Who are the Vlachs of Vlassko

By Dr. Gary Kocurek, 104 S. Georgetown, Round Rock, Texas 78664

People of Czech ancestry in Texas are not representative of the modern Czech
Republic or of the former Czechoslovakia as a whole. Rather, a great many Tex-
Czechs trace their heritage to the Vlassko region in eastern Moravia (figs. 1,2).
Vlassko is situated along the northwestern rim of the Carpathian Mountains,
which historically have served as both a refuge and a conduit for immigrating
groups of peoples. Vlassko was largely settled during the 16th Century by
colonist immigrating from the east and southeast, and whom were referred to at
that time as the Vlachs. Historical events during the 17thCentury, especially the
Thirty Years War, set the stage for the massive immigration of people from
Vlassko to Texas after the Revolution of 1848.
 Figures One and Two

Vlach,: Valach, Volach, Vlakh and other variations of the term date back
in time nearly 2,000 years and refer to a variety of Latinized people whose
origin is ultimately the Roman Empire (Magocsi 1993). In archaic Czech, for
example, Vlassko means Italy, and Valach refers to Italian (Radio Prague
1999). Today, only isolated groups of peoples in the Balkans (Greece, Macedonia,
Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria) are referred to as Vlachs and these people speak
Aromanian (e.g., Wace & Thomson 1914, Winnifrith 1987, Caragui 1999). The
Romanian and Moldavians, who speak another language derived from Latin,
Daco-Romanian, represent the largest concentration of Latinized people of
southeastern Europe. Historically, Romanians and Moldavians were known as
Vlachs. The Romanian province of Walachia was named for the Valachs and
served as their traditional homeland. Other groups of Vlachs have been
assimilated into the local populations. The Vlach culture of Vlassko was largely
destroyed at the end of the Thirty Year War (1648).

The purpose of this paper is to ask some very simple questions. Who were the
Valachs of Vlassko? What is their relationship, if any, to other groups of people
called Valchs? What events caused their migration to Vlassko? Unfortunately,
the answers to these simple questions are stymied by the same problems that
have confronted all Vlach research. First, there is little written history about the
Vlachs. Second. On lifestyle Vlachs were largely nomadic shepherds who lived
in remote mountainous locales and were known to travel great distances. In fact,
Vlachs are tied into the difficult mosaic of Balkans History. Fourth, Vlachs were
famous (and still are) for their ability to assimilate into which ever culture they
happened to find themselves (Balamaci 1995). For Example. Vlachs who
migrated into Bosnia readily dropped Christianity in favor of the local Islam,
and the Vlachs who migrated into the Habsburg Empire were Slavicized in
both religion (Orthodox to Roman Catholic) and language (Winnifrith 1987).
Fifth, the term Vlach has historically been loosely used by others and
oftentimes referred to any outsiders who were shepherds. Although conclusive
answers are not forthcoming, it is clear that the history of Eastern Europe
(Romania, Hungary, the Balkans) is at least as important as Czech history in
describing the ancestry of Tex-Czechs.

Tracing the Vlachs Though History

Roman Era

The maximum extent of the roman Empire in southeastern Europe occurred

after 106 AD when conquest of the Dacian people extended the empire from
modern Greece to Romania. By all accounts, the Latinized people of the Roman
Empire represented both a variety of indigenous people as well as colonists who
came into the region (e.g. Magocsi 1993). Under barbarian pressure, the Roman
Legions retreated from Dacia (modern Romania) in 217. According to at least
Romanian historians, Roman colonists and the Latinized Dacians retreated into
the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania after the Roman Legions withdrew
from the area. This view is supported to the extent that archeological evidence
does indicate the presence of Latin-speaking people in Transylvania by at least
the 8th Century (Carragie 1999).

