Slavs, West

The West Slavs are Slavic peoples speaking West Slavic languages.

They include Poles (with Kashubians and Silesians), Czechs, Slovaks, Lusatian Sorbs and the historical Polabians.

The northern or Lechitic group includes, along with Polish, the extinct Polabian and Pomeranian languages.

The languages of Upper and Lower Lusatia have features in common with both the Lechitic and the Czecho-Slovak group.Culturally, West Slavs develop along the lines of other Western European nations due to affiliation with the Roman Empire and Western Christianity.

Thus, they experience a cultural split with the other Slavic groups: while the East Slavs and most South Slavs convert to Orthodox Christianity, thus being culturally influenced by the Byzantine Empire, the West Slavs along with the westernmost South Slavs (Slovenes and Croats) convert to Roman Catholicism, thus coming under the cultural influence of the Latin Church.

(Rarely, the term "West Slavs" expands to include tthese Catholic South Slavs.)

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