with reference to world history were the periods form 500 to 1500 c e truly the dark ages

No era in history is more misunderstood or underestimated than the Middle Ages, which lasted 10 centuries from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5" century to the beginning of the Rena

Hanoi University Faculty of International Studies

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WITH REFERENCE TO WORLD HISTORY, WERE THE PERIODS FORM 500 TO 1500 C.E

TRULY THE “DARK AGES”?

Lecturer: Nguyen Do Thi Class: World History 1

Lam Bao Thue Anh 5Q20

2006080002 28/12/2021

WITH REFERENCE TO WORLD HISTORY, WERE THE PERIODS FORM 500 TO 1500 C.E TRULY THE “DARK AGES”?

No era in history is more misunderstood or underestimated than the Middle Ages, which lasted 10 centuries from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5" century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the 15" This is notably evident between the years 1000 and 1500 when the Medieval temperature was slightly higher It was able to transport grapes to England and grain to the shores of Greenland (Easterbrook 2011), increasing the population and revitalizing town life throughout Europe, and 1348, after the warmth had finished and the Black Death had arrived from the East But can we refer to the entire period as the "Dark

Ages"?

The Middle Ages were a period in European history that spanned from the fall of the Roman Empire to the start of the Renaissance In the 5 century, the Western Roman Empire experienced significant decreases in population, economic vigor, and city size

Image source: Shuttestock.com

MIDDLE AGES (476 C.E — 1500 C.E.)

It was also heavily influenced by massive migration that began in the 3“ century In the 5“ century, these barbarians carved up new kingdoms from the ruins of the Western Empire Over the next few decades, these kingdoms oversaw the progressive merging of Barbarian, Christian, and Roman cultural and political traditions The longest-lasting of these nations, the Frankish kingdom, provided the groundwork for succeeding European states It also gave rise to Charlemagne, the greatest king of the Middle Ages whose reign served as a model for subsequent generations The fall of Charlemagne’s empire, as well as a new wave of invasions, compelled a reorganization of medieval culture

The 11-13" century was considered the pinnacle of medieval civilization The church underwent reform, which strengthened the pope's position in church and society but resulted in tensions between the pope and the emperor Population growth, the blooming of cities and farms, the emergence of merchant classes, and the development of governmental bureaucracies all contributed to this period's cultural and economic resurgence

Meanwhile, thousands of knights followed the church's request to join the Crusades Medieval civilization reached its pinnacle in the 13 century, with the emergence of Gothic architecture, the appearance of new religious orders, and the expansion of learning and the university The church dominated intellectual activity, resulting in the Scholasticism of St Thomas Aquinas The breakdown of medieval national governments, the great papal schism, the critique of medieval theology and philosophy, and economic and population collapse caused by famine and disease all made a significant contribution to the Middle Ages decline.

“DARK AGES”

Why do people call this time “Dark Ages”? Francesco Petrarca (also known as Petrarch) was the first to use the term "Dark Ages." He was a fourteenth-century Italian scholar He wrote about ancient Greece and Rome's achievements Petrarch considered that his culture was regressing from the accomplishments of the Greeks and Romans He named it the "Dark Ages" since he was disappointed by the absence of outstanding literature at the period, opposed to the ancient era was rich in apparent cultural advancement: both Roman and Greek civilizations had contributed to art, science, philosophy, architecture, and governmental systems (Medievalists

n.d.)

In one of his works, he writes

“My fate is to live among varied and confusing storms But for you perhaps, if as I hope and wish you will live long after me, there will follow a better age This sleep of forgetfulness will not last forever When the

darkness has been dispersed, our

descendants can come again in

the former pure radiance.” Francesco Petrarca (1304 — 1374)

Other historians in Europe would pick up on the concept of the Middle Ages However, the term "Dark Ages" is typically seen only in English texts By the 17° and 18" centuries, historians such as Edward Gibbon were referring to the Middle Ages as "the gloom of the

Middle Ages," describing life as full of either uncultured barbarians, wicked rulers, or

superstitious peasants By the 20" century, the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages were synonymous (Medievalists n.d.)

