Early Middle Ages
532476
222324544
2008-06-28T18:55:47Z
Ntsimp
1219859
/* Timeline */ spelling: "seige" -> "siege"
[[Image:Theodora mosaik ravenna.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[Justinian I|Justinian]]'s wife [[Theodora (6th century)|Theodora]] and her retinue, in a 6th century mosaic from the [[Basilica of San Vitale]] in [[Ravenna]].]]
[[Image:Sacr Gelasianum 131v 132.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Incipit of the [[Gelasian Sacramentary]] in an 8th century manuscript (Vatican Library, Reg. Lat. 316. foll. 131v/132r).]]
The '''Early Middle Ages''' is a period in the [[history of Europe]] following the fall of the [[Western Roman Empire]] spanning roughly five centuries from [[AD]] [[500 AD|500]] to [[1000 AD|1000]].<ref>Events used to mark the period's beginning include the sack of [[Rome]] by the [[Goths]] (410), the deposition of the last western [[Roman Emperor]] (476), the [[Battle of Tolbiac]] (496) and the [[Gothic War]] (535–552). Particular events taken to mark its end include the founding of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] by [[Otto I the Great]] (962), the [[Great Schism]] (1054) and the [[Norman conquest]] of England (1066).</ref> Aspects of continuity with the earlier classical period are discussed in greater detail under the heading "[[Late Antiquity]]". The Early Middle Ages were followed by the [[High Middle Ages]].
==Collapse of Rome (372-410)==
{{main|Decline of the Western Roman Empire}}
[[Image:Hunnen.jpg|260px|thumb|left| ''Die Hunnen im Kampf mit den Alanen'', (The [[Hun]]s in battle with the Alans), Johann Nepomuk Geiger, 1873. The [[Alans]], an [[Iranian people]] who lived north and east of the [[Black Sea]], were dislocated by the [[Huns]] during the early [[Migration Period]] and settled throughout the Roman Empire.]]
Starting in the second century, various indicators of Roman civilization began to decline, including urbanization, seaborne commerce, and population. Only 40 percent as many Mediterranean shipwrecks have been found for the third century as for the first.<ref>Hopkins,
Keith ''Taxes and Trade in the Roman Empire (200 B.C.-A.D. 400)''</ref> The population of the [[Roman Empire]] shrank from 65 million in 150 to 50 million in 400, a decline of more than 20 percent. Some have connected this to the [[Migration Period Pessimum]] (300-700), when there was a decline in temperature globally which reduced agricultural harvests.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Berglund |first=B. E. |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2003 |month= |title=Human impact and climate changes—synchronous events and a causal link? |journal=Quaternary International |volume=105 |issue= |pages=7–12 |doi=10.1016/S1040-6182(02)00144-1 |url=http://www.geol.lu.se/personal/bnb/pdf-papers/human_impact.pdf |accessdate= |quote= }}</ref>
Migrating south from Scandinavia, the Germanic peoples reached the Black Sea early in the third century. They created confederations which proved more formidable opponents than the [[Sarmatians]], whom the Romans had dealt with earlier. In Romania and the grassy steppes north of the Black Sea, the [[Goths]], a Germanic people, created at least two kingdoms, one [[Thervings|Therving]], the other [[Greuthungs|Greuthung]].<ref>Heather, Peter, 1998, ''The Goths'', pp. 51-93</ref> The arrival of the [[Huns]] in 372-375 ended the history of these kingdoms. The Huns were a confederation of central Asian tribes who founded an empire with a Turkic-speaking aristocracy. They had mastered the difficult art of shooting composite recurve [[bow (weapon)|bows]] from horseback. The Gothic people were forced to seek refuge in Roman territory (376). The Goths agreed to enter the Empire as unarmed settlers, but many bribed the Danube border guards into allowing them to bring their weapons with them.
The discipline and organization of a Roman legion made it a superb fighting machine. The Romans preferred infantry to cavalry because infantry could be trained to retain formation in combat, while cavalry tended to flee when faced with danger. But unlike a barbarian army, the legions required constant training and salaries that made them a huge expense for the empire. As agriculture and economic activity declined, taxes grew harder to collect, and the system came under strain. [[Image:Invasions of the Roman Empire 1.png|thumb|250px|thumb|right|The Germanic migrations of the fifth century were triggered by the destruction of the Gothic kingdoms by the [[Huns]] in 372-375. The city of Rome was captured and looted by the [[Visigoths]] in 410 and by the [[Vandals]] in 455.]]
In the [[Gothic War (376-382)]], the Goths revolted and confronted the main Roman army in the [[Battle of Adrianople]] (378). Not wanting to share the glory, Eastern Emperor [[Valens]] ordered an attack on the [[Thervings|Therving]] infantry under [[Fritigern]] without waiting for Western Emperor [[Gratian]], who was on the way with reinforcements. While the Romans were fully engaged, the Greuthung cavalry arrived. Only one third of the Roman army managed to escape. It was the most shattering defeat that the Romans had suffered since [[Battle of Cannae|Cannae]], according to Roman military writer [[Ammianus Marcellinus]]. The core army of the eastern empire was destroyed, Valens killed, and the Goths freed to lay waste the Balkans, including the armories along the Danube. As [[Edward Gibbon]] comments, "The Romans, who so coolly and so concisely mention the acts of ''justice'' which were exercised by the legions, reserve their compassion and their eloquence for their own sufferings, when the provinces were invaded and desolated by the arms of the successful Barbarians."<ref>Gibbon, Edward, ''A History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', 1776.</ref>
The empire lacked the resources, and perhaps the will, to reconstruct the professional mobile army that had been destroyed at Adrianople, so it was forced to rely on barbarian armies to fight on its behalf. The [[Eastern Roman Empire]] was able to buy off the Goths with tribute. The [[Western Roman Empire]] was less fortunate. [[Stilicho]], the western empire's half-Vandal military commander, stripped the [[Rhine]] frontier of troops to fend off invasions of Italy by the Visigoths in 402-03 and by other Goths in 406-07.
Fleeing before the terrifying advance of the [[Huns]], the [[Vandals]], [[Suebi]], and [[Alans]] launched an attack across the frozen Rhine near [[Mainz]]; on [[December 31]], [[406]], the frontier gave way and these tribes surged into [[Gaul]]. They were soon followed by the [[Burgundians]] and by bands of the [[Alamanni]]. In the fit of anti-barbarian hysteria which followed, Emperor [[Honorius]] had Stilicho summarily beheaded (408). Stilicho submitted his neck, "with a firmness not unworthy of the last of the Roman generals," wrote Gibbon. Honorius was left with only worthless courtiers to advise him. In 410, the Visigoths led by [[Alaric I]] captured the city of Rome and for three days there was fire and slaughter as bodies filled the streets, palaces were stripped of their valuables, and those thought to have hidden wealth interrogated and tortured. As newly converted Christians, the Goths respected church property. But those who found sanctuary in the [[Vatican City|Vatican]] and in other churches were the fortunate few.
==Migrations (Dark Age) 400-700==
{{main|Migration Period|Germanic monarchy}}
[[Image:RavennaMausoleum.jpg|thumb|220px|left|The [[Mausoleum of Theodoric]] in [[Ravenna]] is the only extant example of Ostrogothic architecture.]]
The Goths and Vandals were only the first of many waves of invaders that flooded Western Europe. Some lived only for war and pillage and disdained Roman ways. Others admired Rome and wished to become its heirs. "A poor Roman plays the Goth, a rich Goth the Roman" said King [[Theodoric the Great|Theodoric]] of the Ostrogoths.<ref>[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Excerpta_Valesiana/2*.html ''Excerpta Valesiana'']</ref>
The Romans were trinitarian Christians, the disciplined subjects of a long-established bureaucratic empire. The Germanic peoples knew little of cities, money, or writing. They were recent converts to [[Arianism|Arian]] Christianity and were thus heretics to the churchmen of the empire.
