Collapse of Rome Starting in the 2nd century, various indicators of Roman civilization began to decline, including
urbanization, seaborne commerce, and population.
Archaeologists have identified only 40 percent as many
Mediterranean shipwrecks from the 3rd century as from the first. Estimates of the population of the
Roman Empire during the period from 150 to 400 suggest a fall from 65 million to 50 million, a decline of more than 20 percent. Some scholars have connected this de-population to the
Dark Ages Cold Period (300–700), when a decrease in global temperatures impaired agricultural yields. ; the original was buried with an
Anglo-Saxon leader, probably
King Rædwald of East Anglia, . Early in the 3rd century,
Germanic peoples migrated south from
Scandinavia and reached the
Black Sea, creating formidable confederations which opposed the local
Sarmatians. In
Dacia (present-day Romania) and on the steppes north of the Black Sea the
Goths, a Germanic people, established at least two kingdoms:
Therving and
Greuthung. The arrival of the
Huns in 372–375 ended the history of these kingdoms. The Huns, a confederation of central Asian tribes, founded an empire. They had mastered the difficult art of shooting composite
recurve bows from horseback. The Goths sought refuge in Roman territory (376), agreeing to enter the Empire as unarmed settlers. However, many bribed the Danube border-guards into allowing them to bring their weapons. The discipline and organization of a
Roman legion made it a superb fighting unit. The Romans preferred infantry to cavalry because infantry could be trained to retain the formation in combat, while cavalry tended to scatter when faced with opposition. While a barbarian army could be raised and inspired by the promise of plunder, the legions required a central government and taxation to pay for salaries, constant training, equipment, and food. The decline in agricultural and economic activity reduced the empire's taxable income and thus its ability to maintain a professional army to defend itself from external threats. In the
Gothic War (376–382), the Goths revolted and confronted the
main Roman army in the
Battle of Adrianople (378). By this time, the distinction in the Roman army between Roman regulars and barbarian
auxiliaries had broken down, and the Roman army was composed mainly of barbarians and soldiers recruited for a single campaign. The general decline in discipline also led to the use of smaller shields and lighter weaponry. Not wanting to share the glory, Eastern Emperor
Valens ordered an attack on the
Therving infantry under
Fritigern without waiting for Western Emperor
Gratian, who was on the way with reinforcements. While the Romans were fully engaged, the Greuthung cavalry arrived. Only one-third of the Roman army managed to escape. This represented the most shattering defeat that the Romans had suffered since the
Battle of Cannae (216 BC), according to the Roman military writer
Ammianus Marcellinus. The core army of the Eastern Roman Empire was destroyed, Valens was killed, and the Goths were freed to lay waste to the
Balkans, including the armories along the Danube. As
Edward Gibbon comments, "The Romans, who so coolly and so concisely mention the acts of
justice which were exercised by the legions, reserve their compassion and their eloquence for their own sufferings, when the provinces were invaded and desolated by the arms of the successful Barbarians." The empire lacked the resources, and perhaps the will, to reconstruct the professional mobile army destroyed at
Adrianople, so it had to rely on barbarian armies to fight for it. The
Eastern Roman Empire succeeded in buying off the Goths with tribute. The
Western Roman Empire proved less fortunate.
Stilicho, the western empire's half-Vandal military commander, stripped the
Rhine frontier of troops to fend off invasions of Italy by the
Visigoths in 402–03 and by other Goths in 406–07. Fleeing before the advance of the
Huns, the
Vandals,
Suebi, and
Alans launched an attack across the frozen Rhine near
Mainz; on 31 December 406, the frontier gave way and these tribes surged into
Roman Gaul. There soon followed the
Burgundians and bands of the
Alamanni. In the fit of anti-barbarian hysteria which followed, the Western Roman Emperor
Honorius had Stilicho summarily beheaded (408). Stilicho submitted his neck, "with a firmness not unworthy of the
last of the Roman generals", wrote Gibbon. Honorius was left with only worthless courtiers to advise him. In 410, the Visigoths led by
Alaric I captured the city of Rome and for three days fire and slaughter ensued as bodies filled the streets, palaces were stripped of their valuables, and the invaders interrogated and tortured those citizens thought to have hidden wealth. As newly converted Christians, the Goths respected church property, but those who found sanctuary in the
Vatican and in other churches were the fortunate few.
