Migration Period (jan 1, 300 – jan 1, 900)

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The Migration Period was a period in the history of Europe, during and after the decline of the Western Roman Empire, during which there was widespread migration of and invasions by peoples, notably the Germanic tribes and the Huns, within or into the Roman Empire. The period is traditionally taken to have begun in ad 375 (possibly as early as 300) and ended in 568. It is also sometimes called, from the Roman and Greek perspective, the period of Barbarian Invasions.[2]

There are differences of opinion among historians as to the dates for the beginning and ending of the Migration Period. The beginning of the period is widely regarded as the invasion of Europe by the Huns from Asia in 375 and the ending with the conquest of Italy by the Lombards in 568,[3], but a more loosely set period is from as early as 300 to as late as 800.[4] Various factors contributed to this phenomenon of migration and invasion, and their role and significance are still in discussion among experts on the subject. For example, in 382, the first Visigoths settled as foederati within the Roman Empire, and the Franks, a Germanic tribe that would later found Francia, a predecessor of modern France and Germany, settled in the Roman Empire and were given the task of securing the provinces of Gaul. Western Roman rule was first violated with the Crossing of the Rhine[clarification needed] and the following invasions of the Vandals and Suebi. With wars ensuing between various tribes, as well as local populations in the Western Roman Empire, more and more power was transferred to Germanic and Roman militaries.

There are contradictory opinions whether the fall of the Western Roman Empire was a result or a cause of these migrations, or both. The Eastern Roman Empire, as a politic entity, was less affected by the migrations; despite losing much of its population and being forced to pay tribute to invading tribes, the Byzantine Empire survived until the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453. In the modern period, the Migration Period-periodization came to as a rather negative connotation of the earlier tribal peoples, and their invasions seen as affecting the fall of the empire. In place of the fallen Western Rome, Barbarian kingdoms arose in the 5th and 6th centuries and thus shaped the European Early Middle Ages.

The migrants comprised war bands or tribes of 10,000 to 20,000 people,[5] but in the course of 100 years they numbered not more than 750,000 in total,[citation needed] compared to an average 40 million population of the Roman Empire at that time. Although immigration was common throughout the time of the Roman Empire,[6] the period in question was, in the 19th century, often defined as running from about the 5th to 8th centuries AD.[7][8] The first migrations of peoples were made by Germanic tribes such as the Goths (including the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths), the Vandals, the Anglo-Saxons, the Lombards, the Suebi, the Frisii, the Jutes, the Burgundians, the Alemanni, the Scirii and the Franks; they were later pushed westward by the Huns, the Avars, the Slavs and the Bulgars.[9]

Later invasions, such as the Viking, the Norman, the Varangian, the Hungarian, the Moorish, the Turkic and the Mongol, also had significant effects (especially in North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, Anatolia and Central and Eastern Europe); however, they are usually considered outside the scope of the Migration Period.

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