Chronology of the Middle Ages

The Moyen-âge Occident Al is the time of the Histoire located between the Antiquité and the modern Time, is coarsely between 500 and 1500 years after Jesus Christ. She extends over one thousand years period.

Beginning of the Middle Ages

Traditionally, one makes begin the Middle Ages with the deposition of the last Roman Emperor of Occident Romulus Augustule (* towards 460 - † after 511) with Odoacre in 476. However, much of contemporary historians make perdurer Antiquity beyond this traditional date. It should be noted that any single event can play only one symbolic system part in a change of time, which in fact is a process. Certain historians retain today the death of Clovis Ier the November 27th 511 like dates conventional from the end of Antiquity, others appoint the date of its baptism, that is to say on December 25th 496, by the bishop of Rheims, holy Remi. Thus, they make symbolically begin the Middle Ages with the death of Sainte Genevieve the January 3rd 512.

Fine of the Middle Ages

The Fin of the Middle Ages is generally located towards 1500; several dates symbolic systems were proposed by the historians:

1492, year which marks the end of the Spanish Reconquista, with the January 2nd the resumption of Grenade). This same year sees also Christophe Colomb unloading in America the October 12th, and the France and the England to sign the treaty of Étaples - which prepared the Guerres of Italy carried out by France - the November 3rd;
1453, year during which Constantinople, old the Byzance, capital of the Roman Empire of the East, falls to the hands from the Othoman , and which sees the end of the Guerre One hundred Year old, with the French victory over England (Bataille of Castillon).
In French history, one often uses 1483, date of died of Louis XI.
Towards 1440 takes place the invention of the mobile characters of Imprimerie by Johannes Gutenberg and towards 1450, the development of the first screw press.
In 1517 takes place the beginning of the reform of the Protestantisme led by German Martin Luther (it will be taken again later by French Jean Calvin).

More generally, the Grandes discoveries mark the beginning of what one can already call the Mondialisation (exchange growth between various distant countries, permitted by new inventions and discovered…). The exact limits of the Middle Ages are the subject still of debates between Historien S.

The term “ Moyen Âge ” was invented by Flavio Biondo of Forlì. In French, the adjective corresponding to “ Moyen Âge ” is “ médiéval ”. “ Moyenâgeux ”, as for him, is pejorative, or at least out-of-date (“ an environment médiévale ”, “ an environment moyenâgeuse ”). The medieval history, as a discipline, also names “ History médiévale ”. A historian who studies the Middle Ages is called “ Médiéviste ”.

However, the expression “the Middle Ages” wants nothing to say as such. It comes from the Latin expression medium aevum which means “intermediate age” or “Middle Age” of a man. Thus, “the Middle Ages” represent an intermediate age between various times, various artistic currents. Keller, Philologist German better known under the Latinized name of Cellarius, took again the expression of “the Middle Ages” for its chronology of the history in order to mark the time running out of 4th at the 15th centuries.

The Middle Ages were defined a long time in opposition to the Renaissance which would have followed it. The contemporary Historiographie rather tends to regard the Renaissance as one transitional period between medieval time and modern time, with the rather fuzzy chronological limits (roughly speaking of 1420 with 1630). One can thus speak justifiably about a medieval period of the Rebirth.

Extreme limits

In order to cut out the history in coherent periods, the historians tried to be based on major events illustrating or causing a profound change of the policy and company. But it is rare that it on there a consensus on such or such date to define a limit of period. It is the case with regard to the limits of the Middle Ages, particularly its beginning. Most commonly allowed from the fall of the Roman Empire of Occident in 476 go, until 1492, date of discovered America by Christophe Colomb and of the fall of Grenade (fine of the Reconquista).

But of other dates reference mark are possible, for the beginning of the Middle Ages:

the removal of the capital of the Roman Empire of Rome to Constantinople (330) mark the beginning of its division;
the conversion of the emperor Constantin I {{er}} with the Christianisme - to its death, in 337 - announces the triumph of this religion with depend on the ancient Paganisme;
the Bataille of Turkey-red cotton (378) sanctions the advent of the heavy Cavalerie and the decline of the troops of Infanterie, thus marking the one millenium beginning of superiority of the cavalry on the infantry;
recognition by Théodose of the Christianity like religion of State (391), which also corresponds to the date of separation between the Roman Empire of Occident and the Roman Empire of the East which survives the Middle Ages;
the Bag of Rome by the Visigoths of Alaric Ier (410) mark superiority of the cruel invaders.
the Rule of saint Benoit in 529.

These various options indicate how much a clear event-driven caesura is difficult to find to mark the beginning of the Middle Ages: by certain features, the Roman Empire had already strongly changed before the end of Antiquity. For example, the emperors of the 3rd century give up the traditional Toge and tunics, adopting the braies legionaries, mainly of Celtic or Germanic origin. It is also at the 3rd century that the Amphore is abandoned for the barrel, much more economic. Lastly, it is at that time that many people Barbares become federate, establishing durable relations with the Roman world. The Roman Empire had thus already lost certain ancient characters.

The unit political, monetary, linguistic and cultural of the Roman world on the large territory around the the Mediterranean underwent three disloquations:

on the East-West axis, since the division initially only administrative of the East and the Occident became very political;
on the North-South axis, since Vandals, then the Arabs conquer North Africa;
intern, since Europe is divided into several national entities.

