Environmental settlement factors for Kiev:
1)high right bank of Dnieper
2)important strategic location from Baltic to
Constantinople
3)trade in furs, amber, honey, salt, slaves to
Byzantium,
4)return trade textiles, fruit, wine, gold
5)
5)Kiev
situated near forest - steppe boundary
6)Slavs first hunters, trappers, apiarists, then
shifting cultivation
7)cereal growing on steppes
8)location good for conquest,
9)confederation of loose, linear city-state
principalities
10)penetration of Eastern Orthodox Christianity from Constantinople was
important ÒglueÓ
11) St.
Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988 AD
12)