The Middle Ages of Europe

We know from the writings of Middle Ages scholars that they considered the time they lived in as a Dark Age. When I put myself in their shoes, I do not blame them. They looked back to the previous age at lost glory of Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. They lamented lamented this loss, whose glory was even more resplendent in contrast with the war, instability, famine, and disease that marred their times.

The Middle Ages (also called the Medieval Period) are a division of European History that covers the middle time between ancient history and the modern world. This is the central of three traditional divisions of Western history — antiquity, medieval, and modern.

Early Middle Ages (500—1000)

The Medieval Period begins with the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE, and ends with the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 CE. Rome was strong, one of the mightiest civilizations to have ever lived, and laid the final layers on the foundation for the modern world. Yet they were victims of their own success. They were too wealthy, decadent in their luxury. They grew weak and corroded from within, leaving a power vacuum in Europe when theirs waned.

During the Early Middle Ages population was in decline. People fled the cities in a process called counterurbanization, searching for rural places to live where they had better prospect to provide for themselves and their families, in smaller, more isolated communities. This was probably in response to the famine, loss of order, and violence that came with the collapse of centralized Roman authority.

Mass migration of tribes throughout Europe had begun in late antiquity. This Migration Period continued through the Early Middle Ages. The Germanic peoples like the Franks established the Carolingian Empire in what became France. Invasion became common. The Vikings from the North, Muslims from the south, and Magyars from the East.

High Middle Ages (1000—1300)

The instability of the Early Middle Ages abated slightly as we move into the High Middle Ages. The climate warmed slightly during the Medieval Warm Period, which led to greater agricultural surpluses. More food equals less starvation, so the population of Europe rose significantly. Unfortunately, this was only so that their progeny could die in the Late Middle Ages, but for now…

Culture surged. The idea that the people should pay rent to a central authority to live on their land was invented, and knights roamed the country like the samurai of Japan, serving their lords. Universities were established, and writers like Dante and Chaucer gift the world with their works.

The Late Middle Ages (1300—1453)

The Late Middle Ages — the final phase of medieval Europe before the modern era — are a turbulent one. In place of the warmth and plenty of the previous centuries, came death. Europe is decimated by disease. Probably around 1/3 of the population are killed by the Black Death.

Large-scale famine exacerbated the situation and all of this intensified the turbulence of the times. Peasants revolted against the nobles of their kingdoms, all as the kingdoms fought among themselves. But among this instability, light was growing. In the final years of the Late Middle Ages revolutionaries like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Nicolaus Copernicus were born — a handful of the truly great individuals to come — whose works were destined to shift humanity onto a new path.

In a few short decades after the Fall of Constantinople (1453), Christopher Columbus would set his sights across the Atlantic where he would find a world new to (most) of Europe. By doing so he set in motion a chain reaction of events that would usher in the modern era over the coming centuries.