Also, certain historians - initially the German historian Riegl Qualities at the beginning of the 20th century - pushed back the one period limit called “late Antiquité” ( Spätantike ), by precisely stressing the permanence of features characteristic of the end of Antiquity until the reign of Charlemagne. Such a design initially was essential in the historians of the “fringes” of the Roman world, where its relevance was more obvious. Contrary, in France, it was necessary to await 1977 with Henri-Irenee Marrou (in Roman Décadence or late Antiquity? ) so that one wonders about the utility of such a period, in particular to put an end to pejorative name “Low Empire”. And today still, old story and medieval shares the knowledge of times which go from 3rd at the 8th century.

For the end of the Middle Ages, other dates that 1492 were proposed, but basically they do not call into question the higher limit of the period:

the fall of Constantinople (1453), which is the end of the Byzantine Empire and the entry of the Ottoman Empire (Turkish) on the European chess-board (used in Histoire of art especially). The Chute of Constantinople causes moreover the surge towards Italy of monks bringing with them of the Manuscrit S which they preserved since Antiquity. The redécouverte of these manuscripts marks the beginning of the Rebirth;
the invention of the Printing works in mobile metal matters by Gutenberg (1453), whose a Cultural revolution would have risen according to Marshall McLuhan in the Galaxy from Gutenberg (privileged people by German historiography)
the promulgation by Martin Luther from his 95 theses (1517), which marks the beginnings of the Réforme which will make steal in glares the relative religious unit of the medieval Occident.

The end of the Middle Ages is also marked by the introduction of centralized States controlled by great monarchies: France of Valois, unified Spain finishing Reconquista, England left the War of the Two-Pinks and Ottoman Empire. This period sees also the beginning of the gathering of the Russian grounds.

Internal cuttings

For the French historians, the Moyen-âge is traditionally subdivided between Early middle ages and low Moyen-âge ; the low Moyen-âge succeeding the Early middle ages (what is sometimes at the origin of confusions).

The historians German S and English traditionally subdivide the Middle Ages in three parts. They place between the “early Middle Ages” (all. , Engl.) and the “late Middle Ages”, one central time which they call the “Early middle ages”. In the design of the German and Anglo-Saxon historians, there thus does not exist “low Moyen-âge”.

Other cuttings suggested

Cutting interns in two parts

Ivan Gobry distinguishes:

the the old Middle Ages (of 6th at the 10th century), during which the people move as well as the borders.
It is also the period of expansion of the Francs, with the apogee of the empire of Charlemagne (800 - 814).
Then arrives the recent Moyen-âge (10th at the 15th century) during which take place the Reconquista in Spain,
the constitution then the collapse of the State Plantagenêt and the assertion of the dynasty Capétien.

Cutting interns in three parts

Régine Pernoud proposes:

the Early middle ages (of the fall of the Roman Empire with Charlemagne),
the Carolingian time , the feudal age (medium of 10th at the end of the 13th century) and
the the Middle Ages for 14th and 15th centuries.

Jacques Le Goff proposes:

the late Antiquity (until the 10th century),
the the central Middle Ages (Year Millet - 1348, Large the Plague) and
the the late Middle Ages (War One hundred Year old - Reform).

Robert Fossier proposes:

New Worlds (350-950),
Awakening of the Europe (950-1250) where the influence of the worlds Byzantine and Musulman remains dominating in the Christian Occident which is sought and which builds the Féodalité,
then the Time of the Crises (1250-1520) of the loss of the possessions in Holy Land with the wars of religion while passing by the conquest of the Nouveau World.

Cutting interns in four parts

After the disappearance of Romulus Augustule in 511 and the death of Clovis Ier the same year, the history of the “early Middle Ages” in Occident - according to this cutting suggested - is the history of the kingdom mérovingien after its conquest by Clovis Ier, then, after Childéric III, the history of the first Carolingien S arrived at the throne in 751, until the death of Pip the Brief.
the time of the “Early middle ages” would be the history since the crowning of Charlemagne and its brother Carloman until the death of the last emperor ottonien Henri the Saint.
the “low Middle Ages”, according to this cutting, would have lasted of the advent of the dynasty franconienne in 1024 and until death in 1280 of the Philosophe and Théologien, Albert Large the.
In all, nine Croisade S - between 1096 and 1272 - mark the time of low Moyen-âge. In France, Louis IX dies in 1270, therefore all at the end of these low Moyen-âge.
After the death of Frederic II in 1250, the last but one emperor of the dynasty Hohenstaufen, the Germanic empire and all medieval civilization know a serious and long crisis which appears in a Interrègne in fact. (Cf and) the Germanic cities are linked while melting of the Ligue S - of which most known is the Hanse - the Latin Empire of Constantinople is dislocated in 1261, just like the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem in 1291. The same year, in 1291 the Swiss Confédération is formed. The sicilian Vêpres - caused indirectly by this instability - took place in 1282. The order of Templiers, created at the time of the crusades, disappears finally in 1312.

Over the philosophical plan, the late Scholastic, and particularly the Thomisme dominated the late Middle Ages. Nevertheless, very early, it was disputed seriously by thinkers like Roger Bacon or Guillaume d' Occam, showing the possibility for already the first steps of the Renaissance and the beginnings of the Humanisme.

On the Military plan, the invention of the Gunpowder - in Europe - in second half of XIII^e century and its first use in the wars during the century which followed, also means radical difference compared to previous times. Michael Florencetime lets finish the Middle Ages on her traditional date in 1492, 300 years before the fall of the Ancien Mode. Follow the three centuries of the former modern Time.

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