The Migration Period: How Europe was Born

2,000 years ago the map of Europe was nothing like the one which we see today the ancestors of the Englishmen lived in the territory of modern Denmark the ancestors of the serbs lived on the shores of the Vistula and the ancestors of the Spaniards lived in Sweden tribes often traveled between territories without permanent residence this continued until between the 5ifth and six centuries of our age most of the peoples finally settled forming the first European States in fact exactly this long process got the title of the migration period everything goes back to the mighty Roman

Empire occupying half of Europe the other territories were inhabited by what the Romans called barbarians the Romans looked at them haughtily even the very name Barbarian stemmed from how the Romans exaggerated their language but despite this the Romans considered the barbarians good Warriors and recruited them to Roman service they especially noted the militancy of the Germanic tribes the Romans first met them when the simri encroached on the territories of Rome lacking enough land at home the simri decided to move across the Alps to the fertile lands of Italy along the way they robbed the Gauls

who fled to Roman protection this Invasion almost reversed the distribution of European forces and territories for a while a Germanic Kingdom emerged on the shores of the Mediterranean and Rome for the first time in the last 100 years received a worthy enemy who was actively invading Italy only 12 years later the Romans were able to defeat the simri but even then they appreciated the bravery and belligerence of the ancient Germans later Julius Caesar formed units of Germanic Horsemen in his troops Emperor Tiberius created the Germanic guard cores for his protection the good climate contributed to

the prosperity of the ancient Germans the amount of the crop increased annually and with it also increased the population with the passage of time the ancient Germans began to run out of land and decided to move in the 70s of our age Goths moved from gotland to the coast of the Vistula occupying the territories where the Slavic peoples lived and in the 150s they started a land war with sarmatians which they later successfully defeated in these territories the Goths created their own kingdom yum sarmatians began to flee to the Roman Empire to escape from Goths

while also taking several other Germanic tribes with them the largest of which became the marani the Romans were not very happy with the new inhabitants so Wars began which intermittently lasted for 14 years Emperor Marcus aelius even managed to defeat the invading barbarians but his son Commodus unwilling to continue the war agreed to relocate The Barbarians to Roman lands this is how the first ancient Germans settled in the Roman Empire the Goths often raided Roman lands in 251 during another raid they defeated the Roman army at the Battle of aritus killing emperor dius in 267

their allies the hery plundered Greece and burned Athens in 271 the Romans lacking troops to defend daa gave it to the Goths but the peak of power for the kingdom of oam was the rule of aaric he conquered the karpi the heroy the Alani and the Slavs and enriched the Goths through friendly and Commercial relations with Rome in Constantinople even appeared a mercenary unit of the gothic guard guarding the Imperial Palace but a year after his death the Huns came to the land they quickly lured the Slavs and elani to their side defeated the Goths

and brutally executed their King vith amiris the frightened Goths began to flee to the Roman Empire but a part of them remained under the rule of the Huns and they relocated these Goths to the danu another part of the Goths fled to Crimea where they converted to Christianity and lived alongside the Crimean Greeks Emperor vein allowed the Goths to settle in the Roman Empire in hopes of their help in the war against Persia however so many Goths arrived there that they had nowhere to settle conflicts with the local population immediately broke account there was a

famine among the Goths and the emperor's salary which he had promised for service in his army never came as the Goths later discovered it was pilfered by local officials and when the Roman soldiers beat some Goths at the market the Rebellion broke out the gothic Army instead of going to the aid of vein captured mishia the emperor had to return with an army to Europe he met the Goths in 378 near Adrien opal his army was weary of the long Long March and all the Germanic mercenaries had defected to the Goths on the eve of

the battle therefore the Romans have suffered crushing defeat and Emperor vein has died for 4 years after this the Goths pillaged the Balkans and the Romans tried unsuccessfully to stop them this was achieved only by Emperor theodosius who gave the Goths the right to reside in the lands of the Roman Empire in exchange for serving in his army the god were renowned for their faithful service to theodosius especially in the suppression of civilians they even carried out a massacre in thessalonica with his permission when discontent broke out with the Imperial officials and when eugenius proclaimed

