Much of the history of pre-modern European society was shaped by the migration of various groups of peoples into and across the European landscape. The Celts moved from their homeland in Central Europe and settled throughout much of Western Europe, bringing their language and culture with them. The Romans were yet another migrant group, and undoubtedly one of the most culturally impactful groups because they enforced their political, legal, and religious customs in the territories they settled. Similarly, the German-speaking tribes who moved into Roman territory as the Roman Empire fell; the Vikings, who emerged from Scandinavia in the late 8th century CE and settled throughout much of Western Europe; and Muslim peoples, who emerged from the Arabian Peninsula in the mid-7th century CE and settled in Spain and Sicily, had a significant influence on the formation of early European culture. We'll examine all of these groups and their impact on the history and culture of Western Europe in the pre-modern period.

1. Pre-modern European Migrations: Germanic Migrations
Left map from Lynn Hunt, The Making of the West, Volume 1, 3rd edition; right map from Barbara
Rosenwein, A Short History of the Middle Ages, 3rd edition.
• Ostrogothic Italy
• Theodoric, r. 489-526
• Athalaric, r. 526-534
• Amalasuintha, r. 534-535
• Justinian’s war in Italy, 535-
561
• Lombard Italy
• Lombard invasion, 560s
• King in Pavia, dukes in
Benevento and Spoleto
• Rothari’s Edict, 643
• Conversion to Catholicism
in 671

2. Left—tomb of Theodoric, Ravenna, Italy, 6th century AD; center—Ostrogothic eagle
fibula (brooch), c. 500 AD, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg; right—silver
Ostrogothic buckle, c. 6th center AD, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

3. Pre-modern European Migrations: Germanic Migrations
Map from Lynn Hunt, The Making of the West, Volume 1, 3rd edition.
• The Vandals and North Africa
• Conquest of North Africa, 429-439
• Sack of Rome, 455
• Establishment of Arian church
alongside the Catholic church
• The Vandal War, 533-534
• Eastern Emperor Justinian I, r.
527-565

4. Vandal artifacts: left—a silver denarius of Hilderic (r. 523-530), from
CoinArchives.com; right—Vandal goldfoil necklace, 4th-5th century AD,
Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, Austria.

5. Spread of Christianity, 300-600
Map from Lynn Hunt, The Making of the West, Volume I, 3rd edition.

6. Pre-modern European Migrations: Germanic Migrations
Map from Lynn Hunt, The Making of the West, Volume I, 3rd edition.
• The Frankish Carolingian dynasty,
751-875/911/987
• Charlemagne, r. 768-814
• Campaigns against other
Germanic tribes, 772-806
• Desire for conquest and the
spread of Christianity
• Image as a Romanized Frankish
king
• Emphasis on education,
literacy, coinage, imperial
rule (over state and church)

7. Left—an imperial denier of Charlemagne, c. 812-814, Cabinet des
Médailles, Paris; right—a gold bust of Charlemagne, Treasury of Aachen
Cathedral, 14th century.

8. Charlemagne’s cathedral at Aachen, Aachen established as his capital, 794.

9. Pre-modern European Migrations: Germanic Migrations
Map from Lynn Hunt, The Making of the West, Volume I, 3rd edition.
• Louis the Pious, king and emperor r.
814-840
• Conflict with his sons—Lothar, Pepin (d.
838), Louis, and Charles
• Partible inheritance
• Treaty of Verdun, 843
• Lothar inherited Lotharingia (Alsace-
Lorraine) and the imperial title
• Louis the German inherited Eastern
Francia
• Charles the Bald inherited Western
Francia
• End of the Carolingian dynasty
• Lotharingia-875; east Francia/Germany-911;
west Francia/France-987

10. Germanic genetic (left) and linguistic (right) legacy in Europe
Maps from Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, The History and Geography of Human Genes.