Why is the early part of the middle ages in europe often called the dark ages?

Question:Its called this because europe had lost everything since the Roman Empire got terminated by barbarian groups that attcked the Roman empire from 410-500 A.D. These barbarian groups didn't event or keep anything that the romans had so law, government, the arts, philosophy, etc... was gone. It is true that they used candles but candles had been arounfd even before the roman empire. As well with this the Great Plague came around during this time peiod and it killed a lot of people at a time. Like out of 1,000 people about 5-600 were died within a week.

Luckily the medival period got better with early technology of warcraft and the start of relearning to read, write, and make poetry. Wouldn't be til the 11th to the 14th centuries that the start of books and everything lost from the Roman empire started to be recreated with the help of the Gutenberg printer press. Basically it was a time period of lords, serfs, knights, kings, etc... and had tons of battles fought between many different kings and parts of countries. Most major battles included the French, British, Spanish, Netherlands, Germanic regions, city states of Italy/ pope lands. As well with the Crusades vs the Muslims which did help with trade but led to many people dying over fighting for the holy land.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Its called this because europe had lost everything since the Roman Empire got terminated by barbarian groups that attcked the Roman empire from 410-500 A.D. These barbarian groups didn't event or keep anything that the romans had so law, government, the arts, philosophy, etc... was gone. It is true that they used candles but candles had been arounfd even before the roman empire. As well with this the Great Plague came around during this time peiod and it killed a lot of people at a time. Like out of 1,000 people about 5-600 were died within a week.

Luckily the medival period got better with early technology of warcraft and the start of relearning to read, write, and make poetry. Wouldn't be til the 11th to the 14th centuries that the start of books and everything lost from the Roman empire started to be recreated with the help of the Gutenberg printer press. Basically it was a time period of lords, serfs, knights, kings, etc... and had tons of battles fought between many different kings and parts of countries. Most major battles included the French, British, Spanish, Netherlands, Germanic regions, city states of Italy/ pope lands. As well with the Crusades vs the Muslims which did help with trade but led to many people dying over fighting for the holy land.

The Dark Ages came about when the plague hit Europe and millions of people died from it. The plague started in what is now called Turkey from a boat that landed there and spread through Europe like wildfire wiping out complete villages and towns......from the History Channel

because people tend to view it as a time of warfare and little music, art, and other cultural products like that.

its not really true though.

There was neglible scientific, intellectual and cultural progress. The tradition of rational thought from classical Greece and Rome was completely expunged by a rampant Christian Church at its most persecutorial and fundamental and it wasn't until the 12th-13th centuries that the classical writings were rediscovered and secular -later scientific -learning began to emerge. Dark because there was no light of learning.

"These barbarian groups didn't event or keep anything that the romans had so law"

How can anyone said to have read tons of History books and said something like that ? the "barbarians" after dominating several territories along Europe not only adopted the official religion of the Roman Empire (Christianity), but also kept most of the political traditions of the late Empire.
How can anyone talk about the plague in the early Middle Ages, when the "black plague" was the common disease in the XIV century, killing 1\3 of all european population ??

The Dark Ages is not an Historical term used by Historians. It's a term used in the Italian Renaissance, since the XIV Century. It was used to say that between the greek-roman time until the 1300's there was nothing but darkness, no culture, only famine and death. So the Renaissance was a period of Light, to oppose this period.
Remember that the Italian Renaissance give much interest to the greek-roman period.

However, since the XX century, Historians began to study this period with a higher focus on objectivity, and easily find out that most of the older speculation was wrong.

1) First, most of the History students learn about the Visigothic codes of Law at University.
2) The standard "Barbarian" regions turned into kingdoms, and they were kept for some centuries, not only because of their roman heritage, but because of their wisdom to destroy political divisions.
3) Most of the Countries in Europe are direct descents of all this kingdoms and counties formed in the beginning of the Medieval Ages: France, Germany, the Imperial House, etc, are good examples.
4) Also, the moorish influence in Europe was very important, specially in the Mediterranean, and probably this "Dark Ages" term was something to diminish their reputation.

The term "Dark Ages" entered in the vocabulary as something "Bad", "stupid", "ignorant", "violent". It is completely surpassed in today's science known as History.

There were always wars and famine in Europe: for instance, the XVI Century is full of wars, crisis in agriculture, persecutions made by the Inquisition, religion intolerance, etc. But this century is often regarded as a "Golden Age" for several countries. Mainly because the World was far more open than in the Medieval Times. But this has nothing to due with hapiness and joy, that were also pretty common in the Early Middle Ages.

Because they hadn't invented candles

They were in the darkness away from the light of knowledge. They were ruled by superstition and myths until the renaissance.