As one can surmise, with the repeated invasions by several, savage tribes and their armies in search of resources, safety and increased power and lacking adequate manpower, leadership, and internal organization and resolution, the Roman Empire over time was unable to defend much of its former majesty.  Although it should be recognized that the entire region Europe , Middle East, North Africa reflected the social, political, cultural foot-prints of the Empire’s presence and the cultural exchanges it provided between the tribes, city-states and empires it interacted with.

Charlemagne, a Frankish King of the Carolingian Dynasty who had later conquered most of Western Europe was anointed “Holy Roman Emperor” by the Pope Leo III in 800 AD.  This led to the founding of the Holy Roman Empire, which became centered in the German principalities of central Europe. 

In about 950 AD, the title of Emperor of the Romans passed to the German monarch Otto I who then founded the Holy Roman Empire consisting of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Nertherlands and some of Poland.  The emperors were Germanic and called themselves Augusti.

In this period, Pope Urban II called for a crusade against Muslims occupying Jerusalem and the Holy Land.  In Europe itself, the Church organized the Inquisition against heretics.  In Spain, Reconquista concluded with the fall of Granada in 1492 ending 7 centuries of Muslim rule in the Iberian (Spain) peninsula.

Europe was devastated in mid 14th century by the Black Death, one of the most deadly pandemics in human history which killed an estimated 50 million in Europe alone – a third of the population at the time. 

The Renaissance was a period of cultural change originating in Italy in the 14th century.  It gave rise to a new humanism by recovery of Classical and Arabic knowledge from monastic libraries and the Islamic world.  The cultural change spread across Europe between the 14th and 16th centuries: it saw the flowering of art, philosophy, music and science.

The Renaissance and its New Monarchs marked the start of the Age of Discovery – exploration, invention and science.  Christopher Columbus discovered the New World in 1492 and soon after, The Spanish and Portuguese began establishing colonial empires in Americas.  France, the Netherlands and England soon were building large colonial empires with holdings in Africa, Americas and Asia.

AFTER THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE, GENERALLY CHAOS TILL 1870 AND GARIBALDI