The era of the migrations has historically been termed the "[[Dark Ages]]" by some Western European historians, and as ''[[Völkerwanderung]],'' or "wandering of the peoples", by German historians. The term "Dark Ages" may have fallen from favour since the Second World War, partly to avoid the entrenched stereotypes associated with the phrase, but also because more recent research and archaeological findings from the period challenge old notions of backwardness in the arts, technology, political and social organizations.{{Fact|date=June 2007}}
The earlier settled population was left intact or only partially displaced. Whereas the peoples of France, Italy, and Spain continued to speak dialects of Latin, that today constitute the [[Romance languages]], the language of the smaller Roman-era population of what is now England disappeared with barely a trace in the territories conquered by the Anglo-Saxons, although the Brittanic kingdoms of the west remained [[Brythonic]] speakers. The new peoples greatly altered established society, including law, culture, religion, and patterns of property ownership. [[Image:Visigoth Kingdom.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Around 500, the [[Visigoths]] ruled large parts of what is now France, Spain and Portugal.]]
The ''[[pax Romana]]'' had provided safe conditions for trade and manufacture, and a unified cultural and educational milieu of far-ranging connections. As this was lost, it was replaced by the rule of local potentates, sometimes members of the established Romanized ruling elite, sometimes new lords of alien culture. In [[Aquitania]], [[Gallia Narbonensis]], southern Italy and Sicily, [[Baetica]] or southern Spain, and the Iberian Mediterranean coast, Roman culture lasted until the sixth or seventh centuries.
Everywhere, the gradual break-down of economic and social linkages and infrastructure resulted in increasingly localized outlooks. This breakdown was often fast and dramatic as it became unsafe to travel or carry goods over any distance; there was a consequent collapse in trade and manufacture for export. Major industries that depended on trade, such as large-scale pottery manufacture, vanished almost overnight in places like Britain. [[Tintagel]] in [[Cornwall]], as well as several other centres, managed to obtain supplies of Mediterranean luxury goods well into the sixth century, but then lost their trading links. Administrative, educational and military infrastructure quickly vanished, and the loss of the established ''[[cursus honorum]]'' led to the collapse of the schools and to a rise of illiteracy even among the leadership. The careers of [[Cassiodorus]] (died c. 585) at the beginning of this period and of [[Alcuin of York]] (died 804) at its close were founded alike on their valued literacy.
For the formerly Roman area, there was another 20 percent decline in population between 400 and 600, or a one third decline for 150-600.<ref>McEvedy 1992, op. cit.</ref> In the eighth century, the volume of trade reached its lowest level since the Bronze Age. The very small number of shipwrecks found that dated from the 8th century supports this (which represents less than 2% of the number of shipwrecks dated from the first century CE). There was also reforestation and a retreat of agriculture that centred around 500. This phenomenon coincided with a period of rapid cooling, according to tree ring data.<ref>Berglund, ibid.</ref> The Romans had practised two-field agriculture, with a crop grown in one field and the other left fallow and ploughed under to eliminate weeds. With the gradual breakup of the institutions of the empire, owners were unable to stop their slaves from running away and the plantation system broke down. Systematic agriculture largely disappeared and yields declined to subsistence level.
==Byzantine Empire==
{{main|Byzantine Empire}}
The death of [[Theodosius I]] in 395 was followed by the division of the empire between his two sons. The [[Western Roman Empire]] disintegrated into a mosaic of warring Germanic kingdoms in the fifth century, making the [[Eastern Roman Empire]] in Constantinople the legal successor to the classical Roman Empire. After [[Medieval Greek|Greek]] replaced [[Latin language|Latin]] as the official language of the Empire, historians refer to the empire as "Byzantine." Westerners would gradually begin to refer to it as "Greek" rather than "Roman." The inhabitants, however, always called themselves ''Romaioi'', or Romans.
[[Image:Justinien 527-565.svg|310px|thumb|left|Under Emperor [[Justinian]] (r. 527-65), the [[Byzantines]] were able to reestablish Roman rule in Italy and North Africa]]
The Eastern Roman Empire aimed at retaining control of the trade routes between Europe and the Orient, which made the Empire the richest polity in Europe. Making use of their sophisticated warfare and superior diplomacy, the Byzantines managed to fend off assaults by the migrating barbarians. Their dreams of subduing the Western potentates briefly materialized during the reign of [[Justinian I]] in 527-565. Not only did Justinian restore some western territories to the Roman Empire, but he also codified [[Roman law]] (with his codification remaining in force in many areas of Europe until the 19th century) and built the largest and the most technically advanced edifice of the Early Middle Ages, the [[Hagia Sophia]]. A [[pandemic]], the [[Plague of Justinian]], however, marred Justinian's reign, infecting the Emperor, killing perhaps 40% of the people in Constantinople, and contributing to Europe's early medieval population decline.
Justinian's successors [[Maurice (emperor)|Maurice]] and [[Heraclius]] had to confront invasions of the [[Eurasian Avars|Avar]], [[Bulgar]] and [[Slavic peoples|Slavic]] tribes. In [[626]] Constantinople, by far the largest city of early medieval Europe, withstood a combined siege by Avars and Persians. Within several decades, Heraclius completed a holy war against the Persians by taking their capital and having a [[Sassanid]] monarch assassinated. Yet Heraclius lived to see his spectacular success undone by the Arab conquest of [[Syria]], [[Palestine]], [[Egypt]], and [[North Africa]] which was considerably facilitated by religious disunity and the proliferation of heretical movements (notably [[Monophysitism]] and [[Nestorianism]]) in the areas converted to Islam.
Although Heraclius's successors managed to salvage [[Constantinople]] from two Arab sieges (in 674-77 and 717), the empire of the 8th and early 9th century was rocked by the great [[Iconoclastic Controversy]], punctuated by dynastic struggles between various factions at court. The [[Bulgar]] and [[Slavic peoples|Slavic]] tribes profited from these disorders and invaded [[Illyria]], [[Thrace]] and even [[Greece]] (which they called [[Morea]]).
To counter these threats, a new system of administration was introduced. The regional civil and military administration were combined in the hands of a general, or strategos. A [[Thema|theme]], which formerly denoted a subdivision of the Byzantine army, came to refer to a region governed by a strategos. The reform led to the emergence of great landed families which controlled the regional military and often pressed their claims to the throne (see [[Bardas Phocas]] and [[Bardas Sklerus]] for characteristic examples).
By the early eighth century, notwithstanding the shrinking territory of the empire, Constantinople remained the largest and the wealthiest city of the entire world, comparable only to Sassanid [[Ctesiphon]], and later [[Abassid]] [[Baghdad]]. The population of the imperial capital fluctuated between 300,000 and 400,000 as the emperors undertook measures to restrain its growth. The only other large Christian cities were Rome (50,000) and [[Salonika]] (30,000).<ref>City populations from [http://www.etext.org/Politics/World.Systems/datasets/citypop/civilizations/citypops_2000BC-1988AD ''Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth: An Historical Census''] (1987, Edwin Mellon Press) by Tertius Chandler</ref> Even before the eighth century was out, the Farmer's Law signalled the resurrection of agricultural technologies in the Greek Empire. As the 2006 [[Encyclopædia Britannica]] noted, "the technological base of Byzantine society was more advanced than that of contemporary western Europe: iron tools could be found in the villages; water mills dotted the landscape; and field-sown beans provided a diet rich in protein".[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9239] [[Image:Porphyrogenetus.jpg|thumb|left|An ivory plaque representing Christ crowning [[Constantine VII]] (ca. 945).]]
The ascension of the [[Macedonian dynasty]] in 867 marked the end of the period of political and religious turmoil and introduced a new golden age of the empire. While the talented generals such as [[Nicephorus Phocas]] expanded the frontiers, the Macedonian emperors (such as [[Leo the Wise]] and [[Constantine VII]]) presided over the cultural flowering in Constantinople, known as the Macedonian Renaissance. The enlightened Macedonian rulers scorned the rulers of Western Europe as illiterate barbarians and maintained a nominal claim to rule over the West. Although this fiction had been exploded with the coronation of [[Charlemagne]] in Rome (800), the Byzantine rulers did not treat their Western counterparts as equals. Generally, they had little interest in the political and economical developments in the barbarian (from their point of view) West.
