The 3 Phases of the Middle Ages (most Important Characteristics and Events)

The Middle Ages is one of the longest periods in history and one of the most important in the history of Western civilization. The Middle Ages spans almost a thousand years, ten centuries in which many events occurred that marked the course of the West.

Contrary to what many believe, the Middle Ages was a very rich period in a cultural sense, a time that, far from being immersed in absolute darkness, developed culture, philosophy and, to a much lesser extent, science.

There are several the phases of the Middle Ages that historians have agreed to divide it and below we will discover what they are about.

The main phases of the Middle Ages

When we talk about the Middle Ages we are referring to a period in European history that spans from the 5th century to the 15th century. This period of almost a thousand years began with the fall of the Roman Empire back in 476 AD while its end was reached during the 15th century, with several years proposed as the definitive date of the end of the Middle Ages: the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg (1440), the fall of the Byzantine Empire (1453) and the European discovery of America by Christopher Columbus (1492).

Whatever is considered to mark the end of the European Middle Ages, all these events were united by two historical events that marked the last century of this period: the end of the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) and the popularization of Gutenberg’s invention. With the arrival of peace after a 116-year war and the mass production of books, favoring the easier transmission of ideas, a process of political, social and economic change began in the Old Continent.

The concept of the Middle Ages was created by European humanists of the 14th and 15th centuries, who believed that the era in which they lived was a revival of Greco-Roman antiquity: the Renaissance. The thinkers of those centuries divided known history into three periods: the classical era, idealized and seen as perfect, the medieval period, the intermediate period and which they saw as dark and decadent, and the modern age, its time in which ideas Humanists and Renaissanceists conquered the continent.

But even though he has been saying since the Renaissance that the Middle Ages was a period full of darkness and ignorance, the truth is that it is more of a myth. The truth is that, Although the Medieval Age was not splendid, there was a lot of cultural, philosophical and, although to a lesser extent, scientific activity We have proof of this in medieval figures such as Thomas Aquinas, William of Bohemia, Ramon Llull and William of Ockham.

Traditionally, the Middle Ages were divided into two major stages: the High Middle Ages and the Late Middle Ages. However, given its great extension in time, it has recently been decided to introduce a new stage called the Early Middle Ages. Let’s look in depth at the most notable aspects of each stage.

Early Middle Ages

Many historians affirm that the transition between Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages developed gradually and over an extended period of time. Thus, some experts consider that the last phase of Antiquity (Late Antiquity) and the first phase of the Middle Ages (Early Middle Ages) overlap, marking the end of Classical Greece and Rome to begin Christian Europe

This first part of the Middle Ages began at the end of the 5th century, lasting until the 7th century. It was during these three centuries that the Germanic tribes, which until not long ago had been kept at bay by the Roman hosts, began to invade the territories of the Roman Empire, causing the Germanic and Latin cultures to establish contact and timidly mix.

With the passage of time and due to the pressures of the barbarian tribes, the Western Roman Empire disintegrated and its place was occupied by several barbarian kingdoms. In some areas of Europe, purely Germanic kingdoms appeared, such as the Saxon kingdoms while in other places the Romano-Germanics appeared, such as the Visigoth Kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula.

It is in this Early Middle Ages that A new power appears on the continent, which remembers the power that the then extinct Rome had: the Carolingian Empire This state arose thanks to the fact that the Frankish king Pepin III controlled, with the help of papal power, the two great kingdoms existing at that time, which were under Merovingian hands. The throne was inherited by his son Charlemagne (800), who managed to unify much of the western part of the continent both culturally and politically.

However, while central Europe was ruled by Germanic forces, other regions began to fall to the invasion of non-European peoples. It is at this time that the great Muslim invasion occurred, a period in which the Arab peoples, after expanding throughout North Africa, crossed the Mediterranean and conquered a large part of the Iberian Peninsula, Italy and the Balkans. Islamic rule in Spain began in 711, lasting up to eight centuries and exerting a great influence on local Christian cultures.

