The Middle Ages portal

Amedieval stained glass panel fromCanterbury Cathedral,c. 1175 – c. 1180, depicting theParable of the Sower, abiblical narrative

In thehistory of Europe, theMiddle Ages ormedieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to thepost-classical period ofglobal history. It began with thefall of the Western Roman Empire and transitioned into theRenaissance and theAge of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history:classical antiquity, the medieval period, and themodern period. The medieval period is itself subdivided into theEarly,High, andLate Middle Ages.

Population decline,counterurbanisation, the collapse of centralised authority, invasions, and mass migrations oftribes, which had begun inlate antiquity, continued into the Early Middle Ages. The large-scale movements of theMigration Period, including variousGermanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the 7th century,North Africa and the Middle East—once part of theByzantine Empire—came under the rule of theUmayyad Caliphate, an Islamic empire, after conquest byMuhammad's successors. Although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break withclassical antiquity was incomplete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire, Rome's direct continuation, survived in the Eastern Mediterranean and remained a major power. The empire's law code, theCorpus Juris Civilis or "Code of Justinian", was rediscovered inNorthern Italy in the 11th century. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions. Monasteries were founded as campaigns toChristianise theremaining pagans across Europe continued. TheFranks, under theCarolingian dynasty, briefly established theCarolingian Empire during the later 8th and early 9th centuries. It covered much of Western Europe but later succumbed to the pressures of internal civil wars combined with external invasions:Vikings from the north,Magyars from the east, andSaracens from the south.

During the High Middle Ages, which began after 1000, the population of Europe increased significantly as technological andagricultural innovations allowed trade to flourish and theMedieval Warm Period climate change allowed crop yields to increase.Manorialism, the organisation ofpeasants into villages that owed rent and labour services to thenobles, andfeudalism, the political structure wherebyknights and lower-status nobles owed military service to theiroverlords in return for the right to rent from lands andmanors, were two of the ways society was organised in the High Middle Ages. This period also saw the collapse of the unified Christian church with theEast–West Schism of 1054. TheCrusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of theHoly Land fromMuslims. Kings became the heads of centralisednation-states, reducing crime and violence but making the ideal of a unifiedChristendom more distant. Intellectual life was marked byscholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding ofuniversities. The theology ofThomas Aquinas, the paintings ofGiotto, the poetry ofDante andChaucer, the travels ofMarco Polo, and theGothic architecture of cathedrals such asChartres are among the outstanding achievements toward the end of this period and into the Late Middle Ages.

The Late Middle Ages was marked by difficulties and calamities, including famine, plague, and war, which significantly diminished the population of Europe; between 1347 and 1350, theBlack Death killed about a third of Europeans. Controversy,heresy, and theWestern Schism within theCatholic Church paralleled the interstate conflict, civil strife, andpeasant revolts that occurred in the kingdoms. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages and beginning theearly modern period. (Full article...)