Peoples of Europe
Peoples of Europe Encyclopedia Articles
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Viking
Viking, member of the Scandinavian seafaring warriors who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the 9th to the 11th century and whose disruptive influence profoundly affected European history....
Bulgar
Bulgar, member of a people known in eastern European history during the Middle Ages. A branch of this people was one of the primary three ethnic ancestors of modern Bulgarians (the other two were Thracians...
Frank
Frank, member of a Germanic-speaking people who invaded the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. Dominating present-day northern France, Belgium, and western Germany, the Franks established the most...
Finnic peoples
Finnic peoples, descendants of a collection of tribal peoples speaking closely related languages of the Finno-Ugric family who migrated to the area of the eastern Baltic, Finland, and Karelia before ad...
Basque
Basque, member of a people who live in both Spain and France in areas bordering the Bay of Biscay and encompassing the western foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains. In the late 20th century probably about...
Frisian
Frisian, people of western Europe whose name survives in that of the mainland province of Friesland and in that of the Frisian Islands off the coast of the Netherlands but who once occupied a much more...
Rusyn
Rusyn, any of several East Slavic peoples (modern-day Belarusians, Ukrainians, and Carpatho-Rusyns) and their languages. The name Rusyn is derived from Rus (Ruthenia), the name of the territory that they...
Cossack
Cossack, (from Turkic kazak, “adventurer” or “free man”), member of a people dwelling in the northern hinterlands of the Black and Caspian seas. They had a tradition of independence and finally received...
Khazar
Khazar, member of a confederation of Turkic-speaking tribes that in the late 6th century ce established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia. Although the...
Tatar
Tatar, any member of several Turkic-speaking peoples that collectively numbered more than 5 million in the late 20th century and lived mainly in west-central Russia along the central course of the Volga...
Celt
Celt, a member of an early Indo-European people who from the 2nd millennium bce to the 1st century bce spread over much of Europe. Their tribes and groups eventually ranged from the British Isles and northern...
Transylvanian Saxons
Transylvanian Saxons, German-speaking population that in the Middle Ages settled in Transylvania, then part of Hungary. The Transylvanian Saxons represented one of the three nations that made up the Transylvanian...
ancient Italic people
Ancient Italic people, any of the peoples diverse in origin, language, traditions, stage of development, and territorial extension who inhabited pre-Roman Italy, a region heavily influenced by neighbouring...
Sarmatian
Sarmatian, member of a people originally of Iranian stock who migrated from Central Asia to the Ural Mountains between the 6th and 4th century bc and eventually settled in most of southern European Russia...
Etruscan
Etruscan, member of an ancient people of Etruria, Italy, between the Tiber and Arno rivers west and south of the Apennines, whose urban civilization reached its height in the 6th century bce. Many features...
Norman
Norman, member of those Vikings, or Norsemen, who settled in northern France (or the Frankish kingdom), together with their descendants. The Normans founded the duchy of Normandy and sent out expeditions...
Roma
Roma, an ethnic group of traditionally itinerant people who originated in northern India but live in modern times worldwide, principally in Europe. Most Roma speak some form of Romany, a language closely...
Germanic peoples
Germanic peoples, any of the Indo-European speakers of Germanic languages. The origins of the Germanic peoples are obscure. During the late Bronze Age, they are believed to have inhabited southern Sweden,...
Dorian
Dorian, any member of a major division of the ancient Greek people, distinguished by a well-marked dialect and by their subdivision, within all their communities, into the “tribes” (phylai) of Hylleis,...
Vlach
Vlach, any of a group of Romance-language speakers who live south of the Danube in what are now southern Albania, northern Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, and southwestern Bulgaria. Vlach is the English-language...
