Post on 18-Dec-2015
GERMANS• Around 500 BC, Germanic people
began to migrate out of Scandinavia and northeastern Russia and had occupied Germany by 100 BC– Formerly occupied by Celts
• They were primarily a pastoral people who lived off the products of their sheep and cattle– Augmented by hunting– Other favorite activity was
fighting• Some in organized campaigns
to seize land• More often in individual raids
to steal cattle, capture slaves, etc.
BONDS OF PERSONAL LOYALTY
• No formal political organization– They were tied together by bonds of
personal loyalty• Kinship• Lordship
• Kinship was based on the clan– Groups of clans would join together
to form a tribe• Maintained cohesion by making
up myth of a common, heroic ancestor
– Function was mutual protections• Kin expected to get vengence if a
fellow clan member was killed or injured by an outsider
LORDSHIP• Relationship between a leader
and his retinue of warriors– Voluntary relationship
• Leading man would call on any brave young man to go on raid with him– Those who answered call
swore to serve leader faithfully in return for his protection and a share of the spoils
– Transcended clan loyalty– Members form groups of
companions, bond together and to their leader by oaths
CULTURAL DIVERSIFICATION• Before 500 BC, all Germans had a similar language and
culture– But after the migrations, different groups became
isolated from one another and differences in language and culture developed
• Two distinct groups of Germans had emerged by the 4th century AD– West Germans
• Franks, Saxons, and Alemanni• Settled along Roman border on the Rhine River
– East Germans• Goths, Vandals, Lombards• Modern-day Hungary and southern Russia
GOTHS• Divided into two major sub-groups
– Visigoths • Lived along Danube River
– Ostrogoths• Lived in southern Russia
• Developed a more advanced form of political organization than other Germans– United under strong kings– In close contact with the Eastern
Roman Empire• Influenced by Greek/Roman culture• First Germanic tribe to convert to
Christianity• First to become literate and
assume a veneer of civilization Ostrogoth Chest
WEST GERMANS
• More primitive• Large men with long red or
blond hair and blue eyes• Lived to hunt and fight
– In times of peace they drank until they passed out
• No form of central government– War leader might be
selected in an emergency but what little unity they possessed was provided by kinship and lordship
CONTACT• Romans and Germans had
influenced each other since beginning of the empire– Beginning in 3rd century AD,
Germans had enlisted in Roman army
• Joined in units known as foederati
• Given land in border regions when they retired
– Trade also developed between the two
• Germans supplied slaves and cattle in exchange for jewelry, weapons, textiles, and potterty
CONFUSING SITUATION• Peaceful trading alternated with warfare
– Germans constantly pressed against borders of empire
• Confusing situation– Franks occupied both sides of Rhine
River• Those in Roman territory fought as
foederati for Rome against their cousins across the river
• Same situation along Danube River• By the end of the 4th century, Roman army
was nothing more than an army of barbarians fighting under Roman command– Even some high officers were German
by this time
Until 400 AD, Germans had been
satisfied with launching periodic raids into empire
But around 400 AD, entire tribes and nations began to move into the empire at the same time
Captured territory, settled there, and set up independent kingdoms under their own rulers and laws
This massive migration caused
collapse of western Roman Empire
HUNS• Nomadic people from Mongolia
– Expert horsemen– Tried to invade China in 370
AD• Failed and then turned
west– Moved across
southern Russia into Europe where they terrorized German tribes
» Germans migrated en masse in Roman Empire to escape Huns
THE END
• German invasions began in 375 AD when Visigoths crossed Danube River and permanently entered the empire– Followed by many others– Rome unable to
effectively resist them• In 476, the last Western
Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed by Ostrogothic chieftain Odovocar and the Western Roman Empire ceased to exist
Numerous barbarian kingdoms established in
old Western Empire
Vandals Ostrogoths
Burgundians
Franks
Visigoths
Angles and
Saxons
Other tribes such as Lombards,
Thuringians, Jutes, and Frisians still
wandering around Denmark,
Netherlands, and Eastern Europe
Some of these new kingdoms would not
last long
Justinian would kick Ostrogoths out of Italy (555)
and also conquer Vandal kingdom in North Africa
(533)
Franks would push Visigoths out of southern
France (507)
Arabs would overrun Visigothic Kingdom in Spain
(711)
RESULTS I
• With establishment of barbarian kingdoms, Europe, as a single unified political unit, was finished forever– Replaced by a multitude of small,
competing entities that would, in different shapes, dominate European history until today
– Politically unified Europe, as it had been under Rome, remains an unfulfilled dream
RESULTS II
• Ancient civilization and culture had been in decline for a long time before the barbarian invasions– People had been frozen in their occupations,
