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World history volume two - the tribes of Europe. German tribal unions of Central Europe. Questions at the end of the paragraph

What tribes invaded the territory of the Roman Empire.

Section III. History of the Middle Ages.

Why did the Roman Empire collapse?

According to what laws was built the life of the community of Rome.

1 The concepts of ʼʼ good farmerʼʼ, ʼʼ good warriorʼʼ and ʼʼ good citizenʼʼ merged into one in the minds of the Romans.

2 There were no taxes in Rome. People who held the highest positions did not receive salaries, but had to build temples at their own expense, arrange games, and feasts.

3 Service in the army was obligatory, but honorable, a person could not become a statesman if he did not serve in the army.

4 Religion played a big role, but it is not the gods who judge a person, but society, that is, fellow citizens, assessed the actions of a person.

5 The idea of ʼʼcommon goodʼʼ determined the obligations of the Roman: in the first place was the duty to society, in the second - to the family, and in the last place - concern for one's personal welfare.

6 People's assemblies, the Senate and two consuls - all elected by the people - the republic played an important role.

1 Rome waged continuous wars, capturing more and more land - Rome turned into a huge power with numerous provinces, and in the II-I centuries. BC e. Rome became a world power.

2 Rome is going through turmoil at this time: endless wars, unrest in the provinces, slave uprisings, the struggle of factions for power, which resulted in civil war- began to emerge new form board - the sole power of a dictator or emperor - only with the help of a strong one-man power could the state be preserved.

3 In the first centuries A.D. e. the crisis of the Roman Empire - the transfer of the capital to Constantinople, split into Western and Eastern, in 476 ᴦ. The last Roman emperor was overthrown.

Causes:

4 The destruction of slaveholding relations, the emergence of new forms of government.

5 Spiritual crisis - the establishment of a new religion - Christianity.

6 Raids of barbarian tribes.

The rise of Christian civilization. ʼʼChildhood of Europeʼʼ

The "Childhood" of Europe proceeded in a catastrophic, stormy environment of the great migration of peoples, the clash of two completely opposite and seemingly incompatible worlds - the barbarian Germanic tribes and the civilization of Rome.

The first onslaught of the Germanic tribes was repulsed in the 1st century. BC e. on the river Rhine and a special role in this Julius Caesar. It was along this river that the border separating the Roman lands from the Germanic tribes ran. Germanic tribes, who lived side by side with the Romans, of course, absorbed Roman culture and were much more ʼʼcivilizedʼʼ compared to those tribes that were removed from the border.

In the IV century. the Great Migration of Peoples began - the mass movement of tribes. The Visigoths settled on the territory of the empire, modern Bulgaria, then moved to Gaul and created the first barbarian state on the territory of the Roman Empire. Then other tribes poured in, taking advantage of the fact that Rome was busy fighting with the Visigoths. Vandals were especially dangerous: wild and incredibly aggressive. In addition to the Germans, the Huns invaded the territory of the empire. After the victory over the Huns, the formation of barbarian kingdoms followed one after another, but this did not lead to stability. The new states waged constant wars among themselves, their borders were not permanent, and life, as a rule, was short-lived.

This rather chaotic picture was supplemented by the continuous movements across Europe of numerous Germanic tribes that had not yet created statehood. The waves of barbarian invasions gradually calmed down, but the situation in Western Europe remained tense for a long time, since from the 7th century. until the middle of the 11th century. the raids of the Germanic tribes of Scandinavia - the Normans began, and at the end of the 7th century. - beginning of the 8th century Islamic civilization conquered North Africa and most of Spain.

Why is it customary to call the first centuries of Western European civilization ʼʼDarkʼʼ.

The barbarians destroyed the civilization of Rome, and with it the level of civilization that had been built up over many centuries. It is no coincidence that the first centuries after the death of the empire are called ʼʼdarkʼʼ. The population suffered from the conquerors, their unreasonable cruelty, hunger; cities were deserted, priceless works of art were destroyed, trade stopped, the number of neglected, uncultivated lands increased. This is how the shape was Western Europe at the beginning of its existence: vast expanses of forests and fields with rare, isolated islands of villages. Contemporaries described with horror the disasters that befell the once prosperous lands: ʼʼafter the raids of the barbarians, contagious diseases struck, and hunger began to rage so cruel that people devour human fleshʼʼ.

What changes have taken place in the socio-economic sphere.

In the era of ʼʼchildhoodʼʼ of Europe, there was a major shift in economic life - the transition to feudalism. And this process develops with the most active participation of the barbarians - it is customary to call this path - synthesis, i.e. (from Greek - connection, combination) - ϶ᴛᴏ connection of Roman traditions and barbarian ones. How did it happen? Next to the Roman estates, where peasants worked - tenants and slaves planted on the land, Germanic communities settled. Members of these communities had plots of land that could be sold, donated, etc. Only forests, pastures, and rivers remained in collective ownership. Thus, two classes of feudal society were born: the feudal lords - the owners of the land, and the peasants, who received land from the feudal lords. There is something like a mutual agreement between them: the feudal lord could not do without the peasants, and the peasants did not have their own land, in addition, they were in dire need of military protection in that turbulent era. But the feudalization of society took place at a different pace: in Gaul in the 8th century, in Italy in the 10th century, in Britain in the 11th century, in Germany in the 12th century.

What tribes invaded the territory of the Roman Empire. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "What tribes invaded the territory of the Roman Empire." 2017, 2018.

By the end of the IV century. Christianity was established in almost all provinces of the Roman Empire. In the 340s. through the efforts of Bishop Wulfila, it penetrates to the tribes ready. The Goths adopted Christianity in the form of Arianism, which then dominated the east of the empire. During the advance of the Visigoths to the west, Arianism also spread. In the 5th century in Spain it was adopted by the tribes vandals and Suevi. to Galin - Burgundians and then Lombards. Orthodox Christianity adopted by the Frankish king Clovis. It is worth saying that political reasons led to the fact that by the end of the 7th century. in most parts of Europe, the Nicene religion was established. In the 5th century The Irish were introduced to Christianity. The activity of the legendary apostle of Ireland dates back to ϶ᴛᴏ St. Patrick.

The Christianization of the barbarian peoples was carried out mainly from above. Pagan ideas and images continued to live in the minds of the masses of the people. The Church assimilated these images, adapted them to Christianity. Pagan rites and holidays were filled with new, Christian content.

From the end of the 5th to the beginning of the 7th century. the power of the Roman pope was limited only to the Roman ecclesiastical province in Central and Southern Italy. At the same time, in 597, an event occurred that marked the beginning of the strengthening of the Roman church throughout the kingdom. Dad Gregory I the Great sent preachers of Christianity led by a monk to the Anglo-Saxons-pagans Augustine. According to legend, the pope saw English slaves on the market and was surprised by the similarity of their name with the word "angels", which he considered a sign from above. The Anglo-Saxon Church became the first church north of the Alps, subordinate directly to Rome. The symbol of ϶ᴛᴏ dependence became pallium(platform worn on the shoulders), which was sent from Rome to the primate of the church, now called archbishop, i.e. the highest bishop, to whom powers were delegated directly from the pope - the vicar of St. Peter. Subsequently, the Anglo-Saxons made a great contribution to the strengthening of the Roman Church on the continent, to the alliance of the pope with the Carolingians. Played a significant role in ϶ᴛᴏm St. Boniface, a native of Wessex. It is worth noting that he developed a program of deep reforms of the Frankish Church in order to establish uniformity and submission to Rome. Boniface's reforms created the overall Roman church in western Europe. Only the Christians of Arab Spain preserved the special traditions of the Visigothic Church.