The lack of centralized governmental authority resulted in a succession of battles and conquests across Europe The greatest disagreements were between Catholics and Protestants There were also many conquests by Muslims from Eastern Europe and Asia, and as a result of these events, the economy suffered The ongoing struggle for governmental

structure resulted in a decline in culture, as there were no advances in science or arts, which

might also be explained by the overall economic collapse

Also in the Middle Ages, the Black Death, or ‘pestilencia9, as contemporaries called various epidemic diseases, was the worst catastrophe in recorded history Some dubbed it ‘magna mortalitas9 (great mortality), emphasising the death rate It destroyed a higher proportion of the population than any other single known event One observer noted “the living was scarcely sufficient to bury the dead” No one could be sure what caused the deadly plague The plague arrived in western Europe in 1347 and in England in 1348 It faded away in the early 1350s In Europe, it is thought that around 50 million people died as a result of the Black Death over the course of three or four years The population was reduced from some 80 million to 30 million It killed at least 60 per cent of the population in rural and urban areas (Prof Samuel Cohn 2020)

“DARK AGES” NOT THAT DARK

However, defining _ this long period, from 500 to 1500 C.E., “Dark Ages”, is quite unfair Compared to the Dark Ages, the rest of the Middle

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productive: art, medicine, and culture had developed at the end of the Middle Ages

To begin with, the "Dark Ages" are a period of the Middle Ages that lasted from roughly 476 C.E to 1000 C.E., referring to the early Middle Ages The term “Dark Ages” was coined by later scholars who were heavily biased toward Ancient Greece and Roman As a result, they rejected the period that followed as a dark and chaotic period in which no great leaders developed, no scientific breakthroughs were made, and no great art was created

Thirdly, the High Middle Ages were boom times for agriculture The new European civilization that had emerged in the Early Middle Ages began to flourish in the High Middle Ages (1000 C.E —- 1300 C.E.) and also gave birth to a cultural revival (William J Duiker and Jackson J Spielvogel 2008)

mated temperature variations for the Northern Hemisphere Europe had a relatively

central England (1000-2000 ce)

—— Northen Hemepnere jextratropical, summer ~ P_D Jones ot al)

approximately 38 million in the Early Middle Ages, but by the High Middle Ages, the

Little Ice Age Medieval Warm Period around

rE 1 i 4 1 1 l 1 i , 950 C.E during the High Middle

year

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'sácaý/ /ềosearch (0tferx 26 799-762 (1999: PD Xe 4 d( “Hụợ-re30A/ton P3seoc@notic Fiecords %xx ®e Lao! M@@ry— intern yon, and Comparison with General Grovistion Mode! Contre! Run Ternperatures,” Movocene, 6477-483 (1996), HH Lamb, "The Eaf

i Warm Epoch and it Sequel,” Pabeogecgraphy, Paiseoctmataogy, Patseoecotogy 1113-37 (1965) that the Earth's temperature

might have risen by up to one degree Celsius Europe got substantially warmer and drier for around 300 years (Easterbrook 2011) It was good news for Northern Europe, where temperatures were significantly lower and soil was wet and deep As a result, the culture saw a substantial growth in arable land, which had a direct impact on the growing population Peasants throughout the 11% and 12" centuries cut down forests and drained wetlands, and by the 13" century, Europeans had more area accessible for cultivation than at any other time

before or since

Furthermore, the High Middle Ages saw an explosion of laborsaving

devices, many of which were made from iron, which was mined in

different areas of Europe The introduction of the "carruca" allowed for more efficient plowing of the ground, allowing for faster growing and harvesting New horse collars were developed that allowed the horses to pull the heavy plow faster and cultivate more land, all while wearing iron shoes that produced greater traction and protection from

