A large group of protesters demonstrate against a KKK rally in Justice Park, in Charlottesville, Virginia, 2017. (Credit: AP/REX/Shutterstock)

The battle between the Crusaders and Muslims at Ascalon, 1099, was considered the last action of the First Crusade.

'Head of a Sleeping Woman', 19th century painting in the collection of the State A. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. (Credit: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Vintage illustration of a woman choosing between a group of male suitors, 1946. (Credit: GraphicaArtis/Getty Images)

Bezoars are small stones which form in the stomachs or intestines of certain animals, this one from a goat, which were used as a remedy against many diseases. (Credit: SSPL/Getty Images)

Château de Douzens, in the Corbières wine region. (Photo courtesy of GITES a la Française)

The Middle Ages, the medieval period of European history between the fall of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Renaissance, are sometimes referred to as the "Dark Ages."

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The phrase “Middle Ages” tells us more about the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/renaissance/renaissance">Renaissance</a> that followed it than it does about the era itself. Starting around the 14th century, European thinkers, writers and artists began to look back and celebrate the art and culture of <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/ancient-greece">ancient Greece</a> and <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/ancient-rome">Rome</a>. Accordingly, they dismissed the period after the fall of Rome as a “Middle” or even “Dark” age in which no scientific accomplishments had been made, no great art produced, no great leaders born. The people of the Middle Ages had squandered the advancements of their predecessors, this argument went, and mired themselves instead in what 18th-century English historian Edward Gibbon called “barbarism and religion.”

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This way of thinking about the era in the “middle” of the fall of Rome and the rise of the Renaissance prevailed until relatively recently. However, today’s scholars note that the era was as complex and vibrant as any other.

After the fall of Rome, no single state or government united the people who lived on the European continent. Instead, the Catholic Church became the most powerful institution of the medieval period. Kings, queens and other leaders derived much of their power from their alliances with and protection of the Church.

In 800 CE, for example, Pope Leo III named the Frankish king <a href="/topics/charlemagne">Charlemagne</a> the “Emperor of the Romans”–the first since that empire’s fall more than 300 years before. Over time, Charlemagne’s realm became the Holy Roman Empire, one of several political entities in Europe whose interests tended to align with those of the Church.

Ordinary people across Europe had to “tithe” 10 percent of their earnings each year to the Church; at the same time, the Church was mostly exempt from taxation. These policies helped it to amass a great deal of money and power.

Meanwhile, the Islamic world was growing larger and more powerful. After the prophet Muhammad’s death in 632 CE, Muslim armies conquered large parts of the Middle East, uniting them under the rule of a single caliph. At its height, the medieval Islamic world was more than three times bigger than all of Christendom.

Under the caliphs, great cities such as Cairo, Baghdad and Damascus fostered a vibrant intellectual and cultural life. Poets, scientists and philosophers wrote thousands of books (on paper, a Chinese invention that had made its way into the Islamic world by the 8th century). Scholars translated Greek, Iranian and Indian texts into Arabic. Inventors devised technologies like the pinhole camera, soap, windmills, surgical instruments, and an early flying machine. And religious scholars and mystics translated, interpreted and taught the Quran and other scriptural texts to people across the Middle East.

Christian knights waged a religious war against the Muslims in Jerusalem in an attempt to reclaim the Holy Land.

The Crusades

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Toward the end of the 11th century, the Catholic Church began to authorize military expeditions, or <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/crusades">Crusades</a>, to expel Muslim “infidels” from the Holy Land. Crusaders, who wore red crosses on their coats to advertise their status, believed that their service would guarantee the remission of their sins and ensure that they could spend all eternity in Heaven. (They also received more worldly rewards, such as papal protection of their property and forgiveness of some kinds of loan payments.)

<a href="https://www.history.com/topics/crusades">The Crusades</a> began in 1095, when Pope Urban summoned a Christian army to fight its way to <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/history-of-jerusalem">Jerusalem</a>, and continued on and off until the end of the 15th century. In 1099, <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/history-of-christianity">Christian</a> armies captured <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/history-of-jerusalem">Jerusalem</a> from Muslim control, and groups of pilgrims from across Western Europe started visiting the Holy Land. Many of them, however, were robbed and killed as they crossed through Muslim-controlled territories during their journey.

