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The people in the Middle Ages didn't migrate from anywhere. They had all ready been in Europe for thousands of years. Most people didn't even move from the area where they were born.

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There was a period, called the Migration Period, which coincided roughly with the fall of the Roman Empire and beginning of the Middle Ages, the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries. During this time most of the migrating people moved from northern or eastern Europe into Western Europe and the northern coast of Africa. There was a series of large groups of these people, organized as armies, that moved deeply into Roman territory, eventually setting up kingdoms and causing the collapse of the Roman Empire.

Most of these groups were from northern German or Scandinavia. These groups include the following:

  • Franks, who came from north western Germany and settled in France.
  • Frisians, who came from north western Germany and settled at the mouth of the Rhine.
  • Goths, who came from Scandinavia, moved to northern Poland, and split into Ostrogoths, who eventually settled in Italy, and Visigoths, who settled in Spain.
  • Vandals, an Eastern Germanic group who came from the area of southern Poland and after much wandering created a short lived kingdom in North Africa.
  • Alans, who were originally from Iran. In the course of their migrations, they were were broken into smaller groups who settled among the various Germanic groups in France, Spain, and North Africa, but also established dominions of their own in the areas of Hungary and Romania.
  • Suebi, who started in northern and central German and had a kingdom of their own in north western Spain for a while.
  • Huns who probably originated in Western Asia settled in Hungary or disappeared, depending on who you believe.
  • Avars, who also originated in Western Asia.
  • Bulgars, who were possibly related to the Huns.
  • Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians, who migrated from the coast of Holland, Northern Germany, and Denmark to England.
  • Lombards, who came from Northern Germany, went through successive migrations, and wound up in Northern Italy.
  • A number of other Germanic groups.
  • A number of Slavic groups.

Migration continued, of course, with Vikings moving all over Europe, and Arabs all over Africa and into Europe. There were also migrations associated with the crusades, with some crusaders setting up in the Holy Land, Cyprus, Sicily, and Southern Italy.

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14y ago

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