History of the dark ages

German Christoph Cellarius, born on November 22, 1638 AD – died on June 4, 1707 AD, was a classical scholar, and is credited with dividing history although the division of ancient, medieval and modern history was used in the past by Italian Renaissance scholars such as Leonardo Bruni and Flavio Biondo however, the Universal History of Cellarius, which divided history into antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the modern era helped to spread it, and this tripartite division became standard after him In this article, we will learn about the history of the dark ages and where it is located in the divisions of history

In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or the medieval period starts from the fifth century until the fifteenth century, and the Middle Ages began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged with the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery, which is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity and the period of antiquity The Middle and Modern Period, and the Middle Ages itself is divided into three sections: Early Middle Ages, the High or Decisive Middle Ages, and the Late Middle Ages.

Historians in Romance-speaking countries - deriving from Latin - tend to divide the Middle Ages into two parts, the High and Low Middle Ages - earlier and later English-speaking historians follow their German counterparts and divide the Middle Ages into early, high and late The entire Middle Ages is the name of the Dark Ages, but with the adoption of the three divisions, the term Dark Ages has been limited to at least the Early Middle Ages among historians, and the history of the Dark Ages will be taken up entirely for a deeper understanding of this era.

Early Middle Ages, sometimes referred to as the Dark Ages, is usually considered by historians to be the period from the 5th or 6th centuries until the 10th century, and this period saw a continuation of clear trends since Late Classical times, which include declining population, especially in urban areas, declining trade and rising  Simple in global warming and increased immigration, the Early Middle Ages were referred to as the "Dark Ages" due to the scarcity of literary and cultural production during this period.

During the history of the Dark Ages, the Eastern Roman Empire, or the Byzantine Empire, continued even though the Rashidun Caliphate and the Umayyad Caliphate had conquered swathes of Byzantine lands, and they reversed many of the trends listed later in this period.  Emperor of the Holy Empire and King of the Franks The Carolingian Empire - this term is sometimes used to refer to the Frankish Empire - influenced European history and later social structure.

In the history of the Early Dark Ages Europe witnessed a return to systematic agriculture in the form of a feudal system, which relied on innovations such as the triangular field system and the heavy plow History of the Dark Ages During this period, many events occurred, in addition to the fall of Rome there was a period of migration, the Goths and the Vandals were among the first of many groups of peoples who flooded Western Europe in the absence of administrative rule, only some of them lived only for war and plunder.

After the disintegration of the Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire aimed to retain control of the trade routes between Europe and eastern countries, making it the richest country in Europe The history of the Dark Ages was also affected by the emergence of Islam in the seventh century and affected Byzantine history significantly, as the Islamic conquests extended to vast areas The birth of the Latin West is considered one of the influential matters in the history of the early Middle Ages Because of a complex set of reasons, conditions in Western Europe began to improve after the year 700 AD, and the Viking Age extends from approximately the late eighth century to the middle of the eleventh century in Scandinavia and Britain.

Vikings and Scandinavian warriors explored most parts of Europe, southwest Asia, northern Africa and northeastern North America, and the beginning of the Dark Ages witnessed the difference in culture between Western Europe and Eastern Europe north of the Mediterranean and by moving to the Middle East during the history of the Dark Ages, this period is shown to be an era Golden age for Arabs and Muslims, during the Abbasid Caliphate the philosophers of the Islamic Golden Age scientists and engineers in the Islamic world contributed tremendously to technology by preserving previous traditions while adding their inventions and new ideas as their scientific and intellectual achievements flourished during this period.

High Middle Ages or Decisive Middle Ages was a period of European Dark Ages history that began from approximately 1000 AD until 1250 AD The main historical trends in the High Middle Ages include rapid population growth that brought about social and political changes. Europe experienced the last barbarian invasions around the year 780 AD It became more politically and socially organized, and the Carolingian Renaissance, the first of the three medieval periods, from the late eighth to ninth centuries, led to scientific and philosophical activity in Northern Europe.