Around 1118, a French knight named Hugues de Payens created a military order along with eight relatives and acquaintances that became the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/the-knights-templar">Knights Templar</a>, and they won the eventual support of the pope and a reputation for being fearsome fighters. The <a href="http://www.history.com/news/crusader-shipwreck-tells-a-golden-knights-tale">Fall of Acre in 1291</a> marked the destruction of the last remaining Crusader refuge in the Holy Land, and Pope Clement V dissolved the Knights Templar in 1312.

No one “won” the Crusades; in fact, many thousands of people from both sides lost their lives. They did make ordinary Catholics across Christendom feel like they had a common purpose, and they inspired waves of religious enthusiasm among people who might otherwise have felt alienated from the official Church. They also exposed Crusaders to Islamic literature, science and technology–exposure that would have a lasting effect on European intellectual life.

Another way to show devotion to the Church was to build grand cathedrals and other ecclesiastical structures such as monasteries. Cathedrals were the largest buildings in medieval Europe, and they could be found at the center of towns and cities across the continent.

Between the 10th and 13th centuries, most European cathedrals were built in the Romanesque style. Romanesque cathedrals are solid and substantial: They have rounded masonry arches and barrel vaults supporting the roof, thick stone walls and few windows. (Examples of Romanesque architecture include the Porto Cathedral in Portugal and the Speyer Cathedral in present-day Germany.)

Around 1200, church builders began to embrace a new architectural style, known as the Gothic. Gothic structures, such as the Abbey Church of Saint-Denis in France and the rebuilt Canterbury Cathedral in England, have huge stained-glass windows, pointed vaults and pointed arches (a technology perfected in in the Islamic world), and spires and flying buttresses. In contrast to heavy Romanesque buildings, Gothic architecture seems to be almost weightless. Medieval religious art took other forms as well. Frescoes and mosaics decorated church interiors, and artists painted devotional images of the Virgin Mary, Jesus and the saints.

Also, before the invention of the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/printing-press">printing press</a> in the 15th century, even books were works of art. Craftsmen in monasteries (and later in universities) created illuminated manuscripts: handmade sacred and secular books with colored illustrations, gold and silver lettering and other adornments. Convents were one of the few places <a href="https://www.history.com/news/women-education-medieval-nuns-church">women could receive a higher education</a>, and nuns wrote, translated, and illuminated manuscripts as well. In the 12th century, urban booksellers began to market smaller illuminated manuscripts, like books of hours, psalters and other prayer books, to wealthy individuals.

<a href="https://www.history.com/news/chivalry-knights-middle-ages">Chivalry</a> and courtly love were celebrated in stories and songs spread by troubadours. Some of medieval literature’s most famous stories include “The Song of Roland” and “The Song of Hildebrand.”&nbsp;

Between 1347 and 1350, a mysterious disease known as the " <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/black-death">Black Death</a> " (the bubonic plague) killed some 20 million people in Europe—30 percent of the continent’s population. It was especially deadly in cities, where it was impossible to prevent the transmission of the disease from one person to another.

The plague started in Europe in October 1347, when 12 ships from the Black Sea docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. Most sailors aboard the ships were dead, and those who were alive were covered in black boils that oozed blood and pus. Symptoms of the Black Death included fever, chills, vomiting, diarrhea, terrible aches and pains – and then death. Victims could go to bed feeling healthy and be dead by morning. 

The plague killed cows, pigs, goats, chickens and even sheep, leading to a wool shortage in Europe. Understandably terrified about the mysterious disease, some people of the Middle Ages believed the plague was a divine punishment for sin. To obtain forgiveness, some people became “flagellants,” traveling Europe to put on public displays of penance that could include whipping and beating one another. Others turned on their neighbors, purging people they believed to be heretics. Thousands of Jews were murdered between 1348 and 1349, while others fled to less populated areas of Eastern Europe.

Today, scientists know the plague was caused by a bacillus called Yersina pestis, which travels through the air and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/plague/transmission/index.html">can also be contracted through the bite of an infected flea</a>.&nbsp;

In medieval Europe, rural life was governed by a system scholars call “feudalism.” In a feudal society, the king granted large pieces of land called fiefs to noblemen and bishops. Landless peasants known as serfs did most of the work on the fiefs: They planted and harvested crops and gave most of the produce to the landowner. In exchange for their labor, they were allowed to live on the land. They were also promised protection in case of enemy invasion.

