-98 : first clash with the romans since they were both discovering the Gaul.

-58 Julius Caesar: battle of Vosges: Julius Caesar defeated them and established the German border. 9: The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (the Varian disaster) an alliance of Germanic tribes led by Arminius of the Cherusci ambushed and decisively destroyed three Roman legions Around 200, small tribes began to coalesce into supra-tribal groups. Southern Germans came together into the Alamanni, while middle Rhine groups incorporated into the Franks, and the North Germans coalesced as Saxons. converted to Christianity from the 340s by Ulfillias, son of a captured slave. Converting to the Arian form of Christianity soon to be branded heresy, the Visigoths slowly communicated it to the Ostrogoths, Vandals, and Burgundians.

Visigoths rebelled and crushed the Romans at the battle of Adrianople in C.E. 378, killing Valens, the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire.
395 Alaric was elected Visigothic king, and decided to migrate further into Europe and Italy in search of food and pasture land 410, the Visigoths undertook the first sack of Rome, Valentinian III (425) on the Western throne. A youth, Valentinian's mother ruled through him; both he and his mother depended on Aetius, the Master of Soldiers in Gaul, of Balkan-Germanic origin. 429 the Vandal leader Gaiseric led his people from north Gaul to Gibraltar, finally securing passage for a Germanic tribe to North Africa. Moving East from Morocco, the Vandals occupied Carthage in 435. Carthage became an independent German kingdom; 441, when Attila took a mixed Hun-German army over the Danube. Ravaging valuable agricultural lands Honoria. Rejecting her father's command to marry an aged senator, she requested Attila's protection. Reading this as a marriage proposal, in 451 he came West for his bride, demanding a dowry of the western half of the Empire. Equally terrified of the Huns as were the Romans, the Franks, Burgundians, Alans, and Visigoths supplied him with troops. In 451, at the Battle of Catalaunian Plains, Aetius and Theodoric (who died during the battle) defeated Attila Attila returned the next year, crossing totally undefended eastern Alpine passes into the Po Valley and Northern Italy. Aetius was unable to recruit Germans, as the region was of no concern to them. Plundering a prosperous region, Attila withdrew without proceeding to Rome. It may be, as some versions hold, that a party of Senators and Pope Leo I convinced him to relent. Alternatively, a plague among his troops, or recognition that the terrain was inappropriate to his horse-borne forces, could have convinced him to leave. In 453, he took a new barbarian bride, dying the night of his wedding. Feeling he no longer needed Aetius and resenting his closeness to the Huns, Valentinian III had his Master of Soldiers killed. Valentinian himself was murdered in 455 by Barbarians of Aetius' retinue. That same year, the North African Vandal leader Gaiseric sent a pirate fleet up the Tiber River, sacking Rome and plundering it heavily for fourteen days. The next twentyone years were the practical end of the Roman state, and saw a series Germanic

generals who controlled puppet Western Emperors, and through those Emperors cared only for Italy and, at times, North Africa. Master of Soldiers, Orestes made his own son Emperor Romulus Augustulus in 475. The two were both overthrown in 476 by the Barbarian-Roman general Odovacar. 475, Odoacer, commander of a regiment of the German mercenaries, who wanted the farms of Italy to be divided among themselves, gently but effectively pushed Romulus Augustulus, the last of the emperors who ruled the western division, from his throne, and proclaimed himself Patriarch or ruler of Rome. The eastern Emperor, who was very busy with his own affairs, recognised him, and for ten years Odoacer ruled what was left of the western provinces.

In 493, however, the Ostrogoths, led by Theodoric (c. 454 - 526), a German leader who had been brought up at the Court of Constantinople, defeated Odovacer and in turn established control over Italy.
o
Theodoric presented himself as a Roman official. Along with the Burgundian and Visigothic kingdoms, his realms gave form to the first post-Roman, Medieval order, soon to be joined by the Franks from the 520s. 493, Theodoric established the first post-Roman kingdom in the West. By the 510s his lands included all of Italy, stretching past Milan in the north to the Alpine regions, where the kingdom abutted the Franks as well as the Burgundians in the northwest. Provence was also included in southeastern France, after Frankish defeats of the Visigoths in the region. Finally, Pannonian and Dalmatian lands along the Adriatic were incorporated into Ostrogothic dominions. Legally, he presented himself to Italian Latins as the Emperor Zeno's Master of Soldiers for the region, and maintained as thoroughly as possible Roman urban and rural administration, including the Senate. To the Germanics, however, he was a king.

493 to the 520s, Theodoric made his rule popular and administrated Italy better than any predecessor back to the 410s. Though Arian, he respected the Catholic Church, His military force was equal to all challenges of the day, and through marriage alliances with Vandals, Visigoths, and even Franks, he was able to fend off territorial challenges. He also sponsored building and restoration projects in Rome, Ravenna, and elsewhere, even reestablishing the grain and wine dole for the urban masses, after having turned Sicily into the grain producing area given the Vandals' control over North Africa.

the Emperor recognized the Frankish King Clovis with an honorary consulship in 507 506: Clovis' conversion Franks become Catholic, defeat Arain Visigoths at Battle of Vouille

Between 496 and 506, Clovis had led his Franks into the Catholic form of Christianity, and his comparative savagery did not outweigh his conversion's significance in the eyes of Italy's Catholic clergy.

n 507 he moved in force against the Visigoths. Gregory casts him as saying he could no longer tolerate Arian rule in southern Gaul. Crossing the Loire, he routed Alaric II's forces at the Battle of Vouille, sacked Visigothic cities, and forced them to flee to Spain

508, Clovis went to Tours and assumed the Imperial Tunic in the form of an honorary consulship bestowed by Eastern Emperor Anastasia who was showing his disquietude with Theodoric's rule. Clovis then issued the Salic Laws, the first written code of Frankish law

Clovis' 511 death, the Frankish Kingdom was administratively divided among his four sons, Clodomir, Theuderic, Childebert, and Chlotachar, or Clothar I. Though frequently feuding, they cooperated to extend Frankish dominion to Thuringia in the east of old Frankish lands (531), the southern Kingdom of Burgundy (534), as well as Provence, taken from the Ostrogoths in 536.