Migration Period The Goths and Vandals were only the first of many bands of peoples that flooded
Western Europe in the absence of administrative governance. Some lived only for war and pillage and disdained Roman ways. Other peoples had been in prolonged contact with the Roman civilization, and were, to a certain degree, romanized. "A poor Roman plays the Goth, a rich Goth the Roman," said King
Theoderic of the Ostrogoths. The subjects of the Roman empire were a mixture of
Roman Christian,
Arian Christian,
Nestorian Christian, and
pagan. The Germanic peoples knew little of cities, money, or writing, and were mostly
pagan, though they were increasingly converting to
Arianism, a
non-trinitarian form of Christianity that considers God the Son to have been created by, and thus inferior to, God the Father, rather than the two being
co-eternal, which is the position of
Chalcedonian Christianity. Arianism found some adherents in the Roman Empire before being eclipsed by the Chalcedonian position and then suppressed as heretical. During the migrations, or
Völkerwanderung (wandering of the peoples), the earlier settled populations were sometimes left intact though usually partially or entirely displaced.
Roman culture north of the
Po River was almost entirely displaced by the migrations. Whereas the peoples of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal continued to speak the dialects of
Vulgar Latin that today constitute the
Romance languages, the language of the smaller Roman-era population of what is now England disappeared with barely a trace in the territories settled by the Anglo-Saxons, although the Brittanic kingdoms of the west remained
Brythonic speakers. The new peoples greatly altered established society, including law, culture, religion, and patterns of property ownership. from the
Treasure of Gourdon, found at
Gourdon, Saône-et-Loire, France. The
pax Romana had provided safe conditions for trade and manufacture, and a unified cultural and educational milieu of far-ranging connections. As this was lost, it was replaced by the rule of local potentates, sometimes members of the established Romanized ruling elite, sometimes new lords of alien culture. In
Aquitania,
Gallia Narbonensis, southern Italy and Sicily,
Baetica or southern
Spain, and the Iberian Mediterranean coast, Roman culture lasted until the 6th or 7th centuries. The gradual breakdown and transformation of economic and social linkages and infrastructure resulted in increasingly localized outlooks. This breakdown was often fast and dramatic as it became unsafe to travel or carry goods over any distance; there was a consequent collapse in trade and manufacture for export. Major industries that depended on trade, such as large-scale pottery manufacture, vanished almost overnight in places like Britain.
Tintagel in
Cornwall, as well as several other centres, managed to obtain supplies of Mediterranean luxury goods well into the 6th century, but then lost their trading links. Administrative, educational and military infrastructure quickly vanished, and the loss of the established
cursus honorum led to the collapse of the schools and to a rise of illiteracy even among the leadership. The careers of
Cassiodorus (died ) at the beginning of this period and of
Alcuin of York (died 804) at its close were founded alike on their valued literacy. For the formerly Roman area, there was another 20 per cent decline in population between 400 and 600, or a one-third decline for 150–600. In the 8th century, the volume of trade reached its lowest level. The very small number of
shipwrecks found that dated from the 8th century supports this (which represents less than 2 per cent of the number of shipwrecks dated from the 1st century). There was also reforestation and a retreat of agriculture centred around 500. The Romans had practiced
two-field agriculture, with a crop grown in one field and the other left fallow and ploughed under to eliminate weeds. Systematic agriculture largely disappeared and yields declined. It is estimated that the
Plague of Justinian which began in 541 and recurred periodically for 150 years thereafter killed as many as 100 million people across the world. Some historians such as Josiah C. Russell (1958) have suggested a total European population loss of 50 to 60 per cent between 541 and 700. After the year 750, major epidemic diseases did not appear again in Europe until the
Black Death of the 14th century. The disease
smallpox, which was eradicated in the late 20th century, did not definitively enter
Western Europe until about 581 when Bishop
Gregory of Tours provided an eyewitness account that describes the characteristic findings of smallpox. Waves of
epidemics wiped out large rural populations. Most of the details about the epidemics are lost, probably due to the scarcity of surviving written records. For almost a thousand years,
Rome was the most politically important, richest and largest city in Europe. Around 100 AD, it had a population of about 450,000, and declined to a mere 20,000 during the Early Middle Ages, reducing the sprawling city to groups of inhabited buildings interspersed among large areas of ruins and vegetation.
