The European Hun Empire (374–469)

Around 374, led by Balamber, the Huns crossed the Volga into the Black Sea steppe and drove the Goths westward. This movement went down in history as the Great Migration and eventually opened the way to the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

In the 5th century the centre of Hun power moved to Pannonia, in today's Hungary. From 434 the brothers Bleda and Attila ruled together, and from 445 Attila ruled alone. He forced the Eastern Roman Empire to pay tribute, fought Rome and its allies on the Catalaunian Plains in Gaul in 451 and campaigned in Italy in 452.

Attila died in 453. His sons Dengizich and Ernak kept the state alive for a while, but in 469 the empire broke up. The memory of the Huns lived on in Europe: in Hungary Attila is still a popular boy's name, and Hungarian legends often recall kinship with the Huns.