Sunday, March 4, 2018

When the Vandals Crossed the Rhine

The Vandals were one of three Germanic tribes that crossed the Rhine by Mainz on December 31, 406 AD. The two other tribes were the Suebi and the Alans.

After 3 years of rampage through the West Roman Empire, the three tribes were given control of most of the Iberian peninsula, presumably to keep them from continuing their destructive rampage.

Alan kingdom hispania.png

By PANONIAN - Own work, Public Domain, Link

By giving the German tribes control of lands far from their fellow tribesmen that stayed behind in present day Poland, the Romans must have hoped to subdue the unruly intruders.

The thinking must have been that they would eventually integrate and become reliable allies, subservient to Rome.

However, this did not happen. Instead, the entire West Roman Empire fell into chaos, with Germanic tribes constantly fighting and forming alliances, almost always to the detriment of the Romans.

When the Vandals and Alans were pushed out of Iberia by Romans and rivaling Germanic tribes in 429 AD, they entered North Africa, where they established a kingdom with Carthage as their capital in 435 AD. From there, they dominated the west Mediterranean Sea, as well as the grain production of North West Africa, which at the time was vital to Rome.

Vandal Kingdom at its maximum extent in the 470s.png

By Hannes Karnoefel - changed wikimedia map, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Clearly, the influx of Germanic tribes into the West Roman Empire was nothing short of a disaster.

The predominant theory as to why the first Germanic tribes entered the Roman Empire is that the Germanic tribes were in fact desperate refugees, fleeing from the Huns. The Huns in turn, may have been motivated by deteriorating climate conditions.

When the Rhine froze over by Mainz, the desperate Germans took the opportunity to cross it, thereby getting out of harms way of the Huns. The downfall of the West Roman Empire was in other words in part due to climate changes and wars that were taking place far away from Rome itself.

The refugees did not prove easy to integrate into Roman society. Instead of gratitude, they went on a rampage. They demanded to follow their own laws, and reacted with violence at any suggestion that they should change their barbarian ways.

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