The impact of nomadic migrations

Nomadic Migrations

The Impact of Nomadic Migrations

The first example of nomadic migration into Europe to be used in this paper is the migration of Germanic peoples into Europe (Volkerwanderungen) in the 4th through the 6th Centuries, the 9th and 10th Centuries, and the 12th and 13th Centuries, according to the McKay text. As to why these people migrated, or from where they came, there is no certain answer. But they may have come into Europe, to areas in and around what is now northern Germany, southern Sweden, and Denmark, because they were driven out of their nomadic environs through "overpopulation" or from the resulting "food shortages" from those overpopulated conditions, McKay writes on pages 238-39.

It could also be true that they were part of losing tribes in wars north of Europe, and were pushed down into Europe to regroup as a nomadic culture.

There is archeological evidence of their movement into Europe through cooking utensils, fossils, and jewelry, and these Germanic peoples formed into two large tribes, the Visigoths, and the Ostrogoths.

Whatever the reasons for their migration into Europe, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths played a role in the demise of the Roman Empire. For one thing, both of the Germanic tribes had interactions with the Romans, mostly on the fringes of the Roman Empire at that time. The Romans hired the tribes to provide certain manual work kinds of services, so there was employment and some security for the tribes in that regard.

The second example for this paper, regarding the movement of nomadic peoples into Europe, is when the Mongolian Huns moved westward out of China and into Europe, and that had an impact on the Germanic peoples who by now had settled in Europe. In the year 370, the Huns defeated the Ostrogoths badly, and that sent the Visigoths scurrying into Roman territory, asking to be allowed to stay.

That migration in turn became an important event in the history of the Roman Empire, as the Visigoths were tens of thousands strong, and staged an uprising against the empire in 378, and defeated the emperor's army, according to McKay's book.

So one can create a theory about migrations and that is that one migratory move by a nomadic tribe can and usually does have a ripple effect on other peoples and tribes. And in the case described above, the Huns migrating nomadically westward set off a chain reaction that led to the downfall of the Roman Empire.

The third example of nomadic migrations is the expansion of the Muslims into Europe. By the year 711, according to McKay's book, the Arab (Muslim) forces in Spain defeated the Visigothic army. The Muslims had crossed the isthmus from Africa into Europe and by 719, they had migrated into Franks Kingdom, which is where Germany is today.

Eventually the Muslims were pushed back to Spain, south of what is now the border between France and Spain, but why did the Islamic forces move from their controlling land on the Arabic Peninsula all the way up into Europe? The question begs for an answer but there is no clear one, according to the authors of A History of World Societies.