By the late 4th Century, the Roman Empire was plagued by internal problems
and, in southeastern Europe. By the incursion of the Germanic tribes. By the
7th and 8thCenturies, the Roman Empire existed only south of the Danube River
in the form of the Byzantine Empire with its capitol at Constantinople (Fig.3). In
this ethnically diverse closing area of the Roman Empire, Vlachs were
recognized as those who spoke Latin, the official language of the Byzantine
Empire until the 6th Century when Greek came to dominate (Balamaci 19956).
These original Vlachs probably consisted of a variety of ethnic groups, but who
shared the commonality of having been assimilated in language and culture into
the Roman Empire.
 Figures Three and Four

The remainder of Central and Eastern Europe north of the Danube River was
occupied by shifting groups of (1) Slavs, who immigrated into the region during
the first few centuries of the millennium from the northwestern Ukraine, (2)
Germanic tribes (e.g., Goths, Vandals, Sueves), (3) Asiatic groups (e.g., Alans,
Huns, Avars), and (4) the Turkic Bulgars who migrated into area in 679 (Magocsi
1993).

The Vlach Empire and Expansion

The Byzantine Empire was weakened by (1) the split of the Roman and
Orthodox Churches in1054, (2) Norman conquests of Byzantine territories in
Italy, (3) Turkish conquests of Byzantine territories in the east beginning in 1071,
and (4) the seven crusades between 1096 and 1254 (Magocsi 1993). Against this
weakened Byzantine Empire, a Vlach Revolution occurred in 1185086 in protest
against a harsh tax imposed on sheep-goat herds and was lead by Ivan and Peter
Asen (Magocsi 1993). This Asenid Empire or Empire of the Vlachs and
Bulgars existed south of the Danube River within present-day Bulgaria, and
reached its zenith between 1218 and 1241 (Fig. 4). The first written record of
Vlachs north of the Danube River (in Transylvania) is in 1210 (Caragiu 1999).
This group has been considered as representing a northward influx of Vlachs
from the Asenid Empire and/or Vlachs who had previously retreated into the
Carpathian Mountains when the Roman Legions withdrew.

By 1242, the Vlach Empire was weakened by Mongol invasions. However,

Vlachs during the late 1200s spread eastward to establish Moldavia, which
alternated as a vassal state of Poland and the Ottoman Turks (Magosci 1999). By
the late 13thCentury as well, continued Vlach migration into the plains north of
the Danube gave rise to Walachia in 1290 (Magocsi 1999).

Walachia was established as the new homeland of the Vlachs and as a

province of Hungary according to Hungarian imagery. (Fig. 4).Actually,
Wallachia was founded as a principality in the early 14th century by Basarab I,
after a rebellion against Charles I of Hungary, although the first mention of the
territory of Wallachia west of the river Olt dates to a charter given to
the voivode Seneslau in 1246 by Bla IV of Hungary. From 1330 until 1340,
Walachia, under the rule of Basarab I, existed as a nearly independent state.
Walachia again emerged as a near independent state ruled by Mircea between
1386 and 1390.

During this period, the Carpathian Mountain range of Vlassko in Moravia was
largely uninhabited, and formed the northeastern border of the Bohemian
Kingdom within the Holy Roman Empire (Magocsi 1993). Slovakia was part of
Hungary. During the middle 14th Century, Hungary reached its maximum
extent, and Bohemia-Moravia began its Golden Age under Charles IV (1346-
1378) as he assumed the title of Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

