Middle Ages
Period of European history from the 5th to the 15th century / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period (also spelt mediaeval or mediæval)[1][2] lasted approximately from 500 AD to 1500, although some prefer other start and end dates. The Middle Ages is the second of the three traditional divisions of Western history: antiquity, medieval, and modern. Major developments include the predominance of agriculture in the economy, the exploitation of the peasantry, slow interregional communication, the importance of interpersonal relations in power structures, and the fragility of state bureaucracy. The medieval period is itself sometimes subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages, and the early medieval period is alternatively referred to as the Dark Ages.
Population decline, counterurbanisation, the collapse of centralised authority, the mass migration of tribes (mainly Germanic peoples), and Christianisation, which had begun in late antiquity, continued into the Early Middle Ages. The movements of peoples led to the disintegration of the Western Roman Empire, and the rise of new kingdoms. In the post-Roman world, taxation declined, the army was financed through land grants, and the blending of Later Roman civilisation and the invaders' traditions is well documented. The Eastern Roman Empire (or Byzantine Empire) survived but lost the Middle East and North Africa to Muslim conquerors in the 7th century. Although the Carolingian dynasty of the Franks reunited much of the Western Roman lands by the early 9th century, the Carolingian Empire quickly fell apart into competing kingdoms, which later fragmented into autonomous duchies and lordships.
During the High Middle Ages, which began after 1000, the population of Europe increased greatly as the Medieval Warm Period allowed crop yields to increase, and technological and agricultural innovations introduced a "commercial revolution". Slavery nearly disappeared, and peasants could improve their status by colonising faraway regions in return for economic and legal concessions. New towns developed from local commercial centers, and urban artisans united into local guilds to protect their common interests. Western church leaders accepted papal supremacy to get rid of lay influence, which accelerated the separation of the western Catholic and eastern Orthodox Churches, and triggered the Investiture Controversy between the papacy and secular powers. With the spread of heavy cavalry, a new aristocracy emerged who stabilised their position through strict inheritance customs. In the system of feudalism, the noble knights owed military service to their lords in return for the lands they had received in fief. Stone castles were built in regions where central authority was weak but by the end of the period state power was in the rise. The Western European peasants' and aristocrats' movement towards the peripheries of Europe, often in the guise of crusades, led to the expansion of Latin Christendom against the neighbouring Muslim, pagan, and Orthodox peoples. The spread of cathedral schools and universities stimulated a new method of intellectual discussions, with an emphasis on rational argumentation, known as scholasticism. Mass pilgrimages prompted the construction of massive Romanesque churches, while structural innovations led to the development of the more delicate Gothic architecture.
Difficulties and calamities, including a great famine and the Black Death, which reduced the population by 50 per cent, introduced the Late Middle Ages in the 14th century. Conflicts between ethnic and social groups intensified, and local conflicts often escalated into full-scale warfare, such as the Hundred Years' War. By the end of the period, the Byzantine Empire and the Balkan states were conquered by a new Muslim power, the Ottoman Empire, whereas in the Iberian Peninsula, the Christian kingdoms won their centuries-old war against their Muslim neighbours. The prominence of personal faith is well documented, but the Western Schism and dissident movements condemned as heresies presented a significant challenge to traditional power structures in the Western Church. Humanist scholars started to put a special emphasis on human dignity, and Early Renaissance architects and artists revived several elements of classical culture in Italy. During the last medieval century, naval expeditions in search for new trade routes introduced the Age of Discovery.
The Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history: Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the modern period.[3] The Italian Leonardo Bruni (d. 1444) was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in 1442,[4] and it became standard with the German historian Christoph Cellarius (d. 1707).[note 1][6] The adjective medieval, meaning pertaining to the Middle Ages,[1] derives from medium aevum ('middle age'), a Neo-Latin term first recorded in 1604.[2]
The Middle Ages customarily spans the period between around 500 and 1500 but both the start and end years are arbitrary.[7][8][9] A commonly given starting point, first used by Bruni, is 476—the year the last Western Roman Emperor was deposed.[4][10] As an alternative, the conversion of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great (r. 306–337) to Christianity is mentioned. There is no universally agreed-upon end date either; the most frequently used dates include 1453 (the Fall of Constantinople), 1492 (Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the Americas), and 1517 (the start of the Protestant Reformation).[11]
Europe, as the historian Miri Rubin emphasises, "did not live to a single rhythm over this period": the Christianisation, or conversion of Europe to Christianity happened in waves, and (re)urbanisation began in different regions in different periods.[9] According to scholarly consensus, the common features of medieval Europe include agriculture's predominance in the economy, the exploitation of the peasantry, the importance of interpersonal relations—violence, patronage, kinship, and charisma—in power structures, slow interregional communication, and fragile state bureaucracy.[12]
Historians from Romance language-speaking countries tend to divide the Middle Ages into two parts: an earlier "high" and later "low" period. English-speaking historians, following their German counterparts, generally subdivide the period into three intervals: Early, High, and Late Middle Ages.[13] In the 19th century, the entire Middle Ages were often referred to as the Dark Ages, but with the adoption of the three subdivisions in the early 20th century, use of the term was restricted to the Early Middle Ages.[14] Historians who regard the Middle Ages as a Eurocentric concept tend to avoid its use for global history, but studies on "Medieval India", "Muslim Middle Ages", and similar subjects are not exceptional.[15][16]
