Germanic Kingdoms c. 500

By the year 500, the Migration Period, in which many Germanic and Slavic peoples moved from the east into western Europe, had caused a significant amount of upheaval as territories became contested by different tribes. The various Germanic tribes made up the main body of migration into new areas. They were more able to expand and establish new kingdoms as the strength of the Roman Empire declined. The Angles and the Saxons settled in the eastern regions of Britain following the exodus of the Romans, which in turn caused the Celtic tribes in Britain to move south into Brittany and the Iberian Peninsula. The Visigoths and the Vandals moved much further afield, down into the Iberian Peninsula and into North Africa. The arrival of the Huns from Central Asia appears to have been an overall driving force of the Migration Period as they dislodged the Slavic and Germanic peoples from eastern Europe.