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===Background===
[[File: Hun 8.jpg |200px|thumb|left|] A modern recreation of the Huns]]
No one really knows the origins of the Huns. The great British historian Gibbon believed that they were identical to the Xiongnu tribes who were defeated by Imperial Chinese armies in the third century AD.<ref> Edward Gibbon. <i>Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire </i> (London, Penguin Classics, 2000), p. 454</ref> The Xiongnu were then forced to migrate to seek new pasturelands for their vast herds of sheep and horses. One source speculates that they were driven further west by attacks from other nomads. Modern historians believe that their origins lie in Central Asia, possibly in the modern nation of Kazakhstan.<ref> Heather, Peter. <i>Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe </i> (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 134</ref> What seems likely is that the Huns were not a definite and homogenous group. They may have been an amalgam of many different tribes and peoples.
This was common in Central Asia, where diverse groups of tribes formed vast confederations led usually by a great war-leader. From the early 4th century the Huns pressed into the modern Ukrainian Steppe driving the Goths and other tribes before them. The forced unknown numbers to seek refuge in the Roman Empire and this was to destabilize the Empire .<ref> Gibbon, p 456</ref>. The Huns core area of activity was in modern Hungary and from here they dominated the surrounding tribes and peoples. They terrorized and forced many people’s to obey their will and soon they began to serve as mercenaries in Roman armies.<ref> Maenchen-Helfen, Otto J. <i>The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture </i> (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1973), p. 113 </ref> The Huns were largely a nomadic people and had lived in camps all year around, even in the winter. They were expert horsemen, being taught to ride a horse from an early and they were outstanding bowmen. They used the composite bow, to fire arrows quickly and accurately. Because of their increasing contact with other people and especially their interaction with the Romans the Huns were becoming less nomadic.<ref> Maenchen-Helfen, p 116</ref>
There is evidence that the Huns constructed large villages and it seems likely that Attila had a capital. The Huns were becoming increasingly indistinguishable from those they had conquered. They full impact of these changes on the Huns is not known<ref> Heather, p 256</ref>. Despite them being referred to as a horde the number of Hunnic warriors was probably not very large. Modern historians believe that at most that there were approximately twenty thousand thousand Hun warriors. The army of the Hums were inflated by their contributions from subject peoples or their allies. The Huns success was also due to the fact that the Roman Empire was divided.<ref> Heather, p. 345</ref>. The west and east of the Empire were ruled by two different emperors who were often rivals and suspicious of each other. The two parts of the Empire rarely cooperated and had become very different societies.
===The reign of Attila the Hun===
The Huns preyed upon the Romans. Attila and his brother changed the strategy of the Huns. No longer were they prepared to serve as mercenaries they demanded tribute and other payments, usually in the form of gold and silver. The constant tribute was a serious drain on the Romans. They were forced to raise taxes and this led to a serious economic downturn. Furthermore, so much gold was leaving the Empire that it led to a reduction in economic activity as there was not enough coin in circulation.<ref> Kim. p. 119</ref> The west was unable to pay for subsidies to Attila and they adopted desperate measures such as increasing taxation and minting coins. This led to inflation and this caused great distress in the western provinces.<ref>Norwich, p. 5</ref>
The raids and invasions of the Huns were devastating. They not only plundered cities and regions they took a positive delight in destruction. Like many other nomads before and since, they hated sedentary culture and delighted in destroying its form and it structures. This meant that the Huns unlike other tribes who invaded the Empire were unique in the level of destruction they inflicted on the Roman Empire. The Balkans were devastated by the Huns and subsequently became a wasteland apart from some enclaves in Greece and on the coasts. The area was not really controlled by the Emperor in Constantinople and many Germanic and other tribes settled in the area.<ref> Heather, p. 203.</ref>
It was about 200 years before the Balkans was once more under the control of Constantinople and even then, it never recovered its former prosperity. The impact of Attila on France was devastating. However, Attila’s invasion of Italy was to have profound consequences for Italy. Before the invasion, the area was recovering from the Goths invasion and subsequent sack of Rome. The invasion of the Huns devastated Northern Italy and the area took generations to recover. The area’s urban centres were destroyed and the region depopulated.<ref>Kim, p. 167</ref>. Many of the refugees sought shelter in remote areas. Some refugees found sanctuary on some islets in the Adriatic and from these small settlements the great city of Venice emerged in the early Middle Ages.<ref> Norwich, John Julius. <i>The History of Venice</i> (Pelican, London, 1997), p. 14</ref> Attila’s invasion weakened Italy the core area of the western Empire and this fatally weakened the Romans in the west.
===Conclusion===
Attila the Hun was one of the most important figures in the dying days of the Western Roman Empire. He was one of a series of barbarian leaders, who inflicted so much damage on the fabric of the western Roman Empire. The social and economic impact of his armies’ attacks, that appear to have been on an unprecedented scale seriously weakened both the eastern and the western empires. The western part of the Empire was weaker and not able to cope with Attila, his raids and financial exactions. The western Romans had neither the military or the economic means to defend themselves against the Huns. Attila deliberately targeted the west because he knows that it was weaker. He did not conquer it but he did leave it in an economic and social crisis and this so undermined the state in the west that its fall was inevitable.
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