himself emperor of Rome the Goths sided with theodosius at that time allic who was destined to go down in history is the first great king of the Visigoths was ready to lead his Gothic Army played a key role in the defeat of the usurper eugenius at the Battle of frigidus but at the same time suffered huge losses theodosius promised the Goths payment and Aller was promised a promotion to the position of majest militum but he never kept his promises when the Emperor died the Goths split part went to the danu to the Huns and the

other part under allor invaded and robbed Greece the military commander Stilo began to defend the Roman Empire from the Goths himself half Roman half Vandal he expelled allic from Greece and twice defeated allic during his march to Italy he suppressed revolts against the Romans in Africa and fought with other Germanic tribes at his initiative the capital was moved from Rome to Rena he later invaded the lands where the Goths settled however the Romans could not forgive Stilo that his father was a barbarian Senators plotted against him and ordinary Romans accused him of invading The Barbarians

as if he himself invited them to attack Rome Emperor honorius under pressure from the Senators eventually ordered the soldiers to kill Stilo in 406 when Stilo fought all aleric in Alyria the Huns drove the vandals from their lands the vandals Allied themselves with the Alani and the sui crossed the Rind and began to pillage Gaul from Rome the troops did not come to defend Gaul then the commander of the Roman troops in Britain flavius constantius with his army left the island to defeat The Barbarians on the continent thus Rome retained Gaul but forever lost Britain

the vandals Alani and sui fled to Spain where they were granted residency in exchange for service in the Roman army and to Gaul the Romans themselves invited the Franks on the condition that they would guard the Roman Border in 411 The Burgundian fleeing the Huns also fled to Gaul where they established their Kingdom when allar learned of the death of his rival Stilo he gathered troops invaded Italy defeated the Romans and besieged Rome the long negotiations which lasted almost a year were unsuccessful and the Goths then began to storm the city after many attempts the

Romans opened the gates of the city with their own hands in the hopes of being spared but the god gos captured and robbed the city there hadn't been such a desecration in the history of Rome for 800 years however this was the end of all's long journey and he died of malaria shortly after taking the city after his death the Goths lost their Unity again some of them went to panonia which was under the rule of the Huns another part of the Goths was recapturing Southern Gaul from the Romans for 8 years thus arose the

the kingdom of tulo and the Goths were finally divided into Visigoths and ostrogoths the Visigoths soon began the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula the vandals could not resist the more numerous Goths Vandal King geeric even decided to leave Spain the vandals built a fleet and sailed to Africa where they captured Carthage and established their Kingdom in these years began significant temperature drop crop failure and famine greatly fected the ancient Germans fleeing from starvation the jutes and angles began to swim to England and seize lands from local British tribes some Britain fled the island to a

nearby Peninsula named after them another part of the Britain decided to fight against the conquerors realizing they lacked strength they invited the Saxons to their Alliance however when the Saxons arrived in Britain they attacked the Britain and drove them to the outskirts of the island thus the Saxons an Les and jutes conquered new lands and laid the foundation for the future unification of the English people the Huns became the most powerful tribe in Europe thanks to their numerous Cavalry they settled in panonia and went from there to pillage the Balkans when Atilla came to power

he conquered neighboring peoples and created a powerful Army Atilla made several expeditions to the Balkans and even forced Emperor theodosius II to pay money to the Huns in exchange for a promise not to plunder the Roman Empire again but Atilla still sought an excuse for a new war he found it in an arrangement with Emperor valentinian III the Hun Chief asked the emperor to marry valentinian's sister with him and also asked to give him her half of the Empire as Dowry the emperor refused and the Huns invaded Gaul Roman general flavius Aus began to gather

an alliance of Roman Legions and Barbarian kingdoms to stop the raid of ailla in 451 his his army met the Huns in the catalonian plains the battle lasted 4 days and was the greatest battle of those times practically all barbarian tribes took part in this battle sometimes One Tribe stood on both sides of the battle the ostrogoths fought for the Huns and the Visigoths fought for the Romans according to the chronicle there were so many dead that the bodies of the soldiers formed Hills all alaric's son the vizigo King theodoric was killed in the battle

for this reason the Goths withdrew from the battlefield the Huns left the battle the same night the following year the Huns once again invaded the Roman Empire and even besieged Rome it was only thanks to Pope Leo the and the price of a large Ransom that Atilla was persuaded not to seize the city but the Huns still plundered small towns in Italy when the Huns approached aquala the locals fled to the islands in the sea Lagoon where they established Venice after returning to the danu Atilla arranged a wedding with gothic girl ILO to get support