Ottoman Turk Era

Southeastern Europe was forever changed by conquests by the Ottoman Turks

beginning near the close of the 14th Century (Fig. 5). These conquests or
formation of Turkish vassal states include: Bulgaria in 1396, Albania in 1415,
Walachia in 1390 and again in 1446, Serbia in 1459, Bosnia in 1463, Herzegovina
in 1466, Moldavia in 1512, and the other remaining parts of the Byzantine
Empire between 1453 and 1460 (see summary in Magocsi 1993). Initially, the
Vlachs are believed to have assisted the Turks by acting as guides and guards
through mountain passes that were well known to the Vlach shepherds (Sugar
1977). In time, however, Vlachs numbered among those resentful of the Turkish
presence. Indeed, the most prominent resistance against the Ottomans occurred
in the Vlach states of Walachia and Moldavia. Despite the fact that in 1417,
Wallachia accepted the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire which lasted until the
19th century, albeit with brief periods of Russian occupation between 1768 and
1854, Vlad II Dracul took Walachia to the status of semi-independent state
between 1436 and 1446. His son, Vlad III Tepes (the historical figure for Dracula
of fiction) used both diplomatic and brutal means of war to establish Walachia as
an independent state between 1453 and 1460. And again in 1476. Stefan the Great
maintained Moldavia corresponding to the territory between the Eastern
Carpathians and the Dniester River free from Ottoman rule from 1457 until 1504
(Magocsi 1993). Moldavia was an initially independent and later autonomous
state which existed from the 14th century to 1859, when it united with Wallachia
as the basis of the modern Romanian state; at various times, Moldavia included
the regions of Bessarabia (with the Budjak), all of Bukovina and Hertza.)
Nevertheless the Walachian principalities: Walachia, Moldavia and Transylvania
even under Ottoman Turk suzerainty were never made into Turk land, while,
after some 150 years of wars with the Hungarians and other states, the Ottomans
gained a decisive victory over the Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohcs in
1526, where King Louis II died fleeing. Amid political chaos, the
divided Hungarian nobility elected two kings simultaneously, John
Zpolya and Ferdinand I of the Habsburg dynasty. With the conquest of Buda
by the Turks in 1541, Hungary was divided into three parts and remained so
until the end of the 17th century. The north-western part, termed as Royal
Hungary, was annexed by the Habsburgs who ruled as Kings of Hungary. The
eastern part of the kingdom became independent as the Principality of
Transylvania, under Ottoman (and later Habsburg) suzerainty. The remaining
central area, including the capital Buda, was known as the Pashalik of Buda-
Turk land.

Exodus From Ottoman Lands and Settlement of Vlassko

One outcome of the Ottoman Turk westward advance and the political insanity
that it brought was a major exodus from the conquered lands accompanied by a
massive influx in Habsburg lands. In an early immigration, Slovak peasants in
1514 immigrants to southern Moravia (Strani and Hrozenkov areas) as a result of
the Dozsas Rebellion (Kann & David 1984). In 1526, the Hungarians were
defeated by the Ottoman Turks at Mohac, allowing expansion of the Ottoman
Empire to near the borders of the Habsburg Empire (Fig. 5) (Magocsi 1993). All
that remained of Hungary was Royal Hungary (including Slovakia), which was
in name ruled by the Habsburgs but in practice paid tribute to the Ottoman
Empire until 1601, and acted as the buffer zone between the Habsburg and
Ottoman Empires. As a result of the Hungarian defeat, huge areas of the former
Hungary were depopulated as Christian Magyars (Hungarians), Vlachs and
Slavs (Largely Croats, Serbs, and Slovaks), fled into Habsburg lands (Magocsi
1993). Another major exodus occurred during the Turkish Wars between 1593
and 1606 when Orthodox Serbs and Vlachs fled into the southern part of Royal
Hungary (Croatia) (Kann & David 1984). Between 1003 and 1526, Transylvania
was a voivodeship in the Kingdom of Hungary, led by a voivode appointed by
the King of Hungary. After the Battle of Mohcs in 1526, Transylvania became
part of the Kingdom of Jnos Zapolya. Later, in 1570, the kingdom transformed
into the Principality of Transylvania, which was ruled primarily
by Calvinist Hungarian princes. During that time, the ethnic composition of
Transylvania transformed from an estimated near equal number of the ethnic
groups to a Romanian majority. (Sndor Szilgyi, 1890) Vasile Lupu estimates
their number already more than one-third of the population of Transylvania in a
letter to the sultan around 1650. For most of this period, Transylvania,
maintaining its internal autonomy, was under the suzerainty of the Ottoman
Empire. Official censuses with information on Transylvania's population have
been conducted since the 18th century. On May 1, 1784 the Emperor Joseph
II called for the first official census of the Habsburg Empire, including
Transylvania. The data was published in 1787, and this census showed only the
overall population (1,440,986 inhabitants). Fnyes Elek, a 19th-century
Hungarian statistician, estimated in 1842 that in the population of Transylvania
for the years 1830-1840 the majority were 62.3% Romanians and
23.3% Hungarians.
In the last quarter of the 19th century, the Hungarian population of Transylvania
increased from 24.9% in 1869 to 31.6%, as indicated in the 1910 Hungarian
census. At the same time, the percentage of Romanian population decreased
from 59.0% to 53.8% and the percentage of German population decreased from
11.9% to 10.7%, for a total population of 5,262,495. Magyarization policies greatly
contributed to this shift.

