Loyola University Chicago

HIST 310 / MSTU 328 - History of the Early Middle Ages, 300-1100

Tuesday / Thursday 12:20-13:35

The Mediaeval World… It sprung from the ruins of the Roman Empire! For a long time it was considered to be a world completely different from the political, social, cultural, religious, and economic structures of Classical Antiquity. As for the formation of European society and civilisation the Middle Ages constituted a crucial period, coming out of the darkness following the decline and fall of Rome, and leading the Western world to its full "Renaissance". The history of the Middle Ages spans a time of approximately twelve centuries, between the 4th and the 16th century. Already towards the end of the 15th century certain scholars started to use the term "Middle Ages", in order to distinguish the entire era between Antiquity and what they themselves saw and experienced as a revival of it. They tended to idealise the Graeco-Roman, classical civilisation, and believed they were witnessing a "rebirth", a "Renaissance" of it. They literally regarded the centuries that separated them from their ancient forefathers as a time in which the people had walked in darkness. From the late 17th century the term "Middle Ages" became a commonplace in contemporary studies of the past.

Geographically speaking the Mediaeval World comprises all of the Mediterranean basin, Western Europe, and all the regions North and East of the two aforementioned, which came into contact with them, or were in fact already so. Scandinavia, Middle and Eastern Europe, as well as all parts of and beyond the Mediterranean that from the 7th century onwards were conquered by the Arabs, and which previously had largely belonged to the Roman Empire.

The value of chronological periodisation is rather relative. Although this course appears to have a chronological order, its structure may also be found to be more thematic. The issue of continuity and discontinuity is essential in a better understanding of the Mediaeval world.