Early Medieval Europe, 300–1000
In the fifth century the Roman Empire broke down. Europe was politically fragmented, with Germanic kings ruling a number of different kingdoms. Western Europe continued to suffer invasions as Muslim Arabs and Berbers took the Iberian Peninsula and pushed into France. Vikings attacked England, France, and Spain in the late eighth and ninth centuries. Vikings also settled Iceland and Normandy, from which the Norman William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066.
The fall of the Roman Empire was accompanied by an economic transformation that included de-urbanization and a decline in trade. Without the domination of Rome and its “Great Tradition,” regional elites became more self-sufficient and local “small traditions” flourished. Self-sufficient farming estates called manors were the primary centers of agricultural production. Manors grew from the need for self-sufficiency and self-defense.