Medieval History
Lesson Four: Vikings, Vandals, Visigoths and Huns
Invasions from Every Corner
Goals:
 Video: Vikings, Vandals, Visigoths and Huns
 Activity:
o Human Dominoes Barbarians
 Lesson:
o Timeline
o Reading
o When, where and Why they attacked
 Review: Mapping Europe: before and after
VIDEO LESSONS:
ACTIVITY: Human Dominoes Barbarians
Global temperatures rise
Saxons leave what is now Scandinavia and Germany
They settle in Britain
Roman empire in Britain under strain from Saxons
Saxons hired as mercenaries by Romans
358 Franks migrate into France
Lombard’s migrate towards Switzerland and northern
Italy
Huns ride westward from Middle East
Reflex Bow introduced to western warfare
Horses introduced to western battlefields
375 AD Goths in Balkans
Huns wreak havoc on Gothic villages
Goths driven into Roman territories as refugees
Farming and trade re-established in new lands
Romans pick and choose which Goths can come into
their territory (recruit soldiers from refugees)
Gothic soldiers turn on Romans
378 AD Battle of Adrianople
Nomadic plundering begins across Europe
410 AD Goths sack Rome
Payback for Roman oppression
Vandals join refugees fleeing from Huns in the Baltics
409 AD Vandals move into Spain to escape poverty and
oppression
Romans send Visigoths to fight Vandals and obliterate
them. Vandals driven into Southern Spain
Vandals become accomplished ship builders
They migrate across Northern Africa
As Vandals take over Carthage, Romans align
themselves with them. Granted control of military
affairs in Northern Africa.
447 AD Attila the Hun reaches Holy Roman Empire
Conquers Rome
Huns become leaders of Italy
453 AD Attila dies
His sons divide the empire through internal conflict
Huns no longer formidable force
455 AD Vandals attack Southern Italy
Remaining Romans fight Vandals
Sack Rome
491 AD Saxons rule eastern Britain. Britons (Welsh)
rule west. Anglo-Saxon battles break out throughout
620 AD Viking invasions in southern Britain. King Alfred
plots resistance. Alfred reclaims Saxon lands from
Vikings.
H istory Tim eline: Barbarians
400-600 A D
378 Visigoths Revolt against
Romans
409 Vandals invade Spain
410 Goths: Sacking of Rome
433 Att ila rules the Hu ns
455 Vandals sack Rome
Yup, that’s
476 End of the Western Roman
Empire
493 Ostrogoth’s take over Italy
481 Franks organize in the North
under Clovis
496 Clovis converts to
Christianity
503 Franks conquer Visigoths in
France
587 Visigoths convert to
Christianity
where the word
“vandalism”
comes from!
Barbarian Invasions
Even in the days when
the Roman Empire was at
its height, Germanic
tribes like the Goths,
Vandals and Franks lived
beyond Rome’s Frontiers.
The Romans considered
these people
“barbarians.” In the 4
th
century, a war-like tribe
known as the Huns moved
from Central Asia to
Europe, pushing the Germanic tribes westward into the Roman empire.
Eventually, these tribes defeated the Romans, causing the empire’s
collapse. The barbarian tribes then established new kingdoms in many
parts of the Western Europe. They mixed their own customs and beliefs
with what they learned from the Romans, and gradually adopted
Christianity.
The constant migration and warfare of this period disrupted trade and
made travel unsafe. Bridges and roads fell into disrepair. Cities, towns
and villages were abandoned. Shortages of food and other good grew.
People gave up their interest in learning. Church and monasteries
became the only places with people who could read and write.
Barbarian Invasions
Complete the handout provided: When and where and why
they invaded