Against this economic background, the culture and the imperial traditions of the Eastern Roman Empire attracted its northern neighbours — Slavs, Bulgars, and Khazars — to [[Constantinople]], in search of either pillage or enlightenment. The movement of the Germanic tribes to the south triggered the great migration of the [[Slavs]], who occupied the vacated territories. In the seventh century, they moved westward to the [[Elbe]], southward to the [[Danube]] and eastward to the [[Dnieper]]. By the [[9th century]], the Slavs had expanded into sparsely inhabited territories to the south and east from these natural frontiers, peacefully assimilating the indigenous [[Illyrians|Illyrian]] and [[Finno-Ugric]] populations.
==Rise of Islam (632-750)==
{{main|Muslim conquests|Arab Empire|Islamic Golden Age}}
[[Image:Age-of-caliphs.png|300px|thumb|The [[Arab Empire]] expanded explosively between 632 and 750. {{legend|#a1584e|Expansion under the Prophet Mohammad, 622-632}} {{legend|#ef9070|Expansion during the Patriarchal Caliphate, 632-661}} {{legend|#fad07d|Expansion during the Umayyad Caliphate, 661-750}}]]
Following the death of the [[Islamic prophet]] [[Muhammad]], [[Abū Bakr]] (r. 632-34) became the first ''khalīfah'' or [[caliph]] of a newly unified polity under the [[Islam]]ic faith in the [[Arabian peninsula]]. The early [[Rashidun]] caliphs were both head of state and supreme religious authority while the later caliphs came to be seen as the political leader of Muslims. The early caliphs were chosen by a [[shūrā]], or council, in the same way that the head of an Arabian tribe or clan would be chosen. Abū Bakr launched a campaign in the ''[[ridda wars]]'' which brought central [[Arabia]] under Muslim control. (633)
'[[Umar I]] (r.634-44), the second caliph, proclaimed himself "commander of the faithful" (''amīr al-mu 'minīn''). In the 630s, he brought Syria, [[Jordan]], Palestine, and [[Iraq]] under Muslim control. [[Egypt]] was taken from the Byzantines in 645 by '[[Uthmān]], the third caliph. Abū Bakr, 'Umar I, 'Uthmān, and his successor [[Alī]] are remembered as the "rightly guided caliphs" who presided over a golden age of pure Islam.
Alī's caliphate started amid political controversy over the murder of Uthman and sparked a power struggle and the [[First Islamic civil war]] led by [[Mu'āwiyah]], governor of Syria. When Alī, son-in-law of Muhammad, was killed while praying in [[Kufah]], Iraq, Mu'āwiyah established the [[Ummayyad]] dynasty of caliphs (661–750) with [[Damascus]] as its capital. Those who supported 'Alī, his son [[Husayn]](who led a revolt against the Ummayyads), and their descendants would eventually became the [[Shī'ite]] sect. Under '[[Abd al-Malik]] (r. 685–705), the Ummayyads reached their peak, conquering [[Central Asia]], coastal [[North Africa]], and Spain. Al-Malik also Arabized the state with [[Arab]]s replacing the Greek and Persian civil servants.
[[Image:Mezquita3.jpg|thumb|left|250px|The 10th-century [[Mezquita|Grand Mosque of Cordoba]].]]
[[Moorish invasion of Iberia|The conquest of Iberia]] commenced when the [[Moors]] (mostly [[Berber people|Berbers]] with some [[Arab]]s) invaded the [[Christian]] [[Visigoths|Visigothic]] [[Iberian peninsula|Iberia]] in the year 711, under their Berber leader [[Tariq ibn Ziyad]]. They landed at [[Gibraltar]] on [[April 30]] and worked their way northward. Tariq's forces were joined the next year by those of his superior, [[Musa ibn Nusair]]. During the eight-year campaign most of the [[Iberian Peninsula]] was brought under [[Muslim]] rule — save for small areas in the northwest ([[Asturias]]) and largely [[Basque people|Basque]] regions in the [[Pyrenees]]. This territory, under the Arab name [[Al-Andalus]], became part of the expanding [[Umayyad]] empire.
The unsuccessful second siege of Constantinople (717) weakened the Umayyads and reduced their prestige. After their success in overrunning Iberia, the conquerors moved northeast across the Pyrenees, but were defeated by the [[Frankish Empire|Frank]]ish leader [[Charles Martel]] at the [[Battle of Tours]] in [[732]]. The Umayyads were overthrown in 750 by the '[[Abbāsids]] and most of the Umayyad clan massacred.
A surviving Umayyad prince, [[Abd-ar-rahman I]], escaped to Spain and founded a new Umayyad dynasty in the [[Caliph of Cordoba|Emirate of Cordoba]], (756). Charles Martel's son, [[Pippin the Short]] retook [[Narbonne]], and his grandson Charlemagne established the [[Marca Hispanica]] across the Pyrenees in part of what today is [[Catalonia]], reconquering [[Girona]] in 785 and [[Barcelona]] in 801.
The unified Muslim caliphate disintegrated over the course of the ninth century as the [[Idrisid]]s and [[Aghlabid]]s of North Africa and the [[Samanid]]s of Persia gained independence. Eventually, the Shiite [[Fatimid]]s set up a rival caliphate in [[Tunisia]] (920). The Umayyids in Spain soon proclaimed themselves caliphs as well (929). The [[Buwayhid]]s (Persian Shiites) gained control of Baghdad in 934. In 972, the Fatimids conquered Egypt.
==Resurgence of the Latin West (700-850)==
[[Image:Europe 814.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Until his death in 814, [[Charlemagne]] ruled an empire which included modern Catalonia, France, western Germany, the Low Countries, and northern Italy.]]
Conditions in Western Europe began to improve after 700 as Europe experienced an agricultural boom that would continue until at least 1100.<ref>Berglund, ibid.</ref> A study of limestone deposited in the Mediterranean seabed concludes that there was a substantial increase in solar radiation received between 600 and 900.<ref>Cini Castagnoli, G.C., Bonino, G., Taricco, C. and Bernasconi, S.M. 2002. [http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2ScienceB2C/articles/V6/N21/C2.jsp|"Solar radiation variability in the last 1400 years recorded in the carbon isotope ratio of a Mediterranean sea core"], ''Advances in Space Research'' 29: 1989-1994.</ref> The first signs of Europe's recovery on the battlefield are the defense of [[Constantinople]] in 717 and the victory of the Franks over the Arabs at the [[Battle of Tours]] in 732.
Between the fifth and eighth centuries a political and social infrastructure developed across the lands of the former empire, based upon powerful regional noble families, and the newly established kingdoms of the [[Ostrogoths]] in [[Italy]], [[Visigoths]] in [[Spain]] and [[Portugal]], [[Franks]] and [[Burgundians]] in [[Gaul]] and western [[Germany]]. These lands remained Christian, and their [[Arianism|Arian]] conquerors were converted (Visigoths and Lombards) or conquered (Ostrogoths and Vandals). The Franks converted directly from paganism to Catholic Christianity under [[Clovis I]]. The interaction between the culture of the newcomers, their warband loyalties, the remnants of classical culture, and Christian influences, produced a new model for society, based in part on [[feudalism|feudal obligations]]. The centralized administrative systems of the Romans did not withstand the changes, and the institutional support for chattel slavery largely disappeared. The [[Anglo-Saxons]] in [[England]] also started to convert from [[Anglo-Saxon polytheism|heathenism]] with the arrival of Christian missionaries around the year [[600]]. Unlike that of the France, two major forms of Christianity existed in England, Roman Catholicism in the south and Celtic Christianity in the north. This came to a head at the [[Synod of Whitby]] in [[664]] after which Roman practices proved to be dominant.
===Italy===
{{main|Lombards|King of Italy|Medieval Corsica}}
The [[Lombards]], who first entered Italy in [[568]] under [[Alboin]], carved out a state in the north, with its capital at [[Pavia]]. At first, they were unable to conquer the [[Exarchate of Ravenna]], the ''[[Lazio|Ducatus Romanus]]'', and [[Calabria]] and [[Apulia]]. The next two hundred years were occupied in trying to conquer these territories from the Byzantine Empire. [[Image:Trésor de Gourdon 02.JPG|thumb|left|265px|A [[paten]] from the [[Treasure of Gourdon]].]]
