row". It was first used just to refer to the "rowing" Norse people who settled in Eastern Europe but later got appropriated to the entire population of eastern Europe who was primarily Slavic.
@@MLaserHistory ive also heard(not from a very reputable source though) that russ comes from the byzantines calling northern europeans roussoi(like rosie or words like that) because of their skin tones when they arrived in the mediterainian climate
@@MLaserHistory Ono je tých výkladov slova Rus je viac. Asi podľa toho komu o čo ide :) I na Slovensku používame trošku zastaralé na ryšavého, alebo blond s nádychom do ryšavá, muža/ženu je rusý/rusá.
@@greekcomenterperson446 that's fun, because we have word 'rusiy' ('русый') in Russian still, and it means a color of hair that is mostly common in Slavic countries (contrary to brown hair / brunet, 'rusiy' hair is more ashy shade of colors between brown and blonde). And brown with red or orange tint, contatry to ashy shade of 'rusiy', is called 'kashtanoviy' ('каштановый') and it literally means and translates as 'chestnut-like'. I don't know why I wrote this :/
“Slavs” mean “those who speak” in comparison with “Nemets” than mean “mutes” or “mumblers” to describe anyone who doesn’t speak Slavic language. In the same sense Greeks called “barbarians” to anyone who didn’t speak an Hellenic language (barbar: mumbler) PD: Austrians say “servus” as a greeting, in the sense “at your service”
And in Czech Republic "servus" is still sometimes used (rarely though) and if I remember correctly it comes from university students who used to use it as greetings around the end of 19th century
"Slav", "Slavic", "Slavonic" comes from the Slavic word "Slovo" which means "word" or to speak, as it were, as opposed to the word "Nemec" which means "Mute" and "German" or those who do not speak, as it were.
Honestly the medieval slave trade should be talked about more. It seems like an early start on the European practice of making money from slavery by doing it somewhere their own population couldn't see it.
Tnx so much for the clarification. I've heard of this slave- slav connotation, but could not make the ethimology from the slavic roots. It came to me as quite bizarre. Great take!
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1:12 It could mean anything from chattel slavery to 'servus Dei' meaning servant of god, which most medieval monks would consider themselves as being but they are, of course, not 'slaves'.
2:30 2:40 Paintings by Sergey Ivanov.
3:20 Cotton MS Julius A VI, f. 6v.
3:24 Sometimes they would also add 'et' in between the words, i.e. 'sclavus et captivus'.
3:58 Munich, Bayerische Stattsbibliothek, Clm.4453, fol. 23-24.
4:52 The variations can be attributed to the fact that there was no standardized way of writing the name and medieval authors where most likely just trying to phonetically spell out, the best way they could, the name 'Slovene' which they heard from the Slavs.
5:53 Slavs most certainly also lived within the Lombardic and Gepid Pannonian kingdoms which is why I put the word slav in that area.
6:45 I misspoke, I meant Carinthia not Thuringia.
7:14 Here I am using the word 'Islamic Caliphate' as a catch all for the Rashidun, Umayyad, and Abbasside Caliphates just to simplify things.
7:47 The star of David that is shown in the Khazar Khaganate is supposed to symbolize the superficial conversion of the Khaganate to Judaism. In reality the conversion was very superficial and was primarily only political rather than actually internal. With that said, this superficial outward conversation did play a role in altering the Slavic slave trade in eastern Europe as, for example, Jewish merchants from Al-Andalus made contact with merchants in Khazaria and tried opening a new trade route from Khazaria to Al-Andalus. That is why I think it was still worth mentioning the Jewish connections of the later Khazar Khaganate despite the actual history of their conversation being very nuanced and largely unsuccessful. 'The Archaeology of Slavery in Early Medieval Northern Europe', p. 133.
8:36 Although, by the time of the 11th century these two main divides in trade routes stopped existing as the new Hungarian and Polish kingdoms connected the east trade routes with the west. However, before then the pagan Avars and also, initially, pagan Hungarians, largely blocked the connection of the wester and eastern trade routes along the Danube, while disunited Poland didn't have major trade ports that could connected the greater flat lands of Poland.
9:00 I meant to say Muslim explorers and geographers as not all of these people where Arabs, some where Persian and other ethnicities.
9:07 Ibn Rusta actually called the Varangians the Rus' in his writings. This was not uncommon because, first, the word Rus' initially meant just Norseman living in Eastern Europe and only later became to be applied to the Slavic population and, second, these geographers and explorers didn't always identify the people with the correct term they would have used. Therefore, the context in which these words are being used is very important in determining who they're supposed to refer to. In this case it is very obvious that the word Rus' was supposed to refer to the raiding Varangians of Eastern Europe hence, for simplicity sake, I changed the word to that.
10:40 I accidentally mixed up West and East Francia on the map, sorry.
13:25 Now this argument is extremely nuanced, after all the book has 1000 pages, so I obviously couldn't talk about everything, therefore, go read the book if you want to know more.
13:39 Painting by Sergey Ivanov.
14:05 Of course, this linguistic change didn't happen all at ones everywhere in Europe. It was a gradual process that started in the 9th century and, in some areas like southern Italy, wasn't fully complete until the early 14th century.
14:45 Saqaliba meant 'white slave' mostly in Al-Andalus, while in the rest of the Muslim world it meant just Slav.
14:55 Cantigas de Santa María, fol-221V.
15:24 Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 195, fol. 76v.
15:29 Santa María de Terena. Miniature of the Cantiga #275.
15:30 What I am doing here, i.e. the comparison I stated, would be a bit disingenuous to do within an academic work because it doesn't help us understand slavery as a spectrum nor does it somehow alleviate the suffering of some by saying it wasn't as bad as the suffering of others. But because this video is supposed to be an "introduction", and because it is intended for a lay audience, I felt the need to make some comparison in order to set up some point of reference, even if not perfect.
15:30 Plantation based chattel slavery did exist but was very uncommon during the middle ages. Vast majority of slaves ended up being guards/soldiers, maids, house workers, etc. Often even with the possibility of buying ones own freedom or being able to assimilate into the society they lived in. After all some Saqaliba even managed to become rulers or appointed into very high political positions,
15:39 Cantigas de Santa María, fol-244R.
16:09 Slavs also were the most numerous ethnic group in eastern Europe so by sheer numbers they would have ended up being the majority of the slaves. I just didn't state this fact because there is a whole debate about ethnicity in the middle ages and to what extend "Slavic" was an identifiable ethnicity and how it coalesced to a point to be the most dominant ethnicity in Europe and, therefore, stating this would have brought about more historiographical arguments which would have had to be addressed and for which there wasn't enough time in the video. If you want to know more look up Vienna School, Toronto School, and Oxford School of thought on ethnicity in the middle ages.
17:43 "Thirst for knowledge" Anti-Czech propaganda postcard from around 1910.
A Czech school boy has to copy answers from a "smarter" German school boy while Masaryk in the background oversees it all happening. This is a reference to the alleged inferiority of the Slavs. The card was part of a series that was published by the Federation of Germans in Lower Austria.
18:08 Which sounds very similar to the argument for British colonialism I mentioned in my previous video. th-cam.com/video/1Pn8r5gOatg/w-d-xo.html
18:34 “Germans learn Czech!” Anti-Czech propaganda postcard from around 1910
A German schoolboy fails to pronounce a Czech tongue twister. This is a reference to the alleged inferiority of the Slav languages. The card was part of a series that was published by the Federation of Germans in Lower Austria.
19:04 Illustration by Tom Lovell, National Geographic Image Collection
There is this idea that most slave trading in medieval Europe was conducted by Jews but this is wholly unsupported by academic research and is mostly just part of fascist propaganda. Jews were just as likely as any other people group to be medieval slave traders no more nor less.
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In romanian we have three words for slave, nevolnic like in polish, rob like in the slavic languages and sclav
@@ytbaccount5513 Yeah, many languages have multiple words for slaves. Greek, for example, also has multiple words for a slave.
@@ytbaccount5513 niewolnik in Polish is combination of 2 words:
Nie - no
Wolny - free
@@wiwersewindemer4437 The numbers are a footnote in the script. Download the script and you'll get all the sources in there just like in any academic paper.
Ok.
Man the Slavic people literally never got a break.
Don't forget, the Slavic people of today are descended from the Slavs who fought against their enemies who were trying to enslave them, remained free and survived. Also, many Slavic women who were taken as slaves became the mothers of the next generation of the Ottoman elite. I believe this mixing of blood gradually changed the attitude of the Ottomans regarding the Slavs due to the presence of an increasing number of people who recognized their dual heritage. Just my theory and can probably be disputed.
@@ГалинаФетисова-ю4м good point but the Russian Empire didn't do shit. We freed ourselves and you only started supporting that when you needed us to help you get political power in the Balkans. Get out of my country fake friends. Go back to Russia and suffer economically for attacking Ukraine
We did not. But the thing which struck me the most in this video was the idea that the slav slave trade built up western economy, which was a precursor to later worldwide colonization and tyranny. Evil breeds more evil it seems :)
@@cherylk.2474 The latter years of the Ottoman empire point towards the Janissaries becoming a ruling class of their own; many of which were abducted from Slavic homelands/families and raised to become the formidable soldier group of the Ottoman empire. I'd imagine these abductions caused increasing animosity towards the ruling Turks from the Slavs who have been tributed to become Janissaries. As their political influence grew, it contributed towards instability in the Ottoman Empire which later led to its collapse. Of course, there were many other factors that caused this collapse, but perhaps it wasn't the best idea to steal children from the Slavic territories they occupied and raise them to become elite soldiers of the Ottoman empire.
@@MrEvan1932 As a Turk, I can say that at the time, Ottomans were multicultural muslims and they believed balkan people (serbs especially) were fierce fighters (but ufortunately(!) infidels). So they used them because of this perceived positivd regard and trusted them to be present in capital (living near sultans palace in fierce education of literature, architecture (also siege equipments, remember mercenary christians in 1453 as craftsmen of bombards) or martial arts
If I remember my medieval etymology right "Slava" (glory) and "slovo" (word) has the same root, as slava has its roots in "someone who is spoken of" (someone who is famous, someone who has glory). So slavs basically means "people who speak our language".
it also fun that the slavs called us germanics niemcy (i think thats how you spell it) which i think means something like mute or no word, because the slavs couldn't understand them
Coping mode
@@SimonNissen94 mate you wrote that in past tense. Germans are still called Njemci and Germany Njemacka (like officially) which would translate as "land of those who cant speak" ...too funny :)
@@macanaeh Yes, _Niemcy_ means both "Germans" and "Germany" in Polish. 🙂
@@SimonNissen94 that word used to mean foreigners of any kind, not just German. Later the meaning shifted.
as a slav myself: it needs to be noted that the chances of your ancestors being slave traders are higher than the chances of them being eunuchs
That's a good point. Statistically your ancestors are definetly more likely to be Slavic slave traders than the Slavic slaves, since most of them ended up as eunuchs in the middle east. The ones that remained in Eastern Europe where the ones that avoided being captured or took part in the trading.
@@MLaserHistory idk, there is theory that early Polan state was build on trade slave too. Just to said that, there was quite a large number of Varangians which had served under Polan rulers. These rulers must have been paying them somehow.
That would explain why our word for a slave seems highly related with the word "merchandise" (rob/roba in Serbian, idk about other Slavic languages)
Don’t forget women slaves, who were unlikely castrated and likely raped
This is true for everyone...
When you're such high-quality **unpaid labourers** that the whole **profession** gets named after you.
lol
Wahahaha 😅😅😅😅😅 hilarious 😂 😅😅😅
I guess being the best at something is always a good thing 😂
And I guess nothing changed 😂
I thought славяне because of славные, слава. Not because of slavery, lol.
In Polish word slave is translated as "niewolnik". "Nie-" part means no, and "-wolnik" from "wola" refers to free will. Niewolnik means quite literally, without free will. It's self explianatory we don't have connection between word for Slavs (Słowianie) and slaves (niewolnik).
the same in belarussian, but I guess only latin counts as etymology for our own slavic words
In most Slavic languages "wola" means freedom in general. Not as narrow as "free will" in modern Polish. So, "niewolnik" means "not-free".
same in Ukrainian: невольник, невільник(niewolnik, niewilnik)
@@ulfricheiligestern1326 but in Ukranian slave is also "rab/раб", though. But it's interesting that Ukranian language has no word "rabotat'(work), which clearly has some connection to slavery, but russian language does...
@@ulfricheiligestern1326 нічого не забув? Невільник))) Мо "Раб"?
Невільник - не раб. Це скоріш "полонений", "вязень".
А тут саме про рабів
As an East European Slav, I need to thank you for this video. Convincing people in the West that our perspective is important often feels like bashing my head into a concrete wall. This is the sort of foundation I need, just so they'd stop talking over my head and listen.
I'm especially grateful that you stressed the anti-Slavic prejudice in Marxism. My experiences with communism are often invalidated by the western speakers, because Marx supposedly said that "communism couldn't work out in my part of the world". There is a strong 'it didn't count' mindset in the western left when it comes to Slavic experience, and an equally strong conviction that our feelings and opinions on the matter don't count, either. I really wish these people would say what Marx and Engels *actually* had to say about my people. It really shows how 'objective' these claims were.
There's one thing I really yearned for at the end of the video, though: A nod to the modern human trafficking and slavery. The idea that Slavs are attractive-yet-exploitable targets for slavery is alive and well - and with the influx of Ukrainian war refugees, Slavic human trafficking is sadly on the rise.
Keep fighting the good fight.
Idi da se lečiš😢
@@jorgovan-ni9kz Sam się idź leczyć🙄
@@elevenm.a.1125 ne, ne. Ti treba da se lečiš. 🫵😎
I watched this video and it struck me that modern human traffickers seem to be using the same routes. Particularly Slav women trafficked into the sex industry. There's an estimated 50million slaves in the world in 2023. As soon as you start looking into this stuff it gets dark very fast and you have to wonder why it continues so unopposed.
Another part of this denial could be simple fact of education. I am from a slavic country and I can assure you that at least in my school years there was not even a word on slavic slave trade (which is a bit weird to be honest, because we like to self-martyr normally)... We have a strong focus on history post conversion to Christianity. About the period before that, we mostly discussed religious beliefs, some conflicts between tribes and with Western Europe, but nothing about captured people.
True. Never heard a peep about this either
Yet another reason why I am disappointed by my Polish education. We covered ancient Egypt like three times, yet there as not a word in all my history lessons about this topic.
