The Formation of the Barbarian Kingdoms
The decline of the Western Roman Empire was accelerated by the invasion of barbarian peoples. Barbarians was the name given by the Romans to those who lived outside the borders of the Empire and did not speak Latin. Among the barbarian groups we highlight:
Germans: of Indo-European origin, inhabited Western Europe. The main Germanic nations were:the Watched, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Britons, Saxons, Franks etc.
Slavs: from Eastern Europe and Asia, included Russians, Czechs, Poles, Serbs, among others.
Tatar-Mongols: were of Asian origin. This group included the tribes of the Huns, Turks, Bulgarians, etc.
The Germans
Among the barbarian peoples, the Germans were the most significant for the formation of Feudal Europe.
The political organization of the Germans was quite simple. In times of peace they were ruled by an assembly of warriors, formed by the men of the tribe in adulthood. This assembly had no legislative powers and its functions were restricted to the interpretation of customs. It also decided on matters of war and peace or whether the tribe should migrate to another location.
In times of war, the tribe was governed by an institution called comitatus. It was the gathering of warriors around a military leader, to whom all owed total obedience. This leader was elected and took the title of Herzog.
The Germans lived on rudimentary agriculture, hunting and fishing. Not having knowledge of agricultural techniques, they were semi-nomadic, as they did not know how to reuse the soil depleted by plantations. Land ownership was collective and almost all work was performed by women. Men, when not hunting or fighting, spent most of their time drinking or sleeping.
Society was patriarchal, marriage monogamous and adultery severely punished. In some tribes it was even forbidden for widows to marry. The law was customary, that is, it was based on custom.
The religion was polytheistic and they worshiped the forces of nature. The main gods were:Odin, the protector of warriors; Tor, the god of thunder; and Freya, the goddess of love. They believed that only warriors killed in combat would go to Valhalla, a kind of paradise. The Valkyries, messengers of Odin, visited the battlefields, carrying the dead. People who died of old age or sick would go to the realm of Hell, where there was only darkness and very cold.
The Barbarian Realms
Due to the expansion of the Empire, from the 1st century onwards, the Romans maintained peaceful contact with barbarian peoples, mainly the Germans. Many of these peoples migrated to the Roman Empire and came to be used in the army as mercenaries.
However, in the 5th century, the Germans were pressured by the bellicose Huns.
The Huns, of Asian origin, moved towards Europe and attacked the Germans, causing them to flee. These ended up invading the Roman Empire, which weakened by crises and internal wars, did not resist the invasions and decayed. In the ancient Roman world, several barbarian kingdoms were born.
"(...) They (the Huns) have no need of fire or seasoned food, but live on wild roots and all kinds of meat which they eat half raw, after having slightly heated it by sitting on top for a while. some time when they are on horseback. They have no houses, not even a hut covered with reeds is found among them. They wear cloths or the skins of field mice.... No one cultivates the land or even touches a plough. Without a fixed abode, without houses, they wander everywhere and seem to always run away with their carts. Like animals devoid of reason, they are entirely ignorant of what is good and what is evil; they have no religion, no superstitions; nothing equals your passion for gold."
Of the barbarian kingdoms that formed in Europe, the main ones were :
Kingdoms of the Visigoths:located on the Iberian Peninsula, it was the oldest and most extensive. The Visigoths strategically occupied the link between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, which allowed them commercial supremacy between continental and insular Europe.
Kingdom of the Ostrogodos:they are located in the Italian peninsula. The Ostrogoths strove to safeguard the artistic-cultural heritage of Rome. They restored several monuments, to keep the Roman memory alive. They preserved the imperial political-administrative organization, the Senate, the Roman civil servants and the Gothic military.
Kingdom of the Vandals:the Vandal people crossed Europe and settled in North Africa. In that kingdom there was persecution of Christians, the result of which was mass migration to other kingdoms, causing a lack of workers, and a decrease in production.
Kingdom of the Suevi:emerged west of the Iberian peninsula and the Suevi lived on fishing and agriculture. At the end of the 6th century, the kingdom was absorbed by the Visigoths, who came to dominate the entire peninsula.
Kingdom of the Burgundians:the Burgundians migrated from Scandinava, dominated the Rhône valley to Avignon, where they founded their kingdom. In the middle of the 6th century, the Burgundians were dominated by the Franks.
Kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons:it emerged in 571, when the Saxons defeated the Britons and consolidated themselves in the region of Brittany.
In the process of invasion and formation of the barbarian kingdoms, the "barbarization" of the Roman populations and the "Romanization" of the barbarians took place at the same time. In the economy, Europe adopted Germanic economic practices, focused on agriculture, where trade was of little importance.
Despite their dominance, the barbarians did not try to destroy the remnants of Roman culture; on the contrary, in various aspects they assimilated and reinvigorated it. This happened, for example, in political organization. They, who had a primitive tribal organization, partially added the monarchical institution, in addition to some mechanisms and rules of Roman administration. Many barbarian peoples adopted Latin as their official language. The new kingdoms progressively converted to Catholicism and accepted the authority of the Catholic Church, at the head of which was the bishop of Rome.
With the rupture of the ancient Roman unity, the Catholic Church became the only universal European institution. This situation gave him an enviable position throughout European medievalism.
Middle Ages