What if the Hunnic Empire Reunited Today?

Despite many people not knowing about this very significant empire, the Hunnic Empire, which was a union of various tribes, was one of the largest and most powerful empires during the era of the downfall of the Roman Empire. At its territorial golden age in around 450AD, it controlled a big area of Eurasia and dominated almost all of Central and Eastern Europe. It stretched from as far as the Caucasus Mountains in the east, all the way to coast of the Netherlands, at the North Sea. As well as this, many people believe that the Huns were the reason why the Western Roman Empire collapsed after constant raids from them, most notably the invasion of Gaul in 451 and the invasion of the Italian peninsula in 452. However, gradually after this year, Hunnic dominance in the region began to decline mainly due to the death of its great ruler, Attila. Coupled with many different parts of the empire breaking away and revolts happening left, right and centre, it became internally unstable. This continued for another few decades until in around 469, the empire is thought to have finally collapsed.

But what if it reunited today?

The first thing we would need to think about the Hunnic Empire, if it reunited today to the exact borders it had in 450, is its population, land and cities.

First of all, a total of 22 different modern-day countries would lose all or some of their territory to the empire: Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine.

With so many countries making it up, the Huns would have a big land area, standing at 2.218 Million Sq Km (856,400 Sq Mi). When comparing this to other countries, this figure is huge and would be enough to make the empire the 12th largest country in the whole world, larger than either Saudi Arabia (2.149 Million Sq Km) or Mexico (1.964 Million Sq Km), but smaller than the DRC (2.344 Million Sq Km) and Algeria (2.381 Million Sq Km).

As well as a very large land area, the new confederation of Huns would also have an absolutely sweltering population count of around 270 Million and a density of 122/km². This would easily be enough to make it the 5th most populous country in the world, shooting above the huge population centres of Pakistan (229 Million) and Brazil (215 Million), but remaining behind Indonesia (279 Million) and the United States (334 Million). Germany would be the most populated country in the country, accounting for about 31% of all the people in its borders.

The cities in a reunited Hunnic Empire would also be another thing to cover. The capital of the country would be very difficult to predict as the ancient Huns didn't actually have any official capital city since they were a mostly nomadic people. As a result of this, we would have to think of a completely different capital so in my opinion, Berlin would be a logical option as it is already the capital of Germany, which would be the most powerful nation in the empire, and is also a huge metropolis with lots of infrastructure already in place. Berlin would also be the biggest city in the country with a population of 4,750,000. Here would be the rest of the top 10 biggest urban areas in its borders:

Like its population and land, the Hunnic Empire would also have a very huge economy, which would stand very high on the world stage. With a Nominal GDP of a whopping $7.584 Trillion, it would be placed at 3rd, in terms of Nominal GDP, beating up other massive economies like Japan ($4.912 Trillion) and India ($3.534 Trillion), but remaining behind the powerhouses of China ($19.911 Trillion) and the United States ($25.346 Trillion). Germany, again, would contribute the overwhelming majority to this, at about 56%.

The GDP Per Capita of the empire would be very average at $28,088 (Nominal), with the 50th highest living standards in the world. This would put it ahead of many countries like Estonia ($27,971), the Czech Republic ($27,609) and Lithuania ($25,015), but behind either Saudi Arabia ($28,759) or Aruba ($28,863). However, this can vary drastically from different parts of the empires. For example, living standards in areas like Moldova, southern Russia, or Ukraine would have a much lower GDP Per Capita on average than the jobs in Luxembourg, where yearly income rates reach about $135,000.

Despite this, the Hunnic economy would still be very strong, especially as it would have many large industries. The empire's car industry, in particular, would also be one of the largest in the world - thanks to Germany - which would boost its international status on the world economic stage.

The next thing we would need to think about a reunited Hunnic Empire is its religious, ethnic and linguistic groups and more about the people that are within its borders.

Coming to Religion first, Christianity would by far be the most followed religion in it, with all denominations collectively making up 73% of the population. This would be split between 49% Catholics, 16% Orthodox and 8% Protestant. Islam would be a minor religion that would be present in the empire, with just about 7%. The final 20% of the population would be made up of a variety of other small religions and Atheists.

As it would control a vast area of eastern and central Europe, there would also be many different ethnic groups in the Hunnic Empire, with very unique cultures. Germans be the largest ethnicity in the new country's borders, but would just represent 25%, really showing how diverse it would be. Poles would be next, accounting for about 14%, while Ukrainians wouldn't be far behind at 12.5%. This would be followed by Russians at 11%, Romanians at 6.3%, Hungarians at 6% and Czechs at 5%. The final 20.2% of the population would be a mix of various small ethnicities collectively making up that percentage.

The languages spoken in a reunited Hunnic Empire would also be quite similar to its ethnic groups. Like most of the topics when covering this empire, Germany would be the most significant in this as well with about 31% of the population natively speaking German. Ukrainian would be the second most spoken language, with a further 15%. Polish and Russian would both be represented at around 14%, which would be followed by Dutch at 8.8%. Romanian would be spoken by 6.3%, Hungarian at 3.8% and Czech at 3.7%. The final 3.4% of the population would be speakers of various different small languages present within the country's borders.

Choosing an official language for the Hunnic Empire would be very difficult as many languages would be spoken. German could be the sole official one as it would be the most spoken by far, but there would still be too many Ukrainian, Polish and Russian speakers for them to be considered as minority languages. So I predict that all four would be made official languages.

The empire's military power, the last main thing we would have to talk about, would also be very strong. First talking about its infantry size, the Huns would have a very large army of about 846,500 troops. This would be enough to give them the 6th biggest force in the world, significantly ahead of either Pakistan (645,000 troops) or Iran (610,000 troops), but also well behind Russia (1,014,000 troops) and North Korea's (1,280,000 troops). To add to this, it would also possess another huge 1,489,500 reserve troops, which would bring its manpower to a total of 2,336,000.

The vital budget of this military would, like its army, be very large. At around $122 Billion, this budget would be only the 3rd highest in the world, larger than India's ($76.6 Billion) and the UK's ($68.4 Billion), but much smaller than China's ($293 Billion) and the United States' ($801 Billion).

To add to its strength, the Hunnic Empire would also be in possession of a arsenal of Nuclear Weapons as it would inherit an unknown amount of France and Russia's stockpiles. However, an estimation as for how many nukes they would really have would probably be from 0-2000 warheads.

Due to its territories in countries such as Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, it would be unclear whether the country would join NATO, but if it did, its military statistics would be quite different from now.

Now that we have covered all of the major topics there would be to talk about a reunited Hunnic Empire, here would be the strengths and weaknesses it would have in the real world: