How a Dark Age Germanic Tribe Became Kings in Africa

German tribes throughout Roman history came in an Eclectic mix of sizes and colors with these tribes causing Rome great turmoil during the Roman Republic period with the migrations of tribes like the kimbri tutons and ambrones bringing Carnage to the gates of Rome this continued long after the fall of the Republic and into the Empire period with such a wide and impressive array of tribes spanning centuries having different languages customs and ways of life a tribe would need to display a unique greatness displaying its cultural crowns and Feathers to Garner its own chapter in the histories of the Roman Empire well that is certainly what this tribe did with uncertain Origins believed to have Arisen from within Scandinavia like many of these later Germanic conquerors they then found themselves on the edge of the Roman World in Central Europe before battling Westward across Germany to the Pyrenees in modern-day Spain establishing Kingdoms in hispania before being hounded out they would then cross the Mediterranean invading Africa and later even revisiting those Romans looting the Eternal City for 14 days and exacting their Revenge even earning the scornful name from which we know them today the Vandals hello guys just quickly I would like to welcome you to the channel and tell you that if you have an interest in history and the tales surrounding those that came before us do subscribe to the channel my plan is to break down some of these great historical stories into digestible chunks with clear narrative characters and overviews hopefully allowing the video to flow nicely and make the information easily retainable I'm just a new channel dedicated to breaking down some of the Lesser trodden parts for the other observers of the past like myself so I hope you enjoyed the video and let's get started story of Germanic tribes their connections overlaps and similarities is a complex subject filled with different Gene studies and opinions from historians about migrations and origins of societies these subjects are still less understood than we would like I'm going to attempt to cut through lots of these complications by telling this incredible story through some distinct cultural groups and three consecutive Vandal Kings to start with I would like to outline two general themes that occur throughout much of Roman history and set us on our course with this great Tale those themes the consistent waves of Invaders that wash over the Roman Empire quite often newer iterations emerging from the lands to the east in the Caucasus and step regions beyond the other theme if we would like to call it that is how the Roman Empire settles these new neighbors by the period we find ourselves looking at today the Western Roman Empire is less than a century from Total collapse its forces are depleted and its power a far cry from the might it once exerted across the Mediterranean and Beyond now in this period at the start of the 5th Century A.D Rome's military relies to a large extent on what it would have considered barbarians these groups were quite often separate from Romans different languages cultures and not citizens of Rome but made up a larger and larger proportion of the army the closer to the Empire's collapse you reach in 476 A.D these people were known to the Romans as Federate allies who had obligations to provide Rome with military assistance in exchange for lands and benefits but none of the perks of being a Roman Colony or citizen although in the later Empire the perks had become lesser and the distinction between some of these groups was much less pronounced than it once was it is in this cycle of migrating tribes encountering those people already allocated Roman land and willing to die to protect it that we now join the story now to set the story the year is 406 A.D and just four decades earlier the Huns defeated the Goths on the pontic Caspian step securing themselves atop the podium as the dominant force of the region north of the Black Sea and in the Caucasus they would quickly continue their push West this in turn led to recently settled Goths pushing further Westward themselves and settling on the border of the Danube it is believed it is this pressure that led to the vandals and their companions pushing Westward themselves continuing these waves of migration trying to to escape the ever ravenous step tribes of the East to do this they would have to move across what was one of the more clear defining lines of the Roman provinces within Germany the Rhine River now I'd like to take a moment to apologize for how badly I'm going to butcher some of these Germanic names I really do hope you can forgive me for that the first Vandal King we're going to encounter however is goddesskill there are many variations of how to pronounce all of these Vandal King's names goddess go organized the Coalition of tribes in the region of pannonia intersecting with segments of many modern day countries including Poland Hungary Slovakia Austria Slovenia and Serbia these groups would have hadsinghi vandals the tribe gooder school was King of the salingi vandals a northern branch of this tribe also the swaby people and a tribe with origins in the Caucasus the Alani who had already been forced out of their lands in the previous generations first in the cauces by the Huns and then by migrating gods that Alani are an example that highlight the complications within clearly segmenting these groups for example we will speak of the isilani that accompany the vandals on their Great quest around Europe but there are other portions of the identifiable ilani culture and tribe from their roots in the cauces and around Iran that are fighting alongside Visigoths ostrogots and even in the Huns these groups often mixed and mingled making clear identifications sometimes more difficult but together this United force of many tribes under the king of the hadsinki vandals goddess School pushed West they encountered the Franks that society that would go on to dominate the region in a few centuries these Franks were a previous generation of a migrating tribe looking for safety