Same. Accidentally learned about Slavic slave trade through an Adventure novel(!) that i read for fun. Yet not a single word on the topic in schoolbooks. Was really disappointed in our education system...
Same here for Slovenia, come to think of it...
Which aspect? The west in general doesnt want to teach about enslavement of slavic peoples. They want to focus on the transatlantic slave trade, and thats it
When I first read about early Czech history in academic sources, it really surprised me how much slave trade was referenced. Contact with Arabic world seemed preposterous at first glance, and through today's lenses, Czechs selling other Slavs from Poland and beyond seemed a silly idea. I thought about it for a bit and slowly started realising how much political and economical sense it made, and how much today's concept of nationality and old 19th-century-style outlook on 'fellow Slavic nations' were colouring my perception right there. I remember the moment quite clearly as the first instance of bias on my own part I recognised, it was a little eye opening.
After all, for a 10th century Czech, what did it matter to him whether he was fighting against a Pole or a German or a Magyar?
No matter how much we want to think about it like that, people in the 10th century weren't our grandfather's grandfathers - they were almost entirely foreign to us, their values entirely different, no matter how much we try to identify with them.
Some people today don't want to think of their ancestors as this distant though, and easily fall back on "my people just don't do that". Slavery seems to be a concept that modern people know just as a Roman thing, or more likely, as the American plantation system. Enslaving within Europe seems inconceivable while you only think within those boundaries.
P.S.: My thoughts kinda meandered there. Great video!
Nationalism gave rise to the nation state of homogeneous ethnicity is a totally foreign concept in those days.
I guess selling the pagan tribe across the river to the Muslim traders make sense economically, and they fact that they are not from your village / religion means you have no qualms sleeping at night about it. It's like selling an animal you caught in the forest across the river to the Czechs
If it helps I suspect the Slavic tribes sell each other to slavery too
@@hkchan1339 If West Africa can serve as model of a tribal society we know better, I'm sure they did.
The mentality apparently persisted into relatively modern times, which would be why Europeans so eagerly embraced the African slave trade in the 15th and 16th Centuries, even though the markets were mostly across the Atlantic (for the most part, they weren't employed at home). After all, it wasn't their people being enslaved and sold. Outside of the Iberian Peninsula, the slaves weren't even for the local markets (no need to worry about local consequences). Apparently, Europeans didn't even think much about it until the Eighteenth Century.
@@hkchan1339 You can stop suspecting and start being certain. Slavery and general acceptation of treating another people as some sort of goods/propriety were common concepts among both western and eastern Europeans since antiquity all the way through Middle Ages. It didn't look quite as we imagine it nowadays though: chains, whips, brutal violance, dying in ruined cottages after few months of ardous exploitation etc.. In most cases it came down to taking hostages for ransom or kiddnaping peasant and relocating them to your own land as servants. Many such a people assimilated later and became just another locals in generation or two.
Alot of ugliness is simply glossed over due to how obscure early medieval Europe is.
I as a slav (Ukrainian) always wondered why in English slaves and Slavs were so similiar words but never found a good video of such quality as yours. Big thank you
Me too, but now it makes sense. I was always like “this sounds like Slavs have been enslaved for a long time”
its been known for rather long time...but i think cause of the modern view on it aswell but its not really like slavic peoples proudly want to aknowledge it...rest just want to hide the fact probaly cause of negative association why its not a higher topic...
Ukraine more like Russia
@@faisalkamal4319 what country r u from ?
@@faisalkamal4319 russian more like finno-ugric
The fact that so many slavs were enslaved is more of a reflection on the cruelty of their neighbors than on any perceived inferiority of the people. During tumultuous times, anyone can be a victim.
@@chrisper7527 I'm not quite sure if you responded to the right person.
Sold by fellow Slavs, most likely.
Yeah this means that today Slavs are the descendants of the ones who weren't slaves
@@fintonmainz7845 or their Viking overlords, the Rus.
@@ekesandras1481I believe they were involved in buying and selling rather that catching individual free people and enslaving them on a mass scale.
There is also "Slovo" (word), so Slavs are those who speak, as opposed to Nemci (Germans), those who bumble or are quiet
Yeah, it's explained around 4:44 in the video (but without that Nemci part).
@@unsrescyldas9745 This about meaning of words Arabs, Arameians and Persians is pretty funny 😄
@@unsrescyldas9745 just like romans and barbarians
In most slavic languages, slovo means letter. Nemci is what at least in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia we call Germans.
@@d0dge407 russia and ukraine too
As Czech, I do remember being taught at primary school abou adopting christianity en masse around 8th century. But I don't recall them even mentioning slave trade at all. Which is not that surprising, coming from both ends.
the first bohemian state economy was 100% dependent on the slave trade - slaves were sold in Prague (jugoslavske namesti) to the jewish and Arabic traders , the first regular bohemian army was fully financed from slave sales
The main problem with the identification of the words "Slav" and "slave" is that some people believe that the ethnonym comes from the western word while in fact the reverse story is true.
The weird thing is, this is (at least in some slavic countries) not discussed in schools. School history books I and many of my slavic friends went through have no mentions of this. Were it not for this video, I probably wouldn't even know this ever happened.
As for the defensiveness, I don't think it's as much of an issue as the video states. Either because, like myself, people don't really know about this, or because this was something that happened long ago, and we got over it. But I think it's a good reminder of what our ancestors went through, of the hardships a medieval person faced, and can even be seen as a sort of victory over the anti-slavic propaganda mentioned.
I'm not ashamed of being a slav, nor for the things that happened to those before me. The shame should be on those who were responsible for these immoral acts.
The irony here is that while this hardly mentioned in the eastern Slavic countries over at least last hundred years (the only close thing to that is the early soviet propaganda slogan that can be translated as “we’re not the slaves, the slaves are mute” but it was primarily said in context of working class exploitation before the revolution), the Eastern Europe didn’t forget the meaning even though the etymological context may have been lost or distorted over time. The yesterday barbarians who were partially assimilated by Roman culture and claimed that they inherited the Roman Empire (primarily, German and Frankish states) started to think of Slavs as new barbarians and never stopped since. There were reasons, indeed. Like paganism, ferocity of sorts compared to what Roman Empire brought to those “yesterday barbarians” some centuries ago. It also could’ve been a grudge against the fall of the Empire at the time. The Great Migration of Peoples started from the east. Though, huns and climate minimum were the reasons, when it ended, huns were either killed or assimilated (hello, Hungary), and the Slavic population was of the latest ones to come from the east, at the very end of the Great Migration, and they were pagans.
It’s hard, probably even impossible to prove or disprove the statement that Slavic people were blamed for the fall of the Empire. In early Middle Ages that event was thought of as an apocalyptic omen, it explains the whole religious propaganda in Christian Church, denying the materialistic stuff in favour of the immortal soul. People were waiting for the second coming, and of course, they needed someone to blame.
Again, this is just a speculation, there are no proofs to that (at least known by me). But we have another people who were blamed and discriminated for centuries for another biblical event: Jews. They were blamed at the time, but it all grew into unprecedented hatred that climaxed in the events of Holocaust. But many people forget (or try not to speak about) that Slavic people were marked as the second most hated ones in Hitler’s propaganda. They were tortured and killed alongside Jews in concentration camps.