11. Invasion of barbarians and early feudal states: Frankish state of the era of the Merovingians and Carolingians.

Frankish state under the Merovingians and Carolingians. The Franks appeared on the territory of the Western Roman Empire even before its fall (it should be said that in the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields, it was the squads of the Franks who made the main contribution to the victory over Attila). This Germanic tribe was subject to rulers from the Merovingian dynasty, named after the legendary king Merovei. But the first king about whom reliable information has been preserved was Clovis (481 - 511). It was he who in 486 founded the kingdom of the Franks in northern Gaul, defeating the Roman governor, who continued to rule in this area after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Clovis managed to take away Aquitaine from the Visigoths, he also accepted Christianity not in the Arian version, but in the orthodox one, which greatly facilitated contacts with the local Gallo-Roman population.

The contradictions between the conquerors and the vanquished were to a large extent smoothed out by the fact that the free Franks did not take away land, but preferred to settle in their villages, also avoiding cities. The reduction in the tax pressure also did not give rise to discontent. Gradually there was a rapprochement of both peoples, a single dialect was developed. Under Clovis, the first record of the legal customs of the Franks took place - the “Salic Law” on Latin. Gradually, there is a convergence of ordinary free Franks with the Gallo-Roman peasantry, on the one hand, and the Frankish nobility with magnates from the former aristocracy, on the other hand, as a result, two main classes of medieval society are formed: peasants and feudal lords.

Under the grandchildren of Clovis, a fierce struggle for power flares up within the ruling family itself, as a result of which the state weakens and breaks up into a number of almost independent parts. Power gradually leaves the hands of the representatives of the Merovingian dynasty and is concentrated in the hands of their mayors - the rulers of the royal household, but who eventually became the rulers of the state. At the end of the 7th century, the mayordoms of Austrasia, one of the parts Frankish state who manage to unite the entire state. In 715, Charles Martell became mayordom, having defeated the Arab army that invaded France at the Battle of Poitiers in 732. A huge role in the victory was played by the beneficiary reform, according to which Charles Martell distributed to his confidants on the terms of military service the lands confiscated from the church along with the peasants. These lands provided their owners with weapons for a heavy rider, which was beyond the power of ordinary community members for purely economic reasons.

Thus, military affairs become exclusively the prerogative of the ruling class, and the peasantry and townspeople for a long time are not involved in the conduct of hostilities at all. An estate of knights is being formed, in the appearance of which, in addition to social aspects, military-technical aspects also played an important role: the appearance of a stirrup, borrowed from the nomads of the south of Eastern Europe in the 7th century, and a new, larger breed of horses. The stirrup allowed the rider to hold on more firmly in the saddle, which was necessary to perform the classic knightly technique - with a large spear, clamped under the arm, to knock the enemy out of the saddle. The horses of the new breed were able to carry a rider protected by heavy armor, which the horses inherited from the ancient era could not do. The one who received the lands took an oath of allegiance to the one who gave these lands.

In 751, the son of Charles Martell removed from the throne and tonsured the last king of the Merovingian dynasty - Childeric III - and crowned himself, founding a new dynasty of Carolingians. The most famous representative of this dynasty was the son of Pepin, the king, and since 800 the emperor Charlemagne (768 - 814). During the reign of Charles, the Franks made 53 campaigns, 27 of which were led by the monarch himself. The longest and most difficult were the wars with the German tribe of the Saxons, who did not want to either obey the Franks or accept Christianity. The new empire united the vast territories of Western Europe, only Britain, Spain and Southern Italy did not fall under the rule of Charles. The Basques and part of the Slavic territories depended on the empire. The formation of the empire had a huge political significance: Charles became the supreme secular head of the Christian world, all his wars were fought for the spread of Christianity, not to mention the authority, which increased immeasurably as a result of receiving the imperial title.

But the creation of Charlemagne turned out to be fragile: already under his grandchildren, the unified empire broke up into three parts according to the Treaty of Verdun in 843. The result was the West Frankish kingdom, which included mainly the lands of the future France, the East Frankish kingdom, located on the territory of modern Germany, and the kingdom of Lothair, which included Italy and a long strip of land to the north of it, reaching the North Sea and separating the other two. kingdoms. In Germany, in 919, the Saxon dynasty came to the throne, in France, the national Capetian dynasty, represented by the Parisian Count Hugh Capet, established itself on the throne in 987. The Kingdom of Lothair did not have a national basis and collapsed, and the territories outside Italy were divided between Germany and France, and the unity of Italy itself remained purely formal. In 924, the rank of emperor also disappears.

Europe and the Vikings. After the end of the era of the Great Migration of Peoples, Europe was periodically attacked by some tribes, among which the ancient Scandinavians, the ancestors of modern Norwegians, Danes and Swedes, played a special role. The Scandinavian Germans, later than their counterparts from the mainland, entered the stage of destruction of primitive communal relations, and the period, characterized by a sharp increase in the military activity of the tribes and raids on neighboring peoples, fell on them at a time when the main states had already formed in Europe, and the process of forming feudal relations had begun. far enough. Scandinavia was not able to feed the increased population, therefore, along with the usual predatory raids that were carried out by the Viking squads under the leadership of the Jarl leaders, colonization was also carried out, during which both new lands were developed and territories already inhabited by other peoples were seized.

Europeans first encountered the Vikings in 793 when they stormed and sacked a monastery on the island of Lindisfarne off the east coast of England. All the monks were killed at the same time. After this event, the Viking raids soon covered almost all coastal regions of northern Western Europe. The Scandinavians also penetrate the Mediterranean Sea. A distinctive feature of the Viking culture was that it was very closely connected with the sea. All their campaigns were by sea. In Scandinavia, a special type of sailing and rowing vessel was used, which, thanks to perfect lines, had excellent seaworthiness. It was the design of the Viking Drakkars that allowed them to discover and populate the Faroe Islands, Iceland, reach Greenland and establish settlements on the island that existed there until the 14th century. Around the year 1000, the Viking Lave the Happy managed to reach the coast of North America, where the Vikings also managed to establish several settlements in the Newfoundland and Labrador region, but they did not exist there for a very long time due to the resistance of the local Indians. This discovery of America, which occurred 500 years before Columbus, remained unknown to Europe.

The Vikings are remembered for completely different exploits. The horror of the northern warriors was so great that there was even a prayer for deliverance from the Normans, as the Europeans called them, equating the raids of the Scandinavians with such phenomena as plague and drought. England and the north of France suffered the most from the Norman raids. The Vikings rose up the rivers and devastated entire regions. Gradually, the Vikings move from raids to systematic conquests. So, in 911, Jarl Rollo forced the French king to give him the north of France, and here the duchy of Normandy was formed - in fact, a possession independent of the crown. It was the people from this duchy who conquered Anglo-Saxon England in 1066, from here, around the middle of the 11th century, the invasion of Southern Italy took place, from where the descendants of the Vikings ousted the Byzantines, and then conquered Sicily from the Arabs. So the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies appears on the map, which existed until mid-nineteenth century. It should be noted that the success of the Vikings was explained not only by the strength and combat skill of the Scandinavians themselves, but to no lesser extent by the weakness of the enemy. The cessation of the practice of using the militias of free community members in hostilities made the population completely defenseless against the Vikings, who were excellent in weapons and fighting techniques, and the general weakness of the central government did not allow organizing an effective rebuff to the invaders by the forces of the knightly army.

