48 THE INFLUENCE OF THE EAST ON EUROPEAN HISTORY 
Have we not an expression in our own language very eloquent 
respecting this fact, I refer to the expression “to catch a Tartar.” 
In the course of their military operations the following nations bear 
reluctant witness to their disastrous encounters, the Chinese (who 
built their great wall to keep the nomads out), Persians, Indians, 
Armenians, Syrians, Greeks, Russians, Poles, Hungarians, in fact all 
the peoples of middle and eastern Europe. 
From the 4th to the 15th century Europe has been subject to 
these irruptions of the Tartars. After the revival of learning in the 
15th century Europe has taken the first place in civilisation and 
power ; these irruptions have ceased altogether, and in its turn Asia 
in the North and South has been subject to the conquest of European 
powers. 
Let us now see how these Tartar or Mongol peoples affected 
European History. In 376, when the Roman Empire of the West 
was tottering to its fall, there was an invasion of a tribe of Tartars, 
called Huns. The reason for their appearance at this time is some- 
times given as being due to a revolution in China, or in the North of 
China, where a tribe hostile to the Huns became very powerful, and 
drove them from their territory. ‘lhe appearance of the Huns in 
Europe caused general consternation ; with their strange type of 
face, short and bent legs, and shrill voices they were supposed to be 
inhabitants from the nether world, and the offspring of witches and 
demons. 
In the South of Russia they first came into contact with the 
Ostrogoths and Visigoths, who had for a long time been a thorn in 
the side of the Eastern Empire. The Goths were displaced from 
their territories and fled. It was some time before the Visigoths 
settled down, and in the course of their wanderings they ravaged 
Greece and Italy, sacked Rome, and finally founded the Visigothic 
kingdom of Spain. 
To what extent the great migrations of the Teutonic peoples 
other than the Goths was influenced by the invasion of the Huns I 
cannot tell. The migratory movement had been in existence for a 
long time before, but I cannot help feeling that it was greatly 
stimulated by it. To me it has always been a puzzle to explain how 
it was that whole nations, or a vast proportion of these nations, left 
