Introduction to the Slavic Slave Trade 

! 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 RU-vid. RU-vid takes a much larger cut than Patreon does. If you want to do just a one time donation you can also do that through either RU-vid "Thanks" or if you want more of the money to make it to me than through ko-fi. ko-fi.com/mlaserhistory 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 RU-vid 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'. 2:30 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. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1Pn8r5gOatg.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

Man the Slavic people literally never got a break.

Only my fellow slavs get to call me the s-word

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

When you're such high-quality **unpaid labourers** that the whole **profession** gets named after you.

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".

One curiosity: The popular Italian salutation "Ciao" actually means "slave" in ancient Venetian dialect. When two people met, they used to say "sciao vostro", meaning "I'm your slave", as a courtesy display.

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).

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.

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!

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.

I think "slovo" was definitely the word that defined common name of the Slavic ethnic groups. Because if you say Sloveni(or other forms of the same word) it simply means "those who speak". Otherwise, a common word the most of Slavs use for Germans, Nemac(Njemac, Niemec etc), meaning "the mute ones" would not make logical sense.

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 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.

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

There is also "Slovo" (word), so Slavs are those who speak, as opposed to Nemci (Germans), those who bumble or are quiet

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.

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.

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.

In Russian, the word for slave is "rab", from what I read it's inherited from Old East Slavic and possibly Proto-Slavic before that. The Russian word for "work" is "rabota", which is a cognate with the word slave and can be interpreted as "slave's activity". In Ukrainian they use "robyty" (робити) and in Polish robić, both have the same root as Russian "rabota" (работа) and come from the word for slave, though from what I understand the meaning of it in Polish and Ukrainian is closer to "to do" rather than specifically for working

Winners write history. How to demoralize people, well tell them they were uncivilized, barbaric and slaves.

I'm so unbelievably grateful that we have a great RU-vidr focused on slavic history. As a slavophile myself particularly interested in Old Church Slavonic, tapping into more historical topics is always a bliss. Thank you profusely and have a great day.

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.

Being a Slav myself (Polish), I just want to say that this is a wonderful exposition and very well done, thank you!

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.

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!

this is a very interesting topic that rarely gets brought up! Good work, as always, we respect it

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!

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!

Fascinating topic that deserves more attention. As a Slav, I approve!

Thank you for making this video, I actually learned something today (as some historical RU-vid videos feel like shortened versions of longer videos on other RU-vid channels) I could see how some history RU-vid 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!

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.

Gread video. You really know a lot of obscure topics. It's great to have a youtuber like you.

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)

word slav is the origin of the word slave is accepted in slavic countries, but often than not, westeners reverse it, and say, that slav is hailed from slave, this is where slavic people have problem.

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

I found thus extremely well explained. Great educational value here. Thank you!

This was absolutely fascinating - I just learned so much, wow! Thank you, happy holidays!

What an interesting topic! Thank you for covering it!

Western Europe and EU treat us like third level citizens a lot. When I was traveling and end up in Austria or Germany, until they saw my passport they were nice to me, because I do speak German and English fluently. After they saw where I am from people turn a 180 and start to be really NASTY.

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.

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.

Another great video! It was a joy to watch! Vďaka :)

All I can say, as a slav, is that slavic people never catch a break lmao 😄

This is so good! Such underated topic worth exploring and my favourite RU-vid 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.

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.).

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".

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😀)

I liked this video a lot, the audio was just right, pictures were cool, I didn't know much about the subject and am now introduced.

Thank you for this video and others, and for the way in which you contextualize different aspects of history

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.

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.

This was incredibly interesting, thank you!

wake up babe new M. Laser History just dropped

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")

I'm always a fan of your videos. Thanks for the comment on 9:07, same goes for Ibrahim Ibn Yacub (11:35) The Norse, and the Saqaliba... I was about to write a critical note ;D But I partially understand your intention. Excellent work, Excellent video!

Excellent video and it further clarifies the fragmented knowledge I so far encountered about the etymology of the word slave vs Slavic, slava etc....

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.

One learns something new every day thank you for the knowledge

Excellent video and great comments, adding relevant footnotes to an already interesting topic. You gained a sub from me

Loved loved loved this. Great job dude

Great video! Much love from Slovenia

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.

Thats was very interesting. Havent found any other clip explaining these topic so complete and well done!

Thanks for this exceptional documentary! I love the teaching of history when matched with etymology, maps and pictures, it helps having the true picture. I'll keep watching!

The last thing you say might be the most important one over all - pretending history didn't happend or re-writing it to feel better prevents us from learning from it

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.

Thank you for bringing this topic to more eyes

Excellent presentation, thank you!

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?

Very good video. I knew a lot about the eastern part of trade, but the Western part I always thought to be small, almost incidental. I guess I have to learn a lot more. Thank You very much from Poland!

Fascinating and informative. It offers an extraordinary perspective to the whole issue of slavery. Thank you.

Thanks for this video, very good. Will check more your work, keep it up!!!

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.

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)

Very informative! Thank you for the video!

eye opening. thank you for making this.

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!

Finally a short and concise tutorial on how to get into the slave trade

Thank you for making this video brother.

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.

Amazing video, very well structured As a slav I enjoyed this video that explained the origins of the word slave.

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 love that you still use the steppe trick for more interactions 😂 thanks for a great video!

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

Great video! Really informative as well. I always knew the etymology behind the word Slav but now I finally learned the history behind it. As always, its grim and gloom for Slavic tribes.. legit we never catch a break, unfortunately. And I do agree with the sentiment that religion plays a huge role in Slavic countries as it is linked with the previous history of being used as a tool to free ourselves from constantly being exploited, it kinda makes sense now. Unfortunately, not enough has been said on the topic of anti-slavic sentiment and ways of thinking even though it is pervasive and constant throughout the history. Even the suffering we faced during the second world war is always diminished and dismissed even though Hitler intentionally targeted us and belittled us and tried to exterminate us. It is sad really how little our pain and suffering is mentioned... But thank you for this video, it was very insightful 👍

Servus M. Laser History! Wieder einmal ein hoch informatives Video eurerseits.

Informative and well presented video, thanks for putting this stuff together!

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.

Your channel is really high quality. Good job

OH thank god you are back! :D

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

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.

Thanks! Very interesting and god bless you for the sources

This is really, really interesting, thanks for the information, never stop learning..

I always thought it was interessting how the swedish word "slav" had the exact same spelling as the other swedish word "slav". So I looked it up back then, and now this video gave me a more in depth undestanding of the topic, so thanks. I also wonder if the reason that the word for slave doesn't have a K in swedish is because the swedish vikings were the most dominant group in the slavic slave trade, and so while other europeans got their word for slave from a latinisation of slav, we got it directly from the word slav. Either way, the two words conjure up completely different understandings today, it's just an interessting thing to think about.

As a Slav I approve of this! Very informative video! 👍🏼

Fantastic video once again!

What an incredible video! The only explanation for the word of 'slav' that i found online was literally the description that read ''comes from the word slave''. I was ever since doubtful of the idea that 'slavs originate from slavery'. In fact after having previously watching your Slavic Origins video from 2 years ago, i was even more convinced that this was not the case seeing how the word came to apply to slavs as a group, but with this video there is a much more convincing link between the two words As others have already stated, you've certainly done the best content on YT covering this very underrated topic and i have to say i am wholly impressed and fascinated. Thank you for doing this!

I love the maps that you make. Can I ask you what is the base map? Seems perfect for understanding human subjects, not very complex, not very simple and highly informative about the terrain!! I loved the video. Good work!