By the year 1000 AD of the history of the Dark Ages, the Christian Kingdom of Hungary had become a recognized state in Central Europe, which was forming alliances with regional powers Emancipation in the name of the great salvation - an unprecedented clearing of land - agriculture expanded in the wilderness and some of the vast forests that lie on the continent were cleared and cultivated and at the same time settlers moved beyond the traditional borders of the Frankish Empire to a new frontier beyond the Elbe River, doubling the area of  Germany three times, and the Catholic Church, which reached the peak of its political power at that time, summoned armies from Europe to a series of crusades against the Seljuk Turks.

Christian kingdoms also took much of the Iberian Peninsula, which was under Muslim control and the Normans invaded southern Italy and all the major settlements and areas of population increase in that era Population increased to levels not seen again in some areas until the nineteenth century, and this trend faltered during the late Middle Ages due to a series of events - notably the Black Death - as well as multiple wars and economic stagnation.

Late Middle Ages was the period from 1250 AD to 1500 AD. By the year 1300 AD centuries of prosperity and growth in Europe had ceased, as famines and epidemics in addition to the great famine of 1315 AD - 1317 AD and the Black Death led to a population drop by almost half of what it was  Number before misfortunes, and with population decline came social unrest and settlement wars both France and England in the history of the Dark Ages experienced dangerous uprisings of the peasants, in addition to that the Hundred Years War and many problems during this period, the unity of the Catholic Church was temporarily broken by the division  Western.

All of these problems together are sometimes called the crisis of the late Middle Ages, and despite the crises that Europe experienced during that period, the fourteenth century was also a period of great progress in the arts and sciences, after the renewed interest in ancient Roman and Greek texts that took root in the High Middle Ages began The Italian Renaissance the assimilation of Latin texts began before the Renaissance in the twelfth century of the history of the Dark Ages through friction with the Arabs during the Crusades but the seizure of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks quickly made available important Greek texts, when many Byzantine scholars were They seek refuge in the West, especially Italy.

During the millennia of the history of the Dark Ages - the Middle Ages - and from the fall of Rome until the Renaissance, the papacy matured and established itself as a preeminent authority over the church religious life took on new forms and reforms and missionaries expanded the geographical boundaries of the faith One of the most dramatic examples of this missionary activity is the attempt to reclaim lands.  sanctified by force during the Crusades, but less violent missions were undertaken in pagan Europe and the Islamic world, and evangelical missions were often performed by monks who maintained traditions of classical and Christian education throughout the history of the Dark Ages.

After the year 1000 AD and by the cathedral schools, cultural centers were replaced by monasteries, and new forms of knowledge arose, so that the cathedral schools were replaced by universities that promoted the learning of Catholicism, and the strange thing is that it was inspired by the transmission of Aristotle’s works by Arab scholars, and religious schools The theological and philosophical systems that were developed by the masters of the Middle Ages dominated Roman Catholic thought in the twentieth century and contributed to the formation of European intellectual traditions.  These groups in terms of power had lasting consequences in Europe.

Most of the literature written during the Middle Ages was written in what is known as Middle English, although Latin and French were used depending on the type of text, they were used in church and law, and spelling and grammar were inconsistent in these early writings which could make them difficult to read, even With the invention of printing in 1410, however things like spelling did not become standardized, and much of the early literature during the history of the Dark Ages consisted of sermons, prayers, saints lives, and religious preaching Most of the time they wrote books and manuscripts and it required a lot of time and effort, and because everything was done by hand, it was expensive to produce books.