The Lombard state was truly barbarian in custom compared with the earlier Germanic states of Western Europe. It was highly decentralized at first, with the territorial dukes having practical sovereignty in their duchies, especially in the southern duchies of [[Duchy of Spoleto|Spoleto]] and [[Duchy of Benevento|Benevento]]. For a decade following the death of [[Cleph]] in [[575]], the Lombards did not elect a king and the period is called the [[Rule of the Dukes]]. The first written legal code was composed in poor Latin in [[643]]: the ''[[Edictum Rothari]]''. It was primarily the codification of the oral legal tradition of the people.
The Lombard state was well-organized and stabilized by the end of the long reign of [[Liutprand, King of the Lombards|Liutprand]] ([[717]]–[[744]]), but its collapse was sudden. Unsupported by the dukes, King [[Desiderius]] was defeated and forced to surrender his kingdom to Charlemagne in [[774]]. The Lombard kingdom came to an end and a period of Frankish rule was initiated. The Frankish king [[Pepin the Short]] had, by the [[Donation of Pepin]], given the pope the "[[Papal States]]" and the territory north of that swath of papally-governed land was ruled primarily by Lombard and Frankish vassals of the [[Holy Roman Emperor]] until the rise of the city-states in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
In the south, a period of anarchy began. The duchy of Benevento maintained its sovereignty in the face of the pretensions of both the Western and Eastern Empires. In the ninth century, the [[Saracens]] conquered [[Sicily]] and began settling in the peninsula. The coastal cities on the [[Tyrrhenian Sea]] departed from Byzantine allegiance. Various states owing various nominal allegiances fought constantly over territory until events came to a head in the early eleventh century with the coming of the [[Normans]], who conquered the whole of the south by the end of the century.
===England===
[[Image:Sutton.hoo.jpg|thumb|An Anglo-Saxon parade helmet from [[Sutton Hoo]] (7th century AD).]]
{{main|History of Anglo-Saxon England}}
In the mid-[[5th century]] several tribes from modern Germany, Holland, and Denmark began sporadic and marginally successful invasions of Britain, at that point a neglected Roman province. Traditionally, two Jutish chieftains named [[Hengest]] and [[Horsa]] were promised land by the powerful British king [[Vortigern]] in exchange for routing the warlike [[Pict]] tribe. According to the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'', after they defeated the Picts, "They sent to Angeln and called on them to send more forces, and to tell people about the worthlessness of the Britons and the merits of their land." This marked the beginning of decades of invasion and conquest of southern and central Britain, by such Germanic peoples as the [[Jutes]], [[Angles]], and [[Saxons]]. At least 50 percent of England's original Celtic inhabitants were killed off in the process.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/2076470.stm "English and Welsh are races apart"], BBC.</ref> The Anglo-Saxons eventually established several kingdoms of differing longevity and significance. King [[Alfred the Great]] (871-899) of [[Wessex]] led Anglo-Saxon resistance to the invading Danish forces. The unification of England was completed in 926 when [[Northumbria]] was annexed by King [[Athelstan of England|Athelstan]], a grandson of Alfred.
===Frankish Empire===
{{main|Frankish Empire|Carolingian Empire|Carolingian Renaissance}}
[[Image:Sacre de Charlemagne.jpg|240px|thumb|left|[[Charlemagne]] crowned in Rome.]]
The [[Merovingians]] established themselves in the power vacuum of the former Roman provinces in Gaul, and [[Chlodwig I]] following his victory over the [[Alemanni]] at the [[Battle of Tolbiac]] (496) converted to Christianity, laying the foundation of the [[Frankish Empire]], the dominant state of medieval Western Christendom.
Starting with the [[Frankish realms]] at the beginning of the ninth century, [[Charlemagne]] united much of modern day France, western Germany and northern Italy into the [[Carolingian Empire]]. Scholarship and Classical learning flourished under Charlemagne leading to what twentieth-century historians called the "[[Carolingian Renaissance]]".
The 840s saw renewed disorder, with the breakup of the Frankish Empire and the beginning of a new cycle of barbarian raids, at first by the [[Vikings]] and later by the [[Magyars]].
===Manoralism===
:{{main|Manoralism}}
Around 800, there was a return to systematic agriculture in the form of the [[Open field system|open field]], or strip, system. A [[Manorialism|manor]] would have several fields each subdivided into one-acre strips of land. This was considered to be the amount of land an ox could plough before taking a rest, according to one theory. Another possibility is that the holdings were originally rectangular and were split into strips because of the way land was inherited{{Fact|date=March 2008}}. In the idealized form of the system, each family got thirty such strips of land. The three-field system of [[crop rotation]] was first developed in the ninth century: wheat or rye was planted in one field, the second field had a nitrogen-fixing crop (barley, oats, peas, or beans), and third was fallow.<ref>[http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1318.htm No. 1318: Three-Field Rotation<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Compared to the earlier two-field system, a three-field system allows for significantly more land to be put under cultivation. Even more important, the system allows for two harvests a year, reducing the risk that a single crop failure will lead to famine. Three-field agriculture creates a surplus of oats that can be used to feed horses.<ref>This surplus would allow the replacement of the ox by the horse after the introduction of the padded [[horse collar]] in the 12th century.</ref> Because the system required a major rearrangement of real estate and the social order, it took until the 11th century before it came into general use. The heavy wheeled plough was introduced in the late 10th century. It required greater animal power and promoted the use of teams of oxen. Illuminated manuscripts depict two-wheeled ploughs with both a mouldboard, or curved metal ploughshare, and a coulter, a vertical blade in front of the ploughshare. The Romans had used light, wheelless ploughs with flat iron shares that often proved unequal to the heavy soils of northern Europe.
The return to systemic agriculture coincided with the introduction of a new social system called [[feudalism]]. This system featured a hierarchy of reciprocal obligations. Each man was bound to serve his superior in return for the latter's protection. This made for confusion of territorial sovereignty since allegiances were subject to change over time, and were sometimes mutually contradictory. Feudalism allowed the state to provide a degree of public safety despite the continued absence of bureaucracy and written records. Even land ownership disputes were decided based solely on oral testimony. Territoriality was reduced to a network of personal allegiances.
==Viking Age (793-1066)==
{{main|Viking Age}}
The Viking Age spans the period between AD [[793]] and [[1066]] in [[Scandinavia]] and [[Great Britain|Britain]], following the [[Germanic Iron Age]] (and the [[Vendel Age]] in Sweden). During this period, the [[Vikings]], Scandinavian warriors and traders, raided and explored most parts of [[Europe]], south-western [[Asia]], northern [[Africa]] and north-eastern [[North America]]. Apart from exploring Europe by way of its oceans and rivers with the aid of their advanced navigational skills and extending their trading routes across vast parts of the continent, they also engaged in warfare and looted and enslaved numerous Christian communities of Medieval Europe for centuries, contributing to the development of feudal systems in Europe.
==Eastern Europe 600-1000==
{{Main|Kievan Rus'}}
<!-- Unsourced image removed: [[Image:Derbent sassanid.jpg|thumb|250px|left|The Sassanid fortress at the [[Caspian Gates]] was the object of the first Khazar-Arabian war of the seventh century.]] -->
Prior to the rise of the Kievan Rus, the eastern frontier of Europe had been dominated by the [[Khazars]], a Turkic people who had gained independence from the Turkic Empire by the seventh century. Khazaria was a multiethnic commercial state which derived its well-being from control of river trade between Europe and the Orient. They also exacted tribute from the [[Alani]], [[Magyars]], various Slavic tribes, the Goths and Greeks of [[Crimea]]. Through a network of Jewish itinerant merchants, or [[Radhanites]], they were in contact with the trade emporiums of [[India]] and [[Spain]].
