Linhart's historical work, strongly influenced by the ideas of the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, had an important influence for the development of the Slovene national consciousness in the early 19th century. In this work, he was the first to define the Slovenes as a separate branch of the Slavic peoples with its common history. In his Essay, he was the first to define the Slovenes as a separate branch of the Slavic people. With it, he also established the linguistic unity of the Slovene ethnic territory and set the foundations of the Slovene ethnography.