What were the reasons for the great migration of the Germanic people?

The Germans, who originally lived in the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, are an ancient European nation composed of several tribes, the more important of which are the Franks, Vandals, Lombards, and Ostrogoths and the Visigoths. The Germans bordered Alan to the east and the Roman Empire to the south. The Rhine and Danube rivers roughly became the dividing line between them and Rome. As the Roman Empire gradually declined, a small number of Germans entered Rome and became mercenaries, manual workers, or worked on manors. On the other hand, various Germanic tribes also fought sporadic wars with Rome, with each winning and losing. However, at the end of the 4th century, the Huns' invasion of the Germanic territories caused the Germanic people to flood into the Roman Empire, forming a great migration of the Germanic people. It lasted for more than 200 years, was huge in scale, and affected most of the Roman Empire. A vast area of ??Europe and North Africa, many Germanic countries were established on the old lands of the Western Roman Empire, writing a new chapter in Western European history.

Of all the Germanic peoples, the Goths are especially strong. The Goths themselves were divided into eastern and western parts. The Ostrogoths are distributed between the Don and Dniester rivers, while the Visigoths are concentrated in the lower Danube. The Visigoths became the pioneers of the Great Migration. He began to move westward in the second half of the 4th century. Later, with the permission of Roman Emperor Valens, he crossed the Danube River and took refuge in Thrace within the empire. Roman officials took the opportunity to abuse and humiliate these Germans, eventually forcing them to resist. In 378 AD, the Visigoths defeated the Roman army that came to suppress them at Adrianople near Constantinople, and Emperor Valens himself was killed. In 396 AD, King Alaric of the Visigoths captured Athens and looted it. In 401 AD, the Visigoths invaded Italy, and in 410 AD they sacked the city of Rome, making the holy city fall for the first time. Then he occupied the Aquitaine region in southern Gaul, with Toulouse as the capital, and established the Visigothic Kingdom, whose territory included large tracts of land in southwestern Gaul and the Pyrenees peninsula south of the Loire River.

After the Visigoths crossed the Danube River south, the Ostrogoths also forcibly entered the Roman Empire. In 476 AD, Odoacer, a Roman mercenary general of Germanic origin, staged a mutiny in Pavia, deposed Romulo Augustus, the last emperor of Western Rome, and established the Kingdom of Odoacer, the Western Roman Empire. The empire fell. In order to avoid the attack of the Ostrogoths, the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire instigated the Ostrogoth general Theodoric to oppose Odoacer. In 489 AD, Theodoric led his troops to invade Italy. After three years of fierce fighting, he occupied almost all of Italy. In 493, Theodoricus plotted to kill Odoacer and established the Ostrogothic Kingdom with Ravenna as its capital.

After the Roman Empire withdrew the Rhine River border defenders in 406, the Vandals, together with the Suebi and the Alans of the Sarmat tribe, crossed the Rhine River and poured into Gaul. They plundered all the way and crossed the Pyrenees in 409, occupying most of the western and southern parts of the Spanish peninsula. Rome was unable to stop them and could only recognize them as "allies" and garrisoned Spain. But not long after, the Visigoths from the north captured most of Spain, forcing the Vandals to retreat to the southern tip of the peninsula and the northwest corner.

In 429 AD, the Vandal military and political leader Gesaric sized up the situation and led 80,000 Vandals and Alans to North Africa. In 439 AD, the Vandal Kingdom was established with Carthage as its capital. The fall of Carthage dealt the hardest blow to Western Rome, cutting off its financial resources in Africa. In 442, Rome finally recognized the Vandal Kingdom's rule over most of North Africa. In 455, Gesaric took advantage of the chaos in Rome, led his fleet across the sea, captured Rome, and burned and looted it for two weeks (June 2-16). Roman ancient cultural relics were severely damaged, hence the name "Vandalism" that destroyed culture. After 461 years, the Vandals continued to invade Sicily and Italy, leaving Rome unable to defend itself.