The Visigoths were the western tribes of the nomadic people known as Goths who played a part in the shifting sands of history in Europe for a few hundred years in the first millennium.

One of the first known Goth forays into what was then Roman territory came in 238, when Gothic tribes crossed the Danube and attacked the province of Moesia. At the same time, Gothic soldiers fought for Rome against Persia. An invasion led by King Kniva in 250 had success, and the Goths set their sights further east and south, storming into the Balkans and across the Bosporus into Anatolia. The Visigoths agreed to a peace with the Roman emperor Constantine in 332.

The Visigoths lived in Dacia until 376, when, feeling pressure from the Huns invading from the east, appealed to Rome for permission to settle south of the Danube River. Rome initially agreed but then reneged on its promise, and the incensed Visigoths went to war, ravaging the countryside and inflicting a severe defeat on Roman troops in 378 at Adrianople, in which the emperor Valens and many high-ranking officers died.

The first known king of the Visigoths was Alaric, who is most well-known for trying to make an alliance with a few Roman emperors and then after one success and a number of failures, descending on Rome itself, sacking it in 410. On August 24, 410, he gave the order to enter the city. For three days, Visigoths pillaged the city, burning buildings and pulling down statues and destroying temples. Alaric and his soldiers left a trail of destruction in their wake, then left. They went south and sought refuge in Africa. A storm prevented their passage across the Mediterranean. Alaric died several months later, in 411, at Cosentia. His brother-in-law, Athaulf, led the Visigoths north, into Gaul.

The Visigoths expanded their new borders into the Iberian Peninsula with the help of the Roman emperor Honorius. Another great Visigothic king, Euric, was successful in convincing Rome to grant the Visigoths their independence from Roman rule. Expanding at the expense of the Alans and the Vandals, the Visigoths enlarged their holdings and established headquarters at Toulouse. They soon came into conflict with the Franks; the Frankish king Clovis won control of Aquitaine, in a battle that killed the Visigoth King Alaric II.

Because that king's son was a child, a regency ensued in which the Visigoths agreed to be ruled by the Ostrogoth king Theodoric the Great. The Visigoths also ran afoul of reconquest plans of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I.

Visigothic influence in what is now Portugal and Spain continued into the 700s, when a Moorish army took over.

From pagan origins, the Visigoths gradually professed themselves Christians, at first embracing Arianism (a doctrine that differed from mainstream Catholicism in the interpretation of the divine nature of Jesus) and then eventually joining the main flock.

One significant contribution of the Visigoths was the Visigothic Code, set out by King Chindasuinth in 643 and expanded a decade later by his son, Recceswinth. The code incorporated elements of the Germanic, Roman, and Catholic traditions and was noted for its equality with regard to country of origin and with a gender-blind right to inheritance. As well as being able to have control of property and other assets after her husband's death, a woman could, before that, arrange her marriage and not need male representation in legal matters. When the Moors took over much of the Iberian Peninsula, they allowed the defeated Visigoths to keep their laws and their religion, as long as neither interfered with what the conquerors wanted to achieve.