After the fall of Constantinople, the last Byzantine princess Sophia Paleologos made her way to Moscow and married Ivan III, Moscow was called the Third Rome, and Ivan III proclaimed himself tzar, the word is shortened version of Caesar, meaning Emperor of Rome. Sophia denied propositions from catholic priests who traveled with her to marry the emperor of Holy Roman Empire. This event, I think, started the next round of hatred, this time, towards Russia. History shown that since that time Russia has grown bigger and bigger, despite all turmoil that happened in 17 century. But the cultural gap between Russia and other countries to the west was big. Even after what Peter The Great did, bringing European culture straight to Russia, the gap was still big enough. In 19 century the national idea rose, and by that time Russia had united virtually all eastern Slavic peoples under one banner. For western people Russia equaled Slavs. Even after everything that happened in 20 century Slavs are the lesser people. What we see today doesn’t help at all.
Being a Slav myself (Polish), I just want to say that this is a wonderful exposition and very well done, thank you!
I just want to point out how great it is that you drew out all those maps so we can just passively watch how things changed over time. That was a lot of extra work for you, and it makes things so much easier for us viewers! Maybe this seems like an odd thing for me to be so excited about but the main trouble I have when reading history is keeping track of maps.
Thanks for another excellent video! I'm not sure why I wasn't already subscribed, but I am now.
Thank you :)
The word "slava" is literally translated to "glory", the word "slovo" is literally translated to "a letter" and the word "slaviti" is "to celebrate | to glorify". -> From that you can undeniably see that it is asociated of the glory or the people.
And the reason people are defensive is because we know that most of the western audience is not intelligent enough to realize that Slav doesn't really mean slave in the native language (they tend to believe that all languages come from English), which is the only language that matters when discussing root of the word.
words are what we want them to be, there might be that it always hasn't had the same meaning as they have today 'cause as with everything words evolve to.
Yeah I agree with you
depends which slavic language. in slovak, sláva also means fame/glory... slovo means word
@@Hejirah It is exactly like I said then. The root of "slovo" is "a letter" or "a word", the root of slava is "glory/celebrate/fame". You may have misunderstood, by letter I don't mean post letter but a character symbol for a voice - things that make up a word.
I feel like ppl get defensive because they somehow flip it in their minds from "Slave comes from Slav" to "Slav comes from Slave" and get offended by that. To me it simply shows either a severe problem with their skill to comprehend whatever it is they're reading/listening to OR they're just bad at English.
Thank you for this video and others, and for the way in which you contextualize different aspects of history
Thank you :)
Brother your videos are immaculate. I came from Oversimplified, and the first video I watched was the Vienna Coffee House Scene. From that point on, I was hooked. I like that video a lot, I still watch it again and again. And your ethnicity series is my most favourite. Keep going!
Thank you :)
exactly the same here :D
Guy called gigachad is obsessed with history oversimplified and ethnicities... Hmmmm i smell something
@@aceman0000099 umm. What exactly??
wake up babe new M. Laser History just dropped
Concept that the word Slav is the origin of the word slave is accepted in Slavic countries, but often than not, westerners reverse it, and say, that Slav is hailed from slave, this is where Slavic people have problem.
Ditto for this one! Something so simple can be used by people to paint a picture, and in a world where propaganda and bots reign supreme it can be difficult to have straight conversations with people.
Interesting point, i have seen that misconception before
Incredibly well done video. I always wondered why the first Polish Kingdom (I'm Polish) was so empty compared to Germany or anyone in the west and why the west was so much richer right from the start of medieval history. This explains both. But it's extremely upsetting.
Agree it is upsetting. Pozdrawiam!
Saying that Poland was 'empty' and Western Europe was 'richer' because of slave trade is not factual. Maybe it played some part in Western Europe getting richer, but definetly was not source of the difference. Lands beyond what Romans called Germania were just more isolated form the rest of the world, more forested, less urbanized etc. they did not had any Roman influence which played a major part in Western Europe being more advanced in early and high Middle Ages as well as no direct contact with Byzantine and Arabic worlds. There was less people in the lands that would became Poland and it was poorer before the Slavic slave trade even started.
Yeah but look what our people then did - since Bolesław Chrobry, Polish (and later Polish-Lithuanian) kings would grant privileges to groups from Western or Southern Europe who wanted to bring their technology and work our land. Instead of raiding them, we took in all the Germans, Jews, Tatars, Dutch, French, etc. who didn't like their lords and their wars, and built a pretty good republic where most lands participated voluntarily as opposed to being conquered. It worked pretty well for a few centuries. (Except all the pańszczyzna stuff ig.)
@@TheGeneralGrievous19 Idk, how can you really measure population of early medieval europe? What was the real difference between lands of poland and germany, when they had basically the same climate, and were populated by the same farmer societies?
The "slave trade damage hypothesis" really does stand ground when we consider a precedence of eastern slavs being under the same pressure. Eastern slavs which lived in modern ukraine had the best soil in europe, but they constantly suffered from slave trade around Azov sea, and they didn't had large settlements only until they were conquered from the north by Novgorod, so, until they were offered some relative safety.
It's not that some places were father away from romans (especially when we consider that amber road was a pretty important trade route during the time), but that some peoples were under sovereignty of empire (like Karolingian), and others were not.
In Swedish, the two words are spelled and pronounced exactly the same. To the point of it feeling strange to ask someone if they're Slavic in the noun form. Since you're literally asking them if they're a slave. Or the other way around I guess.
Wow. Interesting.
Its the same in danish, but the pronunciation is different. Slaver and Sla'ver. Spelling is the same though
Samme her i Norge
In finland we call em "orja" originating from aryan. Massive cope but intresting non the less
There are some words that are way to similar for a coincidence. Like: oganj (fire) Croatian -ugn (oven) Swedish - agni (fire) in Sanskrt. Or: jamrati (to whine, moa) Slovene, jämra sig (moan, whine) Swedish. Pretty freaky if you ask me. But then, proto Indo European is our common ancestor language, so...
Yes, indeed, you *have* introduced me to an interesting topic. Even though I consider myself to be somewhat knowledgeable in history, I didn't even know about the Slavic slave trade! Thanks, great video and a good start to learn about the topic!
this is a very interesting topic imo because we all know about the what the western european did when we talk about slavery but rarely talk about stuff like this
When I started learning English, I was surprised that the Slav (славянин, славянка) and the slave (раб) are spelled similarly, but to be fair, these words are read differently. It is noteworthy that in my Russian language, a Slav is consonant with the word glory, and the Slavs (славяне) can literally be understood as glory guys. And the word slave (раб) in Russian is cognate word with words like work (работа), employee (работник) and mb robot (робот). I want to say that in Russian these two words are not connected in any way, they do not have a common etymology and are not related to each other. In the Russian Empire there was a type of slavery - serfdom (крепостничество). The owner of a serf (крепостной, крепостная) could sell, lose at cards, or marry against the will of his/her serf. But again, these words are also not related to the subject.
Fascinating topic that deserves more attention. As a Slav, I approve!
As a descendant of slaves, I appreciate
A Blach slav? Sure..
@@levingoodberg in Slavic tradition the card is past down the father. If the house recognized the offspring as a descendant a name would be given and father's name and clan's name passed down.
