How long did the Medieval period last?

Question

Which year did it start and end? Or is it which decade? Or century? I'm lost!

Answer 1

Well realize that this is something we, today, impose upon history to make it easier to teach. At the time there was no big headline "MIDDLE AGES TO START FRIDAY - ANCIENT WORLD NOW JUST HISTORY"

So because of this different historians pick different dates for the start and end of different periods.

The general consensus is that the Middle Ages start with either the Sack of Rome by Alaric the Goth on August 24th A.D. 410, or the resignation of the last Roman Emperor of the Western Empire, Romulus Agustus, on September 4th, A.D. 476,

The End of the Middle Ages is often dated at the Fall of Constantinople to the Turks, and the death of the last Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire on the morning of Tuesday May 29th, 1453. Some people date it at Columbus's discovery of America, 2 a.m. on October 12, 1492, or even when Martin Luther nailed the The 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral on October 31, 1517.

No matter how you do it, the Middle Ages run about 1,000 years.

This in turn is divided into the Dark Ages, and the Middle Ages Proper, or the "High Middle Ages".

The Dark Ages were pretty much like Mad Max, only without guns and gasloline. The only government Western Europe had ever had had fallen apart, and the economy went with it. Think of any of the "after the nuclear war" movies you may have seen. That's pretty much what happened. There was no law, no government, no army. This meant there was a LOT of violence...and trade, learning, art, and the economy all pretty much stopped. (Feeding the kids and making sure they wern't sold into slavery was more important to most people than teaching them how to read.) People pulled together to get through it and Feudalisim was the result.

As people built a new civilization on the ruins of the old, stabilty returned, which meant that trade, commerce, literature, etc. began to return to Europe. This is the "High Middle Ages". Some people start it at the Reign of Charlemagne who was the King of the Franks (768–814), who conquered Italy and took the Iron Crown of Lombardy in 774 and, on a visit to Rome in 800, was crowned Emperor by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day, presaging the revival of the Roman imperial tradition in the West in the form of the Holy Roman Empire. Some would date it from the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, which was more or less the same time as the end of the Viking raids, which was a big contributor to the stability of Europe.

Answer 2

Check out the History channel. They are running a series this week on the Barbarians. The period lasted from the fall of the Roman Empire until roughly 1350 AD (14th. Century). No 11,000 years!!! The time frame is less than 1,000 years. Rome was finished by 500AD (6th. Century) in all practical terms. Each century is 100 years. Subtract 500 from 1350.

Answer 3

"The Middle Ages of Western Europe are commonly dated from the 5th century division of the Roman Empire (into the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire) and the barbarian invasions until the 16th century schism of Christianity during the Protestant Reformation and the dispersal of Europeans worldwide in the start of the European overseas exploration." - Wiki

With that said, it lasted 11 centuries. One century is 1,000 years. Therefore, it lasted about 11,000 years.

Answer 4

k