Here, Roman power survived for a thousand years longer than in the west, centered on Constantinople. This distinguishes the areas of the old western Roman empire from that of the eastern Roman empire.
When the Roman empire collapsed and these provinces were overrun by barbarian tribes, the synthesis between Roman and German cultures eventually produced a recognizably “feudal” society – which is one of the defining feature of medieval European civilization (though the word “feudalism” needs some careful handling). The roots of many medieval elements of society had their geographical origins in the provinces of the late Roman empire, mainly Gaul ( France), Spain and Italy. Northern Italy and much of eastern Europe, for example, never became fully feudal societies large tracts of Spain did not belong to Christendom for many centuries the concept of chivalry only came to the fore comparatively late in medieval times, and so on. However, in terms of those features we associate with medieval society – feudalism, chivalry, Christendom and so on – the location changed over time, and never really covered all of Europe. Changing frontiersīy definition, the civilization of Medieval Europe lay in Europe. It ended with such developments as the Italian Renaissance, the fall of Constantinople, the Age of Discovery, and the spread of printing. It opened with the Black Death, which swept through Europe, killing perhaps a third of its people and having a huge impact on society.
From about 1350 to 1500 the period of the late Middle Ages was a time of transition, seeing the emergence of modern Europe. The period of the High Middle Ages, from about 1000 to 1350, was the high water mark of medieval civilization, leaving a durable legacy in the soaring cathedrals and massive castles which sprang up all over Europe. The Christian Church, already highly influential by the time of the western Roman empire’s fall, strengthened its hold on society. Western European society was reshaped with the rise of self-sufficient estates (or manors), then of horse-soldiers ( knights), and finally of feudalism. Literacy, and with it learning, all but vanished. Long distance trade shrank, the currency collapsed, the economy mostly reverted to barter, and the towns diminished in size. The five-plus centuries after the fall of Rome (up to c.1000) have been called the Dark Ages, and witnessed a dramatic decline in the level of material civilization. The thousand-year long period of western Medieval Europe can be divided into three main phases, of unequal length. It was one of the most fascinating and transformative eras in world history.įacade of Reims Cathedral France Reproduced under Creative Commons 3.0.
In fact, though, modern historians regard these centuries as the cradle of the modern age, a time when many elements of our society which we value – democracy, industrialization, science and so on, had their roots. We still get an echo of this in the ideas surrounding the term “ Gothic” – dark, gloomy, foreboding. In fact, the term was coined by later historians, and means “Middle Ages”, which might today be rendered as “in-between times” – that period which came after the high civilizations of the Greeks and Romans, and before the high civilization of the Renaissance: an age of barbarism, ignorance, illiteracy and violence. The period of European history which we call “Medieval” is usually regarded as consisting of the thousand years or so between the fall of the Roman Empire in the west (in the 5th century), through to the period of the Renaissance in the 15th century. Medieval eastern Europe is dealt with elsewhere (especially the articles on the Byzantine empire and Russia).
This article mainly concerns western Medieval Europe (“Medieval” means “Middle Ages”) – that is, that part of Europe which came within the influence of the western Catholic church.
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