The barbarian kingdoms were kingdoms founded by various Germanic, Iranian, Hunnic and other peoples, that were established all over the Mediterranean after the Barbarian Invasions from the late antiquity to the early middle ages. The term "barbarian" has been commonly used by historians. Other terms used include "Northern European kingdoms", "Romano-northern European kingdoms", and "post-Roman kingdoms".
Historically, the period of the Barbarian kingdoms spans the years from 409 to c.800. It begins in 409 with several Barbarian kingdoms being established on the Iberian peninsula, including the Kingdom of the Suebi, the Alani Kingdom, and territories of Hasdingi and the Silingi Vandals. It ends with the formation of the Carolingian Empire in Western Europe.
The Kingdoms
The most important and most successful of these kingdoms was that of the Franks. Established in the 4th to 5th century, the Frankish kingdom grew to include much of Western Europe, developing into the early medieval Carolingian Empire and ultimately the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire of the high medieval period and beyond. The Frankish Realm continued until 843, when it was partitioned. Realms resulting from this event included West Francia (predecessor of modern France), Middle Francia and East Francia (predecessor of modern Germany).
Other major kingdoms included those of the Visigoths and Ostrogoths; both were established in the 5th century. The Ostrogothic kingdom was re-conquered by the Eastern Roman Empire in the 550s, while the Visigothic kingdom survived into the 8th century, but finally fell to the Muslim invasion of Hispania. The kingdoms of the Burgundians and of the Suebi were established in the early 5th century, and fell to the Franks and the Visigoths, respectively, in the 6th century.The Alemannic Kingdom was established in the 3rd century; it became a duchy subject to the Franks in 496, although this overlordship was at times nominal and Alemannia remained semi-independent until the 8th century. The Vandal Kingdom existed in Africa and Sicily from 435 until 534. The romanized berbers established the Mauro-Roman Kingdom and other minor polities in Africa, lasting until the Muslim conquest.
Various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms existed in medieval England, after a mass settlement in the area. The Romano Britons and various celtic peoples established their own kingdoms in the same period all over Britain, Brittany and Ireland.
In Pannonia, the Huns established a short lived nomadic empire ruled by Attila. After them, the Gepids dominated the area. Finally another nomadic group, the Pannonian Avars established another nomadic empire in 567, lasting until the 9th century.
Another wave of barbarian invasors founded new kingdoms in the 6th century: The Kingdom of the Lombards in Italy was established in the 6th century and conquered by the Franks in 774. The Nomadic Bulgars established the First Bulgarian Empire in Thracia in 687. Meanwhile various Slavic groups like the Sclaveni and the Antes founded petty kingdoms in the Balkans in the same period.
Historical/Historiographical Significance
The barbarian kingdoms marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages in the 6th and 7th centuries, gradually replacing the Roman system of government on the lands of the Western Roman Empire, notably in the two western prefectures of Gaul and Italy.
These kingdoms were foederati of the Roman Empire, and even after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in AD 476 they continued to at least nominally consider themselves subject to the Eastern Emperor. These historical ties with the empire were weakened in the later 6th century, with the loss of much of the western possessions of the empire under Justin II and the waning power projection by the empire, weakened by its wars with the Persians and the Arab invasion.
As a result, the "barbarian kingdoms" by the 7th to 8th centuries developed the system of feudalism characteristic of the European Middle Ages. The title of "emperor" was revived in the west by Charlemagne in AD 800. At the same time, the Carolingian Renaissance developed the notion of Europe as a geopolitical entity with a history separate from that of the wider Mediterranean region.
This is a really interesting time period that I'd like to learn more about, but I'm focusing my reading on later modern politics and economics.
To what extent were these tribes the modern people of Europe? Like, could you consider the Franks the first French people, or the proto-French or whatever. The line between people of a nation and tribes is very confusing to me.
Also, how different were they? From the very little history I know of the time period, the barbarians all came in a similar timespan, from... somewhere. Actually, where did they come from? They weren't natives right, that was the celts and later the Romans. So did they just appear?
Also unrelated to that, were the barbarians the start of feudal society, or did they adopt it? Or did it just develop similarly across Eurasia?
Lot of differing questions that one can go deep into, I'll try to answer best I can.
Mostly for many non-Slavic groups (their predecessors migrated in a bit later), yes, they can be considered precursors in a rough sense, if we're going to be generous. Latin influences in the former Roman territories and from the Church also had an influence.
The Alemanni, Suebi, Franks, Saxons, Lombards, and Burgundians were all, er, germanic (not to sound like a nazi). The Ostrogoths and Visigoths "emerged from the Gothic tribes, most likely a derivative name for the Gutones, a people believed to have their origins in Scandinavia and who migrated southeastwards into eastern Europe". They also could be considered roughly Scandinavian. (Fun fact, Beowulf would have lived in the area the Gutones came from)
Further migrators would be the early Slavs, the Bulgars, and the "Pannonian Avars" (no one really knows where the latter came from)
They all roughly migrated from their homes outside the Empire's territory, in a period of time known as the Migration Period, mainly during the First Wave. Relevant Wiki Article. The main cause(s) of the Migration are generally regarded to be the invasion of Attila the Hun in 375, with the later ongoing destabilization of the Western Roman Empire later prompting further migrations. Later on, climate shifts, which had started in 150 AD and would intensify with the Late Antique Little Ice Age
Well that's a whole post on it's own, but to put it shortly, yeah, they sort of went along with the material trends leading to feudalism. The foundations of feudalism actually started with the destabilization of Rome; as Roman central authority waned, large landowners often decided that they would both stop sending taxes and hire troops to protect their own estates. This is often called 'manoralism' We can also see here it's brief history of its relation to feudalism:
So, yeah
Well, keep in mind that "feudalism" is a massive oversimplification of often very complex systems of labor relationships and obligations that had a lot of different names depending on the region of Eurasia, and these systems more often that not developed independently of each other. But yeah, there were some similarities in its creation.
Hope this answers your questions!
deleted by creator
If you're talking about the Xiongnu-Hun connection, then I think that that hypothesis has fallen out of favor among a lot of scholars
Wow, yeah, thank you so much! That's a very comprehensive answer