Figure Five

The frontier border (Royal Hungary and adjacent areas such as Vlassko)
between the Ottoman and Habsburg Empires was the zone of both colonization
and conflict between the great powers. The area was subject to frequent raids by
the Turks, and the Habsburgs, in turn, attempted to fortify this zone with
military camps and to welcome the colonists who, if not completely loyal to the
Habsburg, at least regarded the Turks as the greater enemy. In a move that
would haunt Habsburgs later during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648),
numerous privileges were bestowed upon the new colonist, who were typically
organized into military bands (Kann & David 1984, Magocsi 1993). These rights
included (1) the right to bear arms, (2) tax exemptions, (3) election of their
leaders, (4) no compulsory work for feudal lords, and (5) the grazing rights
(Podolak 1969, Sugar 1977, Kann & David 1984). In Vlassko, these rights were
referred to as Valachian Law and stood until the Thirty Years War (Polisensky
1971).

The overall picture that emerges for the 16th Century is a massive flux of people
from the whole of southeastern Europe into the borderlands of the Habsburg
Empire as the Ottoman Turk wave spread westward. Against this backdrop. The
Vlassko area of Moravia, which already had ethnic Moravians inhabiting the
lowlands, received colonists who largely occupied the highlands. Although it
seems certain that the immigrants were largely shepherds and peasant migrating
along the Carpathians from Slovakia, it is impossible to state just which ethnic
wave they represented.

The Vlachs of Vlassko

Because there is no written account that identifies the ethnic character of the
Vlachs who settled Vlassko, only indirect evidence can be called upon. The
evidence includes: (1) period reference to the people as a distinct group called
the Vlachs or Wallachians, (2) some elements of the language, (3) surnames, and
(4) the distinctive pastoral culture.

Period References

As early as the 14th Century, Vlach shepherds of a definite Romanian origin are
documented as migrating into Slovakia (Podolak 1969). Somewhat later,
disorganized bands of Romanian Vlachs are noted in the Carpathian Mountain
regions of Ukraine, Poland, and Moravia. This initial influx of Vlachs does
coincide with the early Ottoman conquests in the Balkans, but appears to
represent only disorganized bands of shepherds traveling along the Carpathians
and is small in comparison to the later influx in the 16th Century.

In Vlassko, the first widespread reference to Vlachs occurred during the Thirty
Years War and are well documented in Dostal (1956) and Polisensky (1971). For
example, Jan Amos Comenius wrote in 1960 Moravians of the mountains
around Vsetin, called Wallachians, are a warlike peoplethey refuses to accept
the Habsburg yoke and for three whole years defended their freedom with the
sword. Later, in 1624, he wrote the inhabitants of the lordship of Vsetin and
the mountains thereabout (who are called Wallachians) continued to resist with
arms and could not be brought to deny their faith or offer submission In 1628,
Jesuit missionaries, in abandoning their attempt to convert the Vlachs to
Catholicism, stated that the inhabitants of Vlassko were Valachs and hence
utterly infractory. Zlin town records from 1621 refer to the Wallachians, who
are the local rabble, Albrecht Waldstein, Habsburg Military lord of Vsetin,
wrote in 1621 about the expected uprising of the locals and referred to the Vlachs
as Wallachians against whom he did not have sufficient support to mount a
campaign. A Habsburg commissioner in 1622, writing about the local Moravians,
stated that the people are inclined more to the enemy and the Wallachians.

