Download - The Germanic peoples
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.