@@levingoodberg mmm old good racism
are you making this up? Ive never heard of this whatsoever. People usually care about country of origin if at all.@@СтаніслаўЗбарашеўскі
Great video! If I may add something, I think that another reason why Slavic people often react negatively to the mentioning of the etymological connection between 'Slav' and 'slave', is that it's often presented in a simplified (like in your thumbnail) or reversed way, implying that Slavs _means_ slaves. As you explained in the video the etymology of the ethnonym Slav and its equivalents in other languages (including the original Slavic endonyms) is different. We are "the people of the word (and/or glory)", while others, like Germans, are "mutes". 😉
Edit: The thumbnail picture was apparently changed.
I also think that the early modern Ottoman-related slave trade in the Black Sea region, which you briefly mentioned near the end (and which inspired the painting _Tatar Captives_ by Tadeusz Popiel used in the video) is a large, interesting, complex, and underappreciated topic, which could get its own video. I can recommend the paper _Slave hunting and slave redemption as a business enterprise: the northern Black Sea region in the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries_ by Dariusz Kołodziejczyk as a good source.
Finally, I really like that you distinguished between slavery and serfdom. Explaining exactly how and why these systems are not the same thing could easily be the topic of yet another video, maybe combined with explaining why serfdom survived longer and even intensified in much of Eastern (and Central, depending on the definition) Europe while disappearing in the Western part.
Fair points. The serfdom topic is, yeah, too big for me to cover at the moment I'd say.
As for my thumbnail, yeah, kind of played the algorithm game there :D
Nice explanation of origins of word Slavic. Would also add that in times before Christianity there was a custom of respecting dead ancestors among Slavs - remnant of that is visible in today ortodox Serbs who have custom "Slava" where they venerate saint protector of their family which took origins of venerating ancestors
“Slava” appears to have a parallel etymology to latin “fame” - both are variations of “speak” in respective language branches. (I think it’s safe and easy to see the connection between “famous” and “spoken of”.) In contrast, “gloria” has different origins, and “chwala/chvala/xvala” yet another.
The simple explanation of why serfdom survived longer in yhe east is usually given as 'black death killed more people in the west than the east, creating worker shortage, in turn creating better treatement and rights for those who would work'.
I agree that a deeper dive into the subject would be a great video.
I'm sure there are also cultural reasons too, and I'm looking here towards Muscovy specifically, where serfdom survived extremly long.
The research involved in this is very impressive, but this format obscures just how much thought and investigation went into this video presentation. Thank you for all you have done.
As an ethnic Slav, I am glad that someone talks about this subject. It is hardly ever touched upon in Polish historiography - a feeling of shame, perhaps?
I think so. But in the modern world people should learn not to be ashamed for being victims.
if i was Slav i will not be proud causes i am Egyptian and egypt having great history but I am not glad
@@omarrgab1090what?
It's because of the Catholic church impacting our education and focusing on the mass conversion to Christianity as a good thing, not a means of desperate salvation for the very victims of the brutal Christian west. So all history of our lands is taught more extensively post-conversion.
Greetings from Croatia :)
Hands down, one of the best videos every made. I will have it shown in some friends who are history teachers' classrooms. Well researched and the presentation is amazing for those who love and know history. Bravo!
Gread video. You really know a lot of obscure topics. It's great to have a youtuber like you.
Thank you for making this video, I actually learned something today (as some historical TH-cam videos feel like shortened versions of longer videos on other TH-cam channels) I could see how some history TH-cam channels would avoid the topic altogether, and being Slavic (Polish) myself, I appreciate an historical video that is based on history
Keep up the good work, even if it means taking a risk that the comment section of the video could become a super controversial discussion area
I can't wait for the next video!
All I can say, as a slav, is that slavic people never catch a break lmao 😄
The strongest kind of human💪🇸🇮
Thank you for this video. I also had a pushback towards the idea of "slave" deriving from "slav", but your video changed my mind. I didn't have any prejudice against the etymology itself, but there were a lot of empty spaces, especially with "servus" which you made very clear.
@@snezhanafs read again, you arguing against the point i never made. It's common knowledge that the ethnonym itself is of slavic origin
This is so good! Such underated topic worth exploring and my favourite TH-cam historian just dropped a gem. Thank you as always for a great and well put video and hope you've recovered from your illness.
P.S.:Thanks for added anti-Czech posters. I did not have an idea something like that even existed.
wdym by anticzech
@@sipek9488 the two posters in the video. You can find the description in the pinned comment by M. Laser along with time stamps.
So true, all of it, I'm sure. As i have been long aware of Slavic Slavery, i was not clued up on the detail. This is highly edifying for me, as a Ukrainian Slav. Many thanks.
this is a very interesting topic that rarely gets brought up! Good work, as always, we respect it
Finally a short and concise tutorial on how to get into the slave trade
See my ancestor who came to America had the surname Zerbe and change our family name Servis. Zerbe came from the Zerben area of Eastern Germany where many Sorb lived. Sorbs being relatives to Serbs. My family has always thought themselves german but really we're slavs.
You are serb bro
This really puts the whole Afroamerican Slave Trade and that 20th century Eugenics movement into context.
Even before that bigoted ‘White supremacy’ was a notion, it seems ‘Saxon and Germanic supremacy’ fathered it.
Or rather, ‘slavery’ as a whole is as antiquated an system as the cultures that thrived on it. But it’s certainly more complex than expected.
History doesn’t always repeat, but it always rhymes…
Even Germanics were enslaved, check out the Barbary slave trade.
@@crusader646 Damn, I just Wiki’d that. Pirates are f’king brutal.
one thing is for certain, the concept of what we today would call slavery has been going on since the dawn of human civilization and is sadly still going on all over the world today....
More Americans should see this and take history in account when talking about slavery... When you watch Americans talk about it it look like slavery only happened in Usa
Yes, or even that only sub-Saharan African people were victims of the "white colonizers" (as if the Americans did not originate from them...), when in reality slavery affected everyone and was implemented by anyone.
Agree. And we western Europeans should know too. Know and apologize. It was asshattery.. even though everyone else did it too.
And, of course we were asshats to you as well, when you wanted to get free.
Just as you have forgotten that and tried to take colonies of your own.
Everyone has been at it, at one point or another.
Everyone since the invent of agriculture, that is. Thats bloody hard work. That we are not keen on doing ourselves.
We didn't exist. There is no need for us to apologize for something that happened before we existed. Symbolic geustures are meaningless.
This was just excellent. This channel is so underrated!
Thanks!
If only i had slave girl...
Fun fact: the term 'servus' is also used in (eastern) Austria as a greeting and/or as a goodbye. Sometimes changed to 'serwas' in dialect, it is a greeting for people who know each other or are of about the same social standing. You could greet someone not fitting this criteria (like a policeman in service, student to teacher [though that depends on the teacher], government official, ...) which would be seen as impolite, though not necessarily unfriendly. The background/meaning behind this greeting is to imply to the receiver of the greeting that they would be happy to help/serve if they would need something.
This greeting may have a connection with the hungarian greeting szervus, which basicallly means hello, and usually used between firends. Hungary from the 11 century until 1920 had a big influence in eastern austria mainly in burgerland or in hungarian őrvidék which was under the hungrian crown for 400-500 years and inhabited by hungarians for a millenium
The Italian greeting 'ciao' has the same meaning, only that actually comes from 'slave'. It was originally a Venetian term, from 's-ciavo' (from 'sclavo'). It also means 'at your service, how can I help you', but unlike 'servus' it is the general greeting used for informal circumstances.