Once they found themselves confronted by Arab expansionism, the Khazars pragmatically allied themselves with Constantinople and clashed with the [[Califate]]. Despite initial setbacks, they managed to recover [[Derbent]] and eventually penetrated as far south as [[Caucasian Iberia]], [[Caucasian Albania]] and [[Armenia]]. In doing so, they effectively blocked the northward expansion of [[Islam]] into [[Eastern Europe]] several decades before [[Charles Martel]] achieved the same in Western Europe.<ref>Islam eventually penetrated into Eastern Europe in the 920s when [[Volga Bulgaria]] exploited the decline of Khazar power in the region to adopt Islam from the [[Baghdad]] missionaries. The state religion of Khazaria, [[Judaism]], disappeared as a political force with the fall of Khazaria, while Islam of Volga Bulgaria has survived in the region up to the present.</ref>
In the seventh century, the northern littoral of the [[Black Sea]] was hit with a fresh wave of nomadic attacks, led by the [[Bulgars]], who established a powerful khanate of [[Great Bulgaria]] under the leadership of [[Kubrat]]. The Khazars managed to oust the Bulgars from Southern Ukraine into the middle reaches of the [[Volga]] ([[Volga Bulgaria]]) and into the lower reaches of the [[Danube]] (Danube Bulgaria, or the [[First Bulgarian Empire]]). The Danube Bulgars were quickly Slavicized and, despite constant campaigning against Constantinople, accepted the Greek form of Christianity. Through the efforts of two local missionaries, [[Saint Cyril]] and [[Saint Methodius]], the first Slavic alphabet came into being and a vernacular dialect, now known as [[Old Church Slavonic]], was established as a language of books and liturgy.
[[Image:Persecution of Russ by the Byzantine army John Skylitzes.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Pursuit of [[Svyatoslav I]]'s warriors by the Byzantine army, a miniature from [[John Skylitzes]].]]
To the north from the Byzantine periphery, the first attested Slavic polity was [[Great Moravia]], which emerged under the aegis of the Frankish Empire in the early 9th century. Until its defragmentation in consequence of the conflicts with the [[East Franks]] a century later, Moravia was a stage for confrontation between the Christian missionaries from Constantinople and from Rome. Although the West Slavs eventually acknowledged the Roman ecclesiastical authority, the clergy of Constantinople succeeded in converting into the Greek faith the largest state of contemporary Europe, [[Kievan Rus]], towards 990. Led by a [[Varangian]] dynasty, the Kievan Rus controlled the [[Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks|routes connecting Northern Europe to Byzantium]] and the Orient.
Both before and after the Christianization, the Rus staged predatory raids against Constantinople, some of which resulted in the mutually beneficial trade treaties. The importance of Russo-Byzantine relations is highlighted by the fact that [[Vladimir I of Kiev]] was the only foreigner who married a Byzantine princess of the Macedonian dynasty, a singular honour which many rulers of Western Europe sought in vain. The military campaigns of Vladimir's father, [[Svyatoslav I]], had crushed the statehood of two strongest powers of Eastern Europe, namely the Bulgars and the Khazars.
=== Bulgarian Empire ===
{{main|Bulgarian Empire}}
[[Image:St. Theodor.jpg|thumb|right|Ceramic icon of [[Theodore the Studite|St Theodore]] from around 900, found in Preslav]]
In [[681]] the [[Bulgarians]] founded a powerful state which played a major role in [[Europe]] and specifically in [[South Eastern Europe]] until its fall under Turkish rule in [[1396]]. In [[718]] the Bulgarians decisively defeated the Arabs near [[Constantinople]], and their ruler Khan [[Tervel]] became known as "The Saviour of Europe". Bulgaria effectively stopped the barbarian tribes ([[Pechenegs]], [[Khazars]]) from migrating further to the west and in [[806]] destroyed the [[Avars| Avar]] Khanate. Under the first Emperor [[Simeon I]] (893-927), the state was the largest in Europe, threatening the existence of [[Byzantium]].
After the adoption of [[Christianity]] in [[864]], [[Bulgaria]] became the cultural and spiritual centre of the [[Eastern Orthodox]] [[Slavic peoples|Slavic]] world. The [[Cyrillic alphabet]] was invented by the Bulgarian scholar [[Clement of Ohrid]] in [[885]]. Literature, art and architecture were thriving with the establishment of the [[Preslav Literary School|Preslav]] and [[Ohrid Literary School]]s,and the [[Preslav Ceramics School]]. In [[927]] the [[Bulgarian Orthodox Church]] was the first European national Church to gain independence with its own Patriarch.
==Transmission of learning==
With the end of the Western Roman Empire and urban centres in decline, literacy and learning decreased in the West. Education became the preserve of monasteries and cathedrals. A "Renaissance" of classical education would appear in Carolingian Empire in the 8th century. In the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium), learning (in the sense of formal education involving literature) was maintained at a higher level than in the West. Further to the east, Islam conquered many of the Eastern Patriarchates, and it outstripped Christian lands in science, philosophy, and other intellectual endeavors in a "golden age" of learning.
===Classical education===
The classical education system, which would persist for hundreds of years, emphasized grammar, Latin, Greek, and rhetoric. Pupils read and reread classic works and wrote essays imitating their style. By the fourth century, this education system was Christianized. In ''De Doctrina Christiana'' (started 396, completed 426), [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]] explained how classical education fits into the Christian worldview. Christianity was a religion of the book, so Christians must be literate. Preaching required learning the classical principles of [[rhetoric]]. [[Tertullian]] was more sceptical of the value of classical learning, asking "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?" But even he did not object to Christian enrollment in classical schools.
===Decline in the West===
[[Image:Silos-Claustro.jpg|thumb|right|In the Early Middle Ages, cultural life was concentrated at [[monastery|monasteries]].]]
De-urbanization reduced the scope of education and by the sixth century teaching and learning moved to monastic and cathedral schools, with the center of education being the study of the Bible.<ref>Pierre Riché, ''Education and Culture in the Barbarian West: From the Sixth through the Eighth Century'', (Columbia: Univ. of South Carolina Pr., 1976), pp. 100-129).</ref> Education of the laity survived modestly in Italy, Spain, and the southern part of Gaul, where Roman influences were most long-lasting. However, in the seventh century, learning began to emerge in Ireland and the Celtic lands, where Latin was a foreign language and Latin texts were eagerly studied and taught.<ref>Pierre Riché, ''Education and Culture in the Barbarian West: From the Sixth through the Eighth Century'', (Columbia: Univ. of South Carolina Pr., 1976), pp. 307-323).</ref>
====Science====
{{main|History of science in the Middle Ages}}
In the ancient world, Greek was the primary language of science. Advanced scientific research and teaching was mainly carried on in the [[Hellenistic]] side of the Roman empire, in Greek. Late Roman attempts to translate Greek writings into Latin had limited success.<ref>[[William Stahl]], ''Roman Science'', (Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Pr.) 1962, see esp. pp. 120-133.</ref> As the knowledge of Greek declined, the Latin West found itself cut off from its Greek philosophical and scientific roots. Latin-speakers who wanted to learn about science had access to only a couple of books by [[Boethius]] (c. 470-524) (that summarized Greek handbooks by [[Nicomachus of Gerasa]]) and the works of other Latin [[encyclopedist]]s.