The significance of these period references is that the Vlachs of Vlassko were
both considered apart from the Moravians, and referred to as Wallachians.
Walachia is the Romanian province and the homeland of the Vlachs. This later
distinction is important, because, as noted below, Vlach came in Moravia to
refer to shepherds in general.

Language

Linguists make the argument that the Moravian dialect spoken by the Vlachs
had its roots in Slovak, but that the vocabulary concerning aspects of the raising
of sheep and goats was Romanian (e.g. Podolak 1969, Hannan 1988). In fact,
there is a clear evolution of the Vlach language along the Carpathian Mountains.
Ukrainian Vlachs spoke a language that had a strong Romanian influence.
Slovakians Vlachs, in turn, spoke Slovak, but with a strong Ukrainian character.
The Moravian spoken by the Vlachs in Vlassko had the Slovak character. This
geographic evolution of language can be interpreted as an assimilation of the
Vlachs in terms of language as they migrated into new areas. The overall pattern
shows a westward migration of the Vlachs from Romania into Moravia via the
Carpathian Mountains and over a time scale significant enough for local
assimilation of the language to have occurred. The only aspect of the language
that remained unchanged throughout the Carpathians was that related to the
Vlach style of sheep and goat tending (see below), and for which there were no
local words that could be used. The counter argument--that this geographic
sharing of language would be typical for any groups into cultural contact--is
weakened by the fact that the drift in language is in one direction. Ukrainian
Vlachs do not show a Slovak influence, and so forth.

Surnames

Hanna (1988), based upon a compilation of Czech names typical of Texas,

demonstrated two important points. First, the most common names are not
typical of the Czech Republic as a whole, but rather are distinctive of Vlassko
and surrounding areas. Second, many of these names are not Czech in origin but
rather Romanian (Baca, Balcar, Sandera), Hungarian (e.g. Orsak), Slovakian (e.g.
Fajkus), and Polish (Adamcik). The collection of surnames from Vlassko is
probably representative of origins of peoples who settled in Vlassko, and also
coincides with the presumed route traveled by the Valachs through the
Carpathians.

Culture

A remarkable aspect of Vlachs found everywhere along the Carpathian

Mountains is that the culture associated with herding remained the same despite
the evolution in language (Podolak 1969). As with those aspects of language
associated with sheep and goat tending, this cultural aspect of the Vlachs likely
did not change because there was no competing culture--the Vlach methods and
associated rituals of sheep and goat tending were unique and newly introduced
by the Vlachs. Although sheep and goats were long associated with agriculture
practiced in the lowlands adjacent to the Carpathians, it was the Vlachs that
introduced grazing in the highlands and the emphasis upon the production of
milk and cheese. Podolak (1969) describes a set of methods and rituals of Vlach
herd tending that were not only unique but also essentially identical along the
entire belt of the Carpathian Mountains from Moravia to Romanian and then
along the adjacent mountains into Serbia and Bulgaria. Similarly, the style of
Vlach log architecture remained the same along the length of the Carpathians
(Polisensky 1971). The semi-nomadic lifestyle practiced today by the Vlachs of
the Balkans (as described by Wace & Thompson 1914) seems largely unchanged
from that of the 16th Century or earlier.