@@andraslukacs1344 yeah but could you go to the root of the word and find the Hungarian origin? I think it is still the root is still the Romanic word for slave/slav
It's also used in ex-yu countries , but it's very rare
‚Servus‘ is also used this way by Bavarians
I think that slav coming from the word for "word" makes more sense, since it would mean "that which can speak" while the other people, were called non-speaking (even today, the Polish word for Germans is "Niemcy")
Just recently in Poland we started to grasp how the founder of Poland, Mieszko I had gained his wealth and power. He was a slave supplier for the west and Caliphate. Most probably the profits allowed him to gather a personal army to further enslave more other Slavic tribes and to protect those who fell under his rule.
Same thing happened in Africa so not surprising
As a Slav from Czechia, I don't find the word "slave" offensive at all. I find it rather educative these days. It lets people know that slavery affected Caucasian white people so much that it was actually named after that broad ethnic group. This dismisses the ideology that pushes it as something that affected mostly Black people and that stems from racism. And all this just takes a person looking for etymology of the word "slave". It's all contained there.
It actually brings light on the Black slave trade too - they were targeted because they were not Christians in the same way the Slavs were not Christians too. Not because of racism but because of religion. In the Middle Ages religion was way more important than skin color. Unfortunately skin color became important later in history.
@@flexparachute Quite honestly, even if race was important in some era, today it isn't nearly as important as the far right or far left wants us to believe.
For an employer seeking cheap labor, your skin tone is not very important. Your work ethics and your willingness to put up with their s**t is what they care about. And in some cases it's pretty close to slave labor or human trafficking.
Really an informative video. Also, as a Sardinian I didn't know that Sardinians were the slaves of choice for the Genoese in the Middle Ages. And I studied Medieval Sardinian History at the University... sometimes they don't tell you the whole picture. Glad I got this on my notifications.
I´m curious, what tells in sardinia about the andalusian pirates presence? because in spain we learn that the coast of corsica and sardinia were controlles by the raiders from Almeria, were the interior was in control of the sardinian judicati. Some great Taifa kings were saqaliba from sardinia, like Muyahid of denia, who tries to conquer the island.
@@juanbarbosasiguenza5883 We do know about the Saracens from North Africa and the Emirate of Denia and all that. I would say that there are some inaccuracies in some maps about Sardinia being part of the Caliphate (which is not true). But yeah, we talk about how we asked Pisa and Genoa to help us get rid of the "Arabs", but I wouldn't say they had control over the coasts. Yes, it was unsafe, dangerous even, to live close to the sea, but the Muslim raiders never established full control. There is, however proof of Muslim people living in Cagliari because we found inscriptions in Arabic on some tombs...
@@the_demiurg Moors* not arabs
No worries Słowianie/Slovanský/Cлавянскія , Słowianin/Славян/Slovan an indigenous inhabitant of Europe does not come from Niewolnik/otrok/раб(servus/sclavus....).The evidence for this is simple but not to be
groundless(gołoSŁOWNYM)
it takes a lot of words(SŁÓW). SAVE YOUR LIFE IT'S NO SŁOWIANIN/Славян/Slovan !.
This is an interesting time, we can now compare stories we’ve been told and weren’t told. Sort of like finally laying the pieces to a massive puzzle that’s been built up for thousands of years
As a slav I am glad that at least the word for Slavs doesn't come from word "slaves" but vice versa.
The self-designation Slovani is likely derived from Slovo (word, speech), since Germans in pretty much all of the Slavic languages are called Němci, which literally means mutes or mute people, meaning that Slovani are the ones who speak an understandable language, while Němci (mutes) speak an unknown language. The word Němci may have even been used to refer to anyone who isn't a Slav, but became specifically used for Germans, the most constant and active of the Slavs' neighbors, as well as, historically, their main rivals
EDIT: Also, the word Slava (fame, glory) may also derive from Slovo (word), since it may mean something like "being spoken about", just like the word fame itself is derived from the Latin word for rumor, fama. In Czech, there is also a synonym for fame "věhlas", whose root is "hlas" (voice)
Wrong. Němci reffered as mutes is a modern word meaning. The original source/meaning was those who do not own property.
@@Pepper0ni hey that's interesting. in slovak, nemá = doesn't have, nemý = mute/voiceless
@@Pepper0ni You're the very first person I've ever witnessed suggesting that. If that were true, I reckon the word would be formed something like Nemějci or Nemajci, instead of Němci. Not to mention that the word Němec is not actually used for someone who is literally mute (instead you use the core adjective, "němý", to refer to such person), while Němec would be used to emphasize that you're not referring to an actual mute person, but to a member of a tribe(s) of "mutes", and most Slavs probably don't even realize they're calling Germans mutes, since the exonym Němci LOST the meaning "mute", not the other way around, so calling it modern is a bit weird. Where have you learned this? And are you a Slav yourself?
an interesting and well researched video that confirms my more shallow investigations. this is a lesser known but significant part of European history. it is my opinion that a quiet/unspoken and more civilized untermensch attitude towards Slavs is still present in Western and Northern Europe, primarily in Germanic countries. long forgotten history has a long perserverance in informal culture. on the other hand, the mentality and governance in most of Eastern Europe still has a significant post-slavery aspect that provides a feedback loop to that. but things are changing via the new big mixing up due to open borders, interaction, peace, freedom and prosperity, thankfully
I only had a surface level awareness of this topic before watching the video. Might want to look into this more (once the ongoing cramming period of this uni semester is done ofc).
An interesting piece of trivia, since al-Andalus was mentioned here: the (mostly) Slavic Saqaliba slaves there became an important part of the Andalusi army and government, even becoming a political faction / interest group to rival and vie for influence with the existing Mawali (Arabic), Berber and Muwallad (mixed or native Iberian muslim) factions in the establishment. When the caliphate of Cordoba broke apart into the First Ta'ifa Period, some of the new states were ruled by Saqaliba, with those among them who weren't eunuchs (rare) even forming relatively-short-lived dynasties. Most notable were the Amirids of Denia, who had a large fleet, raided their neighbours, and their founder, Mujahid, even tried invading Sardinia (tho ultimately he was rebuffed by a Pisan-Genoese-Papal intervention)
Yes, that's true. It's because Muslims often used slaves as troops, presumably more loyal to their master because of (initial) lack of clan-belonging (cf. Mamluks, Jannisaries, etc.) A variant of that type of slave promotion was also used by Charlemagne, who made many of his slaves into nobles (to the grudge of his established nobles) also because they had no other loyalties and thus were generally more trustworthy.
Very true, also the centralization of th estae under the caliphate mades that the caliph tries to weakened the jund (arab hereditary proffesional army) and iqta'dar (more or less feudal armies) arab and muwalladi armies in favor of a proffesional armies of saqaliba mamluks loyal to their own and berber and galician mercenaries, not related to the power gropus in cordoba. A little side note the mawali were not arabs, but clients of any ethnic origin. For example the conqueror of Cordoba was a sirian-Roman Mawali called Mugith.
This was absolutely fascinating - I just learned so much, wow! Thank you, happy holidays!
As a Black Man, I will say that this content is highly valuable and needed --- because it all ties into the dominance of Western Civilization on a global scale. And it makes sense, because the U.S. and subsequently Europe, didn't become industrialized until the 18th or 19th Century (give or take). All the European powers did was expand the slave trade into Africa, turned it into "race" for religious and psuedo-scientific purposes, and built on the model they established in Europe.
