Unit 7:

Government and Politics

“The Dark Ages”

(c. 500-1500 CE)

Were the “Dark Ages” really dark?

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“The Dark Ages is a term applied in its widest sense to that period of intellectual depression in the history of Europe from the establishment of the barbarian supremacy in the [late] fifth century (400s CE) to the revival of learning at about the [middle] of the fifteenth (c. 1450 CE), thus nearly corresponding in extent with the Middle Ages.”

- The American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary of

General Knowledge, 1883

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• The time period following the fall of Rome in Europe is sometimes known as the “Dark Ages.”

• The term implies that the time between the fall of the Roman Empire and the European Renaissance was a period of decline for Europe.

• This time is also called the Middle Ages because it falls in the middle of two important time periods: Classical Period (Greece & Rome) and the European Renaissance.

Background

Roman Empire in 117 CE

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Sui China Silla

Parhae

Yamoto Japan

Harsha’ Empire

Chalukya

Avar Kingdom

Frankish Kingdoms

GhanaAxum

Sassanid Empire

Byzantine Empire

States and Empires in 600 CE

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6

Ghana

Carolingian

Byzantine

Abbasid Caliphate

Axum

Gurjara-Pratihara Tang China

Srivijaya

Parhae

Silla

Cordoba Caliphate

Heian Japan

States and Empires in 800 CE

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Mongol Empire

Russia

Sung China

Koryo

Kamakura Japan

Delhi Sultanate

Scandanavian Kingdoms

Mali

Zimbabwe

BeninOyo

France

Ethiopia

Ayyubid Caliphate

Almohad Caliphate

Poland

Rum

H.R.E.

Hungary

England

Portugal

Spain

States and Empires in 1237 CE

Angkor

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Mali

Oyo Benin

Zimbabwe

Zanj City-States

Ethiopia VijayanagaraSiam

Majapahit

Ashikaga JapanKorea

Marinids HafsidsMamluk Sultanate

Granada

Portugal Castile

France

ScotlandEngland

Union of Kalmar

Holy Roman Empire

Poland-Lithuania

Hungary

Ottoman Emp.

Russian States

Khanate of the Golden Horde

Jagatai Khanate

Ming ChinaTimurid Empire

States and Empires in 1400 CE

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• The metaphor of “dark” and “light” was originally used by Christians to describe the “darkness” people lived in before God sent Jesus Christ to bring “light” to the world.

• Petrarch was an Italian scholar during the 1300s who loved Greek and Roman writing.

• He used the terms “dark” and “light” to describe learning instead of religion. He believed that Europe was in the “dark” after the “light” of the Greek and Roman empires were gone.

Why “Dark”?

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Historians, and others, since Petrach continued to use the phrase “Dark Ages.”

They argued that during the centuries following the fall of the Roman Empire, Europeans lived in a time that:

•Had no central government•Had a bad economy•Was repeatedly invaded•Did not support learning•Created very little culture (art, literature, architecture, etc.)•Was basically a miserable place to live

Why “Dark”?

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• Today many historians disagree with this term.

• They think it is not the proper way to describe this period of time.

• But, people continue to use term “Dark Ages.”

• What do you think?

Was Europe really in a “Dark Age” for almost one thousand years?

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