Barbarian Invasions

Germanic tribes lived to the north of the Roman Empire.

At first, the Romans and the Germanic tribes had different laws, customs and religions.

But they gradually intermingled in border areas.

In some places, Germanic peoples spoke Latin and became Christians because of their admiration of the great Roman civilization.

Asian tribes, as the Huns, move to Central Europe, forcing barbarians to press over the weak Roman Empire (remember 1.1.3.).

As we have seen in the documentary, the first incursions were in the Eastern Empire, around Black Sea.

Then, the Eastern part will resist. In return, the Western part not.

Finally, during the fifth century the centralized goverment of the Western Empire was replaced by smaller kingdoms.

The most important were:

The Franks in France.

The Visigoths in Spain.

The Ostrogoths and the Lombards in Italy.

The Angles and the Saxons in Britain.

Hispania. 560 AD.