1. Shaping Eastern Europe
9.3

2. Geography Shapes Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe lies between Central Europe in the west and Russia to the east.
The Balkan Peninsula, also known as the Balkans lie in this region.
The Danube and Vistula are the two main rivers of the region. Goods and people were spread by these bodies of water. The Balkans in the south were influenced by the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Turks. The northern region was bordered by Western Europe. To the east lies Russia.
Geography Shapes Eastern Europe

3. Many ethnic groups settled in Eastern Europe
Many ethnic groups settled in Eastern Europe. An ethnic group is a large group of people that share a common language or culture.
The West Slavs migrated from Russia into present day Poland ,the Czech Republic and the Slovakian Republic.
The South Slavs occupied the Balkans and became the ancestors of the Serbs, Slovenes, and Croats.

4. Christians, Jews, and Muslims
Byzantine missionaries brought Orthodox Christianity to the Balkans. German knights and missionaries contributed Roman Catholicism to Poland.
In the 1300s the Ottoman Turks invaded the area and introduced Islam.
Jews who fled Western Europe due to persecution fled to Eastern Europe, mainly Poland.
Christians, Jews, and Muslims

5. In 1386 Queen Jadwiga of Poland and Duke Wladyslaw Jagiello of Lithuania married and created Poland-Lithuania, the largest state in Europe.
Nobles met in a diet, or assembly, where a single noble could block a law. The lack of a strong central government Poland-Lithuania declined and disappeared.

6. Hungarian nobles forced their king to sign the Golden Bull of 1222
Hungarian nobles forced their king to sign the Golden Bull of The Golden Bull of 1222 limited the power of the king and granted rights to nobles.
Mongols overran Hungary in 1241 and massacred half the population.