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Shaping Eastern Europe

Geography Shapes Eastern Europe Eastern Europe: to the west, Central Europe; to the east, Russia. This region is home to the Balkan Peninsula, whose rivers transported both goods and cultural influences.

Three Early Ki ngdoms Develop Many kingdoms and small states made up eastern Europe during the Middle Ages.

**Poland Enjoys Greatness** Poland-Lithuania became the largest state in Europe by the union of Queen Jadwiga of Poland and Duke Wladyslaw Jagiello of Lithuania in 1386. A gradual passing of authority from the monarch to the nobles took place, though, operating through an assembly where a noble could singlehandedly veto a law. This made it quite hard to make decision, and soon caused Poland-Lithuania drop off the map.

**The Magyars Rule Hungary** The Magyars, an Asian people, converted to Roman Catholicism when they settled in Hungary. The Hungarian king’s power became vastly limited when he was forced to sign the Golden Bull of 1222. Half of its people were massacred in 1241 when the Mongols overran Hungary, and in 1526, Hungarian independence was put to an end by the Ottoman Turks, despite their quick withdrawal.

**The Serbs Establish a Balkan Kingdom** The Serbs became the descendants of some South Slavs who migrated to the Balkans. These Serbs came to accept Orthodox Christianity and eventually set up a Byzantine-esque state, Serbia, which came to its zenith in the 1300s, but likewise fell before the Ottomans in 1389.

The Byzantine Empire

**Constantinople's Location** The vital center of the empire was Constantinople. The city was located on the shores of the Bosporus, a strait that links the Mediterranean and Black seas.