I know you've had this up for a month, but if you get to read this comment, I would like to say thanks, job well done!
There's little to no continuity between slavic slavery the Atlantic slave trade and the economic nature of those are very different.
@@daniel5730 I never said it was. I said it ties into. Maybe you should read the comment. The point is that slavery wasn't unique to one region or group --- it was the way things were done in ancient times, so it makes sense from that perspective that the European powers would continue that policy into the conquest of the Western hemisphere...
Slavic means glory in slavic languages. We celebrate slava in serbian. Miroslav for example means one with peace and glory
Excellent video and it further clarifies the fragmented knowledge I so far encountered about the etymology of the word slave vs Slavic, slava etc....
Servus is used as a greeting by Germans mostly.
I am of Slavic origin and this slav = slave thing was on my mind for some time, thanks for covering this topic. :)
Another great video! It was a joy to watch! Vďaka :)
Respect ! As a british black man of Caribbean decent, I'm so glad that the truth of a global trade is smashing the myth that black people were somehow the only or most traded of ethnicities as some of us use this to bash white (loose term), and other ethnicities into somehow feeling guilty of their part in the trade (largely with the complicity of Africans of the time).
This was incredibly interesting, thank you!
Thanks! For the history lesson
I think there's one more reason why some Slavs can be very defensive about Slavic slave trade. I think some of oi comes from school history education, where Slavs often represented as some sort of super warriors, who instilled fear in neighboring nations, and all they did was either raiding Greeks or successfully defended their motherland from hordes of nomads from the East. And I don't recall any mention of slavery in Russian school history books.
Note, that I'm talking from a Russian perspective, and it can be different in other countries.
Hey, I'm from Croatia and we were taught this slave thing at school. I remember doing an essay about it. If anything - they actually emphasised/exaggerated on how much we were victimised and forgot to tell us how we also pestered other nations around us. I only later found out that that we pillaged and conquered around (some of our kings even went against Arabs?!). So, a bit of an opposite to your experience!
Interesting.
You skipped alot of history lessons, atleast these where was talked 'bout mongol invasion, and fighting with crimean khanate. And later 'bout suppression slave trading on caucasus region.
@@bijelimedved2983
Došao si kenjati krivoj osobi. Mislim da tražiš nekoga poput sebe, bez visokog obrazovanja i/ili ikakvog znanja o povijesti i lingvistici.
Njima možeš možda prodati te svoje gluposti.
@@bijelimedved2983
Bijeli medved *dodje na video o tome kako su Slaveni bili hvatani i prodavani kao roblje.*
Isto Bijeli medved (na užasnom engleskom): “Slaveni nisu imali roblje!!! Zapadna propaganda!!!”
😂 O čemu ti uopće pričaš, jebo te Perun?
@@FinestFantasyVI E vidiš, nama je 80% gradiva bila internacionalna svjetska povijest. A u srednjoj (MIOC) čak i više. Vjerojatno se to razlikuje od škole do škole, ali definitivno nam nisu zaboravili spomenuti kako su nas svi gazili i uopće nas nisu učili kao Ruse tamo neku propagandu da smo mi kao najbolji.
Slavic history. "And then it got worse."
In much of southern Germany "Servus" is still used a greeting to this day. With slightly informal connotation, due to it being percieved as a local dialect/oddity.
It´s use like that dates back to the noted High Middle Age, where it entered the general German vocabulary as a formal greeting with the inital literal meaning of "at (your) service".
Funny that we in Slovakia use servus and also Italian Ciao, but our main informal greetings is Ahoj.
@@EskalanteIn Hungarian, we also use servus, (szervusz) and ciao (csáó), but that latter is considered very informal, it's almost weird if you are older then 30 and use it
Great video. I'm mostly Polish myself, and my father's paternal side came from Silesia.
Interesting and educational!
Great video! I am glad someone shine some light on us Slavs. Nice explanation that the word slave came after Slavic ethnic group and not the other way around.
Fantastic video, I love that you highlighted which cities were slave trade hubs. In America slave markets get marked on maps these days because chattel slavery was so recent and so horrible. With Europe I'm guessing not even memory remains
I think some place names still hint at it. The Riva degli Schiavoni in Venice (meaning Slavs' Waterfront) comes to mind, it was named after the Slavic merchants that traded there, maybe in slaves. Other than that, I can't say.
It does remain but this video only shallowly touched on that: Prague first and Krakow later were the main slave trading hubs and very related to the expansion of Ashkenazi Jews (who were very active in the slave trade) eastwards (they were originally from France). In the East Byzantium (Constantinople) and the mentioned Crimean holdings (later in Genoese hands) were fundamental, as well as the Rus (Kiev, Novgorod) and Khazar (Saray, Astrakhan) cities.
There was also early African slave trade in the Muslim areas, largely provided by the almost never mentioned Kanem-Bornu realm (since the 8th century) in the Chad region with routes heading to Egypt primarily.
It's barely mentioned in history class, instead there is given great importance to specific political conflicts during the middle ages, then when it comes to Nazism, that gets flipped and it's all about guilt-tripping.
I vaguely remember hearing that being a serf wasn't good and that many weren't allowed to leave a certain area, but nothing about slavery, be it Vikings or Germanics or Barbary Corsairs.
Your story may not have such a happy beginning, but that doesn't make you who you are. It is the rest of your story....Who you choose to be. (I love this quote from Kung Fu Panda😀)
Very true, great quote.
As a Slav I approve of this! Very informative video! 👍🏼
You're going to leave such a bomb, with a Romanian name and surname, and refuse to elaborate?
Am trait sa o aud si pe asta! Mesteree... Explica-te te rog! Sau ai mancat cucuta ruZa?! 🤔
@@popacristian2056 Ce-a scris ?
@@daniel-zh9nj6yn6y Nu vezi?... cica el este slav desi are nume curat romanesc, "Ioan Stefanescu"!
@@popacristian2056 Acum vad. In comentarii e vizibil doar numele schakalix, nu am intrat si pe profilul lui.
I have Polish and Russian roots (slavic).
This video was very enlightening.
The animations of the trade routes are great.
Great content!
Thank you.
Very interesting video! I actually knew the etymology of the word "slave" but I didn't know the full story behind it, which you thoroughly described here. As a curiosity, I can add that in Italy we have a lot of last names referring to the meaning of Slav through old Italian "schiavo" or "schiavone": these last names and all their variations are a little ambiguous nowadays cause the word "schiavo" only means "slave" in modern Italian, while Slav or Slavic is translated to "slavo". As family names, they arguably refer to an ethnic origin (Slavic) rather than a social status (slave), just like a lot of Italian last names referring to several ethnic origins (for instance Greco, Albanese, Spagnolo, Tedesco, Franzese, Turco, Ungaro, Saracino, etc.).
So you think that "Schiavo" as surname does not necessarily mean slave origins? I would think that makes sense in the Venetian sphere, where many areas (Friuli but also Istria and Dalmatia) used to be Slavic (are still in the Croatian cases), however elsewhere it's almost certain that it would mean "slave". This should be particularly true in the case of Genoese roots because, for what I've found, they were the most active slave traders (Crimean holdings, which became strangled after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks) and were pivotal in the shift from Medieval Slavic slave trade to the Modern African slave trade, typically via their establishment in Portugal (Columbus is paradigmatic in this).
