The History Channel's Documentary: The Early Middle Ages

The Middle Ages was a time that was greatly influenced by a feudalistic society, which led to the power struggle between England and France and the inequality between men and women. The idea of Feudalism,

There are many themes in both O Brother where Art Thou and the Odyssey which seem to be strongly similar. Many similarities between the characters and their actions surface through their actions. In my essay I will not only compare and contrast the most important elements of the mentioned works, but will also discuss the importance of heroic figures and the less favored themes, such as revenge and foolish fearlessness.

People have different opinions about the Dark Age. They are all different, some say yes, some say no. So that is why I have picked maybe so. To see both sides of the answer. Let’s begin.

Rome was the most powerful and successful Empire in history. After the fall of Rome, an era called the Middle Ages came. Even though Rome fell, the Middle Ages still had roots in the classical heritage of Rome and the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church. Germanic Invaders destroyed Rome's economy, government, and culture. Learning declined and a common language was lost which resulted in the emergence of Germanic kingdoms. The church was the only thing that survived and provided stability, order, and security. An Empire, ran by the idea of a churchly kingdom evolved. The three labels that best describe the middle ages are the Dark Ages, a time of loss and declension, the Age of Faith, a time that was dominated by Christianity and the Golden

In the 1300's, an Italian scholar named Petrach used the term "dark ages" to describe the medieval period (Movie Talk: The Dark Ages). Petrach applied the "dark" and "light" terms to learning. Petrach believed that the Romans and Ancient Greeks were in the "light" of learning. The following period, the middle ages, was in the "dark''. Ever since he used the term, historians have been debating whether the time period between the 500's and the 1500's were really a "dark age." The middle ages were a time of war and chaos, so people think. Even though the Black Death and the Crusades took place during the time period between 500 and 1500, the middle ages were mostly a time of prosperity. The building of universities, the signing of the Magna Carta

From 500 to 1500 AD Europe was not in a dark age, because of their advances with the Gothic Cathedrals, their conquests in the Crusades, and their organization within their Government. During 1163 through 1345 Europe had many architectural advancements, such as the Gothic Cathedral and the Notre Dame. According to the Gothic Cathedral document in Universities and Cathedrals it states,”Common features of gothic cathedrals included architectural innovations, including: large columns, high ceilings with ribbed vaults, flying buttresses, and large stained glass windows.” This quote supports that Europe was not in a dark age because it shows how many architectural innovations were made during this time period. The conquests of the Crusades support that Europe was not in a dark age because they brought many new trade items to Europe and they conquered new land and reconquered some land.

It explains that from 400 CE to 1400 CE it was the “Dark Ages”. It says that the “Dark Ages” almost lasted as long as the Middle Ages.

The Middle Ages led to the Age of Exploration.The Middle Ages (500 CE-1500 CE) was a time in history after the Roman Empire collapsed (476 CE). The Age of Exploration was when people traveled off to foreign lands and explored or traded. The Middle Ages had a lot of important events that led to the Age of Exploration. Here are some examples the fall of the Roman Empire, Feudalism,The Crusades, the Black Death, the Commercial Revolution, the Renaissance, and the Vikings.

Europe was not in a "dark age" really and it did improve Europe's food and population grew bigger which meant more farming. One example, is from document A which is that Europe was still in control and there was still laws."No man shall be forced to perform more service for a knight's fee."Another example, from document C is that Europe still had plenty of food and population grew."Europe developed and prospered." A final example, is that Europe was not in a "dark age" is from document E which talks about how universities and how church schools were formed. "However, universities introduced a new system of education, eventually replacing the monastery and church schools. These were three good reasons why Europe was not in a "dark age."

Was Europe in a "dark age" during the 500 to 1500? The term came from an Italian scholar named Petrarch. The time period had universities, education, a lot of food, population, the Magna Carta, black death, the decline in trade, and a lot of chaos (dark ages). While Europe had a lot of up's and down's, Europe was in a "dark age" during the 500 to 1500 time period.

The Middle Ages was a period that lasted from about 500 to 1500(OI). There were kings and queens, nobles, knights, and peasants (Doc. 1). People were treated and respected differently according to their class(OI). There were special relationships and responsibilities that everyone had. In the Middle Ages feudalism affected people’s lives economically, socially, and politically.

Every great time period eventually has to come to an end. As time goes by no person will ever know when aspects could start to go wrong. The Middle Ages, from the 5th century to the 15th century, was a time period that was very successful, but came to an abrupt end. The church was the center of attention and beliefs were strictly based off of superstitions. The Middle Ages were composed of and relied on three main systems; feudalism, manorialism, and the Roman Catholic Church. As time passed, all three of these systems were altered dramatically and were basically wiped off the map. The causes of the decline of the Middle Ages were the crusades, growth of towns and cities, the Hundred Year’s War, the rise of nations, the plague, and the Renaissance.

From 1100 B.C.E - 750 B.C.E., the Greeks suffered through a period of time during which the population declined and food production dropped. Historians refer to this period in history as the Dark Age. The Dark Age was very hard for the Greeks, but numerous developments managed to come out of this period. In fact, near the end of the Dark Age, one of the greatest poets of all time began his work. His name was Homer. Throughout Greek history, we can see the tremendous effect that Homer and his ideas had on the people of Greece and their education.

The Germanic style of art called Animal art is a characterized by the distorted animals that it depicts, and it's seemingly random shaped objects that at closer inspection are made up of small symmetric shapes. The distorted animals are described at twisted and stretched, and sometimes made up of significant parts of other animals. The griffin is a an example of this style, which is a beast made up of an eagle head, and a lion body. Many examples of this art are made of gold and enamel with different highly valuable gems to emphasize features. There exists three styles categorized as Style I, II, and III which preceded one another over 200 years in particular. This art form is in contrast to what people think of the dark ages, which were

This time period lasted from the 5th century to the 15th century, it began with the fall of the roman empire and merged into the renaissance and the age of discovery. It covered the time from the fall of the empire to the rise of the ottoman empire, which is the time of castles, and peasants. The middle ages were also called the dark ages because this period of time had been lost to history. Many important records of this period have not survived, historians don’t know much about this time as it is. During this “dark age” there was no “pizazz”. No scientific accomplishments, no great art, no leaders that made a difference. Meanwhile the rise of Islam was growing larger and more powerful. The medieval Islamic time world was more than 3 times bigger than all of