By the beginning of the 11th century, Viking raids ceased due to a number of circumstances. On the one hand, the emergence of nation-states in Europe made it possible to organize an effective surveillance and defense service, and on the other hand, in Scandinavia, the process of formation of states with strong royal power is also beginning, for which the willful uncontrollable bands of the Vikings are an obstacle to centralization and the creation of state structures. The Vikings cease to enjoy the support of the population, and their campaigns cease.

Europe and nomads. The Huns and Alans were not the only nomadic peoples that Europe saw. And after the end of the Great Migration of Peoples, new conquerors periodically came from Asia. In the 6th - 7th centuries in Pannonia, on the site of the former power of Attila, the Avar Khaganate was formed, with which they fought intense struggle as Byzantine Empire and the empire of Charlemagne. In the 7th century, the Turkic tribe of the Bulgarians from the Azov region moved to the Lower Danube, where, having conquered seven Slavic principalities, they formed the Bulgarian state, the first ruler of which was Khan Asparuh. From the end of the 9th century, Hungarian raids on Europe began. They settled on the territory of the Avar Khaganate, which had already collapsed by that time, in the same Pannonia, which is increasingly called Hungary from now on. These raids continue until the year 1000, when gradually the nomads begin to lead a settled way of life and create a state under the influence and model of neighboring peoples. Big influence the culture of the Asian tribes that came to Europe was influenced by the inhabitants of the countries they conquered, who had much greater social experience and transferred their economic skills to them. This is typical for all nomadic tribes: they either dissolved without a trace, like the Avars, or, having created a state, gave it their name, being themselves completely assimilated by the local population, like the Bulgarians, or retained their ethnic group, assimilating the local population, but completely moving to another way of life, like the Hungarians. The last nomads who moved to Europe were the Pechenegs and Polovtsians. They came to the territory of Byzantium and Hungary from Eastern Europe, but they failed to create their own states, they took part in the formation of local ethnic groups, although they disappeared into them.

Byzantium and the Slavs. During the 5th century, the Eastern Roman Empire was less subject to barbarian invasions, largely due to the fact that Byzantine diplomats managed to direct the expansion of a number of tribes to the West, thereby maintaining their possessions. But in the 6th century, the empire was subjected to the onslaught of the Slavic tribes, which, like others barbarian peoples, from simple predatory raids, they began the systematic colonization of the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor. With rare exceptions, the Slavs failed to create their own states on the territory of the Byzantine Empire in the 6th-7th centuries, but many of the interior regions of the Balkans, inhabited by settlers, practically got out of the power of the emperor and were independent.

Emperor Justinian (527 - 565) tried to restore the unity of the Roman Empire by returning the former western provinces to it. To this end, the commanders of Justinian wage a series of long and difficult wars in North Africa against the kingdom of the Vandals, in Italy against the kingdom of the Ostrogoths, in Spain against the kingdom of the Visigoths. The longest of these wars was the war with the Ostrogoths (535-555). All these wars ended with the victory of Byzantium, but short-lived. Italy was soon taken from Justinian by the Lombards, only minor enclaves of Byzantine possessions remained on the peninsula, North Africa, devastated by Byzantine troops, was captured by the Arabs almost without resistance in the 7th century, and Spain also managed to establish itself only in a few areas of the coast. At the same time, it was necessary to wage a traditional war for the Roman Empire in the East with the Persian kingdom of the Sassanids. It must be admitted that the attempt to restore the slave system, which Justinian aspired to by pursuing a policy of conquest, ended in failure. In addition, the invasions of the Slavs, which were mentioned above, from the second half of the reign of Justinian, become catastrophic. If in the first half of the reign the defense of the empire was built along the Danube, where big number fortresses, then in the future the situation changes: fortresses are built inside the country, since more and more often the Slavic armies approach Constantinople itself.

The era of Justinian went down in history not only as an attempt to restore the empire throughout the Mediterranean. By order of the emperor, the most famous jurists collected all Roman laws, as well as legal cases, compiling a complete set of Roman law, which formed the basis of many modern legislations.

The reign of Justinian is, obviously, the final phase in the history of the slave-owning formation in the east of the former Roman Empire, where the crisis of the slave-owning economy was observed. Here, as in the West, new, feudal relations began to emerge. The resettled Slavs, who brought with them communal traditions, also played a significant role in this. In some ways, the situation was reminiscent of the situation in Roman Gaul, when it was conquered by the Franks.

Arabs and Europe. In the 7th century, the European peoples and subjects of Byzantium faced a new enemy - the Arabs. In the middle of the 7th - beginning of the 9th centuries. as a result of the Arab conquests, the Caliphate was created - the largest state in the world, whose possessions stretched from India to the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Such a powerful impetus to Arab expansion was given by a new religion - Islam, the founder of which was the prophet Muhammad (c. 570 - 632). Islam is the third world religion in time of origin, which soon became a serious competitor to Christianity. Many ancient Christian areas, such as Syria, the Middle East, North Africa, began to practice Islam. The main principle of Islam is the recognition of monotheism and the prophetic mission of Muhammad, while the presence of other prophets in the past is not denied, even before the birth of Muhammad, in particular, Jesus Christ is recognized as one of these prophets. The main principles of Islam are stated in the Qur'an.

The adherents of the new religion saw one of the main tasks in the conversion of all non-believers to their faith, this is precisely what explains the energy with which the Arabs made conquests. Pretty soon they stripped Byzantium of most of its Asiatic possessions, conquered North Africa, and, crossing Gibraltar, invaded Spain. The offensive of the Arabs was stopped only in France, near Poitiers by Karl Martell. In Spain itself, only in the far north of the country were Christian possessions preserved, which immediately began a struggle for the return of the rest of the peninsula. This struggle was called the Reconquista and continued until the 15th century. Having settled in North Africa and Spain, the Arabs captured a number of Mediterranean islands and began to make pirate raids on the coastal regions of Christian states. All this, together with the raids of the Normans and Hungarians, created additional obstacles to the peaceful and peaceful development of European countries.

12. Features of the development of the Byzantine Empire.

The Byzantine Empire, in short, is a state that appeared in 395, after the collapse of the Great Roman Empire. She could not stand the invasion of barbarian tribes and was divided into two parts. Less than a century after its collapse, the Western Roman Empire ceased to exist. But she left behind a strong successor - the Byzantine Empire. The Roman Empire lasted 500 years, and its eastern successor lasted over a thousand, from the 4th to the 15th centuries.
Initially, the Eastern Roman Empire was called "Romania". In the West, for a long time it was called the "Greek Empire", since most of it was made up of the Greek population. But the inhabitants of Byzantium themselves called themselves Romans (in Greek - Romans). It wasn't until after the fall in the 15th century that the Eastern Roman Empire began to be referred to as "Byzantium".

