Germanic Migrations

The expression Germanic migrations indicates the whole of the movements that Germanic Peuples achieved starting from thousand-year-old Ier before the Christian era and until worms the 7th century.

These migrations, which proceeded to a large extent in withdrawal of historical civilizations Greek, Roman and top Moyen-âge, had many effect on the ancient world. They touched, according to the period, the whole of the areas located at the east of the Black Sea, at the south of the Scotland and the north of the the Maghreb.

The fact of thus indicating, by the same expression, movements of various people, without relation between them other that on the plan ethnolinguistic and being held on nearly one millenium is not neutral. It supposes, on the historical level, that these movements are explained by common causes and had common effects.

Hypothetical causes

The common causes remain largely hypothetical, taking into account the weakness of testimonys we have. Among them appear:

the idea of a pressure of Eastern people which would have pushed the German ones to migrate towards the west: this is attested with regard to the arrival of the Huns in the north of the Black Sea. It put an end to the Gothic kingdom located in this area and involved the historical migration of the Goths towards the Roman Empire.
the idea of a climatic upheaval which would have involved the cultivable ground disappearance in Europe of the North-East and on banks of the Baltic: this assumption is retained to explain the migration of Cimbres and of Teutons at second century BC This migration is in addition oldest that the history - i.e. the écrites sources; - recorded.
the idea of an important demographic pressure: this one can be correlated with the assumption of a climatic cooling to explain why whole populations are reflected on the way towards the south.
the idea of migrations in religious matter: once again, this assumption can be comparison with the preceding ones.

In fact, the anthropological data collected on the old German ones of the coasts of the Baltic , in particular in the Danish peat bogs, seem well to confirm the existence of recurring famines in these areas little before the migration of Cimbres and Teutons, since the Jutland.

Cruel migrations in historiography

See also: Large invasions#Une question of terms

It should be noted that there exists at least a precedent protohistoric with the Germanic migrations: it is about the expansion of the Celtes, with the IVe - third century BC Nevertheless, by their width and the consequences that one lent to them, the Germanic migrations remain unequalled with the eyes of the Historians.

This phenomenon is in particular due to the Historiography of the “great invasions”, which a long time turned into to “barbarians” almost the only persons in charge of the fall of the Roman Empire of Occident in 476. On the contrary, whatever were the precise causes of the “Germanic migrations”, the use of this last expression tends today to re-register their movements in a historical phenomenon of long life that only military violences of the fine of Antiquity and Early middle ages cannot explain.

Principal phases

The principal episodes of the Germanic migrations are the following (it is possible to also attach these movements to the broader cuttings of the Great invasions):

Migration of the Cimbres and the Teutons (-110 with -101)

Left Northern Europe (Jutland, current Denmark, Scandinavia and banks of the Baltic ), not very fertile areas, approximately a hundred and thousand Germains would have started a long migration towards the south, pushing back the Celtes towards the west. This episode is known under the name of Guerre of Cimbres.

Large and terrifying with the eyes of the Romans, these old German acquired the reputation of terrible warriors. Tacit, by opposing their character to that of Latin which it reproached the loss of the republican virtues, contributed to make them them “Cruel” of the modern popular imagery.

Cimbres and Teutons - who undoubtedly sought only new grounds on which they could installer - crossed the Gaulle and the Italy of north, before being stopped with Verceuil by Marius in 101 before J. - C..

Migration of Goths (150 - 420)

Left banks of the Baltic , the Goths settled in the north of the Black Sea at the 3rd century (see Royaumes goths), before the Huns do not drive out them. There, in contact with the people of the steppe, they developed a heavy cavalry which was going to make devastations against the Roman Empire of the East, the supremacy of their riders becoming obvious at the time of the Bataille of Turkey-red cotton.

They were divided then into two:

Goths of the west or Visigoths arrived at the doors of the Roman Empire of Occident. Carried out by Alaric Ier, they left the Thrace and penetrated in Italy between 408 and 412, took finally the road of the Languedoc and were established in the south-west of Gaulle and the Iberian peninsula. Although reduced by the franques conquests, them kingdom lasted until other invaders, theBerber ones, do not conquer in their turn the Hispanie.
Goths of the east or Ostrogoths, after long peregrinations at the time they were confronted with the Roman Empire of the East, founded a flourishing kingdom arien in Italy of North, with Ravenne, under Théodoric Large the.

The great invasion of 406 - 407

This episode, described by saint Jerome in terms borrowed from the Apocalypse, constitutes one of the most spectacular episodes of what the historians a long time called “great invasions”: the December 31st 406, undoubtedly pushed by the Huns, Vandals, Alains, Suèves and Burgondes cross the the cold Rhine and break on the Gaulle. The Roman forces were then mobilized, partly to bar the road of the Italy to other barbarians, partly to fight the usurper Constantin from Brittany. Certain German of the Rhenish border, like the Frank , fought at the sides of the Romans against the newcomers. These frontier, Frank and Burgondes, will not be long in occupying the political vacuum left by the Romans.

The invasion of the island of Brittany by the Angles, the Jutes and the Saxon ones (towards 450)

Other German Westerners, remained in Northern Europe, for a long time practiced maritime incursions on the de Gaulle coasts and of Brittany. To the 5th century, they pass the sea in important groups and take possession of the major part of the island of Brittany: they are the Angles, the Jutes and the Saxons which found many kingdoms. The Breton , Celts romanized and christianized, are pushed back in the west of the island and Brittany Armoricaine.

With the difference of the German Eastern ones, already christianized, the Anglo-Saxons were pagan and did not make any effort to be assimilated to the Roman culture.

The invasion of Italy by Lombards

The Lombards, the last come to Western Europe, were the German Eastern ones. Under the pressure of another people of the steppes, the Avars, they pass the Alps and they base a kingdom arien on the major part of the Italian peninsula at the 7th century: the Kingdom lombard.

The heritage

See also: Great invasions, Sédentarisation, cruel Kingdoms

the last term is abusive but a point of view terminological does not find better.

Through their migrations, the German ones contributed at the end of the ancient world and the creation of the kingdoms of the Early middle ages. Lastly, under their influence, the vernacular languages spoken in the areas which belonged to the Roman Empire changed, evolving to the spoken languages in modern Western Europe.

The contribution of German at the origins of modern political Europe is thus important. Nevertheless, these Germanic migrants or these invaders only seldom - if it is never - called directly in question the ancient heritage. On the contrary, where they did not fill a political and demographic vacuum, the German ones of the end of Antiquity generally contributed to the survival of the ancient culture, as it was the case at the time of the Royaume Visigoth of Ve in VIIe century.

The fusion of the Germanic elements with the Roman, Hispanic or Gallic elements perhaps accelerated the disappearance of Latin civilization, but this disappearance is more due to the weakening of the central authority, the christianization of the new executives of the capacity and to the economic fold that with known as the “cruel” invasions .

See too

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