History of the Balkans in Maps

By the middle of the 8th century, chaos had again returned to the Balkans. The Avars, like the Huns before them, failed to develop sufficient administrative institutions to rule their vast territories, and now faced a new wave of asiatic invaders. From out of southern Russia, by 679 the Bulgars had thrust their way into the northern Black sea area, defeating both the Avar occupants and the Byzantine Empire's frontier defences. In turn, however, the Bulgars were being harrassed by the a new group, the nomadic Magyars. Liguistically related to the Finns, the Magyars had migrated to the Steppes of Russia as allies of the Bulgars. But reaching the Black Sea, they essentially spliting the Bulgars into two halves. The principal beneficiaries of all this chaos were the Slavs who continued to thrive in the Balkans.

In the West, the Byzantine Empire, weakened by the Bulgar invasion, lost most of Italy. The Pope created a fully independent Papal State and other Duchies arose in the south. Throughout the century, however, the Byzantine government controlled the Dalmatian coast and southern Italy and Sicily.

In the west, the Franks had been rejuvenated by a series of competent Mayors of the Palace who essentially ran the kingdom for the impotent descendants of Clovis. In 732, Charles the Hammer (Martel) consolidated his authority by defeating a new force, the Islamic Arab Caliphate which had captured all of North Africa (note the bright yellow at the lower left of the above map) and most of Spain.