Something interesting is that historically this area seems to have been under significant conflict in various times in history. For example, The massive movements of the Goths across northern Europe due to the Huns movement into Eastern Europe in the late 300's. This came towards the end of the Western Roman Empire, with some blaming these massive population movements (100's of thousands of Goths) into the grain producing regions of Rome in Spain and Northern Africa. That eroded the tax base and grain production for Rome.