The leading scholars of the early centuries were [[clergy]]man for whom the study of [[nature]] was but a small part of their interest. The study of nature was pursued more for practical reasons than as an abstract inquiry: the need to care for the sick led to the study of medicine and of ancient texts on drugs,<ref>Linda E. Voigts, "Anglo-Saxon Plant Remedies and the Anglo-Saxons," ''Isis'', 70(1979):250-268; reprinted in M. H. Shank, ed., ''The Scientific Enterprise in Antiquity and the Middle Ages'', (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr., 2000).</ref> the need for monks to determine the proper time to pray led them to study the motion of the stars,<ref>Stephen C. McCluskey, "Gregory of Tours, Monastic Timekeeping, and Early Christian Attitudes to Astronomy," ''Isis'', 81(1990):9-22; reprinted in M. H. Shank, ed., ''The Scientific Enterprise in Antiquity and the Middle Ages'', (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr., 2000).</ref> the need to compute the date of Easter led them to study and teach rudimentary mathematics and the motions of the Sun and Moon.<ref>Stephen C. McCluskey, ''Astronomies and Cultures in Early Medieval Europe,'' (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1998), pp. 149-57.</ref> Modern readers may find it disconcerting that sometimes the same works discuss both the technical details of natural phenomena and their symbolic significance.<ref>Faith Wallis, "'Number Mystique' in Early Medieval Computus Texts," pp. 179-99 in T. Koetsier and L. Bergmans, eds. ''Mathematics and the Divine: A Historical Study'', (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2005).</ref>
Even though not much progress occurred in the Early Middle Ages, the period laid the foundations for important scientific developments in the High Middle Ages and beyond.<ref> Excerpt: "''The period from the end of the Roman Empire to about AD 800 is often called the Dark Ages. There was not much progress made in Europe during this period. The foundations were laid, however, for important advances that were to follow in the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance.''". From: {{cite encyclopedia
| title = Science
| url = http://www.britannica.com/ebi/article-207743
| format = html
| encyclopedia = Encyclopædia Britannica
| volume = online
| pages =
| publisher = Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
| date =
| id =
| accessdate = 2007-07-13 }}</ref>
{{see|Middle Ages in history}}
The modern stereotype of this Age as a time of backwardness is reflected in popular misconceptions related to the [[history of science]]. Notions such as: "the rise of Christianity killed off ancient science", "the medieval Christian Church suppressed the growth of the natural sciences", "the medieval Christians thought that the world was flat", and "the Church prohibited autopsies and dissections during the Middle Ages", are all reported by [[Ronald Numbers]] and others as examples of widely popular myths that still pass as historical truth, even though they are not supported by historical research.<ref>{{cite video | people=[[Ronald Numbers]] (Lecturer) | year=2006 | date=May 11 | url=http://www.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/faraday/Lectures.php | title=Myths and Truths in Science and Religion: A historical perspective | medium=Video Lecture | location=University of Cambridge (Howard Building, Downing College) | publisher=The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion}}</ref>
====Carolingian Renaissance====
Around 800, there was renewed interest in [[Classical Antiquity]] as part of the [[Carolingian Renaissance]]. [[Charlemagne|Charles the Great]] carried out a reform in [[education]]. The [[England|English]] monk [[Alcuin|Alcuin of York]] elaborated a project of scholarly development aimed at resuscitating classical knowledge by establishing programmes of study based upon the seven [[liberal arts]]: the ''trivium'', or literary education ([[grammar]], [[rhetoric]] and [[dialectic]]) and the ''quadrivium'', or scientific education ([[arithmetic]], [[geometry]], [[astronomy]] and [[music]]). From the year [[787]] on, [[decree]]s began to circulate recommending, in the whole empire, the restoration of old schools and the founding of new ones. Institutionally, these new schools were either under the responsibility of a [[monastery]], a [[cathedral]] or a [[noble court]]. The real significance of these measures would only be felt centuries later. The teaching of dialectic (a discipline that corresponds to today's [[logic]]) was responsible for the rebirth of the interest in speculative inquiry; from this interest would follow the rise of the [[Scholasticism|Scholastic]] tradition of [[Christian philosophy]]. In the [[12th century|12th]] and [[13th century]], many of those schools founded under the auspices of Charles the Great, especially ''cathedral'' schools, would become [[Medieval university|universities]].
===Byzantium and its golden age===
[[Image:Paris psaulter gr139 fol1v.jpg|thumb|225px|left|Miniature from the [[Paris Psalter]], a striking testimony to the tenth-century Byzantine cultural revival.]]
Byzantium's great intellectual achievement was the [[Corpus Juris Civilis]] ("Body of Civil Law"), a massive compilation of [[Roman law]] made under [[Justinian]] (r. 528-65). The work includes a section called the ''[[Pandects|Digesta]]'' which abstracts the principles of Roman law in such a way that they can be applied to any situation. The level of literacy was considerably higher in the Byzantine Empire than in the Latin West. Elementary education was much more widely available, sometimes even in the countryside. Secondary schools still taught the ''[[Iliad]]'' and other classics. As for higher education, a Neoplatonic school in [[Athens]] was closed in 526 for paganism. There was also a school in Alexandria which remained open until the Arab conquest (640). The [[University of Constantinople]], originally founded by Emperor [[Theodosius II]] (425), may have dissolved around this time. It was refounded by Emperor [[Michael III]] in 849. Higher education in this period focused on rhetoric, although [[Aristotle]]'s logic was covered in simple outline. Under the Macedonian dynasty (867–1025), Byzantium enjoyed a golden age and a revival of classical learning. There was little original research, but many lexicons, anthologies, encyclopaedias, and commentaries.
===Contributions of Islam===
Under the Umayyads (661–750), Islamic scholarship focused on Koranic matters. But the [[Abbasid| ‘Abbasid]] dynasty which followed promoted Hellenistic and humanistic learning in accordance with the doctrines of the officially favoured [[Mu'tazili]] school of Islamic interpretation. This school was founded in Basra by [[Wasil ibn Ata]] (700–748) and held that the Koran is a created work and that god desires only the best for man, views rejected by the [[Ash'ariyyah]] and [[Athariyyah]] ("Textualist") schools now considered orthodox.
Thus the "gates of [[ijtihad]]" were opened, allowing discussion and debate within Islam, supposedly among 135 schools of thought. In 800, [[Baghdad]] was the largest Muslim city in the world, the first to have a population of over 1 million. Its "House of Wisdom" (''Dār al-Ḥikma'') was the intellectual hub of the Muslim world. Philosophers such as [[al-Kindī]] (801–873) and [[al-Fārābī]] (870–950) translated the works of [[Aristotle]] and applied his thinking to Islam. [[al-Khwārizmī| Al-Khwārizmī]] (790-840) wrote the ''The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing,'' the first book on [[algebra]]. (The word "algebra" come from the Arabic title of the book. The word "algorithm" comes from al-Khwārizmī's name.) He also wrote ''The Image of the Earth,'' an updated version of Ptolemy's ''Geography'', and participated in a project to determine the circumference of the Earth by measuring the length of a degree of meridian on a plain in Iraq.
[[Image:Stuttgart Psalter fol23.jpg|thumb|250px|Illumination from the Stuttgarter Psalter]]
Opponents of ijtihad began proclaiming the "closing of the gates of ijtihad" in the tenth century. Discussion of humanism and other philosophical issues continued, but became increasingly restricted. Muslim learning depended on the whim and patronage of the ruler and Islam did not develop a university system or other permanent institution to honour and promote non-Koranic scholarship.
In the course of the 11th century, Islam's scientific knowledge began to reach Western Europe. The [[astrolabe]], invented in classical times, was reintroduced to Europe and the works of [[Euclid]] and [[Archimedes]], lost in the West, were translated from Arabic to Latin in Spain. The modern Hindu-[[Arabic numerals]], including a notation for zero, was developed by Hindu mathematicians in the fifth and sixth centuries. Muslim mathematicians learned of it in the seventh century and added a notation for decimal factions in the ninth and tenth centuries. Around 1000, Gerbert of Aurillac (later [[Pope Sylvester II]]) made an abacus with counters engraved with Hindu-Arabic numbers. A treatise by Al-Khwārizmī on how to perform calculations with these numerals was translated into Latin in Spain in the 12th century.
== Christianity West and East==
From the [[early Christians]], early medieval Christians inherited a church united by major creeds, a stable Biblical canon, and a well-developed philosophical tradition.
During the early Middle Ages, the divide between Eastern and Western Christianity widened, paving the way for the [[East-West Schism]] in the 11th century. In the West, the power of the [[Bishop of Rome]] expanded. In 607, [[Boniface III]] became the first Bishop of Rome to use the title [[Pope]]. Pope [[Gregory the Great]] used his office as a temporal power, expanded Rome's missionary efforts to the British Isles, and laid the foundations for the expansion of monastic orders.
In the East, the conquests of Islam reduced the power of the Greek-speaking [[patriarchates]].
[[Celtic Christianity]] comprised a separate Christian tradition in the British Isles.
===Christianization of the West===
{{main|Christianization}}
[[Image:KellsFol188rQuoniam.gif|140px|thumb|right|''[[Book of Kells]],'' c. 800]]
The [[Roman Catholic Church]], the only centralized institution to survive the [[fall of the Roman Empire|fall of the Western Roman Empire]] intact, was the sole unifying cultural influence in the West, selectively preserving some Latin learning, maintaining the art of writing, and preserving a centralized administration through its network of [[bishop]]s ordained in succession. The Early Middle Ages are characterized by the urban control of bishops and the territorial control exercised by dukes and counts. The rise of [[medieval commune|urban communes]] marked the beginning of the [[High Middle Ages]].
