Position:Home>History> Dark Ages when and why?

1) Properly speaking, the Dark Ages were only the Early part of the Middle Ages, usually given as 476-800 AD!.

2) I would not include the Black Plague and Crusades as part of the Dark Ages, they were more a feature of the High Middle Ages!. Instead, the Dark Ages got their name during the Renaissance (the term was coined by Petrarch), because it was seen as a backwards time when the high culture of the Classical Europe declined!. It is also used as a strictly literal term in that there are very few written records that survive, thus making the time period "dark" to historians!.

The Dark Ages technically begin with the fall of the Roman Empire, which is traditionally said to happen in the year 476 (though, in reality, Rome more or less declined out of existence at different rates and at different times in Western Europe, and did not just suddenly fall one day)!. But the fall of Rome is another reason for the name!.

In the vacuum of power, many "barbarian" peoples stepped in!. City life declined and people moved out of cities!. The Plague of Justinian (not the Black Plague, which would hit much later) significantly decreased the population of Europe!. Communications broke down, and Western Europe, which under the Romans had been a unified political entity, became fragmented and turned into a backwater, while the East became the "center of the world"

also, in this chaotic environment, religion became very importation and people focused a great deal on it!. The Catholic Church became an important power in the absence of political authority!. Looking back on this, many historians, especially during the Renaissance and Enlightenment, saw this as a period of supersition and dogmatism, thus a dark age!.

Its important to note that the Dark Ages applies mainly to Western Europe!. Different civilizations have had their own dark ages, but THE Dark Ages tends to apply to this period in Western Europe!. At the same time, the Arab World, and even Byzantine parts of Eastern Europe to a lesser degree, reached a time of prosperity and progress!.

So, to summarize, the three reason for the name "Dark Ages": Lack of surviving literary sources, the chaos created by the fall of Rome (fragmentation and instability), and the decline of culture (population decrease, loss of knowledge, supersition)

EDIT: I agree that the Early Middle Ages were not times of more intense supersition others, but I was just talking about where the name came from!. People during the Renaissance and Enlightenment (though they had their own problems) looked back on the Dark Ages as a completely backwards time!. Although this is certainly not true, there was dark and light, this is how the period got its name!.

I also tried to address all of Western Europe, not just Britain as the person below me has done!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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I saw a show on TV that postulated that it was really dark-as in less light-due to volcanic eruptions on the other side of the world that affected the weather around the world for many years!.
The other "dark" was in lack of "enlightenment"!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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Dark Ages began with the Bush Administration!.

dboyWww@QuestionHome@Com

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The early medieal period (i!.e from about 500-1000) is often called The Dark Ages' but it is not used so much nowadays!.

The period after the Romans left Britain was a period when there was not much written history, so it is 'Dark' in the sense that we don't know much about what was going on then (it is the era when the legendary King Arthur is supposed to have lived)!. However, the times soon became more settled, and there are contemporary writings fromt he Saxon period which are very interesting!.

The fact that England was still largely Pagan in early Saxon England might be a reason you could give for the 'darkness',i!.e!. Christian learning ahd more or less died out!. But then Christianity began to be spread throughout England and learning flourished again in the monasteries, churches were built, and beautiful manuscripts and statues were produced!. You can read about this exciting period in Bede's 'Ecclesiastical History of the English People'!.

The later Saxon period was an era when England began to be terrorised by the Vikings, who came to plunder and destroy, and kill, and take people as slaves!. The fear of the Vikings might be another reason why the era was 'dark'!.

However, at the same time, learning continued to flourish, produing great leaders like Alfred the Great, and England became a stronger country and eventually was united under the rule of one King, Athelstan!.

'Dark' is not really an appropriate term to describe the whole of the medieval period, or even the early medieval period for that matter!. I think you might write in your essay that there was lots of light as well as dark in the period!.

Nor is it fair to categorise the medieval period as an 'era of superstition'!. The so-called 'Renaissance' or early modern period, was no less an era of superstition, indeed it was during this period that the witch persecutions took place, in which about 40,000 people were executed over a period of three hundred years!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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