Invasion Of Western Europe 13-1

Germanic Invaders  Germanic invaders overran the western half of the Roman Empire  Repeat invasion caused changes that altered the economy, government and culture

Disruption of Trade  Merchants faced invasion from land and sea  Business collapsed  Destroyed Europe's cities as economic centers  Money became scarce

Downfall of Cities & Population Shift  As the empire fell cities were abandoned as centers of administration  As Roman centers of trade and government collapsed nobles retreated to rural areas  Roman cities were left without strong leadership  This shift caused most of Western Europe to become rural

Decline of Learning  Germanic invaders could not read or write  Among Romans the level of learning sank sharply and more and more people left for rural areas  Few people except church officials were literate  The knowledge of Greek which was always important was almost lost

Loss of a Common Language  As Germanic speaking people mixed with Roman population Latin changed  It was still and official language but no longer understood  Different dialects developed and new words became a part of everyday speech  By 800’s French, Spanish and other Roman based languages evolved from Latin