Czech, Polish, Slovak - Are These West Slavic Languages Pretty Much the Same?

The West Slavic languages were contained to a fairly small geographical area but, nonetheless, experienced rather different histories. During the 10th century, some West Slavic tribes established their own state which became the predecessor for today’s Poland. A century before, a similar process had already happened in Bohemia – a territory that is now considered a part of the Czech Republic. As is often the case with small emerging states, they quickly fell under the influence of larger players in the region. Bohemia was incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire, the Slovaks into the Hungarian empire. Things went a bit better for the Polish state which ended up as a partner of the Holy Roman Empire.