This name comes from the word Byzantium - this is how Constantinople, the capital of the empire, was first called.
The Byzantine Empire, in short, occupied a vast territory - almost 1 million square meters. kilometers. It was located on three continents - in Europe, Africa and Asia.
The capital of the state is the city of Constantinople, founded in the days of the Great Roman Empire. At first it was the Greek colony of Byzantium. In 330, Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the empire here and called the city by its own name - Constantinople. In the Middle Ages, it was the richest city in Europe.

the Byzantine Empire did not manage to avoid the invasion of the barbarians, but it avoided such losses as the west of the Roman state, thanks to a wise policy. For example, Slavic tribes participating in the great migration of peoples were allowed to settle on the outskirts of the empire. Thus, Byzantium received populated borders, the population of which was a shield against other invaders.
The basis of the Byzantine economy was production and trade. It included many rich cities that produced almost all goods. V- VIII centuries the Byzantine ports flourished. Land roads became unsafe for merchants due to long wars in Europe, so the sea route became the only possible one.
The empire was a multinational country, so the culture was amazingly diverse. Its basis was the ancient heritage.
On May 30, 1453, after two months of stubborn resistance by the Turkish army, Constantinople fell. Thus ended the thousand-year history of one of the great powers of the world.

13. Periodization of the Western European Middle Ages and features of folding feudal relations in Europe.

Chronological framework: 476 (fall of Rome) - 1640 (English bourgeois revolution)

1) Early Middle Ages: 5th-10th centuries

2) Classic Middle Ages: 11th-14th centuries

3) Late Middle Ages : 14th-16th centuries

According to the periodization (inevitably conditional) adopted by world and domestic science, at the origins of the Middle Ages in Western Europe there is a collapse in the second half of the 5th century. Western Roman Empire. The meeting of two worlds - the ancient Greco-Roman and barbarian (Germanic, Celtic, Slavic) - was the beginning of a profound upheaval that opened a new, medieval period in the history of Western Europe. For the history of Byzantium, the beginning of the Middle Ages is considered the 4th century, when the Eastern Roman Empire gained independence.

It looks more difficult in science to resolve the issue of the boundary between the Middle Ages and modern times. In foreign historiography, their border is usually considered the middle or the end of the 15th century, linking it with such phenomena as the invention of printing, the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, the discovery of America by Europeans, the beginning of the Great geographical discoveries and colonial conquests. From the point of view of social changes, this milestone marks the initial stages of the change of systems - feudal to capitalist. In the recent past, Russian science has pushed back the beginning of the new time to the end of the 18th century, attributing it to the French bourgeois revolution and taking into account the option of a longer maturation. new system and a more decisive break with the old. In the practice of teaching, it is still customary to consider the first bourgeois revolution of pan-European significance to be the conditional end of the Middle Ages - English revolution 1640-1660s, which marked the beginning of the domination of capitalism in Western Europe and coincided with the end of the first pan-European Thirty Years' War 1618-1648 This periodization is adopted in this textbook.

It is necessary to note new trends in modern domestic science, which make significant adjustments to the problem of periodization. This is primarily the desire of researchers to separate the concepts of "Middle Ages" and "feudalism". Their identification in late XVIII century, as noted above, was a serious achievement of historical knowledge, which took the first noticeable step towards the recognition of social history. The new trend led to attempts to attribute the upper chronological boundary of the "Middle Ages" to the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century. Such innovations are explained not by a formal desire to unify the periodization of the Middle Ages with Western historiography, but by a new level of historical knowledge. Historical science at the end of the 20th century developed a more balanced and flexible synthesis of “structural” and “human” history, which became possible due to the reassessment of the role of consciousness and the socio-psychological factor in the social process, as well as the restoration of the rights of event history. All this allows us to take a different look at such events at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries. in Western Europe, as humanism and the Reformation, or the Great geographical discoveries. Having received an impulse from deep and therefore much less mobile changes in public life, it was these phenomena that caused such shifts in consciousness and spiritual values that created new look world, which meant a decisive break with the Middle Ages.

In close connection with the noted innovation among Russian medievalists, there is a desire to single out "transitional periods" as special stages, if not self-sufficient, then having their own laws of development. Modern scholars present, in particular, convincing arguments in favor of the inherent value of the transitional period of the 16th-18th centuries, which was called the "early modern period".

The history of the Middle Ages for Western Europe is usually divided into three main periods, distinguished by different levels of socio-economic, political and cultural development.

I. EndV- middle of the XI century. - early medieval period when feudalism was just taking shape as a social system. This predetermined the extreme complexity of the social situation, in which the social groups of the ancient slave-owning and barbarian tribal systems mixed and transformed. The agricultural sector dominated the economy, subsistence economic relations prevailed, the cities managed to maintain themselves as economic centers mainly in the Mediterranean region, which was the main hub of trade relations between East and West. It was the time of barbarian and early feudal state formations(kingdoms), bearing the stamp of the transitional time.

In the spiritual life, the temporary decline of culture, associated with the death of the Western Roman Empire and the onslaught of the pagan non-literate world, was gradually replaced by its rise. The synthesis with Roman culture and the establishment of Christianity played a decisive role in it. The Christian Church during this period had a decisive influence on the consciousness and culture of society, in particular, regulating the process of assimilation of the ancient heritage.

II. Middle of the XI - end of the XV century. - heyday of feudal relations, the massive growth of cities, the development of commodity-money relations and the folding of the burghers. In political life in most regions of Western Europe, after a period of feudal fragmentation, centralized states are formed. A new form of state is emerging - a feudal monarchy with estate representation, reflecting a tendency to strengthen the central power and activate the estates, primarily urban.

Cultural life goes under the sign of the development of urban culture, which contributes to the secularization of consciousness, the formation of rationalism and experimental knowledge. These processes were intensified with the formation of the ideology of early humanism already at this stage of the Renaissance culture.

III. XVI-XVII centuries - the period of late feudalism or the beginning of the early modern era. Economic and social life is characterized by the processes of decomposition of feudalism and the genesis of early capitalist relations. The acuteness of social contradictions causes major anti-feudal social movements with the active participation of the broad masses of the people, who will contribute to the victory of the first bourgeois revolutions. The third type of feudal state is being formed - an absolute monarchy. The spiritual life of society was determined by the early bourgeois revolutions, late humanism, the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. The 17th century was a turning point in the development of the natural sciences and rationalism.

Each of the stages opened and was accompanied by major movements of peoples across Europe and beyond: in the IV century, VI-VII centuries. - the movement of the Huns, Germanic and Slavic tribes; the expansion of the Scandinavian peoples, Arabs and Hungarians at the turn of the first and second stages, the crusades of Western Europeans to the East and Eastern Europe in the 11th-13th centuries; and, finally, the colonial conquests of Western Europeans in the East, Africa and America in the 15th and 16th centuries. Each period opened up new horizons for the peoples of Europe. Attention is drawn to the ever-accelerating pace of development and the reduction in the time span of each subsequent stage.

Section III. History of the Middle Ages.

Why did the Roman Empire collapse?

According to what laws was built the life of the community of Rome.

1 The concepts of "good farmer", "good warrior" and "good citizen" merged into one in the minds of the Romans.

2 There were no taxes in Rome. People who held the highest positions did not receive salaries, but had to build temples at their own expense, arrange games, and feasts.

3 Service in the army was compulsory, but honorable, a person could not become a statesman if he did not serve in the army.

4 Religion played a big role, but it is not the gods who judge a person, but society, that is, fellow citizens, assessed the actions of a person.

5 The idea of "common good" determined the obligations of the Roman: in the first place was duty to society, in the second - to the family, and in the last place - concern for one's personal welfare.

