Ethnicity and Demography in the Early Medieval Europe

Ethnicity and Demography in the Early Medieval Europe

Barbarization of Europe has started before the fall of the Western Roman Empire, while its origins can be traced back to the Crisis of the 3rd Century which has not weakened the Roman economy only but Roman identity as well, especially in the provinces along the border. The rural population in the provinces along the border was far from Rome and has had much more in common with the barbarian groups across the border than with Rome.

The barbarian peoples started to settle in the Roman territory long before the deposition of the last Western Roman Emperor by the Germanic military leader Odoacer. The Romans used the barbarian groups against more hostile ones and granted them the status of foederati who were allowed to settle in the Roman provinces in return for providing military aid. However, they were neither Roman citizens nor colonies and in some cases even turned against Rome. For that reason the barbarian takeover took place over a longer period of time rather than suddenly and violently although there were major differences between different parts of Europe.

Despite the arrival of new peoples and period of general instability that was furthered by the later invasions of the Arabs, Vikings and Magyars, the population was stable throughout the Early Middle Ages but at low level. This means that the invaders were not as violent as formerly thought otherwise there would have been a significant demographic decline. A part of the original inhabitants was killed but most of them survived the Migration Period and eventually mixed with the newcomers who are believed to arrive in smaller groups that numbered tens of thousands. But this arises a question why the early medieval Europe saw disappearance of so many peoples if there were no large scale-migrations nor population decline.

In order to understand the disappearance of some ancient peoples and emergence of new ethnic groups it is necessary to understand the ethnic identity in the Early Middle Ages. Today, an ethnic group is considered a group of people with a common heritage, language and culture but ethnic identity was by far more flexible in the Early Middle Ages. Defeated peoples were absorbed by the victorious ethnic groups though sometimes the invaders were absorbed by the existing culture. For example, the Franks who established the strongest state in early medieval Europe were of West Germanic origin but they were completely absorbed into Latinhood. In addition, the barbarian peoples were not ethnically homogenous groups as implied by most maps of the Migration Period, while the ruling classes often adopted multiple ethnic identities, mostly for political reasons.

Comprehensive Middle Ages history is published by the author on the medieval times website (medievaltimes.info). If you are interested in a quick overview of medieval history check medieval history timeline compiled by the author.

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