The Early Middle Ages lasted from the fall of Rome to about the year 1000. The oath is taken in a ceremony where serfs swear loyalty to their lord. The person who had the land became the lord’s man. The person who had the land, called the lord, has to receive things from the one who had the land. The fief was a piece of property you held, lords renowned, and the lord had to do something for you. If they did not use their land, the fief holder would take it away from them. The fief was land that people owned and used. In some cases, this type of holding was considered a dependent tenure with limited rights for people who held it.įiefs were the way that people got money when they were in Europe. In many areas, the term feudum came to mean a form of property holding. There were no strong kings or emperors to stop them. Local lords expanded their territory and got more powerful. In the Middle Ages, political units were not organized, and there was no one with power. It had one of the largest churches in the world and was a major center for art production. The emperors ruled from Constantinople, which they called New Rome. In the West, the Roman Empire fragmented. But over time, these things got worse or broke down completely.

People were happier during the Roman Empire because of improvements in farming, roads, water supplies, and shipping. The people would never be unified because the social organization was different for each tribe. They converted to Christianity, but they kept their customs and ways of life. The Germanic tribes were forced to move into southern and western Europe.

The Roman Empire helped provide stability to much of Europe. The fall of Rome had a huge impact on the political and social structure of the Western world. The Middle Ages is a time in Europe that started at about 500 AD and went until the Renaissance, around 1500 AD. Later, historians learned about the idea of the Dark Ages. Petrarch thought that there was not much learning during this time because people were missing out on classical knowledge. Petrarch, an Italian poet of the fourteenth century, called this time the Dark Ages. The end of the Middle Ages was a period called the Renaissance when there was lots of progress. There was more nationalism, people fought, natural disasters and climate changes, and people rebelled.

Some scholars call it medieval, but others say that “Middle Age” makes it sound like this time is unimportant.The Middle Ages was a time in Europe that lasted from the fall of Rome to the beginning of the Renaissance.

Middle ages