from the Goths but died the same day even at that time among chroniclers there were different versions of the death of Atilla some called the cause of death poison some wine and some ILO herself who could thus avenge The Hun's murder of her family after atilla's death his children began to fight each other for power and the Hun State collapsed the Huns lost their to and soon disappeared from the pages of history in 455 Emperor valentinian III was assassinated by usurper petronus Maximus the emperor's wife wrote a letter to the vandals asking them to avenge

the death of her husband while the vandals reached Rome petronus Maximus was also killed then the vandals simply seized Rome and began to plunder it this lasted for 14 days as a result the Romans were so weakened that that real power in the empire was seized by the visigothic warlord Risser known for gaining the political control through placing puppet Emperors on the throne the ostrogoth tribe was the largest of the Hun tribes after atilla's death they quickly defeated the Huns and gained independence by proclaiming the ostrogothic kingdom in the following years the ostrogoths conquered their

neighbors and the Roman Emperor granted them the right to settle in Italy relations between the Romans and the austri gos were friendly some settled in mishia where they served in defense of the Roman border when the alamani invaded Italy the ostrog gos were recruited into the army which fought under the lead of odoacer to defend Rome after a while the new Roman Emperor again appealed to odoacer to defeat Julius nepos who had proclaimed himself Emperor but odoacer realizing that the real power in Rome is held by the father of the emperor immediately after his death

took prisoner child emperor Romulus Augustus odoacer forced the infant Emperor to renounce the throne give up the Imperial regalia to Constantinople and Proclaim himself king of Italy this is how the Roman Empire formally fell however the great migration of peoples did not end the ostrogothic king theodoric the great LED his army into Italy as he didn't consider odoacer being worthy of the crown because of his insignificant lineage he defeated yaser killed him during negotiations and himself became king of Italy resettling all the ostrogoths there in the late 5th Century from Ireland where land was scarce

Scotty began to move to pictish lands in the UK it was because of Scotty that the land was named Scotland in 507 the Franks defeated the vizigo at the Battle of vuer the Franks acquired South Gaul and the Visigoths moved the capital to the city of Toledo the thus appeared the future Franco Spanish border the visigothic kingdom became the birthplace of the Spaniards and the kingdom of Frank would become the Cradle of the French in 533 the byzantines invaded Africa where they defeated the vandals in memory of the plunder of Rome made by the vandals

the byzantines were ordered to kill all the locals a small part managed to escape to the desert where they served the Berber Kings after this the byzantines began a series of wars with the ostrogoths which they could not defeat then they invited the Lombard tribe to Italy to destroy the ostrogoths the Lombards having successfully fulfilled their request remained in Italy and founded their Kingdom in the same years the Slavs which the byzantines called scavini came from the danu and invaded Byzantium for the first time soon among the Slavic tribes a powerful antees Union emerged constantly

attacking the Byzantine lands in 541 in Byzantium an epidemic of the plague began from which the Balkans were very badly affected the population of some lands has simply become extinct Slavs who fled the attacks of the avars began to settle in empty territories so the slaves settled the Balkans and even part of the pipines there settled the Slavic tribes of melenoy and aeri and in 558 turkic tribes of the bulgar encroached on Byzantium having come to Constantinople only a ransom of gold saved the city from a Siege in 610 the new Byzantine emperor heraclius hired

croats which lived in the carpathians for military service the croats liked Dalmatia so much that they stayed and founded the Croatian Kingdom in 665 the bulgars fleeing from the kazars settled on the danu where they formed their Bulgarian conate and a assimilated among the Slavs at the same time the Slavs settled to the West bordering with the ancient Germans who called them WS here many small Slavic States emerged among which the principality of great Moravia gained power over time the last great people to come to Europe were the magars they settled in the Black Sea

steps from where they began to raid Neighbors in 8895 Prince fatl I of Moravia invited magard to serve in his army instead during the danu settlement the magars captured great Moravia and made it their state which they named Hungary the borders between the peoples of Europe would change but not so much it can be said that this is where and how the map of Europe was formed where barbaric kingdoms would become the foundation of the new European countries known to [Music] us [Music]