Available sources have always set a limit on the comprehensive study of the period, as certain aspects of medieval society (including the life of women or slaves) are poorly documented.[17] The systematic publication of medieval written sources began with the Rerum italicarum scriptores by Ludovico Muratori (d. 1750) which was followed by similar series such as the Monumenta Germaniae Historica in Germany, and the Rolls Series in the United Kingdom. These large collections mainly contain annals, chronicles and other narrative sources with a focus on the deeds of powerful men.[18] Professional historians mainly treat medieval narratives cautiously, as these are often filled with distorted facts or unrealistic information.[19] Documents of state or church administration, such as royal charters and chrysobulls, are indispensable sources for medieval history, although forged legal papers abound.[20] Further types of written sources include graffiti, seals, and letters.[21]
Since the 1950s, archaeology have significantly contributed to the study of the history of poorly documented regions and periods, although chronological dating is still uncertain. Radiocarbon dating covers a sixty-year-long period, and the more precise dendrochronological analysis—the study of growth rings in trunks—is applicable only if wooden remains are available at the archaeological site.[22] Legislation may influence archaeological research: new finds of coins and hoards are frequently exhibited in jurisdictions with a liberal regulation, such as England and Wales, whereas in other countries, such as Italy, finds from unofficial excavations are exceptionally published.[23] As few detailed written records documenting peasant life remain from before the 9th century, surviving information available to historians comes mainly from archaeology.[24] Medieval images and sculptures may provide useful information about everyday life but a critical approach is warranted because irony, satire, and anachronism were popular stylistic devices of medieval artists.[25]
The Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent during the 2nd century AD; the following two centuries witnessed the slow decline of Roman control over its outlying territories.[26] Runaway inflation, external pressure on the frontiers, and outbreaks of plague combined to create the Crisis of the Third Century, with emperors coming to the throne only to be rapidly replaced by new usurpers.[27] Military expenses steadily increased, mainly in response to the war with the Sasanian Empire.[28] The army doubled in size, and cavalry and smaller units replaced the legion as the main tactical unit.[29] The need for revenue led to increased taxes, more centralised and bureaucratic state administration, and a decline in numbers of the curial, or landowning, class.[28][29]
Emperor Diocletian (r. 284–305) split the empire into separately administered eastern and western halves in 286. This system, which eventually encompassed two senior and two junior co-emperors (hence known as the Tetrarchy) stabilised the imperial government for about two decades.[30] After a period of civil war, Constantine the Great restored internal peace, and refounded the city of Byzantium as the newly renamed eastern capital, Constantinople in 330.[31]
Roman society stabilised in a new form that differed from the earlier classical period, with a widening gulf between the rich and poor, and a decline in the vitality of the smaller towns.[32] Another change was the Christianisation of the Roman Empire, accelerated by the conversion of Constantine, although it was only at the end of the 4th century when Christianity emerged as the empire's dominant religion.[33] Debates about Christian theology intensified, and those who persisted with theological views condemned at the ecumenical councils faced persecution. Such heretic views survived through proselytising campaigns outside the empire, or because of local ethnic groups' support in the eastern provinces, like Arianism among the Germanic peoples, or Monophysitism in Egypt and Syria.[34][35] Judaism remained a tolerated religion, although legislation limited Jews' rights.[36]
By the 3rd century, the Early Christians developed their own symbolism, often by reinterpreting popular motifs of pagan Roman art, and decorated their catacombs with frescoes depicting Biblical scenes.[37] The solemnity of the Later Roman artists' abstract style effectively visualised Christian messages,[38] and Christ's enthroned figure became a principal element of Early Christian art.[39] Under Constantine, basilicas, large halls that had been used for administrative and commercial purposes, were adapted for Christian worship.[40] The first illuminated manuscripts—hand-written books decorated with colourful miniatures—were produced in parallel with the spread of silent reading in the 5th century.[41]
New civil wars between rival emperors diverted soldiers from the empire's frontier forces, allowing invaders to encroach from the middle of the 4th century.[42] Although these movements of peoples are usually described as "invasions", they were often not just military expeditions but mass migrations into the empire.[43] In 376, hundreds of thousands of Goths, fleeing from the Huns, received permission from Emperor Valens (r. 364–78) to settle in Roman territory in the Balkans. The settlement did not go smoothly, and when Roman officials mishandled the situation, the Goths began to raid and plunder.[note 2] Valens, attempting to put down the disorder, was killed fighting the Goths at the Battle of Adrianople.[45] The Alans, Vandals, and Suebi crossed into Gaul in 406, and into modern-day Spain in 409; a year later, the Visigoths, a Gothic group, sacked the city of Rome.[46][47] The Franks, Alemanni, and the Burgundians all ended up in Gaul while the Germanic groups now collectively known as Anglo-Saxons settled in Britain,[48] and the Vandals conquered the province of Africa.[49] The Hunnic king Attila (r. 434–53) led invasions into the Balkans in 442 and 447, Gaul in 451, and Italy in 452 but the Hunnic confederation he led fell apart after his death.[50]
When dealing with the migrations, the Eastern Roman elites combined the deployment of armed forces with gifts and grants of offices to the tribal leaders, whereas the Western aristocrats failed to support the army but also refused to pay tribute to prevent invasions by the tribes.[43] These invasions led to the division of the western section of the empire into smaller political units, ruled by the tribes that had invaded.[51] The emperors of the 5th century were often controlled by military strongmen such as Stilicho (d. 408), Aetius (d. 454), Aspar (d. 471), Ricimer (d. 472), or Gundobad (d. 516), who were partly or fully of non-Roman ancestry.[52] The deposition of the last emperor of the west, Romulus Augustulus (r. 475–76) has traditionally marked the end of the Western Roman Empire.[note 3][53] The Eastern Roman Empire, often referred to as the Byzantine Empire after the fall of its western counterpart, had little ability to assert control over the lost western territories although the Byzantine emperors maintained a claim over the territory.[54]