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From their website
https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/...tion-clusters/
West and Central Europe
Spoiler!
The West and Central Europe cluster consists of present day countries of France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, and Germany. Modern humans began to populate West and Central Europe toward the end of the last ice age when the ice sheets north of the Mediterranean coast began to retreat.
Due to ancient interactions and exchanges with cultures from the British Isles, Scandinavia, Asia, and Africa, this cluster displays an incredible history of migration, invasion, and colonization resulting in continual shared genetic, cultural, and linguistic relatedness with nearly all of the other European clusters.
Long distance travel between continental Europe and populations in the British Isles are illustrated by the shared knowledge of specific pottery and metalworking technologies. Through analysis of his teeth, remains of an individual (the Amesbury Archer) buried around 2000 BCE near Stonehenge in England was proven to have grown up in mainland Europe, thus illustrating the close connections between these two clusters.
The development of complex city-states was first established along the southern coastlines of France. Colonies of Greek, Phoenician, and Carthaginian settlers were the first to establish these complex societies; Roman colonies were quick to follow transferring cultural practices, such as the importance of wine drinking for the elites in central and eastern France.
To the north, barbarian tribes maintained semi-nomadic settlements throughout most of the cluster. By roughly 300 CE, Jutes, Angles, and Saxons, having originated in Scandinavia, were pushed westward by invading forces from Attila the Hun, further intensifying tension between the Romans and the barbarian tribes. With Germanic tribes being pushed out of eastern Europe as well, Slavic speaking peoples settled in their wake, occupying areas leading up to east Germany. Continual raids from various European and Asian groups ended the Roman occupation of this area by roughly 500 CE. During this time period, these various groups continued migration to further reaches of land once unified by Rome. These regions included Northern Italy, most of Britain, modern day France, and Spain; they also conquered most of Northern Africa, Sardinia, and Rome in the process.
It is after this migration that populations within this cluster began to establish complex and diverse civilizations that are later recognized as some of the most powerful and influential cultures in the world. These ancient histories continue to influence identities and histories of present day populations in this cluster.
Scandinavia
Spoiler!
The Scandinavia cluster consists of present day Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Due to the remaining ice sheets from the last Ice Age, modern humans did not permanently settle in this region until roughly 9000 BCE. During this time, Denmark and Sweden were connected via a land bridge that enabled migration from continental Europe to the Scandinavian Peninsula roughly 13,000 years ago.
These early hunter-gatherer populations settled along the waterways—lakes, marshes, and rivers. By 6000 BCE, the Ertebolle peoples had established complex hunter-gatherer settlements and seasonal camps along the coastlines. The cultural and technological achievements of these peoples are paralleled in regions of the North European plains stretching eastward to regions in Ukraine and Siberia.
By 2500 BCE, local populations in this cluster had begun farming and soon established strong trade links with continental Europe. These were particularly robust with populations along the Danube River basin stretching from present day Moldova, west to Germany, and south to the Roman Empire.
Chieftain tribes ruled ancient Scandinavia, and the Viking Age was born around 800 CE in the bay between the Gotta River in Sweden and Cape Lindesnes of Norway. Between 800 and 900 CE, Viking populations had taken control of trade from the Dnieper River to the Baltic Sea and Constantinople, connecting them to populations as far away as the Middle East, Western Russia, and Siberia to the east. During the Viking Age (800–1050 CE), Vikings spread from Scandinavia as far west as North America and east to Russia, raiding and colonizing any settlements that were in their path from Ireland and Scotland to England, France, Iceland, and Greenland. Viking populations moving into the east maintained control in the Slavic states along the Baltic Sea, Russia, and Steppe regions until they were forced out by invading Mongol armies.
By the 11th century CE, the Viking Age had ended, and the powers of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway battled for control of the Scandinavian cluster. In 1397, the Kalmar Union unified the three powers until the early 16th century CE.
British Isles
Spoiler!
Modern humans arrived on the British Isles roughly 40,000 years ago via a land bridge that connected these islands to continental Europe. Early hunter-gatherer populations were able to navigate into and out of this region until roughly 6000 BCE when melting ice sheets caused sea levels to rise and the connection was severed between the populations within the British Isles and continental Europe. Farming occurred largely as an indigenous adaptation with little evidence of acquiring this technology from surrounding colonizing regions. Small agricultural communities are even recorded as the primary lifestyle by Roman invaders in the early 1st century CE.
By the second millennium BCE, trade relationships spread, and under the control of the Chieftains of Wessex, trade routes spanned from Ireland into central and eastern continental Europe via waterways. The wealth amassed from this intensified trade likely enabled the Wessex Chieftains to begin construction on what would grow to become Stonehenge. These trade practices further solidified a deep genetic connection with populations in the West and Central Europe cluster and areas of Scandinavia.
By 43 CE, Roman forces had conquered Britain. However, by 500 CE, Germanic tribes (originating in present day Scandinavia and eastern Europe) and Asian forces toppled the Roman Empire, and the subsequent continental European expansions brought Saxon tribes into the British Isles. Powers in the British Isles also conscripted mercenary populations from continental Europe. The Saxons, Angles, and Jutes came over to support Briton forces defending against the Picts and Scots in the 6th century CE.
Starting in the late 8th century CE, the British Isles were invaded and settled by Viking parties during the Viking expansion. Normandy later invaded and solidified cultural and economic connections between the British Isles and continental Europe. To this day, these ancient occupations and trading practices left a lasting impression on the genetic relatedness between populations in the British Isles cluster and Southeast Europe, Scandinavia, and West and Central Europe clusters.
The 'West and Central Europe' cluster is primarily Western European (France, Switzerland, Belgium, SW Germany) and to a lesser extent Central (East Germany/Austria/Czechia).
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