6 People's assemblies, the Senate and two consuls played an important role - all elected by the people - the republic.

1 Rome waged continuous wars, capturing more and more land - Rome turned into a huge power with numerous provinces, and in the II-I centuries. BC e. Rome became a world power.

2 Rome is going through turmoil at this time: endless wars, unrest in the provinces, slave uprisings, the struggle of groups for power, which resulted in a civil war - a new form of government began to emerge - the sole power of a dictator or emperor - only with the help of a strong one-man power it was possible to save power.

3 In the first centuries A.D. e. the crisis of the Roman Empire - the transfer of the capital to Constantinople, split into Western and Eastern, in 476 the last Roman emperor was overthrown.

Causes:

4 The destruction of slaveholding relations, the emergence of new forms of government.

5 Spiritual crisis - the establishment of a new religion - Christianity.

6 Raids of barbarian tribes.

The rise of Christian civilization.
"Childhood of Europe"

The "childhood" of Europe proceeded in a catastrophic, stormy environment of the great migration of peoples, the clash of two completely opposite and seemingly incompatible worlds - the barbarian Germanic tribes and the civilization of Rome.

The first onslaught of the Germanic tribes was repulsed in the 1st century. BC e. on the Rhine River and the special role of Julius Caesar in this. It was along this river that the border separating the Roman lands from the Germanic tribes ran. The Germanic tribes that lived side by side with the Romans, of course, absorbed Roman culture and were much more "civilized" compared to those tribes that were removed from the border.

In the IV century. the Great Migration of Nations began - the mass movement of tribes. The Visigoths settled on the territory of the empire, modern Bulgaria, then moved to Gaul and created the first barbarian state on the territory of the Roman Empire. Then other tribes poured in, taking advantage of the fact that Rome was busy fighting with the Visigoths. Vandals were especially dangerous: wild and incredibly aggressive. In addition to the Germans, the Huns invaded the territory of the empire. After the victory over the Huns, the formation of barbarian kingdoms followed one after another, but this did not lead to stability. The new states waged constant wars among themselves, their borders were not permanent, and life, as a rule, was short-lived.

Why are the first centuries of Western European civilization called "Dark".

The barbarians destroyed the civilization of Rome, and with it the level of civilization that had been built up over many centuries. It is no coincidence that the first centuries after the death of the empire are called "dark". The population suffered from the conquerors, their unreasonable cruelty, hunger; cities were deserted, priceless works of art were destroyed, trade stopped, the number of neglected, uncultivated lands increased. This is how the appearance of Western Europe at the beginning of its existence loomed: vast expanses of forests and fields with rare, isolated islands of villages. Contemporaries described with horror the disasters that befell the once prosperous lands: "after the raids of the barbarians, infectious diseases struck, and hunger began to rage so cruel that people devour human flesh."

What changes have taken place in the socio-economic sphere.

In the era of the "childhood" of Europe, a major shift in economic life took place - this is the transition to feudalism. And this process develops with the most active participation of the barbarians - this path is called synthesis, i.e. (from Greek - connection, combination) - this is a combination of Roman and barbarian traditions. How did it happen? Next to the Roman estates, where peasants worked - tenants and slaves planted on the land, Germanic communities settled. Members of these communities had plots of land that could be sold, donated, etc. Only forests, pastures, and rivers remained in collective ownership. Thus, two classes of feudal society were born: the feudal lords - the owners of the land, and the peasants, who received land from the feudal lords. There is something like a mutual agreement between them: the feudal lord could not do without the peasants, and the peasants did not have their own land, in addition, they were in dire need of military protection in that turbulent era. But the feudalization of society took place at a different pace: in Gaul in the 8th century, in Italy in the 10th century, in Britain in the 11th century, in Germany in the 12th century.

From the first decades of the III century. an ever-increasing onslaught on the Roman Empire of the tribes of Europe, as well as Arabia and Africa, begins.

Like other slave-owning states, the Roman Empire was going through an acute crisis, which made it easy prey for invading tribes from outside. During this period, new, previously unknown tribes appear, moving from areas only indirectly affected by Roman influence. Tribal unions are formed, which served as the basis for the formation of peoples who created medieval states.

Geomancers

The Marcomannic wars of Marcus Aurelius served as the beginning of wars that did not stop for almost the entire 3rd century between the empire and the tribes of Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. These wars were determined not so much by the internal state of the empire, but by the changes that took place among these tribes. The path of development that they passed during the first two centuries of the existence of the empire has already been described above. Comparison of the Germans of the time of Tacitus with the Germans of the III century. shows how great was the difference between them. In the III century. German society already had a fairly strong and wealthy tribal nobility, who needed fine fabrics, elegant utensils, precious jewelry, good weapons, gold, and silver. The local handicraft had reached a level where it could meet these needs. Findings in the Schleswig marshes of things dating back to the middle of the 3rd century allow us to judge its condition. and well preserved due to the fact that they were covered with peat. These findings show how high level there were local weaving, leather, ceramic, glass, metallurgical industries based on Roman technology, which was mastered and developed by local artisans. Especially great importance had a level of metal processing, from which weapons and numerous jewelry were made. Trade with the tribes of the Baltic and Scandinavia made the Germans of Central Europe good shipbuilders and navigators. In the same swamps, oak boats for 14 pairs of rowers were found. The Germans used their ships not only for trade, but also for pirate raids, which gave them valuables and slaves to sell. The improvement of agriculture and cattle breeding made it possible to develop excellent breeds of horses and create cavalry, which became the main military force of the Germans.

Economic progress led to further disintegration of the primitive communal system. It has reached the point where special meaning they acquire military campaigns to seize booty and new lands, when large masses of people appear who have not found use for their forces in their homeland and are ready to seek their fortune in a foreign land. Everything more Germans entered the Roman service. Roman emperors and usurpers during the endless civil strife of the III century. willingly used the services of German soldiers and especially the German cavalry. They were attracted not only by its combat qualities, but also by the fact that the newcomer Germans did not have, like Roman soldiers, ties with the population of the empire. Part of the Germans who served Rome received land in the border areas of the empire in order to cultivate and protect them. For service in the army, their commanders were endowed with Roman citizenship, their land plots passed to their sons if they also became soldiers. The government sometimes supplied them with grain, livestock, implements, and even slaves to help them set up a farm.

Gradually, this system developed more and more, replacing the previous system of client "realms". The last to the III century. finally outlived itself. The experience of the Marcomannic wars showed that the peoples suffering from Roman exploitation were the first to oppose the empire. They have become too strong to continue to endure their addiction meekly. Now, on the contrary, emperors often had to pay large sums of money to neighboring tribes in order to buy peace, and when the payment of this “subsidy” for some reason was delayed, the tribal leaders came to the empire to demand payment with weapons in their hands.

In the III century. strong tribal unions are formed among the Germans, in which the tribes of the inner regions of Germany play the main role.

Tribes of Scandinavia

One of the earliest and strongest unions occurs among the Germanic tribes of Scandinavia. According to Tacitus, the inhabitants of southern Scandinavia were the Syons. Tacitus characterizes the Svions as skilled navigators, notes that they have wealth in honor and that “ royal power”, by which one must mean the power of the tribal leader, is stronger among them than among other Germanic tribes. This evidence is to a certain extent confirmed by archeological data, which show that in the first centuries of our era, as a result of trade with the empire and neighboring tribes, a rich tribal nobility stood out among the Svions. Especially rich burials were found in Jutland, where the trade routes of the Baltic and North seas. Precious imported jewelry, metal, earthenware, and later glassware were found in these burials.

