Thus there were within the Frankish dominions wide national diversities, containing the germs of future divisions. It needed a strong hand even to keep the Teutonic and the Latin _Francia_ together, much less to keep together all the dependent lands, German and Gaulish. During the ages while the Empire was being cut short by Lombards, Goths, Slaves, and Saracens, the Frankish dominion was never in the like sort cut short by foreign settlements; but its whole history under the Merowingian dynasty is a history of divisions and reunions. The tendencies to division which were inherent in the condition of the country were strengthened by endless partitions among the members of the reigning house. ♦_Austria_ and _Neustria_.♦ Speaking roughly, it may be said that the more strictly Frankish territory showed a tendency to divide itself into two parts, the Eastern or Teutonic land, _Austria_ or _Austrasia_, and _Neustria_, the Western or Romance land. These were severally the germs which grew into the kingdoms of Germany and France. ♦Use of the name _Francia_.♦ As for the mere name of _Francia_, like other names of the kind, it shifted its geographical use according to the wanderings of the people from whom it was derived. After many such changes of meaning, it gradually settled down as the name for those parts of Germany and Gaul where it still abides. There are the Teutonic or Austrian _Francia_, part of which still keeps the name of _Franken_ or _Franconia_, and the Romance or Neustrian _Francia_, which by various annexations has grown into modern _France_. ♦The Karlings. Dukes, 687-752; Kings, 752-987.♦