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Gaul
---I can explain ancient Europe, which will explain pretty mucha ll of Europe, from England to Russia and into Africa. This is long, so I divided it into nations so you can skip paragraphs you are not interested in.
------------Gaul-------------
---The Gauls (Gael is how we'd prefer to these people by the language they spoke) were not a singular civilization in that it was tribal. Every few miles was essentially a different "kingdom" in many ways, but the Gauls were cohesive enough to be considered a single civilization, much like the Native Americans of old.
---They began near what is now Luxembourg (central Europe on the eastern edge of France). They would have displaced homonids (who's final death was in asia in the mid stone age), Neanderthal (final death in Europe, mid stone age) and potentially other early homo sapiens of no defined culture. The culture went through 3 stages as it grew into modern france, up to Holland and over to the Caucasus. The first stage we call "La Tene". The second, we call "Urnfield" and the final we call "Gael" because of the same language base. To give you an idea of how diverse it was, the "Druidic religion" that dominated the area had over 300 Gods. They had so many Gods because, essentially, each family had it's own Gods. Only a handful of the Gods were shared in more than one family. However, their art, their crafts and their language were all the same.
---The Gauls had stretched into England and Scotland, displacing essentially earlier Gaulic tribes. They stretched into Scandanavia, helping create the Norse who would eventually assimilate into nearly every corner of the western world. The tribes were constantly waring, so it was no place to be if you were a foreigner.
----------------Rome Meets Gaul----------------
---Rome was a young nation when it was still using it's army of civilians. It had just toppled the former king of the Mediterranean, Carthage, and began to change it's military into the much more effective "professional army" where recruits made careers in the military. Early Rome appears to have come from several cultures, namely the Etruscans, which ended up with a small, but acceptable cite of land north of Italy. One day, the Gauls came down from the north and told the Etruscans "Hey, we want your land." The Etruscans said "Bugger off, it's not your's to take" to which the Gauls responded (and this is a quote from Livy- Roman historian) "Our right lay in our arms. To the brave go all things."
---The Etruscans then plead to it's younger, but larger brother, Rome, "Hey, bro... help me out." The Romans had heard about the Gauls and the roman citizens were afraid of these "white giants who battle totally naked". The Gauls had only sparce information on Rome, but knew they were up against a real force.
---Rome was still pretty young, so when the Gauls eventually attacked, they actually went INTO Rome itself, and moved on to the capitol of the time and almost took THAT. The Roman citizens were horrified that a barbarian horde was able to cut it's throat so easily.
---Well, a few centuries later, when the Roman influence stretched north of the Alps and up to the Danube, they'd occasionally send forces across and cause some trouble. One such incursion didn't fare so well. Two legions (10,000 men) walked across the river and into Gaul lands. They began recieving orders to move further in. What they DIDN'T know was that these written orders were NOT official orders. They were faked documents-- made by the Gauls who eventually found the roman Legions. The 10,000 roman men never came back. Rome imemdiately stopped all incursions into Germania. Six years later, they go in again and the men find a several mile long wasteland of skeletons in roman uniform with heads chopped off, hanging upside down and just about everything spooky you can think of.
----------------Down to Brass Tacks--------------
---The fright that was put into Rome essentially prevented the Gauls from being forcibly propelled into a more organized and advanced civilization. The people who eventually became the Spanish (Iberians were Gauls), the French (Gauls and Norse, who are also Gaulic) the English (more Gauls) and German (yep... Gauls) divided into singular organized societies just as Rome was christianizing.
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