Eras

The Migration Period

Also Known As Barbarian Invasions

Citation Formats

General Reference

History Atlas. "The Migration Period." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-history.interactiveatlas.org/eras/migration-period.

APA Style

History Atlas. (n.d.). The Migration Period. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-history.interactiveatlas.org/eras/migration-period

BibTeX

@misc{historyatlas-the-migration-period,
  author = {History Atlas},
  title = {The Migration Period},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-history.interactiveatlas.org/eras/migration-period},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The Migration Period, also known as the Barbarian Invasions, was a period in European history conventionally dated from about 300 to 600 CE, marked by large-scale movements of Germanic, Hunnic and other peoples across the continent that culminated in the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It overlaps substantially with Late Antiquity and the early span of the Post-Classical and Medieval Period, since the same population movements that ended the Western Empire also seeded the new kingdoms that replaced it.

Facts

Start Year

300 1

End Year

600 1

Geographic Scope

Europe, chiefly the territory of the Western Roman Empire and the Germanic and Hunnic homelands beyond its frontiers. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Held Differently

Late Antiquity

Why this is disputed. Overlapping periodization: the same population movements that end the Western Roman Empire are described by Late Antiquity as continuity and by the Migration Period as rupture.

Source Wikipedia