Throughout the history of the world man has wreaked havok on his fellow man. As soon as he learned to better his own lot by worsening that of his neighbor he learned to hide and defend himself and his. Long before Christ or Mohammed walked the lands man had begun to build strong defensive structures and offensive fortifications. It was but a short journey from hiding behind trees and boulders to building and assaulting with them.

The focus of my particular interest is in the proliferation of the stone castles in Germany. This places our time frame into the central and upper Middle Ages. But the more I studied this period the more I realized one cannot limit learning to simply one period and expect meaningful comprehension. To do so is to misunderstand the events whose happenstance may have been set in motion centuries earlier. I kept finding myself asking several questions, like "Where did they learn to do that?" and "How long have they been capable of this?" And back to the books I would go. Which is why the chain book stores are so prosperous today. But, back to the medieval world.

The whole of the Middle Ages extends from roughly the middle of the 5th century to the middle of the 15th century. If we are to mark the transition from ancient to medieval times by historical events then certainly the beginning of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the advance of the Germanic peoples is a primary focal point. In this era the entire existence of everything European began dramatically shifting and continued shifting for the next thousand years to the end of the Middle Ages.

Great empires and kingdoms expanded, contracted and vanished with violent regularity throughout ancient and medieval Europe. The Roman Empire's western collapse was triggered by numerous causes of which one was the sudden change in direction of expansion of the various Germanic tribes. Because The Romans had for hundreds

of years successfully prevented the westward and southward migration of the Germans at the Limes and the Danube and Rhine rivers, the Germans had turned to eastern expansion. But in the 5th century the Huns roared out the area of the Don, pushing the Germans back west. The forced turn-around brought the various factions into contact again with the Romans. This time the Germans were better armed, experienced from battles with mounted Huns and motivated by entirely different needs; the Roman troops were disorganized and poorly armed, and the empire was in trouble on their eastern front, an area that always demanded a higher priority. In a period of just a few decades the empire's defenses were penetrated at several points across their entire western European line. Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals and Franks were making permanent inroads into the empire, setbacks the Romans were to never fully recover from. By 410 Goths were sacking the city of Rome.

Europeans of the Middle Ages launched and faced centuries of migrations and invasions in and from every direction.

For the entire period of the Middle Ages Europe was an enormous game board for ambitious leaders of tribes and nations from every corner of the European continent and beyond. Some of the many entities struggling for either a foothold on the continent or expansion of their existing territories were: (see map at right) Vikings (A), Huns, Avars & Slavs (B), Persians, Magyars & Hungarians (C), Visoths, Basques, Umayyads, Murabits & Suevs (D) just to name a few. There were perhaps twice this number sweeping in and, almost as quickly, being swept back out. Within Europe at the contraction of the Western Roman Empire were many Germanic factions or tribes such as the Frisians, Angles, Saxons, Franks, Lombards, Thuringians, Burgundians, Alemanni, Marcomanni, Quadi, Gepids, Rugians, Visogoths, Ostrogoths, Asding and Siling Vandals and more. Most names are now but footnotes of the Middle Ages.

With so many aggressors wandering the continent plundering and looting and demanding fealty to totally foreign systems, powers and beliefs it was incumbent on people to take a suspicious and defensive stance with all passing through their districts. Eventually each of these peoples would have a turn at being the wandering nation seeking more room, food, power or just plunder. These were devastating centuries and, with the additional ravages of hunger and disease, it would be reasonable to wonder how civilization managed to advance at all.

The Huns were still on their rampage westward and it wasn't until 451 that they were turned around after threatening Gaul which, for the most part, is present day France. Shortly thereafter Clovis, King of the Franks, the tribe that had breached the Roman lines at the Rhine, succeeded in capturing the northwestern area of Gaul. From this point on the Franks suffered few setbacks in their push to conquer all of Europe. Clovis and, on his death, his son Chlotar, one of the four sons to inherit the Merovingian dynasty of Clovis began the work of unifying the Germans under one rule. They were followed by a succession of remarkable leaders that continued the expansion and solidifying of the German nation. During this explosive expansion of the Germans there was another, similar succession of advances by the Arab nations. They had succeeded in conquering much of the lands of the former Roman Empire and had expanded across northern Africa, crossed over into Spain and had penetrated Gaul (France). It seemed an unstoppable advance of Arabs was driving hard into the heart of Europe until the then leader of the Franks, Charles Martel defeated them at Poitiers.
The election of his successor Pepin the Short as King of the Franks marked the beginning of the dynasty known as the Carolingian dynasty. His son Charlemagne in turn succeeded to the throne and, after adding the lands of the Saxons, Lombards and Bavarians and destroying the Avar kingdom, was crowned Emperor of the West. In the 9th century Charlemagne's Frankish Empire included much of the former Western Roman Empire and the majority of Europe. On his death the empire was distributed, as was custom, amongst his surviving male heirs. Germany, France and Italy, after much jockeying back and forth were, eventually, the resulting major political divisions. But it wasn't quite so simple. Within the next two centuries the kingdom of Germany expanded geographically and politically to double its size and became the newest Empire on the block. In 962 Otto was crowned emperor, and the Holy Roman Empire was born. After it swallowed the kingdom of Burgandy in the 11the century the empire's borders remained essentially stable through the remainder of the Middle Ages until the eastern powers of Poland and Hungary suddenly made significant advances at Germany's expense.