The other great Teutonic nations or confederacies of which we have to speak have had a far more lasting effect on the nomenclature of Europe. We have now to trace the steps by which the _Franks_ gradually became the ruling people both of Germany and of Gaul. They have stamped their name on both countries. ♦Uses of the word _Francia_.♦ The dominions of the Franks got the name of _Francia_, a name whose meaning has constantly varied according to the extent of the Frankish dominion at different times. In modern use it still cleaves to two parts of their dominions, to that part of Germany which is still called _Franken_ or _Franconia_, and to that part of Gaul which is still called _France_. ♦The Alemanni.♦ And their history is closely mixed up with that of another nation or confederacy, that of the _Alemanni_, who again have, in the French tongue, given their name to the whole of Germany. ♦A.D. 275.♦ Franks and Alemanni alike begin to be heard of in the third century, and the Alemanni even attempted an actual invasion of Italy; but the geographical importance of both confederacies does not begin till the fifth. All through the fourth century it is the chief business of the Emperors who ruled in Gaul to defend the frontier of the Rhine against their incursions, against the Alemanni along the upper part of its course, and against the Franks along its lower part. ♦Thuringians. | The Low-Dutch tribes.♦ To the east of the Franks and Alemanni lay the _Thuringians_; to the north, along the coasts of the German Ocean, the Low-Dutch tribes, _Saxons_ and _Frisians_. In the course of the fifth century their movements also began to affect the geography of the Empire.