ABSTRACT
The history of the Slovaks has apparently been of slight interest to historians of the rest of the world, and perhaps for that reason deserves more emphasis. The people of Greater Moravia belonged to the large Slavic group of peoples and had just begun to develop politically with the disappearance of the characteristic Slav divisions into tribes and families. The great similarity of the vernacular languages furnished an additional bond between the peoples of Bohemia and Slovakia. In both Bohemia and Slovakia the German minorities, in town or in the country, immediately adopted the new teachings. Literary, linguistic and religious factors were not the only ones which affected the fortunes of the Slovak people in the period after the Reformation. The economic position of the Slovaks was as weak as their social position. They were mostly peasant and hillfolk, dependent upon the bankers in Budapest and upon the more prosperous Magyars in the rich plains of Central Hungary.
