Vandalsresearchsummary

The Vandals, originally from northern Europe, invaded parts of the Roman Empire before settling in a region that is now part of Hungary and Yugoslavia. In 406, the tribe moved west and entered what is now France. After suffering a defeat there by the Franks, the Vandals began moving again, this time journeying south into Spain. In 428, the entire tribe sailed from Spain to Africa and settled along the southern shore of the Mediterranean. The Vandals built a great fleet, and they soon became the leading sea power of the region. They set up colonies on Sicily, Sardinia, and other Mediterranean islands. In 455, the Vandals attacked Rome itself, carrying away with them all the city's wealth. But the Vandals didn't "vandalize" Rome any more than a number of other tribes. Their bad reputation probably had something to do with their persecution of Christians. In 533, an army of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian reached Africa and defeated the Vandals, carrying some of them hack to Constantinople. After the sixth century, the Vandals disappeared from history, but not from the dictionary.
 * Climate and geographical factors:**

Kings : 439-477 Geiseric 477-494 Huneric 494-496 Gunthamund 496-523 Thrasamund 523-530 Hilderic 30-533 Gelimer
 * Events and leaders:**

//Year 533// Jan 2nd - John II begins his reign as Catholic Pope Sep 13th **-** General Belisarius of the Byzantine Empire defeats Gelimer and the Vandals at the Battle of Ad Decimium, near Carthage, North Africa. Oct 15th **-** Byzantine general Belisarius makes his formal entry into Carthage, having conquered it from the Vandals. Dec 15th **-** Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Ticameron.

No trace of autocracy can be found among the [|**germans**] whom Caesar describes. The leading men of the pagi (kindred groups) would try to patch up disputes as they arose, but they acted only in those disputes that broke out between members of their own pagus. There appears to have been no mediatory body at this date. In wartime, according to Caesar, a number of confederate chieftains were elected, but they were joint leaders and held office only in time of war. By Tacitus’ time a new type of military chieftainship had come into being. For this office only the members of a recognized "royal clan," such as is known to have existed among the 1st-century Cherusci and Batavians, the 6th-century Heruli, and others, were eligible. Any member of this royal clan was eligible for election, and the chieftainship was in no way hereditary. A chief of this type held office for life and had religious as well as military duties. The council of the leading men could overrule him, and they might reject his proposals to the general assembly of the warriors. The general assembly elected a number of the leading men to act as judges, and these judges traveled through the villages to hear private suits. 100 attendants to lend authority to his decisions accompanied each of them. A person who was found guilty by these judges had to pay a number of horses or cattle proportionate to the gravity of his offense. But many disputes (e.g., those arising from homicide, wounding, or theft) continued to be settled by the kindreds themselves, and the [|blood feuds] to which they gave rise might continue from generation to generation. Only one Germanic chieftain is known to have set up a personal tyranny over his people: [|Maroboduus], who led the Marcomanni from their homes in the Main valley about 9 bc and settled them in Bohemia. From there he conquered a considerable number of other Germanic peoples between the Elbe and the Vistula, including the Semnones, the Lombards, and the Lugii. But the Cherusci, joined by some of the king’s subjects, attacked him in ad 17, overthrew him, and drove him into the Roman Empire. All other chiefs who attempted in this period to establish monarchies were, so far as is known, defeated. The monarchy did not become fully established in the Germanic world until German peoples had settled as federates inside the Roman Empire, and the leaders of the Ostrogoths in Italy, the Visigoths in Gaul and Spain, the Vandals in Africa, and so on are the first Germanic kings. Other famous German chieftains in this period, such as Athanaric and Alaric, who either lived outside the [|**roman**] frontier or whose peoples were not federates settled in the provinces under a treaty (foedus) to defend the frontier, seem to have had little more personal authority than the leaders described by Tacitus.
 * Socio-political structure:**

A horse, an ox, or a wife, was used to pull the plow. Harvesting was done by hand. Crops available for export went a short distance by ox cart, and thence by river barge or sea going ship to market. For local consumption there were vegetable gardens and fruit trees. Fruit, however, was often turned into cider for export or winter use. Berrys, nuts and anything else eatable was also gathered when available. Bee hives were kept to produce [|honey]. These subsidiary crops kept the farmers busy most of the time, for the main crops only required a few weeks intense labor at planting and harvesting time. To compensate for the lack of modern fertilizer, the farmland was treated with animal (and sometimes human) manure, and allowed to remain fallow every second ot third year. When fallow, the field was sometimes planted with legumes (peas, beans) that restored the lost nitrogen in the soil. The Romans had been avid students of agriculture, and much of that knowledge survived either in practice or in the collection of Roman era manuscripts preserved at monasteries.
 * Agriculture and Economy:**

Depending on the nature of the land, the size of the farmers holdings, local weather conditions, and drinking habits, about half the land would be sown in barley. In ale drinking areas (most of England and large parts of France), barley would be needed for making ale. Barley was also a more productive grain, even though it produced a less tasty meal than wheat. A third (or more) of the land would be planted in wheat. The remainder would go for peas and oats. Grain yields of slightly under four times seed grain sown were the norm until the 18th century. There, another burst of innovation brought productivity to ten times seed sown.. In the 20th century, this rose to twenty times

Bronze to iron in making tools and weapons, which occurred around the 12th century B.C. Early in the second millennium B.C., iron was known as the stuff of meteorites. It was rare and highly prized: if you wanted to give a gift to a pharaoh or a king you didn’t give a gold dagger but an iron one. But when the eastern Mediterranean fell short of tin from which to make bronze, a technological revolution occurred. Artisans learned to extract metallic iron from iron-rich materials by heating with charcoal (a process called smelting), which caused the price of iron to fall by a factor of 80,000 over 1,200 years. The Iron Age had begun.
 * Energy:**

Minimal information found.

No mathematical or science contributions are known.
 * Science and Mathematical Contributions:**