Why do we call them the "Dark Ages"? - Medieval DOCUMENTARY
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- Опубліковано 17 лис 2022
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Kings and Generals historical animated documentary series on the history of medieval era continues with a video on the Dark Ages, as we discuss how the term came to be and how Dark the Dark Ages really were.
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Script: Riccardo Dormino
Artwork: Artem Krikhtenko ( / akrikhtenko , Yurii Magula
Animation: Artem Krikhtenko
Editor: Michael Merc / @mercenarycamp
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#Documentary #DarkAges #Medieval - Фільми й анімація
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In my eyes a ''dark age'' is that fond between 'golden ages'.
For every age of instability, a stable age comes to be in a tug of peoples wants against benefits.
The fall of western Rome (late 5th CE was led by an unstable dark time till the Carolingian renaissance (8thCE-9thCE then another dark age till the Italian Renaissance (in the 10th/11thCE-14th CE.
Even after the Italian Renaissance a mini dark age occurred till the English renaissance from early 16th- early 17th CE which is closely related to the age of exploration.
Even then for 1/2 a century there was a lull till the industrial revolution beginning in 1760 Great Britain.
The thing is the industrial age never really ended with the progressive era 1890's then the atomic age 1945 followed by the space age 1957 till the computer age in full swing in 1970's though computers are much older.
We should be in the ''robotics age'' but our modern western governments can't even agree what a man & women is for fvck sake.
We are in the (dark age of social media) since 1997 with 6 degree or myspace 2004!
I really want this social media dark age of post early 3rd millennia to end sooner than later!
Nuclear power should be perfected by now & now going backwards to harnessing wind of all things like the age of sail.
Politicians & celebrities & social media voices have more say then scientists on matters of advancement of all which is ridiculous!
Hey Kings and Generals! Can you also upload to rumble when ever you upload? Rumble pays you more for advertisment. Also you'll be making money from both youtube and rumble which will double the money you make on the internet! I will follow you on rumble as soon as you create one!!!
The dark ages are like the real life equivalent of the long night
People from the Dark Age wished they had Modern Technology
Vikings rather watch Football on Hulu eating Nachos rather than raid and risk getting killed
When Trade and Manufacturing are more profitable than War conflicts decrease
By the time they reach 8 Billion people, 2 Billion are living in outer space
@@christiandauz3742 Shows you know nothing of Norse culture!
Valhalla is the hall of endless battle that waits for Ragnarök the final battle where Jormungand will raise from his wounded slumber to set the oceans ablaze with fire.
Odin takes all those that fall glorious in battle & his wife 1/2 those warriors that died without honour on the battle.
As for games Vikings most, popular game was Hnefatafl which is chess board like game that the rules are lost.
They would sooner have read & told poetry or stories then play football!
As for sports they most popular was Glima/wresting & swimming.
A fair few Norse made challenges to swim across the sea against each other which some succeeded.
Manufacturing & trade tends to increase with war!
The shear amount of good the USA sold to Britian on lend lease in WW2 took till 2006 to pay off in full along with interest & inflation accounted.
As for your prediction 15/11/2022 8 billion was reached.
I see no one living permanent off earth in the Space?
Christian Dauz, you are not the sharpest, are you? ;)
There was Dark Age, then there was Feudal Age, then Castle Age and then Imperial Age where you can research Chemistry
Amen
Chemistry is older than you think
@@aokiaoki4238 *whooosh*
aoe2 XDD
Ahhh.... Advancing to castle age to get those sweet2 trebuchet
I had a Western Civilizations teacher who spent the whole semester denigrating the Middle Ages and praising literally any other part of the world. Wish I could show him this.
Sounds like maybe he had some religious bias. I don't know how you could study Western Civilization and see the 'dark ages' as anything other than an age of rebuilding broken empires and social/political innovation.
Byzantine Empire: Am I a Joke to you
Medieval Innovations in Gunpowder, invention of Plate Armor, ect, the Expansion of Trade, Rise of Guilds, Universities and extensive Libraries of both the Church and Islam, Revolutionary works of Mathematics by the Muslims in Baghdad: Bruh
İt depends what he means
İf you compare it to the islamic world
İts the time called islamic golden age there and europe looks very dark in that contrast but it does not mean europe did not develop and progress
İt only happened at a slower paste
The middle ages were definetely way more advanced than antiquity and that probably all over the world
To add Western Rome near its death was a Dysyopian nightmare of high taxes, endless wars, debasement of the economy, corruption and Civil Wars, so the Dark Ages was actually a plus for your average Joe or Lucius.
@@bossenes5020 sure but if he ment the fall of Western Rome than nope, if he ment compared to earlier periods like the Pax Romana than yeah
And I thought they were dark because there was a shortage of wax for candles.
A period of wax-off after one of wax-on, if you will
I thought they were black
Lit
An abundance of ear wax though...
Ive always considered the Dark Ages to occur from the fall of Rome (late 400s) to the rise of and reign Charlemagne (late 700s early 800s). The term dark is in reference to the lack of literature and culture coming out of this time. Also it was a time of great disunity, migration, and war.
