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, showing modern borders. Light blue region is state of Baden-Württemberg . To east of B-W is state of Bavaria , with Swabia Administrative Region in pink. Swabia is a region, rather than a political entity, so well-defined borders do not exist.]] Swabia, '''Suabia''', or '''Svebia''' ( (see Swabian German ) region in Germany . Swabia consists of much of the present-day state of Baden-Württemberg (specifically, historical Württemberg and the Hohenzollerische Lande ), as well as the Bavaria n Administrative Region Of Swabia . In the Middle Ages , Baden , Vorarlberg , the modern principality of Liechtenstein , modern German-speaking Switzerland , and Alsace (nowadays belonging to France ) were also considered to be a part of Swabia. HISTORY Suebi 2000 years ago, the Suebi or Suevi were an Elbe Germanic People whose origin was near the Baltic Sea , which was thus known to the Romans as the Mare Suebicum (today, the term "Swabian Sea" is applied to Lake Constance ). They migrated to the southwest, becoming part of the Alamanni c confederacy. The Alamanni were ruled by independent kings throughout the 4th and 5th centuries. Parties of Suevi (around a half million) reached the Iberian Peninsula and established an independent kingdom in 410 in what is now northern Portugal , Galicia , and western regions of Asturias and most of León (in northwest Spain). It endured until 558 . Its political center was Braccara Augusta (present-day Braga , Portugal). Duchy of Swabia See Also: Alamannia Swabia became a duchy under the Frankish Empire in 496 , following the Battle Of Tolbiac . Swabia was one of the original Stem Duchies of East Francia , the later Holy Roman Empire , as it developed in the 9th and 10th centuries. The Hohenstaufen Dynasty (the dynasty of Frederick Barbarossa ), which ruled the Holy Roman Empire in the 12th and 13th centuries, arose out of Swabia, but following the execution of Conradin , the last Hohenstaufen, on October 29 , 1268 , the original duchy gradually broke up into many smaller units. Holy Roman Empire The major dynasty which arose out of the region were the Habsburg s, but also the Hohenzollern s, who rose to prominence in Northern Germany, stem from Swabia, as well as the dynasties of the Dukes of Württemberg and the Margrave s of Baden . Smaller feudal dynasties eventually disappeared, however, for example, branches of the Montfort s and Hohenems lived until modern age and the Fürstenberg survive still. The region proved to be one of the most divided in the Empire, containing, in addition to these principalities, numerous Free Cities , ecclesiastical territories, and fiefdoms of lesser Count s and Knight s. The Old Swiss Confederacy was ''de facto'' independent from Swabia from 1499 as a result of the Swabian War . Fearing the power of the greater princes, the cities and smaller secular rulers of Swabia joined to form the Swabian League in the 15th Century . The League was quite successful, notably expelling the Duke Of Württemberg in 1519 and putting in his place a Habsburg governor, but the league broke up a few years later over religious differences inspired by the Reformation , and the Duke of Württemberg was soon restored. The region was quite divided by the Reformation. While secular princes like the Duke of Württemberg and the Margrave of Baden-Durlach , as well as most of the Free Cities, became Protestant , the ecclesiastical territories (including the Bishopric s of Augsburg , Konstanz and others) remained Catholic , as did the territories belonging to the Habsburgs, Hohenzollerns and the Margrave of Baden-Baden . Modern history In the wake of the territorial reorganization of the Empire of 1803 by the '' Reichsdeputationshauptschluss '', the shape of Swabia was entirely changed. All the ecclesiastical estates were secularized, and most of the smaller secular states, and almost all of the free cities, were Mediatize d, leaving only Württemberg, Baden and Hohenzollern as sovereign states. Much of Eastern Swabia became part of Bavaria , forming what is now the Bavarian administrative region of Swabia. From 1939 to 1945 , Nazi Germany claimed sovereignty over an area of Antarctica , which was named Neu-Schwabenland in honour of Swabia. SWABIAN SETTLEMENTS ABROAD Outside of Germany, many Swabians settled in Hungary and Romania (the Danube Swabians and Swabian Turkey ), as well as in Russia , Serbia , and Kazakhstan . Outside of Europe, Swabian settlements can also be found in Brazil , Canada , and the United States . POPULAR CULTURE ." This is an allusion to the fact that Baden-Württemberg is one of the principal centres for innovation in Germany with many inhabitants having distinctive Dialect s.]] : ''For information on the distinct Swabian dialect see Swabian German .'' Swabians have in former times been the target of many jokes and stories where they are depicted as excessively stingy, overly serious, prudish, or as simpletons, for instance in "The Seven Swabians" (''Die sieben Schwaben'') published in ''Kinder- und Hausmärchen'' by the " (''Wir können alles. Außer Hochdeutsch''); ''see image''. Many Swabian surnames end with the suffixes ''-le'', ''-el'', ''-ehl'', and ''-lin''. Examples would be: ''Schäuble'', ''Egeler'' and ''Gmelin''. The popular surname ''Schwab'' is derived from this area, meaning literally "Swabian". In Switzerland , "Sauschwab" is a derogatory term for Germans, derived from the Swabian War of 1499. In Serbian , Polish , and Bulgarian , "Shvab" or "Szwab" may be a semi-abusive term for any German, not just one from Swabia. In parts of the former Yugoslavia (i.e. Slovenia , Slavonija in Croatia , and Vojvodina in Serbia ), the term ''Swab'' (locally ''Švab'', from Шваб) is somewhat applied to all German peoples who lived in those regions until shortly after World War II, and many of their descendants; it is even occasionally used as a slang term to refer to all Germans as well as Austrians and Swiss German speaking people. RELATED ALEMANNIC DIALECTS Swabian (Schwäbisch) is one of the . FAMOUS SWABIANS
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