cities had been virtually abandoned, crime had been increasing, trade was falling off, population had been dropping, intellectual activity was stagnant, nothing new in art and literature had been produced, political corruption, irresponsibility, and disregard for civil rights had become normal part of Roman government
• The barbarian invasions accelerated this process of disintegration
RESULTS III• Ancient civilization had exhausted itself by the Late Roman
Empire– Nothing original left in it that could be used to build
something new and better– Barbarians did western civilization a favor by putting the
stagnant and dying ancient world out of its misery• Barbarians held the key to the future
– Though violent and primitive, their culture was alive and vital• Their institutions contained the kernel for future
development• When barbarian institutions mixed with the intellectual vitality
of Christianity (and the way in which barbarians would adapt old Roman institutions), the result was a new world
Emperor Constantine had built a new imperial capital on site of old Greek city-state named Byzantium—called
it Constantinople
Eastern half of Roman Empire with
Constantinople as its capital would survive for
almost 1000 years after fall of Western half
ADVANTAGES I• Eastern empire survived
because it was in better shape than the west– Had a larger population– Its civilization was older
and better implanted – Cities were larger and more
numerous– Small farmers were more
prosperous– Commerce and industry
were more healthy• East was simply more
structurally sound than the west and better able to resist barbarian invasions
Library in Alexandria in Byzantine Empire
ADVANTAGES II• East also possessed important
strategic advantages– Key province of Asia Minor
was protected from invasions by Black Sea to the north and by the virtually impregnable citadel of Constantinople to the south
• Asia Minor also became main source of workers, soldiers, and tax revenue– It held up the east – Loyal troops from region
allowed Byzantine emperors to avoid dangerous policy of recruiting German mercenaries
SURVIVAL AND LEGACY• Constantinople was attacked by
Germans, Huns, Mongols, Persians, and Arabs– And repelled them all
• Byzantine empire would last until 1453 when Constantinople was finally conquered by Ottoman Turks
• But it would, before it gell spread Christianity to new regions, protect Western Europe, preserve a great deal of the ancient heritage, and create many religious, political, and social practices that remain in use today
BYZANTINE CIVILIZATION• Made up three components
– Roman government– Christian religion– Greek culture
• Byzantine government was a direct descendant of the Roman political system as modified by Diocletian and Constantine– Emperors were glorified as
gods, they retained tight control of the church, and they kept the high taxes of the Late Roman Empire
IMPORTANT JOB• Empire saw itself as an isolated
and beleaguered outpost of civilization and Christianity– Surrounded by a swarming and
hostile ocean of barbarians and pagans
• Chief duty of emperor was therefore to protect this island of civilization
– Surrounded by majesty and elaborate rituals to illustrate the important job he had to perform
VIOLENCE• Out of 88 Byzantine emperors total
– 13 resigned voluntarily or involuntarily
– 30 died violent deaths• Starved, poisoned, strangled,
stabbed, decapitated, beat to death, cut into little pieces, or had their eyes gouged out
• Emperors themselves were sometimes pretty bad– Constantine murdered his oldest
son and drowned his daughter-in-law
– Basil III gouged out the eyes of 15,000 Bulgar prisoners
BUREAUCRACY
• Huge bureaucracy provided continuity to imperial government
– Gigantic even by modern standards
– There was a bureaucrat for even the most trivial function of government
– Even had intelligence service called “Bureau of Barbarians”
– Generally efficient
ECONOMIC REGULATION• Bureaucracy produced ever-
growing number of laws and regulations in which it attempted to subordinate individual interests to those of the state– Economic activity strictly
regulated• Prices, rents, and wages
were controlled• Inspectors regulated product
quality• Government had monopolies
in certain industries• Interest rates frozen at 8%
POLICE STATE?
• Unemployed persons forced to work on state projects or not receive any aid
• Taverns closed at 8:00 pm• Punishments for such crimes
as treason, blasphemy, incest, arson, and even some economic crimes were brutal
• Foreigners visiting the empire were kept under constant surveillance
• Spies were everywhere– Forced the historian
Precopius to lead an intellectual double life
SUMMARY
• Two factors must be kept in mind when considering Byzantine policies– Their political system was a direct descendant of the
system originally established by Diocletian• Merely fine-tuned a basically repressive system they
inherited from the Romans– Empire saw itself as an isolated and besieged outpost of
civilization in a fundamentally barbarian world• Believed that any slip in security might open the door
to their numerous enemies and cause the same sort of destruction as had happened in the west
• Believed that the very survival of their society and civilization required repression