Migration Period

The Migration Period (around 300 to 600 AD), also called the Barbarian Invasions, was a time when many groups of people moved across Europe. This movement helped end the Western Roman Empire and led to new kingdoms being formed in its place. Tribes such as the Burgundians, Vandals, Goths, and Huns moved into areas that were once part of the Roman Empire.

These migrations happened for many reasons, and historians still discuss exactly what caused them. One big event was when the Huns, a group from Asia, moved into Europe around 375 AD. This caused other groups, like the Goths, to move into Roman lands. Over time, more and more groups found new homes in Europe.

Some of these moving groups were quite large—some had as many as 200,000 people! For example, when the Goths crossed a river into the Roman Empire in 376, they were a very big group. Later, groups like the Vandals and the Lombards also moved into new lands. These movements changed the face of Europe forever, leading to the rise of new cultures and nations.

Chronology

See also: Pre-modern human migration

Germanic tribes prior to migration

Further information: Proto-Germanic language, Pre-Roman Iron Age (Northern Europe), and Marcomannic Wars

Germanic peoples moved from southern Scandinavia and northern Germany to nearby lands between the Elbe and Oder after 1000 BC. The first group moved west and south, pushing the local Celts west to the Rhine around 200 BC. They entered southern Germany and even reached Roman areas like Gaul and Cisalpine Gaul by 100 BC, where they met resistance from Roman leaders like Gaius Marius and Julius Caesar. Later groups moved east and south from Scandinavia between 600 and 300 BC, settling along the Baltic Sea near the Vistula and Carpathian Mountains. During this time, tribes such as the Tencteri, Cherusci, Hermunduri, and Chatti lived there. Over time, these groups merged into larger ones like the Alemanni, Franks, Saxons, Frisians, and Thuringians.

First wave

Further information: Roman Iron Age (Northern Europe)

See also: Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Burgundians, Alans, Lombards, Angles (tribe), Saxons, Jutes, Suebi, Alemanni, Gepids, Vandals, and Huns

The first big movements of people happened between AD 300 and 500. These events are known mostly through old writings and are hard to study using archaeology. During this time, Germanic groups took control of most parts of the former Western Roman Empire.

The Tervingi moved into Roman lands in 376, fleeing attacks by the Huns. Later, during a meeting with Roman leaders in Marcianopolis, the guard of their chief Fritigern was killed. This led the Tervingi to revolt, and the Visigoths—a group that came from the Tervingi or a mix of several Gothic tribes—marched into Italy and took over Rome in 410. They later set up the Visigothic Kingdom in Iberia around 460. After them came a group of warriors including the Herulian, Rugian, and Scirian peoples, led by Odoacer, who removed the last Roman ruler, Romulus Augustulus, in 476. Then the Ostrogoths, under Theodoric the Great, settled in Italy.

In Gaul, the Franks—a mix of western Germanic tribes who had worked with Rome for years—slowly moved into Roman lands during the 5th century. After Childeric and his son Clovis's big win over Syagrius in 486, they became the rulers of northern Roman Gaul. By fighting off other groups like the Alemanni, Burgundians, and Visigoths, the Frankish kingdom grew into what would become France and Germany.

During the 5th century, after Rome left Britain, groups known as the Anglo-Saxons began settling there. The Burgundians also moved to areas in northwest Italy, Switzerland, and eastern France.

Second wave

See also: Early Slavs, Slavic migrations to the Balkans, Pannonian Avars, Magyars, and Bulgars

From AD 500 to 700, Slavic tribes moved into more parts of central Europe and pushed into southern and eastern Europe. This slowly made the eastern part of Europe mostly Slavic-speaking. Also, Turkic tribes like the Avars and later Ugric-speaking Magyars took part in this movement. In AD 567, the Avars and the Lombards broke up the Gepid Kingdom. The Lombards, a Germanic group, settled in Italy together with allies from several other tribes in the 6th century. Later, the Bavarians and the Franks came and took control of most of Italy.

The Bulgars, who were originally nomads from Central Asia, lived north of the Caucasus from the 2nd century. Pushed by the Khazars, most of them moved west and took over areas along the lower Danube in the 7th century. This changed the population of the Balkans forever, leading to a new, Slavonic-speaking majority, though many local people remained in the mountain areas.

After the Alans left, three groups settled south of the Danube: the Sclavini in the Istrian Peninsula (now Slovenia), the Croats in Dalmatia (modern Croatia and western Bosnia and Herzegovina), and the Serbs in Illyria, Epirus, Thracia, and Macedonia (parts of modern Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro). By the mid-7th century, Serbs were moving into northern Albania. By the 9th century, Bulgars had settled in the central Haemus Peninsula and Epirus (southern and central Albania).

During fights between the Byzantines and Arabs, Arab armies tried to attack southeast Europe through Asia Minor in the late 7th and early 8th centuries but were stopped at the siege of Constantinople (717–718) by Byzantine and Bulgar forces. At the same time, the Khazars stopped Arab expansion into Europe through the Caucasus. Also, groups known as the Moors—made up of Arabs and Berbers—came into Europe through Gibraltar and took over Hispania from the Visigoths in 711. They were later stopped by the Franks at the Battle of Tours in Gaul. These events set the borders between Christian Europe and Islam for many years. After that, Muslims went on to take most of Sicily from Christian rulers by 902.

The Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin began around AD 895, and their invasions of Europe continued until they were defeated at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955. This is thought of as the last major invasion from Asia during this time.

The Viking expansion starting in the late 8th century is generally seen as the final big movement of people in this period.

Christian missionaries from Rome and from Byzantium slowly brought the new groups into the Christian faith.

Discussions

Barbarian identity

Scholars have talked about how the idea of "barbarians" was created and shown during the time known as the Barbarian Invasions. Some believe that tribes were seen as big, connected groups with shared roots, like how people speak the same language. Others think these groups formed because of shared interests or politics, not just because they were from the same place.

Over time, ideas about what made a group special changed. Some say that tribes formed around small groups of leaders who brought others together, sharing stories and traditions. These small groups helped create bigger communities.

Viewpoints

The word “Völkerwanderung” comes from German history and means the early movements of Germanic tribes. Some say these movements were more like migrations, while others call them invasions. Historians have different ideas about why these tribes moved toward Rome. Some think it was because of changes in climate, food, or too many people. Others believe the fall of the Roman Empire made things weaker, and tribes moved in because of this.

In places like Gaul and Aquitaine, local leaders often worked with new groups, like the Ostrogoths, to keep things running. In other areas, like Hispania and England, there were conflicts as new groups tried to take control.

Ethnicity

Some historians used to think that certain kinds of objects found in graves could tell us about a person’s ethnicity. Now, many believe that changes in culture can happen because of trade or politics, not just because new people moved in. This means that how people lived and what they made could change for many reasons, not only because of new groups taking over.

Depiction in media

The Migration Period has been shown in some TV shows and video games. A TV series called Terry Jones' Barbarians aired on BBC 2 in 2006. There are also strategy video games like Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion and Total War: Attila made by The Creative Assembly. Another documentary miniseries named Barbarians was shown on The History Channel in 2004.