5th Century/400s A.

D
The Huns, 91 A.D

Key Terms
 The Huns
o Southern  China
o Northern  West
 W. Chin [317]
 Visigoths [376]
 Adrianople [378]
 Rome [410]
 Attila [433-453]
 Romulus Augustulus [476]
 Gupta [480]
o Indian Empire
 Sassanid [484]
o Persian Empire

I. Century of the Huns

A. Background
1. The Huns will wreak havoc on all of the world stretching from China to all the way to Italy
2. They begin their attacks just north of east Asia, they were typical pastoralist tribes and spent a lot of their time
moving south and attacking the Chinese [references to the Great Wall of China]
a. Four Great Empires
 Rome
 India
 Persia
 China
II. The Huns’ Havoc
A. China
1. In 91 AD, the Chinese win a huge battle against the Huns [Mulan?] which means the Hun tribe begins to divide
into two parts/tribes
a. The Southern Huns
 Huns captured by the Chinese and forcibly moved inside China itself and are given land by the Chinese
 Idea: The Huns would “settle down” and be civilized like the Chinese  Assimilation?
b. The Northern Huns
 Fled after 91 AD towards the west
 Although they had been defeated in 91 AD the Huns still refuse to admit defeat
 They soon cause other troubles for the great Civilizations
2. In 317 AD, the Huns that were settled inside of China did look more ‘civilized’ but in reality they were still war-
like and still retained their national identity as Huns rather than calling themselves Chinese
a. The Huns in China begins a rebellion against the Chinese government and overthrow the ruling Chinese
dynasty—the western Qin dynasty
 Led to 300 years of anarchy in China, it’d be almost three centuries until China is re-unified and peaceful
again
 b. Anarchy caused many civil wars to happen which caused constant downfall in population and economic
depression  China enters a very dark period
3. Northern Huns continued to migrate to the west and eventually end up in Eastern Europe and find other
barbarian tribes living there as well
a. These tribes were German barbarian tribes and they have lived in the North of the Roman Empire and
would sometimes come down south to cause trouble for the Roman Empire
 They were incredibly war-like, however, they were unable to stand up to the Huns who were even more
fierce than the German tribes
 In 376, the Huns attack the Visigoths (German tribe, only one of the twelve tribes), the Huns defeat
them and forces them to flee from them due to fear
 Visigoths had nowhere to go and asked the Romans for Asylum (forgiveness) and ask if they were
able to settle inside their empire  Romans agree and allow them to settle inside Roman territory
 The Visigoths settle just to the north and west of Constantinople
B. Rome – The Visigoths
1. In 378 AD, the Visigoths begin a rebellion against the Romans
a. The Romans send an army against the Visigoths and a big battle is fought, the battle of Adrianople
 In this huge upset, the Visigoths defeat the Roman army O_o…
 It wouldn’t have mattered before but now it does because Rome is no longer is as powerful as they
were before.
 The Visigoths begin to roam around the empire to defeat other cities
 Romans cannot stop them because their army has been defeated ):
b. The Visigoths try to attack and conquer Constantinople, but they were unable to because the walls of
Constantinople was too powerful and could not be done
 The Visigoths then wander west because they cannot conquer Constantinople
 The west was far weaker—Small cities, low population, no money; therefore, no army
2. In 410 AD, the Visigoths capture the city of Rome, Italy
a. Although Rome was no longer important politically or economically important but it was the first time in 800
years that someone had captured Rome by someone that is not Roman
 Demonstrated Rome’s weakness in the west and this was a symbolic moral blow
3. As the Visigoths continue to wander, they eventually head to Spain and now they decide that it is time for them
to “settle down” and create an independent kingdom in Spain
a. The first time the Romans had ever lost any land to a foreigner tribe
C. Rome – The Huns
1. Attila [433]
a. King of the Huns after he killed his own brother & spent most of his reign attacking the roman empire and
his invasions took the rest of the Roman power in the west
2. The Huns never really conquer any land in Rome but they started the event that caused the Visigoths to flee to
Rome and conquer them. They also started the division of the Chinese empire, etc.
a. After they had attacked, other tribes also attack Rome and the in 476 AD, the Roman empire in the west had
ceased to exist
 What happens in the west is the establishment of numerous German barbaric kingdoms as the Eastern
Roman empire exists
 The last roman emperor in the western side was kicked out, his name was Romulus Augustulus ):
This signifies the end of the Western Roman Empire & also marks the beginning of a very long and
Dark Age for the Europeans that last for about 600 years!
 b. Christianity
 At some point, these tribes all converted to Christianity
 Odd that even though the western empire was gone, Christianity was still a popular religion and
therefore signalized the first Europe as Christian
D. Roman Dark Age Aftermath
1. The Western Roman Empire falls but the eastern Roman Empire stays as the east had more people, cities,
money and therefore they had some-what of an army.
a. The east also had Constantinople that was huge on defense due to its wall and location, by having this city,
no matter how bad things got on the west, the eastern part of this empire will survive. People living in the
east continued to call themselves Romans.
 However, historians have always referred to them as the byzantine empire which did not go through a
long and dark age as the west has because they had preserved ancient Greek, Roman, and Christian
civilization
E. India
1. In 480 AD, India is invaded by one of the Huns’ tribes during the period of the great Gupta (king) in India
a. The Huns destroy the Gupta empire ):
 Then India plunges into a long dark era just like Western Rome & China
F. Persia
1. In 484 AD, the Huns attack the Sassanid Empire of Persia
a. They also plunge into a Dark Age

 No matter how complex or powerful a civilization can be, they can still be overthrown !!