and lands to settle they fought on behalf of the Romans as Federate and were allied with them to defend these borders goddess School won a great battle on the Rhine against these Franks breaking the protective barrier and marking a key point in the Roman decline the inability to protect Roman territories and those who occupy them was a key symbolic loss and an indicator of the control they never managed to regain the outcome was one that was necessary for this Coalition of tribes although it did cost the Vandal King goddess School his life dying in what was a fierce battle requiring the Allen tribe to divert from the Hasty crossing of the river to swing the Fate in the favor of their Vandal allies goddess School despite his early death in the story is the one king that made this great tale possible a man not to be forgotten the Germanic Coalition ravaged the Rhine border region and moved into what is now Southern Germany and Northern and Eastern France they sacked and pillaged 10 major cities including Strasbourg Mains and Reems they caused absolute Carnage across the region before heading south and two years after crossing the Rhine they now crossed the Pyrenees Mountain Range into Spain in the year 409 A.D marking an incredible migration across the continent at this point with the Romans left little other choice the Vandals alanian baby were Loosely considered Federate those tribes mentioned earlier that were incorporated into the Empire and exchange for stability and Military Support the tribes were granted lands in the Kingdom of hispania modern-day Spain and Portugal the tribes were given lands by the Romans strategically separated from each other this is an important part of how the Romans deal with these settling tribes as mentioned earlier these waves of migration were consistent and the Romans had a large amount of experience in settling them and pitting them against each other to divide and conquer was a tool in the Roman Arsenal that was well understood and well honed the hastenki received lands in asturia to the Northwest the silingivandos received lands in bezka in the south of Spain the ilani took lands in Lusitania to the west and areas surrounding Carthage and over in the South it is disputed if at this point they were full-fledged Federate or simply Invaders with the Romans left little choice but to capitulate for the time being at least keeping with the theme though we move to the second of our Vandal Kings ganderic son of goddess School ruled the harsingi in the Northwest and shared areas of territory with the swaby this led to tensions and a 419 A.D the battle of the novosos mountains took place the exact details of murky but based on the location it is thought that the swaby were the aggressors the leading theory based on the accounts is that the swaby was seeking a more permanent and secure position within his spania and they made a deal with the Western Roman Emperor honorius to grant them officially recognized Federate status and fully Ally with them the vandals however got the better of the swaby and surrounded their King and army through better positioning and use of terrain a Roman army arose to help their new Ally and broke the siege causing ganderic and his Hastings vandals to flee what they didn't know was that the relieving Army was just one part of a larger pincer movement the second arm smashing the vandals as they retreated and wiping out a large number of their Force this major loss at the hands of a Germanic Roman Coalition again demonstrates this ever-flowing story of migrations and manipulations within the Empire now just two years before this had singi defeat the salingi vandals and the elani to the South and Southwest of hispania also suffered an ill fate the Visigoths had sacked Roman 410 just one year after the vandals had crossed the Pyrenees the Goths had also crossed into modern day Germany and France on the Vandal Trail after the Eternal City was sacked for the first time in over half a millennium it was another indicator of Western decline even if Rome was no longer the capital of the Western Roman Empire with Ravenna claiming that title shortly before the sacking of Rome Alaric the visigoth king died shortly after the sacking and emperor made deals with the subsequent visigoth Kings to give them lands in exchange for protection and service the latest of these visigothic Kings was King walha who took control of a region in southern France his Capital was based in modern day Toulouse to prove his loyalty and good intentions towards his new Holdings and the Romans while he was instructed to cross into hispania and rid the Romans of their new Vandal past he wasted no time traveling to southern Spain and decimating the savingi Vandal tribe in the year 417. he then moved Westward to where the elani were finding them in both of their strongholds and killing them taking their King out in combat in 418 A.D with the southern tribes of this Vandal Alliance now scattered and then a year later the Romans and swaby catching ganderic the Vandal King in that deadly pincer movement the Coalition looked like it was set to come to an end almost as quickly as it had begun ganderic on the other hand had other plans knowing of the losses his allies took to the South and now forced from his Kingdoms to the north ganderic also migrated down towards the coast he rallied the scattered salingi and unified the two Vandal tribes had singi and silingi became unified vandals at the same time after the Alanis crushing defeat to the visigos they named gandrick their King and flocked to his side gandrick now had the future of these tribes Fates fully in his hands ganderic the new king headed to the South and started ravaging the regions of bertika the most southern tip of Spain including Gibraltar the Romans and their allies were not done with this Vandal incursion however and sought to eliminate this new wave of settlers completely just two years after these major defeats at the hands of the Romans and their allies gandrick was offered his first true test as king of a unified people a Roman Gothic and swaby army met the vandals in the year 422 A.D at the Battle