The Thirty Year War

Whatever the origin of the Vlachs of Vlassko, the Thirty Year War and
subsequent events most profoundly changed the Vlach culture, and, as argued in
the next section, set the stage for the next wave of Vlach immigration. The most
detailed accounts of this war in Vlassko are found in Dostal (1956) and
Polisensky (1971).

The Thirty Year War began in Bohemia in 1618 with the Battle of White
Mountain near Prague. The war had numerous roots, but the primary one was
the religious battled between Catholicism that the Habsburgs deemed to prevail
over all their lands and the growing Protestant movement that had it roots with
Jan Hus and later reformers such ass Luther and Calvin. War spread to Moravia
in 1619 and Waldstein, lord of Vsetin, was appointed military commander for
Habsburg forces in Moravia. With the exception of Vlassko, the Moravians were
defeated in less than two years, with the Moravian government collapsing soon
after the Bohemian defeat at White Mountain, and most Moravian towns and
villages surrendering to Habsburg Imperial forces without a fight. It was the
Vlachs, who at this time had largely become Protestants of one sort of another
and who considered themselves freer than the lowland Moravians, who proved
the thorn in the Habsburg side.

Vlach warfare against the Habsburgs consisted of raids, including those against
Malenovice, Zlin, and Valasske Mezirici. Waldstein stated that the Vlachs fought
as a Horde and Vlach forces were victorious against the Habsburgs during the
initial years of the war. During portions of these initial years as well, Vlachs
were joined by Protestant Hungarians, and by 1621 all of Moravia east of the
Morava River was controlled by Vlachs. Hungarian forces, however, were
defeated by the Habsburgs at Olomouc in late 1621 and withdrew from Moravia
in 1622. Vlach forces were subsequently subdued in 1623, accompanied by a
series of public executions.

Renewed Vlach attacks on Vsetin occurred in late 1623. The Hungarians, now
aided by the Ottoman Turks, reentered the War, and fighting occurred as far
west as Brno. The Turks, however, were an older enemy of the Vlachs, and the
Vlachs did not join their former allies, the Hungarians. A second peace between
Hungary and the Habsburgs was signed in 1624. The Habsburgs seized this
opportunity to attack the Vlachs in March 1624 in the mountains west of Vsetin,
but the Vlachs prevailed in what was described as a slaughter of Habsburg
forces. Vlachs captured Lukov in 1626, and joined by Danes, who had entered
the war against the Habsburg, also captured Hranice in 1626.

In 1627, Waldsteins counter-attack forced the withdrawal of the Danish army

from Moravian, and sent the Vlachs into retreat. By 1630, Vlachs controlled only
their Carpathian strongholds. The final Vlach uprising occurred in 1640 when
the Swedes invaded Moravia to do battle with the Habsburgs. Combined Vlach-
Swede forces won back portions of Moravia, but then the Swedes withdrew in
1643 to concentrate on a war with Denmark.

In January 1644, a massive Habsburg raid was conducted against the Vlachs in
the mountains east of Vsetin, The Habsburg rout was completed by this time
with a battle that culminated in the burning of Vlach villages (e.g. Hovezi,
Huslenky, Halenkov, and Zdechov), disarming of the Vlachs, destruction of the
fields and livestock, and an estimated 20 percent of the males of Vsetin were
killed or later executed. Vlachs who fled the area were pursued by the
Habsburgs as far as into Hungary. Ultimately, about one third of the total Vlach
population was killed. With the Conscription of Vlassko on February 16, 1644, a
complete registration of the remaining Vlachs occurred. Execution or oath of
allegiance to Habsburg and conversion to Catholicism were the choices. Many
Vlachs were executed during the infamous executions of 1644 in Vsetin. By
March 1644, essentially all the remaining Vlachs who had taken refuge in the
high high Carpathians had been pursued and killed. Plague then struck the
region in September 1644.

War continued with one more attempted invasion of Moravia by the Swedes
and Hungarians. The war ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. In
Moravia alone, 63 castles, 22 towns, and 330 villages had been annihilated
during the war.

Destruction of the Vlach Culture in Vlassko--Stage-Setting for Immigration

The net result of the crushing Vlach defeat with the close of the Thirty Year War
was the destruction of Vlach Culture. Retribution by the Habsburg was severe
and the Vlassko area remained one of the most repressed in Europe. A harsh
serfdom was imposed upon the Vlachs. Whole groups of people and families
were relocated. Taxes were raised to the point (two-third of total gross) that
extreme poverty resulted. Overlords were entirely foreign. Serfdom was not
lifted until the Revolution of 1848 (Pech 1969), one of the last places in Europe.
Immigration to Texas began in earnest in the 1850s.

Conclusion

In returning to the three simple questions posed at the beginning of this paper,
what conclusions can be drawn?

Who were the Vlachs of Vlassko? They were certainly migrating shepherds from
Slovakia. If the period references are taken at face value, they were Wallachians
or Romanians. The complicating factor, however, is that these Vlachs may have
been in migration for a generation or more and had been assimilated in language
and probably through marriage to Ukrainians, Poles, and Slovaks.

What is the relationship to these Vlachs to other Vlachs scattered throughout

southeastern Europe? First, the original Vlachs were not a single ethnic group,
although many were Dacian. Vlachs show every inclination toward assimilation,
hence, there are Serbian, Moravian, and Romanian Vlachs. They are united by a
shared history, and language and culture to some degree. The strong tie to
Romania exists in the historical location of the Vlach homeland and the
continuation of the Latin-derived language there.

What caused the migration of the Vlachs into Moravia/ The Ottoman Turks
caused the westward migration of Vlachs and other ethnic groups of people.
Vlach westward migration along the Carpathian Mountains ended in Moravia
where the Carpathians terminate.
 References

Balamaci, N.S., 1995. The Balkan Vlachs: Born to

Assimilate? http://farsarotul.org/n118_htm

Caragiu, M., 1999. Historical Snapshots. <wysiwyg://130/http://www.free

yellow.com/ members2/bastian/hist.html.

Dostal, F., 1956.Valasska povstani za Triceltilete Valky. Nase Vojsko, Praha, 237 pp.

Hanna K. 1988. Tracing Valach Surnames in Texas. Vesnik 7 December, 11-12.

Kann R.A. & David, Z.V., 1984. The Peoples of the Eastern Habsburg Lands, 1526-
1918. University of Washington Press, Seattle, 543 pp.

Magocsi, P.R., 1993, Historical Atlas of East Central Europe. University of

Washington Press, Seattle, 218 pp.

Pacu, tefan. A History of Transylvania. Dorset Press, New York, 1990.

Pechm S.Z., 1969. The Czech Revolution of 1848. University of North Carolina
Press, Chapel Hill, 286 pp.

Podolak, J. 1969. The pastoral culture of the Carpathians as a subject of an

ethnological study. Ethnologia Slavica, v. 1, 67-82.

Polisensky, J.V., 1971. The Thirty Years War, University of California Press,
Berkely, 300 pp.

Radio Prague, 1999. Living Czech. <http.radio.cz/English/language/18-6-

99.html>

Sndor Szilgyi: Erdly s az szakkeleti hbor. Levelek s okiratok Bp. 1890 I.

246-247, 255-256 - Sndor Szilgyi: Transylvania and the northeastern war.
Letters and documents Bp. 1890 p. 246-247, 255-256

Sugar, P.F., 1977. Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule, 1354-1804. University
of Washington Press, Seattle, 365 pp.

Wace A,J.B. & Thomson, M.S., 1914. The Nomads of the Balkans, an Account of life
and Customs Among the Vlachs of Northern Pindus. Methuen & Co., London.

Winnifrith, T.J., 1978. The Vlachs: The History of a Balkan People. St Martins Press,
New York, 188 pp.

Permission to reprint received from the author on November 28, 2001.