Was the Medieval Era really a "dark age?"?

Answer 1

It depends what you mean by "dark age." If you mean that no progress was made as far as science, philosophy, etc. I would say no. It's just that things really started to pick up once the Renaissance began -- it took a long time to recover from the collapse of the Roman Empire (about a thousand years).

Answer 2

Dark Ages were from after 400 AD, when the Western Roman Empire collapsed to around 900AD, when Charlemagne was crowned as the Holy Roman Emperor. The medieval period was after this.

In a sense, the Dark Ages were dark as they were a time of comparative lawlessness. This is a false perception as there were some good things happening such as the Visigothic kingdoms of Northern Italy and the Vandals in North Africa.

For the English it was a time of instability, with Anglo Saxon invasions and Viking raids. As a lot of history is looked at through an English prism we tend to think of the time as being dark.

Answer 3

The term Middle Ages and Dark Ages to characterize the time first became popular in the Renaissance. Even Middle Ages is kind of derogatory - it's kind of like saying: It's just that time in between important stuff. Renaissance (Which is French for rebirth) meant going back to Antiquity. The Middle Ages had been characterized by a strong Church influence on philosophy, politics and the arts but it was, in fact a very rich culture. It is true a lot of Greek and Latin literature were lost until the crusaders brought them back from the Middle East, but to say that the Dark Ages were without culture is much of an exaggeration.

Answer 4

kind of... but not...

what happened was, the Roman Empire collapsed & throughout that area, people fled from the cities to the countryside & spread out more because they didn't trust eachother.

around 10,000 approximately, they did return to the cities & began to live crowded together. unfortunately, they forgot about hygeine and so-forth... and that is how the black plague killed so many people (it was spread by the massive amounts of rats) with all the garbage in the streets. so, that was devastating, but probably influential on the people getting themselves together & developing more.

however, both the high middle ages & the early middle ages were huge advancements in the Catholic church & Christianity. people also read a lot of literature, as the Catholic church had a huge collection and encouraged knowledge of literature. the people got into farming again... more than the Romans really were, so it was just different...

hope that helps. for more reading, the articles below are rather helpful.

Answer 5

the medieval era or "middle ages" were called the "dark ages" because during that time there was rampant invasion by germanic tribes. and during these invasions, much of the era's litrature (made by monks in convents) were destroyed by the invading tribes. some of these writings were those handed down by the roman ancestors of the local dwellers of the country.

scholars therefore used the term "dark ages" to mean that there is a lack of contemporary as well as italian literature from those times; making it hard to "see" what life was like for the medieval people.

Answer 6

No reputable historian uses that term any more. The presence of Erigina alone would light up the early Middle Ages.

Answer 7

I always thought it was referred to as "dark" because of all the death and destruction taking place in Europe. Plus the lack of records.

Answer 8

No. It was anything but dark. Developments were made in science, the arts, and Western philosophical thought.

Answer 9

Yes, in Europe. In the Middle East and Asia it was a time of discovery and enlightenment

Answer 10

according to some studies, due to a large-scale volcanic eruption, the ash cloud was so large that yes indeed the dark ages were dark.