of tarako and was decisively destroyed by gandrick with the Goths said to have deserted their Roman commanders and later joined gandrick in his new kingdom leaving the vandals to create a strong foothold in hispania gandrick would dominate the region growing his power and his tribe's wealth they sacked Cartagena and Seville claiming such an important coastal city as Cartagena gave them a large base for Naval activity they then ravaged the coast of North Africa and Savaged the baleric islands in the Mediterranean in the year 428 King gandrick died while on Siege and his half-brother gaysurik claimed the throne much like his Kim before him gayseric had Ambitions for his people just a year after becoming King he gathered his tribe with a population of up to 80 000 although that number is very much contested they used their now large naval fleet to cross the Mediterranean into Africa a wildly ambitious and Visionary move one that could have spelled the end of this burgeoning Germanic people now crossing a Gibraltar and entering another continent and a new world other than the pressure from the Romans and the other Hispanic tribes the vandals are thought to have maybe gone over to North Africa because they were invited by a disgruntled Roman Governor hoping to use these tribes as a tool to carve out his own kingdom whether true or not gasric had different plans smashing every Force he encountered and having his Fleet off the coast of North Africa as he moved across modern-day Morocco and Northern Algeria ravaging the coastline and supplying the Army as they went gastric captured the city of Hippo Regis making it the Vandal capital in the year 431ad within four years the Roman Emperor valentinian III had recognized gasric as king of the lands he had conquered including retention of the Roman territories of Mauritania and parts of numidia within four years though and knowing the weakness of Rome gasric broke his word he could see his Empire growing on the horizon and he raided Carthage four years after his agreement with valentinian and made the LA defended Naval City his capital in the year 439 also capturing a large number of Roman wrestles docked within the harbor this planned to take Carthage may have been gayserick's Plan before he ever even crossed into Africa gastric now presided over a large and Wealthy Kingdom a large grain producer and safe from the hunnic incursions the rest of the empire was beset with by the year 442 A.D three years after season Carthage geserk and his kingdom was acknowledged as the first Barbarian Kingdom officially recognized as an independent Roman territory instead of just a Federate over the next few years gayserick and the vandals secured the belaric islands Sardinia Corsica and Malta as part of their Kingdom in the year 455 the Roman Emperor valentinian III is murdered and patronius Maximus takes the throne now gastric's son was set to marry valentinian's daughter at one point but with this coup petronius wed her to his own son to try and secure his position he also took valentinian's wife as his own gaceric being the cunning man he was used this coup and loss of his future daughter-in-law as a casa early a legal justification for war and to break his pacts and truces made with valentinian that same year Gates Rick and his Fleet left Carthage and arrived in Italy sacking the city in an even more ravenous manner than that of Alaric and the Goths had half a century earlier the vandals looted and pillaged for a full two weeks it has theorized the Bloodshed was not as bad as Might Be Imagined because Pope Leo the first begged geiseric to not destroy the ancient city and so the gates were thrown open and no Siege was necessary the city whatsoever stripped bare and although large-scale Slaughter is not thought to have taken place lots of ships did arrive back in North Africa with Roman slaves geiseric dominated the Western Mediterranean for the remainder of his life being the target of some huge Roman campaigns to rid the region of the Vandal threat and the embarrassment that goes to it caused the Empire he always emerged on top in 468 he even destroyed two fleets one from the eastern and one from the Western Roman Empire one of the largest naval incursions in history up to this point the Battle of cat Bonn was a disaster for the Romans and through the use of fire ships the Vandal Empire sailed on the Romans had committed over 1 000 ships and 50 000 men to this planned Invasion to finally displace the vandals and regain their control of parts of the Roman province of Africa this battle is often used to indicate the loss of all chances of survival for Rome unable to secure armies powerful enough to maintain control across their empire gatoric would rule from the Strait of Gibraltar to the region of Tripoli before his death signing a peace deal with Byzantium that lasted until Justinian's conquests over half a century later gasric's Reign signified the high water mark for Vandal Society after his death the Empire slowly lost influence and control Barb is encroached from the south causing major losses and the spread of the Eastern Roman Empire eventually swallowed the vandals from the year 406 A.D with goddess school crossing the Rhine to less than 15 years later his son gandrick becoming king of a unified Vandal and Alani people and smashing their Roman Gothic pursuers to in 429 A.D the great gaceric Crossing continents to immortalize his people as one of the chief sets of protagonists in the fall of the Romans all this was done within 25 years Crossing Europe Germania the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean it does not even sound possible the Germanic people from landlocked Central Europe Waging War through Naval Dom and having their Captain Africa Most Fascinating and unlikely Story Three Kings 30 years and the subsequent collapse of Rome the vandals and their kings with pain blood and ambition stitched themselves well into the great tapestry of History foreign

Channel: Embers of the Past

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Length: 19min 22sec (1162 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 22 2023