During the 11th century, however, feudal life began to change. Agricultural innovations such as the heavy plow and three-field crop rotation made farming more efficient and productive, so fewer farm workers were needed–but thanks to the expanded and improved food supply, the population grew. As a result, more and more people were drawn to towns and cities. Meanwhile, the Crusades had expanded trade routes to the East and given Europeans a taste for imported goods such as wine, olive oil and luxurious textiles. As the commercial economy developed, port cities in particular thrived. By 1300, there were some 15 cities in Europe with a population of more than 50,000.

In these cities, a new era was born: the Renaissance. The Renaissance was a time of great intellectual and economic change, but it was not a complete “rebirth”: It had its roots in the world of the Middle Ages.

People use the phrase “Middle Ages” to describe Europe between the fall of Rome in 476 CE and the beginning of the Renaissance in the 14th century.

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The Middle Ages were a period of European history between the fall of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Renaissance. Learn more about the art, culture and history of the Middle Ages.

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World War I pitted Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire against Great Britain, the United States, France, Russia, Italy and Japan. New military technology resulted in unprecedented carnage. By the time the war was over and the Allied Powers claimed victory, more than 16 million people—soldiers and civilians alike—were dead.

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The Roman Empire, led by rulers such as Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, Caligula and Nero, was a vast and powerful domain that gave rise to the culture, laws, technologies and institutions that continue to define Western civilization.

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<a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__msbeckylittle.tumblr.com_&amp;d=DwMFaQ&amp;c=bHpC9irXhivtSwyVyKc43lLt4-cAwmmH7TeQLPqTb5E&amp;r=DnM91hJ18gcNL3QDGSFbaxqDKqUNYha-dXU1EFEqguU&amp;m=G-7sCRahZ4NeqUBMRIzpVYF_SWJZdHf6oZ3GZnosXWc&amp;s=zmyoc9Pijw9wmJOCBZEXDORhhj0TxUZKXRRMCwVGaTI&amp;e=">Becky Little</a> is a journalist based in Washington, D.C. Follow her on <a title="https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbsky.app%2Fprofile%2Fmsbeckylittle.bsky.social&amp;data=05%7C02%7CAmanda.Onion%40aegm.com%7C2663a56e98de478ecc4108dd65759161%7Cf7288ab1d50847bab3347331cff3374c%7C1%7C0%7C638778277802339990%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=6PAUrlZQy2qoyw95FxhBFEbAAeD6eFd4YU65oI9SW98%3D&amp;reserved=0" href="https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbsky.app%2Fprofile%2Fmsbeckylittle.bsky.social&amp;data=05%7C02%7CAmanda.Onion%40aegm.com%7C2663a56e98de478ecc4108dd65759161%7Cf7288ab1d50847bab3347331cff3374c%7C1%7C0%7C638778277802339990%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=6PAUrlZQy2qoyw95FxhBFEbAAeD6eFd4YU65oI9SW98%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-outlook-id="cfb94f9b-f0df-4c8f-91fa-a17329b660ca">Bluesky</a>.

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In the 15th century, Europeans began to sail west across the Atlantic Ocean in search of new routes to China and the East, but in the process they discovered what they labeled a "New World," although Indigenous people had lived there for centuries. Other explorers have pushed the limits of flight and seafaring, and traversed the frozen Continent of Antarctica.

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<a href="http://nataliapetrzela.com/">Natalia Mehlman Petrzela</a> is an associate professor of history at The New School, where she studies the politics and culture of the modern United States. The author of Classroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture, she also hosts the “Past Present” podcast.

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Ancient Greece, the birthplace of democracy, was the source of some of the greatest literature, architecture, science and philosophy in Western civilization, and home to beautiful historical sites like the Acropolis and the Parthenon.

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Lindsey Konkel is a freelance journalist based in southern New Jersey. Her focus is science and health. She loves when these topics intersect with history.

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Religion and spiritual issues, including Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, the Bible, Wicca, Buddhism and more, are at the core of human values and history.

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Each year on February 14, people exchange cards, candy or flowers with their special “valentine.” St. Valentine’s Day is named for a Christian martyr and dates back to the 5th century, but has origins in the Roman holiday Lupercalia.

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From religious and patriotic holidays to celebrations of ethnic pride, explore the history of Easter, Passover, New Year's Day, Veterans' Day, Memorial Day and more annual observances.

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