Items imported from the empire and Roman coins are found in significant quantities in other parts of Scandinavia. The importance of trade with the empire is indicated by the coincidence of ancient Norse weight units with Roman ones. The local craft has also reached a high level. According to the Roman model, excellent weapons were made - wide double-edged swords, spears, shields, etc., as well as metal tools - hatchets, knives, scissors. From the beginning of the 3rd century the import of Roman products and coins falls, the local craft is freed from the influence of Roman provincial culture and develops more independently, although under the significant influence of the style that developed in the Northern Black Sea region and in the III-IV centuries. quickly spread throughout Europe. In Scandinavia, items decorated with colored enamel, semi-precious stones, and filigree prevail at this time. It has been suggested that in the 3rd c. some South German tribes invaded there, bringing with them this archaeological find of the 3rd-4th centuries. show that, despite the decline in trade with the empire, the wealth concentrated in the hands of the tribal nobility is increasing at this time. The number and weight of previously rare gold items is increasing. Of particular interest are two golden drinking horns, one 53 cm long, the other 84 cm long, decorated with figures of people and animals and provided with a runic inscription containing the name of the master. In general, runic writing, which previously had a purely magical character, is now becoming more widespread, which also testifies to the high level of development achieved by the tribes of Scandinavia. It is possible that Sviony in the III-IV centuries. took part in campaigns against the empire and that the booty they captured contributed to the accumulation of wealth in the hands of tribal leaders and leaders of squads.

German tribal unions of Central Europe

In Central Europe, the tribes of North-East Germany, which are militarily stronger, are especially active. The decomposition of their primitive communal system was facilitated by the significantly developed trade that these tribes conducted with the empire, with Scandinavia and the nearest regions of Eastern Europe. In the eastern part of Germany, along the shores of the Baltic Sea, tribal alliances of the Vandals are being strengthened or re-formed, which during the wars of Marcus Aurelius began to move south and were partially settled by this emperor in Dacia, as well as the Burgundians, who at the beginning of the 3rd century. moved into the area of the Main River. Further to the west, between the Oder and the Elbe, a strong alliance of the Alamans arose, closer to the mouth of the Elbe lived the Lombards, and in the south of Jutland - the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, brave sailors and pirates who attacked Britain and the western coast of Gaul. The tribes of the Batavians, Hattians, and others who lived along the Rhine formed a tribal union of the Franks. All these tribal unions in the III century. launch an offensive against the empire.

Tribes of the Danubian regions and Eastern Europe. Goths in the Black Sea region

In the III century. The Germans were not the only enemy of Rome in Europe. The tribes of the Danubian regions of the Carpathian region, the Northern Black Sea region, the Dnieper region and the Volga region are undergoing the same changes in the economy and social system as the Germans. Trade relations of these tribes with the Roman provinces and cities of the Northern Black Sea region contributed to the development of local crafts and Agriculture, the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the tribal nobility, the growth of property inequality, as well as the improvement of military affairs. And here new, stronger tribal unions are formed - free Dacians, Carps, whom Roman writers sometimes call Getae, Alans, and, finally, a powerful union of a number of tribes of the Black Sea region, to which ancient writers gave the common name of the Goths.

In the IV-V centuries. the Goths played a big role in the history of the fall of the empire. Later Roman historians believed that the Goths also played a leading role in the tribal union that fell upon Rome in the middle of the 3rd century. The historians Cassiodorus and Jordanes, who lived at the courts of the later Gothic kings, wishing to flatter them, glorified the power of the Goths, which supposedly existed for a long time. However, in the III century. Goths were just one of constituent parts tribal Sotosis, which, in addition to them, united the Getic, Dacian, Sarmatian and Slavic tribes. Ancient historians of the III century. in imitation of the Greek writers of the classical period, they were often given the common name Scythians. In the middle of the III century. the Goths began their devastating raids on the empire. At first, Dacia and Moesia Inferior were the main object of their offensive, but gradually the scope of their activities expanded. In 251, the Goths took the Thracian city of Philippo-pol, plundered it and took many of the inhabitants into captivity. They lured the army of Emperor Decius, who had come out to meet them, into impenetrable swamps and inflicted a terrible defeat on it: almost all the soldiers and the emperor himself died in battle. The new emperor Gallus could not prevent the Goths from leaving with all the booty and prisoners, and undertook to pay them a "subsidy". However, after 3 years they again invaded Thrace and reached Thessaloniki. From 258, the most devastating sea expeditions of the Goths begin, which lasted 10 years. During this time, numerous cities of Greece and Asia Minor were devastated and destroyed, including Ephesus, Nicaea, Nicomedia. According to ancient authors, the largest expedition of the Goths (267) involved 500 ships and several hundred thousand people. In 269, Emperor Claudius II defeated the army of the Goths at the city of Naissus; at the same time, their fleet operating off the coast of Greece was destroyed. Since then, the onslaught of the Goths on the empire has gradually weakened. They settled in the Black Sea steppes and divided into Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths) and Visigoths (Western Goths), the border between which was the Dniester.

Slavs

Above, we have already given data that testify to the development of productive forces among the Eastern and Western Slavs in the 3rd-4th centuries. n. e. At the same time, their economic ties with the Roman Empire and its Danubian provinces were sharply reduced. The number of Roman things imported into the Slavic regions is decreasing, and the finds of Roman coins are becoming isolated. On the other hand, ties with the Northern Black Sea region are being strengthened, the main centers of which (Olbia, Tyra, etc.) were now in the hands of the "barbarians". Ties are also growing between individual Slavic tribes and their neighbors, primarily with numerous Sarmatian tribes.

Like other peoples of Central and Eastern Europe, the Slavs are involved in the struggle against the slave-owning world of the Roman Empire. Slavic tribes participated in the Marcomannic wars of the second half of the 2nd century BC. n. e. They also took part in the so-called Scythian (or Gothic) campaigns of the III-IV centuries. At the same time, they entered into a struggle with the Goths and Huns. The historian of the Goths Jordanes (mid-VI century) tells about this struggle. The Wends, according to him, tried to resist the warlike leader of the Goths "Rix" Germanaric, who was considered invincible and defeated only by the Huns. Later, at the very end of the 4th or at the beginning of the 5th century, when one of the successors of Germanaric, Vinitar, tried to subdue the Antes, the latter defeated him. In response to this, Vinitar, during the second invasion of the lands of the Antes, crucified the leader of the Antes, God, his sons, and 70 Antian elders.

Although the major campaigns of the Slavs against the empire begin only at the very end of the 5th and in the 6th centuries, there is reason to believe that the Slavs had previously taken part in the struggle that put an end to the power of slave-owning Rome over the peoples it oppressed.

At the end of the 4th or the beginning of the 5th c. the southern ancient Slavic tribes were attacked by the Huns. This is evidenced by the numerous settlements of the Slavs left, apparently in a terrible hurry, including the aforementioned pottery village near Igolomnia on the Upper Vistula, as well as buried treasures found in in large numbers in the Wislenie and Volhynia. This invasion of the Huns forced part of the Slavic population to leave their homes and seek salvation in the dense forests and swamps of Polesie. It marked the beginning of those movements that will unfold with particular force in the subsequent time.