Eastern Roman Empire }} The death of
Theodosius I in 395 was followed by the division of the empire between his two sons. The
Western Roman Empire disintegrated into a mosaic of warring Germanic kingdoms in the 5th century, effectively making the
Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople the
Greek-speaking successor to the classical Roman Empire. The inhabitants continued to regard themselves as Romans, or
Romaioi, until the
fall of Constantinople to the
Ottoman Empire in 1453. Despite this, to distinguish it from its predominantly
Latin-speaking predecessor, historians began referring to the empire as "Byzantine", after the original name of Constantinople,
Byzantium. The Eastern Roman or "Byzantine" Empire aimed to retain control of the trade routes between Europe and the Orient, which made the Empire the richest polity in medieval Europe. Making use of their sophisticated warfare and superior diplomacy, the Byzantines managed to fend off assaults by the migrating barbarians. Their dreams of subduing the Western potentates briefly materialized during the reign of
Justinian I in 527–565. Not only did Justinian restore some western territories to the Roman Empire, including Rome and the Italian peninsula itself, but he also codified
Roman law (with
his codification remaining in force in many areas of Europe until the 19th century) and commissioned the building of the largest and most architecturally advanced edifice of the Early Middle Ages, the
Hagia Sophia. However, his reign also saw the outbreak of a
bubonic plague pandemic, now known retroactively as the
Plague of Justinian. The Emperor himself was afflicted, and within the span of less than a year, an estimated 200,000 Constantinopolites—two out of every five city residents—had died of the disease. ,
Justinian's wife, and her retinue Justinian's successors
Maurice and
Heraclius confronted invasions by the
Avar and
Slavic tribes. After the devastations by the Slavs and the Avars, large areas of the
Balkans became depopulated. In 626 Constantinople, by far the largest city of early medieval Europe,
withstood a combined siege by Avars and Persians. Within several decades, Heraclius completed a holy war against the Persians, taking their capital and having a
Sassanid monarch assassinated. Yet Heraclius lived to see his spectacular success undone by the
Muslim conquests of
Syria, three
Palaestina provinces,
Egypt, and
North Africa which was considerably facilitated by religious disunity and the proliferation of heretical movements (notably
Monophysitism and
Nestorianism) in the areas converted to Islam. Although Heraclius's successors managed to salvage
Constantinople from two
Arab sieges (in 674–77 and 717), the empire of the 8th and early 9th century was rocked by the great
Iconoclastic Controversy, punctuated by dynastic struggles between various factions at court. The
Bulgar and
Slavic tribes profited from these disorders and invaded
Illyria,
Thrace and even
Greece. After the decisive victory at
Ongala in 680 the armies of the Bulgars and Slavs advanced to the south of the Balkan mountains, defeating again the Byzantines who were then forced to sign a humiliating peace treaty which acknowledged the establishment of the
First Bulgarian Empire on the borders of the Empire. To counter these threats a new system of administration was introduced. The regional civil and military administration were combined in the hands of a general, or strategos. A
theme, which formerly denoted a subdivision of the Byzantine army, came to refer to a region governed by a strategos. The reform led to the emergence of great landed families which controlled the regional military and often pressed their claims to the throne (see
Bardas Phocas and
Bardas Sklerus for characteristic examples). ''ivory plaque, ca. 945 By the early 8th century, notwithstanding the shrinking territory of the empire, Constantinople remained the largest and the wealthiest city west of
China, comparable only to Sassanid
Ctesiphon, and later
Abbasid Baghdad. The population of the imperial capital fluctuated between 300,000 and 400,000 as the emperors undertook measures to restrain its growth. The only other large Christian cities were Rome (50,000) and
Thessalonica (30,000). Even before the 8th century was out, the Farmer's Law signalled the resurrection of agricultural technologies in the Roman Empire. As the 2006
