Political arena of the late 4th century
The Western Roman Empire was literally torn apart by barbarian tribes. From unreliable Roman allies, the so-called federates, the Germans turned into real contenders for the Roman inheritance, they wanted to be the rulers of Europe. They reckoned with Rome insofar as it was necessary to obtain a legal base for their conquests, to fight other tribes.
At the same time, the barbarians quickly and willingly adopted the social, political, legal and cultural foundations of a great power, recognizing the Romans as undoubted authority in all these areas. The era was so eventful that now its history is hardly perceived even by experts of the past. Too many names, too tangled relationships, and all this against the background of the great migration of peoples …
The emergence of the Visigoths
New states with their kings arose here and there, and after a while their borders changed their outlines beyond recognition. Among the most powerful players in the geopolitical arena of that time were the Visigoths. In just twenty years (from 395) they covered a huge distance from the Balkan to the Iberian Peninsula, captured and destroyed Rome, settled in southern France, and took a direct part in Spanish affairs. There were several tens of thousands of them, but possessing high mobility and belligerence, even such a small number of people by modern standards seriously influenced the history of the entire continent.
So, Alaric's successor Ataulf led his people to Gaul. He, unlike his predecessor, was able to negotiate with the Roman emperor Honorius. The Visigoths were given territories in Western and South-Western Gaul between the Garonne and the Loire with the cities of Bordeaux, Toulouse and Poitiers. At the same time, access to the Mediterranean Sea remained with Rome. The main task for the Visigoths was the timely receipt of bread.
In long campaigns and wars, representatives of the tribe largely lost their farming skills, so the food issue was quite acute for them. The Romans promised the barbarians a regular supply of grain. However, after a while they had to break this part of the treaty because of the rebellion in Africa. The Visigoths were forced to move from Gaul to Spain. Two years later (in 415) they returned to the Gallic lands, concluding a new treaty with Rome. The king of the Visigoths at this moment is Valia. Fulfilling the obligations under this treaty, the Visigoths in 416 again sent to Spain, where they successfully fought against the Vandals and Alans.
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Founding of the Visigothic Kingdom
After the end of this war in 418, they returned to Aquitaine II (the same province in southern Gaul that was assigned to them under the terms of the treaty). Valia dies before returning, and Theodoric I becomes the new king. 418 is considered the year of the founding of the Visigothic kingdom. The wealthy Toulouse becomes the capital of the state.
The Visigoths were settled interspersed with the indigenous Romanized population. At first, the aborigines had only to supply the federates who stood as if on a military post. But with the final settlement of the Visigoths here, Rome ordered the division of the lands. According to this law, the barbarians took from the Romans two-thirds of the arable land, half of the forests and meadows. The Visigoths gradually overcame the remnants of the clan system and traditional military democracy, moving on to more civilized forms of management. However, the demands of the new time and the mixing of their customs with classical Roman ones led to the development of new relations between rich and poor, colonists and landowners, and an early feudal state was formed.
At the same time, over time, the Gothic national cultural element itself was clearly defeated by the Romanesque, which is not surprising, given that at the time of settlement in Gaul at the beginning of the 5th century. the Visigoths (among whom there were already quite a few not only Goths) there were only about 60-80 thousand people. The state religion of the kingdom was Arianism, which was replaced by Orthodox Catholicism only at the end of the 6th century. At the same time, researchers note the role of bishops in governing the state that was extremely important for the early barbarian kingdoms.
In general, by the time of the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Visigoths had advanced much further in their political, social and cultural development than most other Germans. For the next several decades, the Visigothic kingdom tried to expand its territory. First of all, they needed to get access to the Mediterranean Sea, which was associated with the capture of the cities of Narbonne and Arles. The Romans did not allow this for a long time. The Visigoths had to fight with other alien tribes. For example, with the Huns, who in the middle of the 5th century. made an attempt to subjugate almost all of Western Europe.
In this war, Theodoric did not hesitate to side with the Romans and their commander Aetius. In the battle on the Catalaunian fields in 451, the Visigoths were probably the most efficient part of the anti-Hunnic coalition troops. Attila, the leader of the Huns, was defeated, but the Visigoth king fell on the battlefield. For some time after this, the Visigothic kings pursued a pro-Roman policy, but with a further weakening of the empire, they resumed their expansion both to the south and to the north. In the 470s, the troops of King Eurychus reached the mouth of the Rhone and successfully operated on the Loire, a policy of conquest began in Spain.
In 475, the Roman emperor concluded a peace treaty with Eurychus, according to which he recognized the last conquests of the Visigoth king and his complete independence. The following year, after the overthrow of the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, Eurich led an army into Arles. The conquest of Provence ended the Visigothic expansion in Gaul. Eurich did not want to continue the movement for the Rhone and Loire, and he could not - here he would have to wage fierce wars with the Franks, Burgundians, Roman legions of Siagrius. In addition, the Visigoths already possessed the most fertile and most inhabited territories of Gaul. Eurich died in 484. By this time, the area of the Visigoth kingdom was 700-750 thousand km2, the population was about 10 million.
New wars
It was the largest state that emerged from the ruins of Rome. The relative calm of the last decade under Eurich was quickly replaced by new wars and problems. The expansion of the Franks began, the powerful king of the Ostrogoths Theodoric the Great nurtured the ideas of a general state (the Visigoths helped him to conquer Italy, and he actively intervened in internal Visigothic affairs, however, helping in the fight against external enemies).
At the Battle of Poitiers in 507, the Visigoths were utterly defeated by the Frankish king Clovis, they had to liberate most of the territories in Gaul together with the capital Toulouse, leaving behind only a narrow strip of the Mediterranean coast. Then began a massive resettlement to Spain. The center of the state was moved to the Iberian Peninsula, where, in fact, a new kingdom was created, ruled for a long time by the delegates of Theodoric the Great. Soon, the new state had to fight the powerful Byzantines, suppress the resistance of the large Spanish cities that remained independent (for example, Cordoba), solve problems with the Suevi and negotiate with the Franks …
The Visigothic kingdom lasted until its conquest by the Arabs at the beginning of the 7th century.