Invasions of Europe

Al-Andalus (Arabic: الأَنْدَلُس) was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name describes the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most of the peninsula as well as Septimania under Umayyad rule. These boundaries changed constantly through a series of conquests Western historiography has traditionally characterized as the Reconquista, eventually shrinking to the south and finally to the Emirate of Granada.

The first Persian invasion of Greece is a historical event having occurred from 492 BC to 490 BC, as part of the Greco-Persian Wars. It ended with a decisive Athenian-led victory over the Achaemenid Empire during the Battle of Marathon. Consisting of two distinct campaigns, the invasion of the independent Greek city-states was ordered by the Persian king Darius the Great, who sought to punish Athens and Eretria after they had supported the earlier Ionian Revolt. Additionally, Darius also saw the subjugation of Greece as an opportunity to expand into Southeast Europe and thereby ensure the security of the Achaemenid Empire's western frontier.

The Arab–Byzantine wars or Muslim–Byzantine wars were a series of wars from the 7th to 11th centuries between multiple Arab dynasties and the Byzantine Empire. The Muslim Arab Caliphates conquered large parts of the Christian Byzantine empire and unsuccessfully attacked the Byzantine capital of Constantinople. The frontier between the warring states remained almost static for three centuries of frequent warfare, before the Byzantines were able to recapture some of the lost territory.

A series of military conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and various European states took place from the Late Middle Ages up through the early 20th century. The earliest conflicts began during the Byzantine–Ottoman wars, waged in Anatolia in the late 13th century before entering Europe in the mid-14th century with the Bulgarian–Ottoman wars. The mid-15th century saw the Serbian–Ottoman wars and the Albanian-Ottoman wars. Much of this period was characterized by the Ottoman expansion into the Balkans. The Ottoman Empire made further inroads into Central Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, culminating in the peak of Ottoman territorial claims in Europe.

The Byzantine–Bulgarian wars were a series of conflicts fought between the Byzantine Empire and Bulgaria which began after the Bulgars conquered parts of the Balkan peninsula after 680 AD. The Byzantine and First Bulgarian Empire continued to clash over the next century with variable success, until the Bulgarians, led by Krum, inflicted a series of crushing defeats on the Byzantines. After Krum died in 814, his son Omurtag negotiated a thirty-year peace treaty. Simeon I had multiple successful campaigns against the Byzantines during his rule from 893 to 927. His son Peter I negotiated another long-lasting peace treaty. His rule was followed by a period of decline of the Bulgarian state.

The Cumans or Kumans were a Turkic nomadic people from Central Asia comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confederation who spoke the Cuman language. They are referred to as Polovtsy in Rus', Cumans in Western and Kipchaks in Eastern sources.

The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part of Scythia at the time. By 370 AD, the Huns had arrived on the Volga, causing the westwards movement of Goths and Alans. By 430, they had established a vast, but short-lived, empire on the Danubian frontier of the Roman empire in Europe. Either under Hunnic hegemony, or fleeing from it, several central and eastern European peoples established kingdoms in the region, including not only Goths and Alans, but also Vandals, Gepids, Heruli, Suebians and Rugians.

Mongols first invasion of Germany located in the Great European Plain, part of the Kingdom of Bohemia and the farthest west they had successfully launched a raid in the Mongol advance of Europe. The united Polish and German Forces were annihilated in the battle of Legnica by a Mongol reconnaissance party led by Orda Khan. Orda Khan was solely responsible for the complete destruction of the Kingdom of Poland, preventing Wenceslaus I of Bohemia from using its army to form a large coalition with Henry II the Pious. Orda Khan spread absolute fear and destruction in Central and Eastern Europe, to further divide and conquer European forces.

Under the leadership of the Barcid family, Ancient Carthage expanded its possessions on the Iberian Peninsula from 237 to 218 BC. The First Punic War and the Mercenary War had resulted in an end to Carthage's expansion to the north (Sicily) and in Africa; blocked from their traditional areas of expanse, they now sought to conquer the Iberian Peninsula.

The Hungarian invasions of Europe (Hungarian: kalandozások, German: Ungarneinfälle) occurred in the 9th and 10th centuries, during the period of transition in the history of Europe of the Early Middle Ages, when the territory of the former Carolingian Empire was threatened by invasion by the Magyars (Hungarians) from the east, the Viking expansion from the north, and the Arabs from the south.