What are The Middle Ages?

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What are The Middle Ages?
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What are The Middle Ages?

• 5th to the 15th Century
• Fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 to the
  Fall of Constantinople in 1453
• Feudalism (government by personal loyalty)
  distinct from the Roman Empire that defined
  antiquity and the rise of nation-states
  characteristic of Modernity.
• The predominance of the Catholic Church.
• (Debatable) cultural, economic and political
  backwardness.

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What are The Middle Ages?

• Die Kultur der Renaissance in ItalienJacob
  Burckhardt, 1860 A few generations of Italian
  intellectuals and artists had - through a truly
  cultural revolution - freed Europe from the
  stifling bonds of a society that was collectively
  oriented and in which every aspect of life on
  earth was focused on life after death.
• Waning of the Middle AgesJohan Huizinga,
  1919Identified typically 'medieval' cultural
  expressions after the Middle Ages. Others argued
  that there was a Carolingian Renaissance and
  Twelfth Century Renaissance as well as the
  Italian Renaissance.

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Why do we use the term? Who uses it for what
purpose?
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Why do we use the term? Who uses it for what
purpose?

• European and Eurocentric.
• Used by late medieval scholars to differentiate
  themselves from their immediate past and herald
  the dawning of a new age of reason and
  prosperity. Eg. Francesco Petrarch (1304 - 1374)

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What are the High Middle Ages?
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What are the High Middle Ages?

• 1000 - 1300
• Preceded by the Early Middle Ages or Dark Ages.
  Followed by the Late Middle Ages.
• Characterised by rapid population growth
  sustained by increased agricultural productivity.
  Checked in the 13th century by plague and war.
• The origins of Modern Nation-States.
• The Crusades.

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Krak des Chevaliers
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The Krak des Chevaliers is located in modern day
Syria and is regarded as one of the greatest of
Crusader castles.
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- Built by Kurds in 1031- Taken by Crusaders
in 1099- (Re)captured by the Mamluk sultan,
Beibars, in 1271