What happened in western Europe after the roman empire fell due to the invasion of germanic tribes?

Answer 1

The Germanic peoples carved up the western part of the Roman Empire and established their own kingdoms in its former lands: the Vandals (together with the Alans) in northwest Africa, the Sueves in parts of Spain and the Burgundians in eastern France. The Alemanni took over north-eastern France, Switzerland and Austria. The Visigoths, who had been allowed to settle in the eastern part of the empire by the Romans, moved to south-western France and established their own kingdom there, which then expanded into, Spain and Portugal. The Franks who had been allowed to settle in Holland south of the river Rhine and Belgium expanded into northern France and later took over the Domain of Soissons, a rump Roman state in central France. The Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians migrated to Britain in waves and took it over.

Eventually the Franks took over the central and southern Germany and the whole of France. In 800 Charlemagne, the king of a new Frankish dynasty, established the Carolingian empire with the blessing of pope Leo III. The pope agreed to hand over Italy to Charlemagne, who also conquered northern Germany and northern Spain. This empire covered Western Europe except for Denmark, the Scandinavian Peninsula and most of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal).

The period which followed the fall of the western part of the Roman Empire was the Middle Ages. This period saw the emergence of feudalism.

The eastern part of the Roman Empire was not affected by these invasions and continued to exist for nearly 1,000 years. Historians have coined the term Byzantine Empire to indicate the eastern part of the Roman Empire after the fall of the western part. The Romans did not use this term, they called it Roman Empire or Romania (this referred to this empire and not the country which was later called Romania).