So, if a medieval London merchant could read his personal library of handmade books would be beyond his purchasing power, yet as the middle class grew and literacy expanded in the late Middle Ages people might have the Book of Hours - a Christian devotional book  It was popular in the Middle Ages - made by scribes and skilled artisans, and one of the most common themes in literature in the history of the Dark Ages - the Middle Ages - was love that emphasized nobility and chivalry and Arthurian myths first appeared in Latin literature in the history of the British Molochs in  1147 AD, and during this period many works appeared, such as The Pearl Mr Gwen and the Green Knight, these two works by unknown authors, and The Parliament of Birds by Geoffrey Chaucer.

Although most history books call this period of time the history of the Dark Ages;  Because it reflects a stagnation in education and culture and a lack of knowledge in reading and writing, in fact there were many inventions and illuminations during this period, and this period of history was known as a period of famine, epidemics and wars, and the greatest period of bloodshed was during the Crusades, and the Church was the The great power in the West and the clergy were the most educated group, and despite the suppression of knowledge and learning, the Middle Ages continued to be a period full of discoveries and innovations, especially in the Far East and many inventions emerged from Chinese culture from the period 1000 AD to 1400 AD.

Among these innovations are banknotes and coins, where the first government banknote was printed in China in 1023 AD, and among the innovations is also the movable type of printing, although printing is attributed to Johannes Gutenberg, but it is in fact a Chinese invention by the inventor Pei Shing around 1045 AD, and there are many Inventions during this period such as the magnetic compass clothing buttons, the numbering system gun and gunpowder, medical glasses around 1268 AD in Italy, the mechanical clock around 1280 AD in Europe, windmills glass industry, and the shipbuilding sawmill in 1328 AD, so the future generations built their inventions based on the inventions of the past that were  Some of them are obscure to people in the Middle Ages.

Black Death was a devastating global epidemic of bubonic plague that ravaged both Europe and Asia in the middle of the fourteenth century of the history of the Dark Ages, the plague reached Europe in October 1347 AD when 12 ships from the Black Sea docked at the port of Messina in Sicily, the assembled people were met  On the harbor with a terrifying surprise, most of the sailors who were on board the ship died, and those who were still alive were seriously ill and their bodies were full of black boils that bled blood and pus, and the Sicilian authorities very quickly ordered the fleet of death ships to leave the port immediately.

But it was too late Over the next five years, the Black Death in the history of the Dark Ages killed more than twenty million people in Europe, equivalent to a third of the continent's population, and the Black Death did not take long to spread, as this epidemic spread to the port of Marseille in France And the port of Tunis in North Africa, then reached Rome and Florence and by 1348 AD, the Black Death struck Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon and London, and because the cause of the disease was unknown, many people believed that this epidemic was a divine punishment, and the Black Death epidemic began to gradually disappear in the year  1350 CE due to the modern health systems that were followed.

In the history of the Dark Ages, rural life was governed by a system that scholars call the feudal system In a feudal society, the king granted large plots of land called fiefs to nobles and bishops, and landless peasants known as serfs did most of the work on these fiefs, and these farmers cultivated and harvested The crops were mostly given to the landowner, and in return for their labor they were allowed to live on the land During the eleventh century feudal life began to change Agricultural innovations such as the heavy plow and the triangular field made farming more efficient and productive, and the required number of farm workers was few.

Thanks to the improvement and expansion of the food supply, the population increased, and as a result the flow of people to the cities increased At the same time, the Crusades expanded trade routes to the East allowing Europeans to consume imported goods such as wine olive oil and luxury textiles Private, and by approximately 1300 AD, there were approximately 15 European cities with a population of more than 50,000 people, and in these cities a new era was born, the Renaissance but it was not a complete renaissance as it had roots from the medieval world.

By the fourteenth century life in the big cities had become more developed, as workers began to organize themselves into guilds, or organizations of similar merchants to carry on a particular trade and shopkeepers from the small middle class opened stores, and the royal family was still at the forefront of social life except That more people had access to money than ever before, and developing societies began to rediscover learning and established the first university to support education, and these changes heralded a new era in history called the Renaissance due to the renaissance of science and civil society.