HUNNISH FACTOR IN THE ETHNIC AND POLITICAL PROCESSES IN EUROPE IN 4th–6th CENTURIES A. D.

Abstract

The article explores the Hunnish influence on the ethnical and political processes in Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries A. D. It was the Huns whose active actions significantly changed the interaction between the Romans and barbarians. The barbarian peoples turned from aggressive raids to the intensive colonization of the Roman territories and creation of their own states. As a result, the Western Roman Empire was destroyed. And during the processes of the Great Resettlement of the Peoples caused by the Huns, the barbarians had either formed new centers of ethnical and political development by the end the 6th century or laid the base for a new ethnical and political map of Europe. The disintegration of the Hunnish nomadic state took place in the middle of the 5th century A. D. As a result of the interethnic interaction, the Huns had merged with other peoples or dissolved in the Byzantine population by the end of the 6th century A. D. The Avars came to Europe in the second part of the 6th century A. D. and established there a new nomadic state by the end of the century. The Hunnish success and activity were rooted in their ethnical stereotype of behaviour. This stereotype continued to be ethnically and politically relevant for the peoples closely connected with the Huns including nomads.