THE GERMANIC PEOPLESTHE GERMANIC PEOPLES

In 375 AD the Huns (a tribe that came from Asia) invaded the Germanic territories and the Germanic tribes escaped to the South and fled into the Roman Empire. The Romans were unable to stop the invasion of the barbarians.

GERMANIC TRIBES ON GERMANIC TRIBES ON THE BORDERS OF THE THE BORDERS OF THE

ROMAN EMPIREROMAN EMPIRE

In 376 AD the Visigoths defeated the Romans in Adrianople and they settled down inside the Empire: first they settled down near Italy and then in the southwest of Gaul.

THE FIRST INVASIONS

In the Western Empire, the emperors were weak and incapable of stopping the invasions of the Germanic tribes.

At the beginning of the 5th century the Sueves, the Vandals and the Alans crossed the river Rhine, they came into the Roman Empire and they settled down in Hispania.

THE SECOND WAVE OF INVASIONSTHE SECOND WAVE OF INVASIONS

In 476, the Ostrogoths deposed the last western Emperor, Romulus Augustulus and the Western Empire disappeared: it broke up in different Germanic kingdoms.

The Eastern Empire survived under a new name the Byzantine Empire. This Empire survived until 1453.

THE GERMANIC KINGDOMSTHE GERMANIC KINGDOMS

MAIN GERMANIC PEOPLES

-OSTROGOTHS-VISIGOTHS-SUEVES-VANDALS-ALANS-ANGLES-SAXONS-FRANKS-BURGUNDIANS-LOMBARDS-ALAMANNI

PEOPLE CAME FROM SETTLED DOWN IN

SUEVES Present Germany, nearthe Baltic SEa

West of Hispania

VANDALS Present Poland Centre and South of Hispania. Later expelled to the North of Africa

ALANS Near the Caucasus, present Russia

Hispania

VISIGOTHS Present Romania South of Gaul and Hispania

OSTROGOTHS Present Ukraine Italian Peninsula

ANGLES Present Denmark Great Britain

SAXONS Present West of Germany Great Britain

FRANKS Near River Rhine Present France

BURGUNDIANS Between present Germany and Poland

Burgundy and Eastern France

ALAMANNI Present Germany Eastern France (present Alsace)

LOMBARDS Present Austria, near the Danube North of the Italian Peninsula

-POLITICS: elective monarchy (an assembly of noblemen chose the kings.) When aking died, they elected a new one.

-LAW: customary law (no written laws. Their law was based on custom)

-ECONOMY: main activities: agriculture and stockbreeding, more primitive thanthe Romans. Subsistence economy (they produced almost all they needed), little trade (they frequently used barter: exchange of products for other products)

-RELIGION: Some peoples were pagans (polytheistic) and some were Arians (heresy of Christianity that denied the divine nature of Jesus Christ)

-CULTURE: lower than Roman culture. Precious metal work was their only original contribution

At the beginning, the Germanic peoples didn´t mix with the Romans (intercultural marriages were forbidden...), but as time went by the higher culture of the Romans prevailed. The two communities intermingled, the Germanic became Christians and they learnt Latin (although some words of the Germanic languages were incorporated to Latin).

MAIN FEATURES

With respect to the Roman Empire, the Germanic Kingdoms ‘ period was a time of regression: cities declined, trade collapsed and society ruralized.