Encyclopædia Britannica noted, "the technological base of Byzantine society was more advanced than that of contemporary western Europe: iron tools could be found in the villages; water mills dotted the landscape; and field-sown beans provided a diet rich in protein". The ascension of the
Macedonian dynasty in 867 marked the end of the period of political and religious turmoil and introduced a new golden age of the empire. While the talented generals such as
Nicephorus Phocas expanded the frontiers, the Macedonian emperors (such as
Leo the Wise and
Constantine VII) presided over the cultural flowering in Constantinople, known as the
Macedonian Renaissance. The enlightened Macedonian rulers scorned the rulers of Western Europe as illiterate barbarians and maintained a nominal claim to rule over the West. Although this fiction had been exploded with the coronation of
Charlemagne in Rome (800), the Byzantine rulers did not treat their Western counterparts as equals. Generally, they had little interest in political and economic developments in the barbarian (from their point of view) West. Against this economic background the culture and the imperial traditions of the Eastern Roman Empire attracted its northern neighbours—Slavs, Bulgars, and Khazars—to
Constantinople, in search of either pillage or enlightenment. The movement of the Germanic tribes to the south triggered the great migration of the
Slavs, who occupied the vacated territories. In the 7th century, they moved westward to the
Elbe, southward to the
Danube and eastward to the
Dnieper. By the 9th century, the Slavs had expanded into sparsely inhabited territories to the south and east from these natural frontiers, peacefully assimilating the indigenous
Illyrian and
Finnic populations.
Rise of Islam ;632–750 From the 7th century,
Byzantine history was greatly affected by the rise of Islam and the
Caliphates.
Muslim Arabs first invaded historically Roman territory under
Abū Bakr, first Caliph of the
Rashidun Caliphate, who entered
Roman Syria and
Roman Mesopotamia. The Byzantines and neighbouring Persian
Sasanids had been severely weakened by a long succession of
Byzantine–Sasanian wars, especially the climactic
Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628. Under
Umar, the second Caliph, the Muslims decisively conquered
Syria and
Mesopotamia, as well as
Roman Palestine,
Roman Egypt, parts of
Asia Minor and
Roman North Africa, while they entirely toppled the Sasanids. In the mid 7th century, following the
Muslim conquest of Persia, Islam penetrated into the
Caucasus region, of which parts
would later permanently become part of Russia. This expansion of Islam continued under Umar's successors and then the
Umayyad Caliphate, which conquered the rest of Mediterranean North Africa and most of the
Iberian Peninsula. Over the next centuries Muslim forces were able to take further European territory, including
Cyprus,
Malta,
Septimania,
Crete, and
Sicily and parts of southern Italy. The Muslim conquest of Hispania began when the
Moors (mostly
Berbers and some
Arabs) invaded the
Christian Visigothic Kingdom in the year 711, under their Berber leader
Tariq ibn Ziyad. They landed at
Gibraltar on 30 April and worked their way northward. Tariq's forces were joined the next year by those of his superior,
Musa ibn Nusair. During the eight-year campaign most of the
Iberian Peninsula was brought under
Muslim rule—except for small areas in the north-northwest (
Asturias) and largely
Basque regions in the
Pyrenees. This territory, under the Arab name
Al-Andalus, became part of the expanding
Umayyad empire. The unsuccessful
second siege of Constantinople (717) weakened the
Umayyad dynasty and reduced their prestige. After their success in overrunning Iberia, the conquerors moved northeast across the Pyrenees. They were defeated by the
Frankish leader
Charles Martel at the
Battle of Poitiers in 732. The Umayyads were overthrown in 750 by the
Abbāsids and most of the Umayyad clan were massacred. A surviving Umayyad prince,
Abd-ar-rahman I, escaped to Spain and founded a new Umayyad dynasty in the
Emirate of Cordoba in 756. Charles Martel's son
Pippin the Short retook
Narbonne, and his grandson Charlemagne established the
Marca Hispanica across the Pyrenees in part of what today is
Catalonia, reconquering
Girona in 785 and
Barcelona in 801. The Umayyads in Hispania proclaimed themselves caliphs in 929.
