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The Migration Period was a time of widespread migrations of peoples, notably the Germanic tribes and the Huns, within or into Europe in the middle of the first millennium AD. It has also been termed in English by the German loanword Völkerwanderung and—from the Roman and Greek perspective—the Barbarian Invasions. Many of the migrations were movements of Germanic, Hunnic, Slavic, and other peoples into the territory of the then Roman Empire with or without accompanying invasions or war.
Scientific consensus[citation needed] established time frames for the Migration Period as beginning with the invasion of Europe by the Huns in 375, and ending with the conquest of Italy by the Lombards in 568. Various factors contributed to this phenomenon, and the role and significance of each one is still very much discussed among experts on the subject. Starting in 382, the Roman Empire and individual tribes made treaties regarding their settlement in its territory. The Franks, a Germanic tribe which would later found Francia—a predecessor of modern France and Germany—settled in the Roman Empire and were given a task of securing the northeastern Gaul border. Western Roman rule was first violated with the Crossing of the Rhine and the following invasions of the Vandals and Suebi. With wars ensuing between various tribes, as well as local populations in the Western Roman Empire, more and more power was transferred to Germanic and Roman militaries.
There are contradicting opinions whether the fall of the Western Roman Empire was a result or cause of tribes getting on the move. The Eastern Roman Empire was less affected by migrations and survived until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. In the modern period, the Migration Period was increasingly described with a rather negative connotation and tribes' contribution to the fall of Rome was more and more underlined. In place of the fallen Western Rome, Barbarian kingdoms arose in the 5th and 6th centuries and came to decisively shape European culture of the upcoming Middle Ages..........