The struggle of the tribes of Central and Eastern Europe with the Roman Empire

The struggle of the tribes of Central and Eastern Europe with the Roman Empire at the beginning was not yet a struggle for new places for settlement. It assumes such a character only from the second half of the 3rd century. Apparently, the campaign of 267, on which the Goths set off with their families and property, was not aimed at capturing booty, as before, but at acquiring land. In the IV century. "barbarians" are already settling in the areas they have captured.

In the III century, despite the victories of the "barbarians", the advantage in military equipment and the organization was still on the side of the empire; in systematic battles, her troops for the most part won a victory. "Barbarians" did not know how to take cities that were sufficiently fortified, since their siege technique was still in its infancy. Therefore, during hostilities, the surrounding population usually fled to the protection of the city walls, which could often withstand a long siege. However - and this is important to emphasize - the advancing party is now no longer slave-owning Rome and its outposts such as the Greek cities of the Northern Black Sea region, but those tribes that in previous centuries were objects of robbery and exploitation by the slave-owning states. Now they are inflicting crushing blows on the empire and its allies, exacerbating and exacerbating the crisis of the slave system.

The alignment of class forces is also changing. During the period of aggression, the Romans relied on the nobility of those tribes that they enslaved. Now the nobility of the free tribes, who have grown stronger, are no longer looking for support from the slave-owning empire tending to decline. On the contrary, the opponents of Rome, invading its territory, meet with the sympathy and direct help of the broad masses of the people, slaves, columns, who are ready to see their liberators in the "barbarians". There are cases when slaves or columns served as guides to troops invading the territory of the empire, when they created their own detachments that joined these troops, when they, together with the "barbarians", dealt with large slave owners and landowners. The further, the more strengthened this alliance, which ultimately led to the fall of the slave system. The aggravation of the class struggle, which made the exploited population of the empire an ally of its enemies, was one of the most important reasons for the success of the tribes advancing on the empire. These successes were also facilitated by the fact that the rapidly changing emperors and their rivals themselves repeatedly sought the help of the “barbarians”, opening their borders and surrendering cities. The main bases for the attack on the empire in the III century. there was an area between the Danube, the Rhine and the Elbe, as well as the Northern Black Sea region.

THE GREAT MIGRATION OF PEOPLES, adopted in historical science designation of mass migrations in Europe at the end of the 4th-7th centuries, which were one of the main reasons for the fall of the Western Roman Empire (see Ancient Rome) and the basis for the formation of the modern ethno-cultural map of Europe. The term "Great Migration of Nations" (French les Grandes invasions, German Völkerwanderung) entered scientific circulation in the 1st half of the 19th century, primarily thanks to French and German researchers who were searching for the historical roots of their nations. Since then, the study of the Great Migration of Nations has been studied by various scientific schools historians, archaeologists, linguists, ethnologists and scientists of other specialties. But many problems associated with the study of the phenomenon of the Great Migration of Nations remain debatable.

Among the reasons for the Great Migration of Peoples, socio-economic and socio-psychological changes in the Eurasian barbarian world are usually attributed, which was no longer able to meet the needs of the growing population and the emerging elite, affected by the influence of civilization and striving for rapid enrichment through robbery. Also important are the processes that took place within the Roman Empire and made it more and more vulnerable to the barbarians. Specific explanations for the causes of the Great Migration are also offered, such as the impact on the socio-ethnic sphere climate change, cycles of solar activity or outbursts of passionarity.

One of the most controversial is the problem of the space-time continuum of the Great Migration of Nations. The main tradition was laid down in the works of Western European historians of the 19th century, who studied the circumstances of the collapse of Rome, the origins of modern European peoples and states. Many of them considered the year 375 to be the starting point of the Great Migration; Around this time, the Huns defeated the Ostrogoths (Ostrogoths), causing the migration of the Visigoths (Visigoths) and other barbarians who flooded the provinces of the Roman Empire. They attributed the completion of the Great Migration of Nations to the middle of the 6th century, when the formation of the Frankish state was completed. Later, some historians began to include the migration of Slavs and Turks in the Great Migration of Peoples, which ended by the end of the 7th century with the formation of the Khazar Khaganate and the First Bulgarian Kingdom. In modern historiography, there is a tendency to expand chronological boundaries both in the depths of centuries and in later times. Some researchers attribute the beginning of the Great Migration to the 2nd half of the 2nd century (see Marcomannic wars, Velbar culture, Alemanni, Goths). Some historiographic schools consider the end of the Great Migration of Nations to be the resettlement of the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin at the end of the 10th century and the last period of the Viking era. Attempts have also been made to consider the Great Migration of Peoples in a global context, including, in addition to Europe, Central Asia, the Asia-Pacific region, North Africa and the Middle East and covering a huge time period from the 3rd millennium BC to the 1st millennium AD .

According to the composition of the most important participants and the nature of their actions, the direction of migrations (see maps) and their results in the Great Migration of Peoples, several periods can be distinguished: “prologue” (2nd half of the 2nd - middle of the 3rd century), “Hunno-East Germanic” (late 4th - the middle of the 5th century), "Ostgothic-West Germanic" (2nd half of the 5th - 1st third of the 6th century) and "Slavic Turkic" (6th-7th centuries). In turn, within these periods, there are stages associated with key events in European history of the 1st millennium AD.

The "prologue" of the Great Migration of Peoples, which is not included by all historians in the Great Migration itself, was the Marcomannic wars, when the Germans (Marcomanni, Quadi, Lombards, etc.), representatives of the Sarmatian and other tribes invaded the territory of Pannonia, Rezia, Noric and other Roman provinces. The barbarians were rebuffed, but they received the right to settle on the land of the Roman Empire along its borders. These wars provoked migratory waves of tribal unions of the Alemanni and Franks, who lived between the Rhine and the Elbe. In the middle of the 3rd century, tribal unions of Borans, Costoboks, Goths, Gepids allied with them and other tribes moved to the Balkan and Asia Minor provinces. Rome had to cede to the barbarians a small part of its lands (Dacia and some others), but on the whole it succeeded with the help of military force and skillful diplomacy to stop the threat.

The existing system of the Roman Empire - the barbarian world - for decades was in a situation of mobile balance, from which it was brought out by a powerful external factor. Around 375, the Huns appeared in the Northern Black Sea region from the east. They defeated the Goths led by Ermanaric, which prompted some other Gothic and related groups to move to the territory of the Roman Empire, which granted the newcomers the rights of federates (see also Untersiebenbrunn). Soon a conflict broke out between the Romans and the Visigoths, which ended with the defeat of the army of Rome and the death of Emperor Valens in the battle of Adrianople on 9.8.378.

At the end of the 4th - beginning of the 5th century, the tribes of Sarmatians, Saxons, Burgundians, Vandals, Sueves, Gepids, etc. came into motion. In 404-406, their hordes, led by Radagaisus, invaded Italy, but were defeated by Stilicho. In 406, the Vandals, Alans and Suebi, breaking the resistance of the Frankish federates, broke into Gaul, but by 409 they were driven out to Spain, where they captured most of the country. a huge moral shock to ancient world were the capture (24.8.410) and sack of Rome by the Visigoths of Alaric I. After a series of agreements and clashes in 416, the Visigoths again became federates and received for settlement southwestern part modern France.