The transition from a two-field to a three- field system allowed for the cultivation of seasonal crops at all seasons One field was planted with cereals such as rye and wheat in

the fall, another with barley, oats, and

legumes in the spring, while the third was frequently left empty to allow for spiritual depletion The advantage of this system was that serfs became free peasants, which meant they were no longer enslaved to the land

the 2°*-century B.C.E (William J Duiker and

Jackson J Spielvogel 2008), it was not regularly employed to grind grain into the

Waterpower was also used in a variety of operations such as fabric manufacture and the operation of trip-hammers for metalworking And in areas where rivers were inaccessible or dams could not be built, Europeans invented windmills to harness the power of the wind As a result, the watermill and windmill were the most important power-harvesting machines of the time

Fourthly, the revival of trade was a gradual process (William J Duiker and Jackson J Spielvogel 2008) Trade and commerce developed to such an extent in the medieval world that even relatively small communities had access to weekly markets and, perhaps a day's travel away, larger but less frequent fairs, where the full range of consumer goods of the period was displayed to tempt the shopper and small retailer

Markets were held on a regular basis in public squares (or sometimes triangles), wide streets, or even purpose-built halls in villages, towns, and big cities that had been granted the privilege of a license to do so by their king Markets were also organized just outside many castles and monasteries Because of transportation expenses, trading in common, low-value commodities remained mostly local Moving goods by boat or ship was less expensive and safer than by land, but there was the risk of loss due to poor weather and pirates to consider As a result, small markets were supplied by the cultivated estates that surrounded them, and people seeking non-essential products like clothing, cloth, or wine had to be prepared to walk half a day or more to the next town

Tradespeople usually lived above their shop which presented a large window onto the street with a stall projecting out from under a wooden canopy (Cartwright 2019) Trade fairs were large-scale sales events typically held annually in large towns where people could find a greater range of goods than they might find in their more local market and traders could buy goods wholesale.

Pics: Brewminate.com

Trading in Europe in the Early Middle Ages continued to some degree as it had under the Romans There was a movement of goods, especially luxury goods but in what quantities and whether transactions involved money, barter, or gift exchange is unclear Into the 9th century CE, a clearer picture of international trade begins to emerge Italian merchants became even more daring in their trade activities They established trading posts in Cairo, Damascus, and several Black Sea ports, where they acquired spices, silks, jewelry, and other goods brought by

Muslim merchants from India, China, and Southeast Asia (Cartwright 2019)

International business was now booming as many city ports established international trading posts where foreign merchants were allowed to live (Cartwright 2019) With the revival of trade, merchants, craftspeople or artisans began to settle in these old cities, and in the late 10" century, many hew cities or towns were also founded, particularly in northern Europe

A university class in Bologna by artist Laurentius de

Voltolina - 14"

Fifthly, in terms of education, the university was invented in the Dark Ages, : many universities developed from church cathedrals or monastic schools : : Universities were tasked with the pursuit of knowledge and innovation was : : esteemed The first university was founded in Bologna in about 1088, then Paris : : (1150), Oxford (1167), Palencia (1208), and Cambridge (1209) About 60 more : were added by 1500, over half endowed with papal charters (Reville 2020)

Finally, the Medieval Art period lasted for ten centuries and covered an enormous scope of time and place, which meant that many different styles and forms of art were experimented with and included As religion and faith were seen as the way of life during the Middle Ages, artworks that were created expressed various social, political, and historical events through the building of churches in most European towns

Generally, Medieval Art is divided up according to the distinct types of artworks that were created, which were expressed differently in different regions and at different times, such as

Architecture, Paintings, Sculpture, Illuminated Manuscripts, Stained Glass In addition to artworks,

some iconic pieces of literature were also produced during the Medieval period These separate art periods have collectively been agreed on to be the Early Christian period, the Byzantine period, the Romanesque period, and the Gothic period (artincontext 2021)

Dell’Orto, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons