South Moravia to Silesia, around Zlin

 
Way back in 2022, I had this exchange with Nigel Robinson, discussing the name of Zlin and other things. I wrote about it on Tao of D&D. Here I'll try and discuss the content.

(by the way, part of this map I had to do twice, because publisher caved on me, disallowing me to save the first run. So it goes).

This more clearly shows the trade passage from the Danube valley to the Vistula, at the top right corner of the map, demonstrating the relationship between Vienna, just off the south of this map, and access to the Baltic Sea. This is why Vienna so was so anxious to carve Poland up in the 18th century, along with Russia and Prussia. Those passages southeast of the Beskids were incredibly important and valuable to the viability of the Habsburgs at the time.

The "Moravian Gate", shown on the map as the dirt road between Prerov in Olmutz, across Carnovia to Ostrawa, is likewise valuable, despite the fact that it runs through rough country. This reaches Silesia, which even then was high "industrialised" in the waterwheel/windmill sense.

Olmutz is a bishopric in the Holy Roman Empire, though obviously willing to play the games of politics in the region with the support of the Holy See in Rome. That makes it a natural holder of road rights, tolls, estates and fortified interests within the Moravian passage.

Carnovia was a duchy in same. Secondhand, Carnovia is a Silesian duchy and a fief of the Bohemian crown, so not fully independent... in terms of the period, it is tied to the Bohemian "Crown" without actually being physically part of Bohemia the kingdom.

In strange ways, then, these "independent" entities yet served more important powers, at arm's length, where they could be empowered by small armies and the understanding that larger threats would end in help called from outside. Politics in the time are loads of fun.

In 1650, a lot of this country would still be marked by the Thirty Years War, that ended two years before. The countryside is littered with abandoned farms, damaged towns, confiscated estates, military memories, religious pressure and locals who remember Swedish, Imperial, Transylvanian or Hungarian forces moving through the countryside. Zlin at the time is a damaged small town, raided, badly damaged and recovering slowly.

Steadily cutting my way across the Czech republic now; Slovakia is now fully mapped, with the last corner of Nyatria done. The next step is to move into Poland, then swing around from going northeast to going straight east across Poland and Ukraine.