Merovingian Anarchy (511-640)

By 540 a land and naval blockade of the city convinced the Goths to negotiate. Holding out the possibility that he would revolt against Constantinople and declare himself western emperor, Belisarius tricked the Ostrogoths into surrendering the city. Thus, by 540, Italy had been regained by a resurgent Empire.

interest in Italy. From the late 530s, Franks began encroaching southward, looting Milan in 539, and holding Venetian areas until the mid 550s. 542 Plague affecting all urban areas of Mediterranean basin 596, clovis defeated the Alamanni in Eastern-Central Gaul, expanding his kingdom further.

613 clothar II, the king of Neustria took control of the other two kingdoms and a united Frankish Kingdom was created with its capital in Paris. o King of All Franks (613-629)
Edict of Clothar (614) where he agreed that in the future he would appoint counts not from palace officials, but from local landowners, lay and clerical. Also during these years, deputies in the major Merovingian subdivisions would head the royal household with the title of Major Domo, or Mayor of the Palace.

629-638: Catholic missions in England, Dagobert I in Francia; Heraclius' victory over Sassanians and loss of Middle East to Muslims; Sassanian loss to Muslims at Qadisiyya

642 Collpase of Sassanian state and its Islamic conquest 656-661: Caliphate of Ali Civil conflict in Islamic state between Ali and Ummayads founder Muawiya.

663: Whitby Synod Roman rite as rite for English churches; decision that it is legitimate to proselytize on the continent for Catholic church.
674-677 First Muslim siege of Constantinople 687: Battle of Tertry Pepin II's victory over Neustrian mayor; establishment of his family's dominance in Francia. 711 Islamic invasion of Iberia 715-720: Second Muslim siege of Constantinople; Charles Martel's control over Austrasia and Neustria 732: Battle of Tours Charles Martel defeats Spanish Muslim forces at Poitiers in southern France 741-751 Joint Pepin-Carloman rule; Aistulf Lombard king in Italy; transfer of power from Ummayads to Abbasids Charles the Great--Charlemagne--became sole king of Carolingian lands with the death of his brother Carloman in 771. 768-814: Charlemagne's rule Conquest of Saxons, setting up of border marches, conquest of Lombard Italy, imperial coronation, first Viking raids on Britain. Viking incursions, from the early 800s to the 920s. They affected three major areas: Britain, the Carolingian lands, and Russia. Britain was the first region targeted, starting from the 780s 787. Charlemagne began campaigns in Saxony to the East of Austrasia and Frisia that lasted to the 790s 785, Franksih forces took Gerona, while Louis the Pious, Charles' son and nominal king of Aquitane, took Barcelona in 801. 814-840: Louis the Pious Internal conflict in Carolingian state, beginnings of Arab seaborne raids in Mediterranean and conquest of Sicily, increased Viking raids. 845 Vikings begin wintering at mouth of Loire, Seine 878-886 Viking siege of Paris 885, West Saxon power convinced Vikings to make an agreement, whereby only East Anglia, eastern Mercia, and nearby counties would remain in Viking hands, called the Danelaw. Alfred also insisted that Danish Vikings in Britain accept Christianity.

911: Charles the Simple's agreement with Rollo; East Frankish Carolingians extinct Charles allows Rollo to legally possess lands at mouth of Seine, Normans evolve; Conrad of Franconia chosen to replace Frankish kings. o n 911, Western Frankish king Charles the Simple granted the Viking leader Rollo lands around the mouth of the Seine, soon enlarged to include Normandy. The eventual Normans also accepted Christianity and nominal vassalage to the French King. Defending the region from other Vikings, they would rise through the century from counts to dukes, and become increasingly French.

911 transition from the East Franconian to the German Reich. after the Carolingian dynasty had died out, the Franconian duke Conrad I was elected king. He is regarded as the first German king o The official title was Frankish King and later Roman King; from the 11th century the name of the realm was Roman Empire, from the 13th century Holy Roman Empire, and in the 15th century the words of the German Nation were added

Otto I (r. 936-973) Defeats rebellious counts, defeats Magyars (95), establishes Saxon control in Italy. o Otto (936-73). Otto made himself the real ruler of the realm. His great power found obvious expression when he was crowned Emperor in 962 in Rome.

955 Battle of the Lech 960: Hugh Capet as Duke of Franks Chosen by French counts because they wanted a weak ruler. 1036 Henry III (1039-56), the German kingship and emperorship reached the zenith of its power, maintaining above all a supremacy over the Papacy 1138 the century of rule by the Staufer, or Hohenstaufen, dynasty began. Frederick I Barbarossa (1152-90), in wars with the Pope, the northern Italian cities and his main German rival, the Saxon duke Henry the Lion, led the empire into a new golden age

Rudolf I (1273-91) was the first Habsburg to take the throne.

1337 to 1453 hundred years war

1493 the Habsburg dynasty, the strongest territorial power.

1347-1351 The Black Death, the most severe epidemic in human history
In the 15th century, demands for imperial reform increased. Maximilian I (1493-1519), the first to accept the imperial title without a papal coronation, 1478: The Spanish Inquisition begins.

Martin Luther from 1517 in the Reformation

1525 the Peasants Revolt broke out, the first larger revolutionary movement in German history to strive for both political and social change. Both uprisings failed or were bloodily quelled.