Birth of the Latin West 700–850 , an
Anglo-Saxon helmet from the early 7th century Climatic conditions in Western Europe began to improve after 700. In that year, the two major powers in western Europe were the
Franks in
Gaul and the
Lombards in Italy. The Lombards had been thoroughly Romanized, and
their kingdom was stable and well developed. The Franks, in contrast, were barely any different from their barbarian Germanic ancestors. The
Kingdom of the Franks was weak and divided. Impossible to guess at the time, but by the end of the century, the Lombardic kingdom would be extinct, while the Frankish kingdom would have nearly reassembled the Western Roman Empire.
Chalcedonian Christianity had barely started to spread in northern Europe by this time. Through the practice of
simony, local princes typically auctioned off ecclesiastical offices, causing priests and bishops to function as though they were yet another noble under the patronage of the prince. In contrast, a network of
monasteries had sprung up as monks sought separation from the world. These monasteries remained independent from local princes, and as such constituted the "church" for most northern Europeans during this time. Being independent from local princes, they increasingly stood out as centres of learning, of scholarship, and as religious centres where individuals could receive spiritual or monetary assistance. This meant that, when the king granted a prince land in reward for service, that prince and all of his descendants had an irrevocable right to that land that no future king could undo. Likewise, those princes (and their sons) could sublet their land to their own vassals, who could in turn sublet the land to lower sub-vassals. His accomplishments were highlighted, not just by his famous defeat of invading Muslims at the
Battle of Tours, which is typically considered the battle that saved Europe from Muslim conquest, but by the fact that he greatly expanded Frankish influence. It was under his patronage that
Boniface expanded Frankish influence into Germany by rebuilding the German church, with the result that, within a century, the German church was the strongest church in western Europe. Instead, he sought the assistance of
Pope Zachary, who was himself newly vulnerable due to fallout with the
Byzantine Emperor over the
Iconoclastic Controversy. Pepin agreed to support the pope and to give him land (the
Donation of Pepin, which created the
Papal States) in exchange for being consecrated as the new Frankish king. Given that Pepin's claim to the kingship was now based on an authority higher than Frankish custom, no resistance was offered to Pepin. Compared to the earlier two-field system, a three-field system allowed for significantly more land to be put under cultivation. Even more important, the system allowed for two harvests a year, reducing the risk that a single crop failure will lead to famine. Three-field agriculture created a surplus of oats that could be used to feed horses. This surplus allowed for the replacement of the ox by the horse after the introduction of the padded
horse collar in the 12th century. Because the system required a major rearrangement of real estate and of the social order, it took until the 11th century before it came into general use. The heavy wheeled plough was introduced in the late 10th century. It required greater animal power and promoted the use of teams of oxen. Illuminated manuscripts depict two-wheeled ploughs with both a mouldboard, or curved metal ploughshare, and a coulter, a vertical blade in front of the ploughshare. The Romans had used light, wheel-less ploughs with flat iron shares that often proved unequal to the heavy soils of northern Europe. The return to systemic agriculture coincided with the introduction of a new social system called
feudalism. This system featured a hierarchy of reciprocal obligations. Each man was bound to serve his superior in return for the latter's protection. This made for confusion of territorial sovereignty since allegiances were subject to change over time and were sometimes mutually contradictory. Feudalism allowed the state to provide a degree of public safety despite the continued absence of bureaucracy and written records. Manors became largely self-sufficient, and the volume of trade along long-distance routes and in market towns declined during this period, though never ceased entirely. Roman roads decayed and long-distance trade depended more heavily on water transport.