In the 420-450s, the barbarians of Eastern and Central Europe consolidated under the rule of the Huns. The formation of their power from the Volga to the Danube was completed under Bled and Attila. However, the onslaught of the Huns and their allies to the west was stopped by Aetius in the "battle of the peoples" on the Catalaunian fields in 451. After the campaign in Italy (452) and the death of Attila (453), the Huns and their allies were defeated by the tribal groups that rebelled against them in the “battle of the tribes” on the Nedao River; their empire collapsed. After the battle on the Nedao River and a number of other clashes, the Gepids, who led the uprising against the Huns, founded a kingdom in Potissia (see Apahida), the Ostrogoths began to control Pannonia, the Rugs - Coastal Noric, the Heruli - lands in modern South Moravia and Western Slovakia. Groups with a significant East Germanic component in the 2nd half of the 5th century are known in the Eastern Carpathian region, Upper Potissia, Central Poland, and the lower reaches of the Vistula (vidivaria).

During the 1st half of the 5th century, new migration waves reached the Atlantic. In Britain, abandoned by the Roman troops (end of the 4th - beginning of the 5th century), which was attacked by the Picts and Scots, around the 420s, detachments of the Saxons appeared (see Anglo-Saxons). From the middle of the 5th century, new waves of Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians began to arrive here. Seeking salvation from this invasion, part of the Britons moved to Brittany (in 441 and others).

In 422, having defeated the Romans, the Vandals and Alans seized the coastal cities and fleet in Spain, which allowed them in 429 under the leadership of Gaiseric (428-477) to cross into North-West Africa. Under the treaty of 442, the kingdom of the Vandals and Alans becomes the first legally recognized independent state on the territory of the Roman Empire.

In the 2nd half of the 5th century, the weakening of Rome and the expansion of the Germanic tribes reach their climax. In 455, the Vandals terminated the treaty with the Western Roman Empire and sacked Rome again. The Western Roman Empire (actually Italy), relying on squads of barbarians, was actually ruled in 456-472 by Ricimer (half Sev and Visigoth), from 474 by Orestes (former secretary of Attila), from 476 by skir Odoacer, who deposed the last Western Roman emperor Romulus Augustulus.

In 489, the Ostrogoths and other factions, led by Theodoric the Great, invaded Italy and by 493 captured it. Founded by Theodoric the Great, the Ostrogothic kingdom for several decades turned into the most powerful force in Western and Central Europe. Thus, at the end of the 5th - the middle of the 6th century, the transition from the stage of resettlement of the Germanic tribes to the stage of their establishment in new lands and the formation of "barbarian kingdoms" was completed. As a result, on the territory of the former Western Roman Empire, the state of the Burgundians in South-East Gaul (see Burgundy, Arelat), the Toledo kingdom of the Visigoths - in Spain (see the Visigothic kingdom), the Ostrogoths, and then the Lombards - in Italy (see the Lombard kingdom), Franks in Gaul. "Barbarian kingdoms" also formed in Britain after its conquest in the middle of the 5th century by the Anglo-Saxons (see Anglo-Saxon conquest). A new ethnopolitical map of Western Europe is taking shape.

However, the idea of restoring the Roman Empire, which the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire Justinian I tried to implement, also remained. By 555, Constantinople had achieved complete control of Italy and Dalmatia. The year before, the Byzantines had landed in Spain, beginning the capture of its southeastern part, where they held out until 626.

In the 6th century, a new wave of migration of the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe gained momentum. By the end of the 5th century, the Lombards mastered the upper reaches of the Elbe, in 526/527 they occupied the lands from Vienna to Aquinas, from 546 - the territory of modern southwestern Hungary. In 558, the Avars appeared in the steppes of South-Eastern Europe. In 568, having defeated the Gepids in alliance with the Lombards and after the latter left for Italy (a new kingdom of the Lombards with a center in Pavia formed in its northern and central parts), they became masters of the entire Middle Danube region, establishing the Avar Khaganate here. In the steppes of Eastern Europe, after the Avars, the Turks appear, who until 630 included the lands east of the Don in the Turkic Khaganate.

The process of the Great Migration of Peoples was completed by the migration of Slavic and Turkic tribes, including to part of the territory of the Eastern Roman Empire. Already in the 5th century, the Slavs proper (Sklavins in Latin and Greek sources) mastered the territory from the Dnieper to the Oder and from Polissya to the Eastern Carpathian region (see Prague culture). Groups close to them (see Zaozerye) from Upper Dnieper settled to the territory of modern southeastern Estonia, the Pskov region and the Upper Volga (long mounds of culture). Other groups of Slavs occupied the basin of the Desna and the Seim (Kolochinskaya culture), and also spread through the Ukrainian forest-steppe to modern central Moldavia (Antes). Until the middle of the 6th century, the Slavs advanced beyond the Oder (then gradually mastering the lands to the Elbe) and in Pomorie (see Sukov - Dziedzitsy), to the northeast of the Carpathian basin (probably by agreement with the Lombards), the Lower Danube (see Ipotesti - Kyndeshti - Churel ). Since the 520s, raids of the Sklavians and Antes on the Balkans have been known. Especially massive were the campaigns of the Sklavinian groups in 540-542, 548-551, in the late 570s - 580s. Together with them or separately, raids on the Balkans were also carried out by Eastern European nomads, among whom Western Turkic groups dominated from the 5th century (see Proto-Bulgarians). Not later than the 580s, groups of Slavs already lived in Thessaly, by the 1st third of the 7th century - in the Western Balkans, in the Southern and Eastern Alps (see Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, etc.). The counter-offensive of the Byzantines against the Slavs and Avars, which began after the conclusion of peace with the Persians (591), ended with the uprising of Phocas (602) and the fall of the border of the Eastern Roman Empire on the Danube.

In the 7th century, the Slavs settled throughout the Balkan Peninsula up to the Peloponnese, forming tribal principalities - "Sclavinia", some groups moved to Asia Minor, raided as far as Crete and Southern Italy. Although the huge forces of Byzantium were taken away by the opposition to the Arab conquests, already from the 2nd half of the 7th century, the restoration of the power of Constantinople in the south of the Balkans began.

From the middle of the 7th century, new early political formations appeared in the steppes of Eastern Europe (see Great Bulgaria, Pereshchepinsky treasure, Voznesenka). The result of the expansion of the Khazars in the 660-680s was the departure of part of the Bulgars to the Balkans, where the First Bulgarian Kingdom was formed and the Khazar Khaganate was formed in the south of Eastern Europe.

With the completion of the Great Migration of Peoples, migration processes in Europe, Asia, North Africa, the Near and Middle East did not stop, but their role in world history was already different.

The Great Migration of Nations had enormous historical consequences. The civilization associated with the Roman Empire experienced tremendous upheaval and destruction. From now on, the main carrier of ancient traditions was the Eastern Roman Empire, in which they underwent a profound transformation (see Byzantium). In place of the Western Roman Empire, absorbing elements of its culture, new political formations arose - "barbarian kingdoms", which were destined to become the prototype of the European states of the Middle Ages and Modern times. The ethnolinguistic map of Europe began to be largely determined by the Germanic and Slavic peoples. The habitats and the ratio of the Turkic, Finno-Ugric, Iranian, Celtic and other peoples of Eurasia have changed significantly. European civilization parted with the era of antiquity in order to enter the era of the Middle Ages.

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