Surely in any history course you have taken throughout your life, you have heard about the barbarian invasion . It is less likely, anyway, that you still remember what warlike conflicts this definition refers to, when they took place, who were their main protagonists and why many of them were of vital importance for shaping the world as we know it today.
In general terms, we can say that barbarian invasions are defined as those carried out by different foreign peoples against the Roman Empire, thus understanding as “barbarians” all civilizations other than the predominant one at that specific time of the world.
These constant attacks, by different people, and not always necessarily resolved on the front lines, were the ones that caused the slow but progressive weakening of the Roman Empire , one of the most transcendent in history, until its final disappearance.
There are many scholars who consider that, just as there were bloody armed confrontations, there were also invasions due to the penetration of the Huns and other strong communities through eastern Europe, which displaced societies over the Roman territory.
This gave rise to an enormous number of treaties, alliances and other agreements by peaceful means to maintain order in the region that, eventually, could be preceded or succeeded by real wars of long duration, until some opponent proclaimed himself the winner.
If we add to that that the Roman Empire occupied up to three portions of continental Europe – the Gallic Empire, the Roman Empire proper and the Palmina Empire – then it is easy to understand why the barbarian invasions were counted by the dozen in those centuries.
On the other hand, when it comes to stopping at the greatest leaders of the barbarian invasions, undoubtedly some names stand out such as Attila, the Hun, or Odoacer, of the Germanic Heruli. It was just the two of them who caused more human casualties and removal of tracts of land.
The same Huns, the Visigoths, the Franks and the Ostrogoths constituted several of the threats that devastated the Roman Empire in those days, not forgetting others who, from time to time, found themselves in struggle with it, such as the Saxons, the Vandals and the Angles.
In any case, the rapid demographic growth that was being experienced, together with the irregular conformation of the Roman armies, which often included the defeated of barbarian peoples hoping to take revenge from within, are the primary explanations for the barbarian invasions.