Viking Age , called by the name of Norman ---- ----
Viking raiding regions The Viking Age spans the period roughly between the late 8th and mid-11th centuries in
Scandinavia and
Britain, following the
Germanic Iron Age (and the
Vendel Age in Sweden). During this period, the
Vikings, Scandinavian warriors and traders raided and explored most parts of
Europe,
south-western Asia,
northern Africa, and
north-eastern North America. With the means to travel (longships and open water), desire for goods led Scandinavian traders to explore and develop extensive trading partnerships in new territories. Some of the most important trading ports during the period include both existing and ancient cities such as
Aarhus,
Ribe,
Hedeby,
Vineta,
Truso,
Kaupang,
Birka,
Bordeaux,
York,
Dublin, and
Aldeigjuborg. Viking raiding expeditions were separate from, though coexisted with, regular trading expeditions. Apart from exploring Europe via its oceans and rivers, with the aid of their advanced navigational skills, they extended their trading routes across vast parts of the continent. They also engaged in warfare, looting and enslaving numerous Christian communities of medieval Europe for centuries, contributing to the development of feudal systems in Europe.
Eastern Europe ; 600–1000 In the beginning of the period, the
Slavic tribes started to expand aggressively into Central and Southeastern Europe, including former Byzantine possessions in the Balkans. The first attested
Slavic polity was the so-called
Samo's Empire, followed by
Great Moravia,
Duchy of Bohemia,
Duchy of Croatia and
Serbia, also emerging under the aegis of the Frankish Empire in the early 9th century. Great Moravia was ultimately overrun by the
Magyars, who invaded the
Pannonian Basin around 896. The Slavic state became a stage for confrontation between the Christian missionaries from Constantinople and Rome. Although West Slavic and most of the South Slavic lands since the beginning were under Roman ecclesiastical authority, the clergy of Constantinople succeeded in converting to Eastern Christianity two of the largest states of early medieval Europe,
Bulgaria (c. 864) and
Kievan Rus' (c. 990), but also the Serbs (c. 870s). The Early Middle Ages marked the beginning of the cultural distinctions between Western and Eastern Europe north of the Mediterranean. Influence from the
Byzantine Empire impacted the Christianization and hence almost every aspect of the cultural and political development of the East from the preeminence of
Caesaropapism and
Eastern Christianity to the spread of the
Cyrillic alphabet. The turmoil of the so-called
Barbarian invasions in the beginning of the period gradually gave way to more stabilized societies and states as the origins of contemporary Eastern Europe began to take shape during the
High Middle Ages. Turkic and Iranian invaders from
Central Asia pressured the agricultural populations both in the Byzantine
Balkans and in Central Europe creating a number of successor states in the
Pontic steppes. After the dissolution of the
Hunnic Empire, the
Western Turkic and
Avar Khaganates dominated territories from
Pannonia to the
Caspian Sea before being replaced by the short lived
Old Great Bulgaria and the more successful
Khazar Khaganate north of the Black Sea and the
Magyars in Central Europe. The
Khazars were a nomadic Turkic people who managed to develop a multiethnic commercial state which owed its success to the control of much of the waterway trade between Europe and Central Asia. The Khazars also exacted tribute from the
Alani,
Magyars, various
Slavic tribes, the
Crimean Goths, and the Greeks of
Crimea. Through a network of Jewish itinerant merchants, or
Radhanites, they were in contact with the trade emporia of India and Spain. Once they found themselves confronted by
Arab expansionism, the Khazars pragmatically allied themselves with Constantinople and clashed with the
Caliphate. Despite initial setbacks, they managed to recover
Derbent and eventually penetrated as far south as
Caucasian Iberia,
Caucasian Albania and
Armenia. In doing so, they effectively blocked the northward expansion of
Islam into
Eastern Europe even before
khan Tervel achieved the same at the
Second Arab Siege of Constantinople and several decades before the
Battle of Tours in Western Europe. Islam eventually penetrated into Eastern Europe in the 920s when
Volga Bulgaria exploited the decline of Khazar power in the region to adopt Islam from the
Baghdad missionaries. The state religion of Khazaria,
Judaism, disappeared as a political force with the fall of Khazaria, while Islam of Volga Bulgaria has survived in the region up to the present.