The [[Germanic Christianity|Christianization of Germanic tribes]] began in the fourth century with the Goths, and continued throughout the Early Middle Ages, in the sixth to seventh centuries led by the [[Hiberno-Scottish mission]], replaced in the eighth to ninth centuries by the [[Anglo-Saxon mission]], with Anglo-Saxons like [[Alcuin]] playing an important role in the [[Carolingian renaissance]]. By AD 1000, even [[Iceland]] became Christian, leaving only more remote parts of Europe ([[Scandinavia]], the [[Baltic region|Baltic]] and [[Finno-Ugric]] lands) to be Christianized during the High Middle Ages.
==Urbanization==
:''See also: [[Historical urban community sizes]].''
[[Image:Walls of Constantinople.JPG|thumb|275px|Restored [[Walls of Constantinople]].]]
Urban planner [[Tertius Chandler]] has made a survey of city sizes through history.<ref>Chandler, Tertius, ''Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth: An Historical Census'' (1987, Edwin Mellon Press)</ref> For the period considered here, the largest cities in the world were: Constantinople (340-570), [[Ctesiphon]] of the [[Sassanid]]s (570-637), [[Xi’an|Changan]] in [[China]] (637-775), [[Baghdad]] (775-935), and [[Córdoba, Spain|Cordoba]] (935-1013).[http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa011201a.htm]
These are Chandler's estimates for the largest cities in the Europe and Middle East (in units of one thousand inhabitants):
*AD 361 Constantinople (300), Ctesiphon (250), Rome (150), Antioch (150), Alexandria (125).
*AD 500 Constantinople (400), Ctesiphon (400), Antioch (150), Carthage (100), Rome (100).
*AD 622 Ctesiphon (500), Constantinople (350), Alexandria (94), [[Aleppo]] (72), [[Rayy]] (68).
*AD 800 Baghdad (700), Constantinople (250), Cordoba (160), [[Basra]] (100), [[Fostat]] (100) — cf. Rome (50), Paris (25).
*AD 900 Baghdad (900), Constantinople (300), Cordoba (200), Alexandria (175), Fostat (150) — cf. Rome (40).
*AD 1000 Cordoba (450), Constantinople (300), [[Cairo]] (135), Baghdad (125), [[Nishapur]] (125) — cf. Rome (35), Paris (20).
Chandler’s default assumption is 10,000 inhabitants/km². Muslim cities are thought to have had higher population densities. A city is defined as a continuously inhabited area.
==Foundation of the Holy Roman Empire (10th century)==
{{main|Holy Roman Empire}}
[[Image:HRR 10Jh.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Under [[Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor|Otto I]], the Holy Roman Empire included Germany, northern Italy, Austria, and the Netherlands]]
Listless and often ill, Carolingian Emperor [[Charles the Fat]], provoked an uprising led by his nephew [[Arnulf of Carinthia]] which resulted in the division of the empire into the kingdoms of France, Germany, and (northern) Italy (887). Taking advantage of the weakness of the German government, the Magyars had established themselves in the Alföld, or Hungarian grasslands, and began raiding across Germany, Italy, and even France. The German nobles elected [[Henry the Fowler]], duke of Saxony, their king at a Reichstag, or national assembly, in Fritzlar in 919. Henry's power was only marginally greater than that of the other leaders of the stem duchies, which were the feudal expression of the former German tribes. Henry's son King [[Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor|Otto I]] (r. 936-973) was able to defeat a revolt of the dukes supported by French King [[Louis IV of France|Louis IV]] (939). In 951, Otto marched into Italy and married the widowed Queen [[Adelaide of Italy|Adelaide]], named himself king of the Lombards, and received homage from [[Berengar of Ivrea]], king of Italy (r. 950-52). Otto named his relatives the new leaders of the stem duchies, but this approach didn't completely solve the problem of disloyalty. His son Liudolf, duke of Swabia, revolted and welcomed the Magyars into Germany (953). At [[Lechfeld]], near Augsburg in Bavaria, Otto caught up the Magyars while they were enjoying a razzia and achieved a signal victory (955). After this, the Magyars ceased to be a nation that lived on plunder and their leaders created a Christian kingdom called Hungary (1000). Otto, his prestige greatly enhanced, marched into Italy again and was crowned emperor (''imperator augustus'') by [[Pope John XII]] in Rome (962). Historians count this event as the founding of the [[Holy Roman Empire]], although the term was not used until much later. The Ottonian state is also considered the first ''Reich,'' or German Empire. Otto used the imperial title without attaching it to any territory. He and later emperors thought of themselves as part of a continuous line of emperors that begins with [[Charlemagne]]. (Several of these "emperors" were simply local Italian magnates who bullied the pope into coronating them.) Otto deposed John XII for conspiring with Berengar against him and named [[Pope Leo VIII]] to replace him (963). Berengar was captured and taken to Germany. John was able to reverse the deposition after Otto left, but died in the arms of his mistress soon afterwards.
Aside from founding the German Empire, Otto's achievements include the creation "Ottonian church system," in which the clergy (the only literate section of the population) assumed the duties of an imperial civil service. He raised the papacy out of the muck of Rome's local gangster politics, assured that the position was competently filled, and gave it a dignity that allowed it to assume leadership of an international church.
==Europe in AD 1000==
[[Image:Gokstadskipet1.jpg|thumb|200px|right|A 9th-century Viking [[longship]] excavated in 1882.]]
{{main|1000}}
Speculation that the world would end in the year 1000 was confined to a few uneasy French monks.<ref>Cantor, 1993 ''Europe in 1050'' p 235.</ref> Ordinary clerks used [[regnal year]]s, i.e. the 4th year of the reign of Robert II (the Pious) of France. The use of the modern "anno domini" system of dating was confined to the [[Venerable Bede]] and other chroniclers of universal history.
Europe remained a backwater compared to Islam, with its vast network of caravan trade, or China, at this time the world's most populous empire under the [[Song Dynasty]]. Constantinople had a population of about 300,000, but Rome had a mere 35,000 and Paris 20,000.[http://www.irows.ucr.edu/research/citemp/estcit/estcit.htm][http://sumbur.n-t.org/sg/ua/ddk.htm] In contrast, Islam had over a dozen major cities stretching from [[Córdoba, Spain|Córdoba]], Spain, at this time the world's largest city with 450,000 inhabitants, to central Asia. The [[Vikings]] had a trade network in northern Europe, including a [[Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks|route connecting the Baltic to Constantinople]] through Russia. But it was modest affair compared to the caravan routes that connected the great Muslim cities of Cordoba, Alexandria, [[Cairo]], Baghdad, [[Basra]], and [[Mecca]].
With nearly the entire nation freshly ravaged by the Vikings, England was in a desperate state. The long-suffering English later responded with a massacre of Danish settlers in 1002, leading to a round of reprisals and finally to Danish rule (1013). But Christianization made rapid progress and proved itself the long-term solution to the problem of barbarian raiding. Scandinavia had been recently Christianized and the kingdoms of [[Norway]], [[Sweden]], and [[Denmark]] established. [[Kievan Rus]], recently converted to Orthodox Christianity, flourished as the largest state in Europe. [[Iceland]] and [[Hungary]] were both declared Christian about AD 1000. [[Image:Hildesheim-St Michaels Church.outside.JPG|thumb|250px|left|[[Ottonian architecture]]: [[St. Michael's Church, Hildesheim]], 1010s]]
In Europe, a more formalised institution of marriage was established among the nobility.<ref>The proscribed degree was the seventh degree of consanguinity, which made virtually all marriages annullable by application to the Pope. {{huh}}</ref> {{Fact|date=May 2008}} North of Italy, where masonry construction was never extinguished, stone construction was replacing timber in important structures. Deforestation of the densely wooded continent was under way. The tenth century marked a return of urban life, with the Italian cities doubling in population. [[London]], abandoned for many centuries, was by 1000 once again England's main economic centre. By 1000, [[Bruges]] and [[Ghent]] held regular trade fairs behind castle walls, a tentative return of economic life to western Europe.
