When and why did the Great Migration of Nations begin and what are its results?

When and why the Great Migration of Nations began, historians have not been established to the exact day. It is assumed that between the second and the seventh century AD numerous tribes of the Huns, Alans, Germans, and others withdrew from their places of residence and headed to the southwest, where they settled in the upper Volga and Don, Britain, Spain and Gaul, while crushing Western Roman Empire and "finishing off" the remnants of the ancient world. The tribes that arose when the Roman latinized peoples and the barbarians were confounded became the basis for modern Roman nationalities, while many nationalities and cultural values disappeared from the face of the Earth.

The reason for the migration of peoples was climate change?

When and why did the Great Migration of Nations begin? And what are its results? One can say with confidence that the result of this hitherto unprecedented process was the formation of a political and ethnic map of modern Europe, which subsequently did not undergo such significant changes. The reason for the mass migration of the population was, most likely, climate change, known as climatic pessimum in the era of the early Middle Ages. It is believed that this process began in various regions in 250-450 AD and completely ended somewhere by 750.

During the pessimum, the average annual temperature was approximately one and a half degrees below the norm, which in some regions led to disastrous consequences, as the climate became more humid and the winters colder.

Causes of population decline

To understand when and why the Great Migration of Nations began, and what its results are, it is necessary to study the changes in the conditions of existence of the peoples of Northern Europe during the period under consideration. Scientists found that in those years in the Alps, the size of the glaciers increased substantially. As a result, the forest boundary shifted 200 meters down. Because of the cold, there were crop failures, it became impossible to grow cereals and produce wines in the mountainous areas, a number of lands, including fertile ones, were lost on the shores of the North Sea and in the regions of South England due to increased storms.

Alternative Version

Consider when and when the Great Migration of Nations began, and what are its results (briefly), since the regularity of the alternation of climatic pessimums and optima is revealed (in the course of the latter there is an increase in temperatures), and another cooling may occur in the future.

Some scientists believe that the people began to migrate to the south somewhat earlier, even during the Roman climatic optimum, when the temperature was 1-2 degrees above normal and there was a sufficient amount of precipitation that together contributed to the prosperity of agriculture and cattle breeding, which in turn , Led to an increase in the population. The increased numbers of Gepids, Vandals and Goths led to the fact that some of them went to the south and settled in the Black Sea and the Carpathians even before the Great Migration of Nations.

It all started from the island of Gotland

Some historians, considering the question of when and why the Great Migration of the Peoples of Germany began, note that perhaps the process started from the exodus of the Germanic tribes is ready from the island of Gotland and the south of modern Sweden at the beginning of the first century of our era.

Under the leadership of King Berig, the tribes are ready to arrive in the territory of modern Poland, from where they drove out vandals and rugs forced to retreat further to the south. Thus, to the borders of the Roman Empire in the second century for the first time came the German nationalities, which began to put pressure on the largest geopolitical education of that era.

Stimulus from Asia

Talking about when and why the Great Migration of Nations began, it should be noted that the most active phase of it, most likely, was influenced by a certain event. This attack of the Hun tribes against Europe in 354 AD, when the invaders subdued the Alanian tribes in the Northern Caucasus and seized the state of the Ostrogoths under the control of Hermanarik, displacing these tribes to the west (375).

About the Huns of information is very small. Some historians believe that the Huns are a nationality of the "Hsiungnu" ("Hunnu"), who lived in the bend of the Yellow River and created the first nomadic empire in the world. In the battles with neighboring tribes, the Hunsun suffered defeat and were forced to withdraw to the west, where they collided with the Germanic tribes. However, most scholars do not consider the Hun of the Chinese, but believe that they belonged to the prototyurks or Turks, who at all times were considered belligerent and bloodthirsty enough.

Catastrophe 536-537 years. AD

Considering when and why the Great Migration of Nations began, it should be borne in mind that in the middle of the 6th century a short-term weather anomaly of a worldwide scale occurred. It was characterized by a decrease in the transparency of the atmosphere to such an extent that contemporaries of this event wrote that the sun began to shine like the moon. It is assumed that such a natural phenomenon was the result of large eruptions of tropical volcanoes (Tavurvura or Krakatau) or the impact of a planet colliding with a large asteroid. This happened during the reign of Justinian in 536-537. AD and was accompanied by raids of Antes, Huns and Slavs on Thrace and Illyria, mass death of the population in Northern China (up to 80%), the migration of Slavs to the banks of the Elbe, the foothills of the Alps, the lower reaches of the Danube and the upper reaches of the Rhine.

When and why did the Great Migration of Nations begin? And is the plague guilty?