Bulgaria from around 900, found in
Preslav, Bulgarian capital from 893 to 972 In 632 the
Bulgars established the khanate of
Old Great Bulgaria under the leadership of
Kubrat. The Khazars managed to oust the Bulgars from Southern Ukraine into lands along middle
Volga (
Volga Bulgaria) and along lower
Danube (
Danube Bulgaria). In 681 the Bulgars founded a powerful and ethnically diverse state that played a defining role in the history of early medieval
Southeastern Europe. Bulgaria withstood the pressure from
Pontic steppe tribes like the
Pechenegs,
Khazars, and
Cumans, and in 806 destroyed the
Avar Khanate. The Danube Bulgars were quickly slavicized and, despite constant campaigning against Constantinople, accepted Christianity from the Byzantine Empire. Through the efforts of missionaries
Cyril and Methodius, mainly their disciples like
Clement of Ohrid and
Naum, the spread, initially of the
Glagolitic, and later of the
Cyrillic alphabet, developed in the capital Preslav. The local vernacular dialect, now known as
Old Bulgarian or Old Church Slavonic, was established as the language of books and liturgy among
Orthodox Christian Slavs. After the adoption of
Christianity in 864, Bulgaria became a cultural and spiritual hub of the
Eastern Orthodox Slavic world. The
Cyrillic script was developed around 885–886, and was afterwards also introduced with books to
Serbia and
Kievan Rus'. Literature, art, and architecture were thriving with the establishment of the
Preslav and
Ohrid Literary Schools along with the distinct Preslav Ceramics School. In 927 the
Bulgarian Orthodox Church was the first European national Church to gain independence with its own Patriarch while conducting services in the
vernacular Old Church Slavonic. Under
Simeon I (893–927), the state was the largest and one of the most powerful political entities of Europe, and it consistently threatened the existence of the Byzantine empire. From the middle of the 10th century Bulgaria was in decline as it entered a social and spiritual turmoil. It was in part due to Simeon's devastating wars, but was also exacerbated by a series of successful Byzantine military campaigns. Bulgaria was conquered after a long resistance in 1018.
Kievan Rus' Led by a
Varangian dynasty, the
Kievan Rus' controlled the
routes connecting Northern Europe to Byzantium and to the Orient (for example: the
Volga trade route). The Kievan state began with the rule (882–912) of
Prince Oleg, who extended his control from
Novgorod southwards along the
Dnieper river valley in order to protect trade from
Khazar incursions from the east and moved his capital to the more strategic
Kiev.
Sviatoslav I (died 972) achieved the first major expansion of Kievan Rus' territorial control, fighting a war of conquest against the
Khazar Empire and inflicting a serious blow on
Bulgaria. A
Rus' attack (967 or 968), instigated by the Byzantines, led to the collapse of the Bulgarian state and the occupation of the east of the country by the Rus'. An ensuing
direct military confrontation between the Rus' and Byzantium (970–971) ended with a
Byzantine victory (971). The Rus' withdrew and the Byzantine Empire incorporated eastern Bulgaria. Both before and after their
conversion to Christianity (conventionally dated 988 under
Vladimir I of Kiev—known as Vladimir the Great), the Rus' also embarked on predatory military campaigns against the Byzantine Empire, some of which resulted in trade treaties. The importance of Russo-Byzantine relations to Constantinople was highlighted by the fact that Vladimir I of Kiev, son of
Svyatoslav I, became the only foreigner to marry (989) a
Byzantine princess of the
Macedonian dynasty (which ruled the
Eastern Roman Empire from 867 to 1056), a singular honour sought in vain by many other rulers. ==Transmission of learning==