@@LuisAldamiz I actually assume that both of these two origins merged into the spread of such last names in Italy. If you ask me which one has been more influential though, I think the ethnic one is and not only in the Venetian sphere, which was certainly affected by the Slavic culture and heritage, but also elsewhere in the country. Last names like Schiavo and Schiavone, for example, are common in some Southern Italian regions such Apulia, Campania and Sicily: Schiavone in particular is less ambiguous than Schiavo since it only meant Slavic in old Italian and is widespread in Apulia, which lies just across the Adriatic coastline (close enough to former Yugoslavia). Slavs also founded some towns (Peschici in Northern Apulia is an example), even though they didn't reach the same extent of the Albanian-Italian communities of Southern Italy (so-called Arbereshe communities), which still exist to this day and preserve their own culture.
Great video. That debate about the slave trade and the orgins of the Western European economic boost sounds interesting. Don't know much about it, but like you said, if it is even being discussed in an academic way it is worth taking a look at.
My understanding of Medieval Economic shifts in Europe is that it was much more based on the textile trade first along the Champagne fairs (which linked Provence and thus Italy) with the Frankish heartland in the Low Rhine area, via Lyon and North France, and later around the growth of Flanders and also the Italian city-states of the Renaissance. However, such emphasis on the textiles may be only part of the picture because the slave trade is rather taboo (it does occasionally gets mentioned but not as economic driver, rather as a side-note).
Another key issue that is brought up when studying Medieval economic history of Europe is the huge agricultural development of "Northern Europe" (rather mid-Northern, i.e. not so much Scandinavia but around Belgium again) thanks to the heavy plough and the horse collar (both probably invented by the Chinese), which allowed the deep soils of Atlantic Europe to become fully productive, while it had no impact in the shallow Mediterranean soils instead. That's probably why "Northern Europe" became more and more important economically: not so much trade but productive economy, which was largely agricultural and to lesser but growing extent manufacturer (textiles, metallurgy/weapons).
-"Is that because I'm black?"-
"Is that because I'm Slav?"
Slavophobia is a word.
Amazing video, very well structured
As a slav I enjoyed this video that explained the origins of the word slave.
Thank you for making this video brother.
Very interesting indeed! I always suspected my ancestors have slavic roots, even though we are originary of Catalonia in northeastern Spain, since both my mother and grandmother, for example, who traveled a lot worldwide were often taken for russian women. I think that maybe larger scale genetic tests among western and southern europeans will someday probably confirm this.
I found thus extremely well explained. Great educational value here. Thank you!
Small fun fact here:
Servus is actually used as a greet (or sometimes also as a farwell) in southern Germany/Bavaria
Smaller fun fact it was used in Poland too for a greet. Now its not popular but few years ago I herd it from time to time.
Amazing video, thank you!
And for people who get upset at the etymology of the word Slav in English, yes, in Slavic languages, slovani/slavyani/slovyani/slaveni and other variants derives from slovo/slava. But that doesn't mean that it does so in English as well, otherwise it would likely be something like Slovans, Slavians...
This is some very high quality content. I have recently listened through a series of Audible courses, including a history of the Viking, a History of the Steppe peoples, Early medieval history of Eurasia, History of the early Byzantine Empire and others.
I think this video gives a great overview of all these lectures as seen through the lens of the word Slave.
You mention the birth of feudalism in the west through the breakdown of clear, legal slavery.
The new trade routes that would spring up in the death of the roman empires fall. Vikings who used the rivers, and Steppe peoples on horseback were able to ocver the distance that had been served by Roman roads.
The rebirth of a currency economy through the economic demand of golden age early caliphate
The political situation of the slavs as a Pagan, non centralized kingdom which, unlike the Vikings who were protected by forest, ice and mountains, could be easily raided.
All around great video about an era in the world many people dont know about
What an interesting topic! Thank you for covering it!
Giving the spotlight on critical thinking. Thank you for the great video.
Slavs it originates from Slavic word Slava, in literal translation "those who are praised"
Danke!
Ďakujeme.
Shout out to all the serfs in the service sector for keeping the economy going!
Great video! Much love from Slovenia
I've only heard mention of Slavic slave trade in films and series about Vikings.
After living in Denmark from a bit a lecturer (not lecturing history) claimed Rus ppl were named what they r by Vikings. I have no idea how true this one is tho.
I still find it interesting that Northern Europeans seem to be only ones acknowledging Slav slaves
Yes, the word Rus' comes from Old Norse meaning "to row". It was first used just to refer to the "rowing" Norse people who settled in Eastern Europe but later got appropriated to the entire population of eastern Europe who was primarily Slavic.
@@MLaserHistory ive also heard(not from a very reputable source though) that russ comes from the byzantines calling northern europeans roussoi(like rosie or words like that) because of their skin tones when they arrived in the mediterainian climate
@@MLaserHistory Ono je tých výkladov slova Rus je viac. Asi podľa toho komu o čo ide :) I na Slovensku používame trošku zastaralé na ryšavého, alebo blond s nádychom do ryšavá, muža/ženu je rusý/rusá.
@@greekcomenterperson446 that's fun, because we have word 'rusiy' ('русый') in Russian still, and it means a color of hair that is mostly common in Slavic countries (contrary to brown hair / brunet, 'rusiy' hair is more ashy shade of colors between brown and blonde). And brown with red or orange tint, contatry to ashy shade of 'rusiy', is called 'kashtanoviy' ('каштановый') and it literally means and translates as 'chestnut-like'.
I don't know why I wrote this :/
@@MLaserHistory So the Norse refered to themselves as the "rowers"?
Thats was very interesting. Havent found any other clip explaining these topic so complete and well done!
True, I didn't know much about it. Thank you for educating me.
“Slavs” mean “those who speak” in comparison with “Nemets” than mean “mutes” or “mumblers” to describe anyone who doesn’t speak Slavic language.
In the same sense Greeks called “barbarians” to anyone who didn’t speak an Hellenic language (barbar: mumbler)
PD: Austrians say “servus” as a greeting, in the sense “at your service”
the italian world "ciao" comes from venetian "slavo", meaning "i am your slave" it was meant as a respectful way to salute but then became the common
And in Czech Republic "servus" is still sometimes used (rarely though) and if I remember correctly it comes from university students who used to use it as greetings around the end of 19th century
@@jindrichdolejs623 servus is also a greeting in parts of germany...eastern ofcourse
so kinda 'your humble servant' and such often nobles ended their letters by?
@@billdehappy1 saluti
@@groucho1080p salve!
i dident know about that and im useing ciao daily pretty much at end of phone calls or such haha
t'aven loschalo vináshta
"Slav", "Slavic", "Slavonic" comes from the Slavic word "Slovo" which means "word" or to speak, as it were, as opposed to the word "Nemec" which means "Mute" and "German" or those who do not speak, as it were.
I'm not only a Slav but my name has the same word at the end. Always nice to see how far your lineage goes.
This is an important video for people to understand the history of the Slav's and Slavery.
Honestly the medieval slave trade should be talked about more. It seems like an early start on the European practice of making money from slavery by doing it somewhere their own population couldn't see it.
Islamic slavery (which is wildly common today), Chinese slavery, or inter-African slavery should be discussed more.
Tnx so much for the clarification. I've heard of this slave- slav connotation, but could not make the ethimology from the slavic roots. It came to me as quite bizarre. Great take!