As far as culture is concerned, it is in the Early Middle Ages when monastic life emerged, with the Romanesque being the majority artistic movement. The monasteries achieved a monopoly on culture, housing within their walls classic books rescued from oblivion and the passage of time The monks were literate people, men of faith who, in addition to praying, also copied documents by hand, ensuring that much classical knowledge survived but that they guarded with great care, especially those suspected of being blasphemous.

It is at this stage that the Roman slave production system is abandoned to make way for feudalism, a system that would mark all of medieval Europe economically and socially.

Early Middle Ages

The Early Middle Ages goes from the 9th century to the 11th century. It is during those two centuries in which feudalism is definitively established in society, a system that was characterized by the work of serfs, peasants who lived on the lands of feudal lords. These serfs were not slaves, although they and their descendants could not leave the lands where they were born, but they had the right to exploit their lord’s properties in exchange for paying tribute.

Politically, the Early Middle Ages stands out because power began to decentralize. Although some monarchs maintained a position of great power in their kingdoms, on many occasions they were forced to share their powers with great lords belonging to the nobility. Large states disintegrate, as was the case of the Carolingian Empire, giving rise to the creation of small kingdoms, principalities and states that were highly fragmented internally.

These centuries are considered to have been relatively prosperous. Early medieval Europe enjoyed a great demographic increase thanks to improved harvests and the new political and social organization The countryside was more worked and better cared for, which is why the peasantry’s diet improved and their life expectancy grew, although moderately, going from about 30 years to between 35-45 depending on the area.

At the end of the Early Middle Ages one of the most important events in Western history occurred: the Crusades (1095-1291) Throughout that period, the Papacy called up to nine military expeditions to fight against the Muslims in the Eastern Mediterranean, who had occupied the holy city of Jerusalem and where the Holy Sepulcher of Jesus Christ was located. Volunteers from all over Europe joined these campaigns, motivated by their faith and their desire to achieve glory.

Middle Ages

The Late Middle Ages is the last medieval phase. It began at the beginning of the 12th century and ended throughout the 15th century, whether with the invention of the Gutenberg printing press (1440), the fall of the Byzantine Empire (1453) or the discovery of America (1492). Whatever specific event is preferred to indicate the end of the Middle Ages, all of them represented a great change in the mentality and knowledge of the time, putting an end to specifically medieval thought.

During the Early and High Middle Ages, the countryside was what socially and economically had the most weight. However, From the 12th century onwards, cities re-emerged, becoming places where new economic activities were carried out, including unions (e.g. crafts) and commerce. This will bring about the emergence of a new social class, the bourgeoisie, and will also begin the slow decline of the feudal system to give way to an economic system that we could well call proto-capitalist.

Another of the events that marked this last period of the Middle Ages was the Black Death pandemic, with peaks of highest incidence between 1347 and 1353. According to experts, the appearance of this infectious disease led to the death of between 25 and 50 million people in Europe, a disaster of titanic proportions if we take into account that at that time the Old Continent had barely 80 million people. After the pandemic, the European population was reduced to about 30 million.

But added to the demographic disaster of the pandemic, the climatic changes that occurred in the Middle Ages produced very poor harvests, which caused it to break out. a strong crisis at all levels in the 14th century

At the beginning of the 15th century and with the crisis still present, the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) broke out in which France and England clashed but, with the passage of time, they would cause almost all of Europe to declare war. The war ended with the French victory, a fundamental event for the strengthening of the nation and in which the peasant Joan of Arc participated.

The Catholic Church went through a severe crisis during this stage. The corruption that corroded its entire hierarchy, selling indulgences and committing all types of abuses, sins and vices were open secrets, which motivated the appearance of currents that wanted to recover the purest Christian values. As time went by, Protestantism, the Church of England and others similar would emerge creeds that disobeyed Rome and that evidenced the loss of influence and power of the Pope.

Both the end of the Hundred Years’ War and the appearance of the Gutenberg printing press (1440) are considered to have begun the end of the Middle Ages. With the arrival of peace, the continent began to prosper moderately and, added to the fact that the transmission of ideas had become much easier thanks to the printing of books being more efficient and faster, a cultural revolution began that would give way to the next period. cultural-artistic history of Europe: the Renaissance and the beginning of the Modern Age.