The population withdrew from hunger and poor harvests to the south, while fighting with the aborigines of the occupied lands. In addition, during the period under consideration a mutation of the causative agent of the plague (or its invasion with an alien body), which led to a pandemic disease.

It can be argued that the cause of the transformation of the political and ethnic map of Europe at that time was climate change, and a significant event that accelerated this process was the attack of the Hunnic tribes on European nations.

When and why did the Great Migration of Nations begin? And what are the results? These issues should be considered in chronological order. After the attack of the Huns around AD 400, the ancient German tribes of the Franks began to populate the territories of the present-day Netherlands belonging to Rome, displacing Frisians and Batavians from there. In 401, Alaric, the king of the West, unsuccessfully besieged Constantinople in 395 and left after that to the Greek lands, where he made a monstrous rout and plunder, crossed with his troops and tribes of the Alps and entered Italy, which was considered to be an unreported rich country, so As it has not been visited by the barbarians. In the spring of 402, Alaric threatened to seize Tuscany and Rome itself, but in the battle of modern Pollenz it was defeated and left the Italian lands. Here he will return later.

A few years later (406), clashes broke out between the Alans, Vandals and Alemannic tribes with the Franks over the lands on the banks of the Rhine, as a result of which the left bank of the northern coast left the Franks and the southern part to the Alemannians. Vandals and Sueves (Germanic tribes of Eastern Europe) in 409 reached Spain, where they settled in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula.

The fall of Rome under the onslaught of the Visigoths

When and why the Great Migration of Nations began and what were its results, it is worthwhile to know everyone, since the scale of this process is impressive.

In 410, the Visigothic king Alaric returned to Italy and captured Rome. This event was preceded by the defeat of Alaric at Verona, when most of his troops deserted, was accepted by the military leader of the Stilihon and settled under Savva. Alaric himself concluded a federal treaty with Stilich and subsequently conducted joint actions for the conquest of Constantinople in favor of the empire of the regions of eastern Illyricum. However, the Western and Eastern empires at some point went to negotiations, and Alaric's troops were not needed by anyone.

The ferocious wars went to mine the trophies themselves. They forced the Roman rulers to consider the issue of ransom of two tons of gold for the nondeclaration of certain areas of Italy, which they were denied, which led to the triple siege of Rome, the transfer to the side of Alaric of the multitude of slaves and the fall of Rome in August 410.

Germanic tribes and slaves plundered the city and burned many houses, without touching the church institutions, since Alaric had already adopted the Christianity of the Arian order. Further, his troops went to the south of Italy with plans to capture Sicily and ferry to the shores of Africa, where Alaric was going to find the grain necessary to feed his people. However, these plans were not destined to come true, as the storm in the Strait of Messina sank most of the ships. Alaric turned back north to Gaul, but died on the road near the town of Cosenza, and the remnants of his army and people mingled with the local tribes.

Releasing each other's nationalities

When and why did the Great Migration of Nations begin? Briefly, this process, initiated by climate change, can be described as follows: in 415 AD, the Visigoths began to oust from Spain the tribes of Vandals, Alans who had come there earlier. In 449, the Anglo-Saxon tribes and the Yuth people moved from the Jutland peninsula in Germany to Britain, where they supplanted the Christian Celts, forming several small states. A year later, the migration of nationalities through the territory of modern Romania intensified - gepids and Huns crossed it in 450, Avars in 456, Bulgars and Slavs in 680 AD.

In the 451-452 gg. Roman civilization conducts successful military operations against the head of the Huns of Attila, while the Ostrogoths inhabit modern Hungary in 453 when they were expelled by vandals from Malta in 454. The Vandals settled in Sardinia (since 458). In 476, the German general overthrew the last Roman emperor. The Roman Empire (Western) ceases to exist.

Later (around 486), francs settle on the territory of modern France, the Bavarians come from the Czech Republic to present-day Bavaria, the Slavs to the Danube lands of the former Roman Empire, and the Breton, expelled by Anglo-Saxon peoples from Britain, establish the present Brittany.

End the process

When and why did the Great Migration of Nations begin, and what are its results? 6th grade of school is the time of a brief study of this process.

It is known that in the sixth century AD the tribes of the Slavs occupied the lands in the north of modern Germany (Mecklenburg), the Ostrogoths captured almost all of Italy by 550, and by 585 - all of Spain, while by the year 570, Lower Austria And the present-day Hungary was occupied by Avar-nomads from Asia.

This process ends in the seventh century by the migration of the Slavs to the east of the Elbe, and the Croats and Serbs to modern Dalmatia and Bosnia, as well as to certain regions of Byzantium. The exact number of people who moved and died during the relocation of people is unknown, but it is believed by scientists to amount to tens of millions of people.