This time also marks the disintegration of the Muslim Caliphate, an imposing and united rival only a century before. Muslim unity was hobbled by the divisions between [[Shiite]] and [[Sunni]] conflicts as well as [[Arab]] Persian ones. At this time, there were three caliphs, an Umayyid caliph in Spain, an Abbasid caliph in Baghdad, and a Shiite (Fatimid) caliph in Egypt. The population of Baghdad, the Abbasid capital, had shrunk to 125,000 (compared to 900,000 in AD 900).<ref>Chandler, Tertius, ibid.</ref> The Umayyids were still strong and assertive in 1000, but declined rapidly after 1002 and disappeared entirely by 1031.
In the culture of Europe, several features surfaced soon after 1000 that mark the end of the Early Middle Ages: the rise of the [[medieval commune]]s, the reawakening of city life, and the appearance of the [[burgher|burgher class]], the founding of the first [[Medieval university|universities]], the rediscovery of [[Roman law]], and the beginnings of vernacular literature.
In 1000, the papacy was firmly under the control of German Emperor [[Otto III]], or "emperor of the world" as he styled himself. But later church reforms enhanced its independence and prestige: the [[Abbey of Cluny|Cluniac movement]], the building of the first great Transalpine stone cathedrals and the collation of the mass of accumulated [[decretal]]s into a formulated [[canon law]].
==Timeline==
{{see|Timeline of the Middle Ages}}
* 496 — [[Battle of Tolbiac]], [[Clovis]] converts to Catholicism
* 507 — [[Battle of Vouillé]]
* 527-565 — [[Justinian I]]
* 535-552 — [[Gothic War (535–552)|Gothic Wars]]
* 547 — death of [[Benedict of Nursia]]
* c. 570 — birth of [[Muhammad]]
* 590-604 [[Pope Gregory I]]
* 597 — death of [[Columba]]
* 602-629 — Last great [[Roman-Persian_Wars#The_climax|Roman-Persian War]]
* 615 — death of [[Columbanus]]
* 626 — [[Siege of Constantinople (626)|Joint Persian-Avar-Slav Siege of Constantinople]]
* 632 — death of [[Muhammad]]
* 634-644 — Caliph [[Umar]]
* 636 — death of [[Isidore of Seville]]
* 644-656 — Caliph [[Uthman Ibn Affan]]
* 656-661 — Caliph [[Ali]]
* 674-678 — [[Siege of Constantinople (674)|First Arab siege of Constantinople]]
* 681 — [[First Bulgarian Empire]] established
* 7th century — [[Khazar]] empire established
* 711-718 — [[Umayyad conquest of Hispania]]
* 717 — [[Siege of Constantinople (718)|Second Arab siege of Constantinople]]
* 721 — death of [[Ardo]], last king of the [[Visigoths]]
* 730 — [[Iconoclasm (Byzantine)|Byzantine Iconoclasm]]
* 732 — [[Battle of Tours]]
* 735 — death of [[Bede]], British historian
* 746 — [[Blood court at Cannstatt]]
* 751 — [[Pepin the Short]] founds the [[Carolingian dynasty]]
* 754 — death of [[Saint Boniface]]
* 768-814 — [[Charlemagne]]
* 778 — [[Battle of Roncevaux Pass]]
* 782 — [[Bloody Verdict of Verden]]
* 793 — first [[Viking]] raids
* 796-804 — [[Alcuin]] initiates the [[Carolingian Renaissance]]
* 815 — [[Iconoclasm (Byzantine)|Byzantine Iconoclasm]]
* 843 — [[Treaty of Verdun]]
* 871-899 — [[Alfred the Great]]
* 872-930 — [[Harald I of Norway]]
* 880 — [[Kievan Rus']] established
* 911 — [[Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte]] ([[Normandy]])
* 955 — [[Battle of Lechfeld]]
* 962 — [[Otto I]] crowned [[Holy Roman Emperor]]
* 969 — [[Kievan Rus']] subjugates [[Khazars]]
* 987-996 — [[Hugh Capet]]
* 991 — [[Battle of Maldon]]
* 1003 — death of [[Pope Sylvester II]]
* 1027 — the Salian [[Conrad II]] succeeds the last Ottonian [[Henry II the Saint]]
* 1054 — [[East-West Schism]]
==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}
==See also==
*[[Dark Ages]]
*[[Late Antiquity]]
*[[Early Medieval literature]]
*[[1st millennium]]
*[[Early medieval European dress]]
*[[Sassanid Empire]], [[Indo-Sassanid]] (Early Medieval Persia and India)
*[[Yamato period]], [[Nara period]], [[Heian period]] (Early Mediaeval Japan)
*[[Southern and Northern Dynasties]], [[Sui Dynasty]], [[Tang Dynasty]] (Early Medieval China)
*[[Turkic expansion]]
*[[Phantom time hypothesis]]
==Further reading==
*[[Geoffrey Barraclough]], (1947) 1988. ''The Origins of Modern Germany'' (Oxford: Blackwell)
*Peter Hunter Blair, (1956) 1966. ''An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England'' (Cambridge University Press)
*[[J.B. Bury|John Bagnell Bury]], (1928) 1967. ''The Invasion of Europe by the Barbarians'' The traditional view.
*''Cambridge Economic History of Europe'', vol. I 1966. Michael M. Postan, et al, editors.
*[[Norman Cantor|Norman F. Cantor]], ''The Medieval World 300 to 1300''
*[[Christopher Dawson]], 1956. ''The Making of Europe: An Introduction to the History of European Unity'' (New York: Meridian)
*[[Georges Duby]], 1974. ''The Early Growth of the European Economy: Warriors and Peasants from the Seventh to the Twelfth Centuries'' (New York: Cornell University Press) Howard B. Clark, translator.
*Georges Duby, editor, 1988. ''A History of Private Life II: Revelations of the Medieval World'' (Harvard University Press)
*[[Heinrich Fichtenau]], (1957) 1978. ''The Carolingian Empire'' (University of Toronto) Peter Munz, translator.
*[[Charles Homer Haskins]], (1915) 1959 etc. ''The Normans in European History'' The foundation of Norman studies, superseded in details.
*[[Richard Hodges]], 1982. ''Dark Age Economics: The Origins of Towns and Trade AD 600-1000'' (New York: St Martin's Press)
*Edward James, 1988. ''The Franks'' (Oxford: Basil Blackwell)
*[[David Knowles]], (1962) 1988. ''The Evolution of Medieval Thought''
*[[Richard Krautheimer]], 1980. ''Rome: Profile of a City 312-1308'' (Princeton University Press)
*[[Robin Lane Fox]], 1986. ''Pagans and Christians'' (New York: Knopf)
*John Marenbon (1983) 1988.''Early Medieval Philosophy (480-1150): An Introduction'' ((London: Routledge)
*Rosamond McKittrick, 1983 ''The Frankish Church Under the Carolingians'' (London: Longmans, Green)
*John Morris, 1973. ''The Age of Arthur: A History of the British Isles from 350-650'' (New York: Scribner's)
*Karl Frederick Morrison, 1969. ''Tradition and Authority in the Western Church, 300-1140'' (Princeton University Press)
*Pierre Riché, (1978) 1988. ''Daily Life in the Age of Charlemagne''
*P.H. Sawyer, (1962) 1972. ''The Age of the Vikings'' (New York: St Martin's press)
*[[Richard Southern]], 1953. ''The Making of the Middle Ages'' (Yale University Press)
*Susanne Wemple, 1981. ''Women in Frankish Society: Marriage and the Cloister'' (University of Pennsylvania)
{{History of Europe}}
[[Category:Early Middle Ages| ]]
[[ca:Alta edat mitjana]]
[[cs:Raný středověk]]
[[de:Frühmittelalter]]
[[es:Alta Edad Media]]
[[eu:Goi Erdi Aroa]]
[[fr:Projet:Moyen Âge/Haut Moyen Âge/articlePrincipal]]
[[is:Ármiðaldir]]
[[it:Alto Medioevo]]
[[he:ראשית ימי הביניים]]
[[nl:Vroege middeleeuwen]]
[[no:Tidlig middelalder]]
[[nn:Tidleg mellomalder]]
[[pt:Alta Idade Média]]
[[ro:Evul mediu timpuriu]]
[[ru:Раннее Средневековье]]
[[simple:Early Middle Ages]]
[[fi:Varhaiskeskiaika]]