When do the MIDDLE AGES Begin?

[CubsFan1982]

Lame historical copycat poll. :P

[lenidog]

1. I am going with the traditional date

which is the fall of Rome and 1453 as their end with the fall of Constantinopole

[billyskank]

28. What about the dark ages?

I thought the Dark Ages began with the fall of Rome, and the Middle Ages running up until the Renaissance. Don't know where the Dark Ages meet the Middle Ages though. It's all mediaeval of course. :)

[Guy Fawkes]

2. (everything2)

The Medieval era started, depending on the source, around:
* 312 A.D., the reign of Constantine and start of the Christian Empire;
* 395 A.D., the death of Theodosius and division of the Empire into Eastern and Western;
* 410 A.D., the Sack of Rome by the Visigoths, led by Alaric;
or
* 476 A.D., beginning of the barbarian rule of Rome.

Again depending on source, the Middle Ages end around:
* 1350, the approximate start of the Renaissance;
* 1453, Fall of Constantinople (now Istanbul) to the Turks;
* 1453, English lose the battle of Castillon, ending The Hundred Years' War;
* 1492, Christopher Columbus "discovers" the New World;
* 1517, Martin Luther attempts to "open a dialogue" with the Catholic Church.

[CubsFan1982]

3. So the question is, do the Middle Ages start with the decline?

Or the fall of Rome? I'm more in the "fall of Rome" camp, personally.

[Guy Fawkes]

6. I say (and was always taught) 'fall'...

[CubsFan1982]

9. I, as well.

Although one could certainly make the case that the declining authority of the empire was the precipitating factor, it's not the sole cause and starting point of the Middle Ages.

[barb162]

27. The conventional answer is that the Middle Ages began with the

fall of the Roman Empire. But historians disagree about the definition of the word "fall" or when it was in its steep decline, etc. Scholars will argue endlessly over this so there's no point trying to get an exact date. To me it's like asking when was the USA at its greatest "power" and some will say right after WW2 and some will say in the 1950s and some would say right after the USSR collapsed. There's no real right answer.

[IChing]

10. The Medieval age was part of the Dark Ages

In European history, the Dark Ages were the ages of Camelot, including other parts of europe were learning and written history was scattered


The earlier part of the period ( c. 500– c. 1100) or early Middle Ages is sometimes distinguished as the Dark Ages,

while the later part ( c. 1100–1453) or high or late Middle Ages is often thought of as the Middle Ages proper.

The whole period is characterized by the emergence of separate kingdoms, the growth of trade and urban life, and the growth in power of monarchies and the Church. The growth of interest in classical models within art and scholarship in the 15th century is seen as marking the transition to the Renaissance period and the end of the Middle Ages.

edited for typo

[Orangepeel]

4. November 2, 2000

I'm the first one with that lame joke? Hmmm... maybe it's even lamer than I thought.

[Robeson]

5. Thats when the dark ages began.

[Orangepeel]

8. ooh! right!

:-)

[6000eliot]

7. Let's just call it the 2nd Dark Age

[LastKnight]

11. i feel like a geek knowing why these dates are significant. nt

[Placebo]

12. Grammar fascist!

:P

[CubsFan1982]

23. I suppose that's mildly better than grammar Nazi?

:D

[usregimechange]

13. Did they end?

[OffWithTheirHeads]

14. I always thought it was when you reach about 45

But, at 55, I'm just begining to feel it. Can't play tennis anymore cause of my knees. The young hotties call me Mister instead of "hey sailor, spending?". Kinda sucks.

[Deja Q]

15. Ah! Right poll! 2006AD is my response (other)

:D

[JRob]

17. I was gonna say 2000

[Hardrada]

16. I remember them. They were kind of fun and exciting.

And people had a lot more class. We were all sad when they ended. They sent around illuminated memos.

[Tom Kitten]

18. kinda astonishing when you think about it...

A thousand years in between the fall of Rome to the Renaissance and the beginning of the "Modern Era"...

[MercutioATC]

19. I was always taught that the Middle Ages began in 1066...

:shrug:

[tjwmason]

20. Battle of Hastings?

(which ironically did not take place at Hastings itself, but just down the road at a place called Battle).

That strikes me as only particularly relevant to England - the Middle Ages being a wider concept.

I'd go with the fall of Rome, noting that this is the broader sense of the Middle Ages, more naturally one applies the term to the High Middle Ages which came later.

[MercutioATC]

21. I agree that it's mostly a British issue, but that seems to be the

accepted year.

[Deep13]

22. The time between the fall of Rome ...

... in the west and say the ascention of Charlemagne is generally considered to be the dark ages.

From about 800-1000 is the early middle ages.
1000-1200 is the high middle ages.
1200-1400 is the late middle ages.

The Black Death 1347-1349 is the last significant event of the middle ages. The end of the recovery from it is generally the end of the middle ages.

Then there is the Renaissance and Enlightenment. The modern era generally is thought to start around 1600.

[LynneSin]

24. Give Bush a few more years and we'll hit the middle ages again

I'm looking forward to living in a hovel trying to recuperate from the Bubonic Plague

[yardwork]

25. bring out your dead!

[barb162]

26. The so-called "fall" of Rome @ 476 is good enough though it really

started before 400, when things were already going downhill swiftly for the Roman Empire. There really is no specific date. I studied this period a lot as a medieval history major. What we are really talking about is a power and cultural discussion of Rome and how it really did or didn't affect the lives of the people in its empire. It just got weaker over time for a number of reasons and using the "last" Roman Emperor as a date designation doesn't really tell the story. I think most historians would use 400 AD or thereabouts depending on the country or region, though some aspects of Roman civilization survived in some parts of Europe long after 400AD