Introduction
Term used to refer to a period in European history, from the disintegration of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century to the 15th century.
At the end of the 5th century, the end of a series of long-lasting processes, among them the serious economic displacement and the invasions and settlements of the German peoples in the Roman Empire, transformed the face of Europe.
During this period there was not really a unitary government mechanism in the various political entities, although the formation of kingdoms did occur. Political and economic development was fundamentally local, and regular trade disappeared almost entirely. With the end of a process initiated during the Roman Empire, the peasants began their process of connection with the land and dependence on the great landowners for protection. This situation constituted the seed of the manorial regime. The main ties between the warrior aristocracy were kinship ties, although feudal relationships also began to emerge.
During the European Middle Ages, peasants had to live and work in a single place at the service of noble landowners. These workers called serfs who took care of their owner's land, whom they called lord, received in exchange a humble dwelling, a small adjacent land, some farm animals and protection from outlaws and other lords. Serfs were required to deliver part of their own harvest as payment and were subject to many other obligations and taxes.
The only European institution with a universal character was the Church, but within it there was also a fragmentation in authority. At its core were tendencies that wanted to unify rituals, calendar and monastic rules, as opposed to local disintegration.
It was in response to "God wills it" that the crowd gathered at Clermont on November 27, 1095, welcomed Pope Urban II's sermon in favor of holy war aimed at freeing Christ's tomb from the control of "infidels." The repercussion of this appeal was such that the Crusades, which constituted the most important political and religious event of the Middle Ages, marked the history of the West for two centuries.
Cultural activity during the early Middle Ages consisted mainly of conserving and systematizing knowledge of the past.
This first stage of the Middle Ages ended in the 10th century with the second Germanic migration and the invasions carried out by the Vikings, coming from the north, and by the Magyars of the Asian steppes.
The High Middle Ages
Until the middle of the eleventh century, Europe was in a period of evolution unknown until that moment. The time of the great invasions had come to an end and the European continent was experiencing the dynamic growth of an already settled population. Urban life and regular large-scale commerce were reborn. The development of a complex, dynamic and innovative society and culture took place.
During the High Middle Ages, the Catholic Church, organized around a structured hierarchy, with the pope as the undisputed apex, constituted the most sophisticated institution of government in Western Europe. Monastic orders grew and prospered by actively participating in secular life. The spirituality of the High Middle Ages adopted an individual character, through which the believer identified himself subjectively and emotionally with the human suffering of Christ.
Within the cultural sphere, there was an intellectual resurgence with the development of new educational institutions such as cathedral and monastic schools. The first universities were founded; undergraduate offers in medicine, law, and theology emerged, and the way was paved for a golden age for philosophy in the West.
Innovations also emerged in the field of the arts. Writing ceased to be the exclusive activity of the clergy and the result was the flowering of a new literature, both in Latin and, for the first time, in vernaculars. These new texts were intended for a literate public that had education and free time to read. In the field of painting, unprecedented attention was paid to the representation of extreme emotions, everyday life and the world of nature. In architecture, the Romanesque reached its perfection with the construction of countless cathedrals along pilgrimage routes in the south of France and Spain, especially the Way of St. predominant artistic.
The 13th century was the century of the Crusades, advocated by the Papacy to free the Holy Places in the Middle East from Muslim hands. These international expeditions were yet another example of Church-centered European unity, although they were also influenced by an interest in dominating the eastern trade routes.
The Late Middle Ages
The Low Middle Ages were marked by conflicts and the dissolution of institutional unity. It was then that the modern State began to emerge, and the struggle for hegemony between Church and State became a permanent feature of European history in later centuries.
The spirituality of the Late Middle Ages was the authentic indicator of the social and cultural turmoil of the time, characterized by an intense search for a direct experience with God, through personal ecstasy or through a personal examination of the word of God in the Bible.
The situation of spiritual agitation and innovation would culminate with the Protestant Reformation. The new political identities would lead to the triumph of the modern national state, and continued economic and mercantile expansion laid the foundations for the revolutionary transformation of the European economy.
Middle Ages