Mostly because Western Europe at that "Interregnum" time turned into chaos before either Merovingian or Carolingian Empire took over the seat. Dark Age should be referred to Western Europe because other half of the world were prosperous
@@kadaltokek3953 I don't think anyone is saying that the Dark Ages were a worldwide phenomena. As a term, albeit an outdated one, in this context it should absolutely only be considered in terms of Western Europe. Also, the Merovingian dynasty, founded by Childeric I, the son of Merovis, existed before the fall of Rome (The family first appeared as Kings of Gaul within the Roman army!) so by your own definition the interregnum didn't exist. It would be good if Kings and Generals could do a video touching on developments in the rest of the world at this time to compare and contrast the events in western Europe with that of the rest of the world.
The dark ages to me also was from fall of Roman Empire to anywhere from 800-1000. 800. Rfa use of Charlemagne and 100ish because that’s when when Western Europe seemed to be picking up. Of course this dark ages is strictly Western Europe because the Islamic world was it heights and China also reached a height in that period with the Tang.
400s - 1400s
I think William Power is right - seen as a whole, the history between 400-1500 in Europe was not altogether a dark one. There were times of prosperity in some regions at all times in the period, and decline in other regions.
I would say that catastrophic events and collapse of rule of law (even in the form of religion) could be described as "dark", though. Such as:
* The Plague(s) of Justinian 451-750, coinciding with a wetter (colder?) climate striking the population of the Eastern Mediterranean hard after the warm period from the turn of the millennium.
* The Black Death with recurrences from 1348- ca.1800, coinciding with the onset of the Little Ice Age.
* The Migration period from 400-800 saw a disruption of law and order, rampant piracy and banditry.
* The third Crusade and onwards 1187-1302 was banditry in all but name, kings and popes plundering for the sake of power. The two first crusades could at least be said to be a response to Islamic military expansion.
I get paid (not very much) to answer questions on Quora and one question I was "requested" to answer was "how were people able to light their homes in the dark ages?" I still can't think of something sufficiently sarcastic enough.
They echolocated like bats
@@elgatto3133 one person would shout Marco, and the others would shout Polo.
How much do you get paid
@@sarveshtanavade506yes
Can we all appreciate the fact that Kings and Generals never disappointed us with his content. 👏
Amazing channel
Yes. Absolutely true, but it disappoints with the choice of sponsorship...
Petrarch lived in a rather grim century for Europe (1300s) plague, war etc. Historian Barbara Tuchman covered it well in her book "A Distant Mirror. - The Calamitous 14th Century" No wonder he was depressed. Also "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" reinforced the concept of the Dark Ages for the present day😀
Yeah, anyone who lived in 1300's Europe would take it that way. No wonder Petrarch thought so aswell. Those were REALLY "dark" times to be alive in Europe. Basically just bad luck after bad luck. And it didn't even begin with just the Plague. It began in 1315 with that massive famine.
Which has nothing to do with the Dark Ages. That era ended by the 14th century, it's more about 500 AD to 1100 AD
Name a historical period when there never has been war.
Admittedly the 14th plague was particularly vicious, but then (Edited) "Estimates of deaths range from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it the one of the deadliest pandemics in human history after the Black Death bubonic plague of 1346-1353."
"Dark Ages" refers as much to the apparent lack of light of learning and intellect as much as age of Germanic and Nordic invasion after the fall of Rome.
The concept is predicated on the concept of Classic Rome and Greece wonderful, everything else shit.
Sadly a bias that still persists.
@@pencilpauli9442 Point taken, but the in the 14th Century, the "Black Plague" combined with wars and famines is believed to be the only period of human recorded history where the world population actually declined. It wasn't just Europe that was devastated.
Still it’s ironic that one of Italy’s greatest poets decried the lack of culture.
What a terrific exploration of the Dark Ages! Thanks.🙏
What? All he did was show the way different thinkers from different periods viewed the era. Nothing about the people of the era, the sanitation standards, social hierarchy, advancement of science, works of literature, the clothes worn, nothing.
Jessie Meisenheimer almost like those weren’t the subjects of the video.
Frankly this piece is perfect for history classes in school. If you move on to that era and want to prep your pupils for coming lessons, this will cover all the bases in just 20 minutes. Excellently made.
The 17th-18th century sure had some high horses they were riding on.
it's true, horses got bigger in the centuries just prior to that
How important is that 😆
People assume ancient works were absent in Europe during the so-called "Dark Ages" when it reality in the West most Latin literature was preserved by monastic monks and in the east Greek literature by Byzantine scribes.
In fact, even to this day, the vast majority of Ancient Roman documents we have are Carolingian copies. The amount of Latin Roman sources we have that are actually dated to antiquity make up an extremely small percentage.
The main thing that was lacking in Western Europe during the Middle Ages were Greek texts, as access to them wasn't as widespread and knowledge of the Greek language was quite rare. However these were still being preserved and studied in the Eastern Roman Empire and the Caliphate, so it's not like most of them went anywhere.
Preserved: "refrain from using or disposing of (something); retain for future use."
This implies they were not currently in use or being accessed, which is absolutely true in the vast majority of Europe. No common people had any idea of their existence, or the contents of the literature, and it was very rare for any of the people preserving it to study them or allow them to be, let alone to share their knowledge. So, these ancient works basically were absent in Europe.
I'm all for this new fad of re-framing the history of the early middle ages, but going at it from the angle of denying that they were dark ages seems to have the effect of denying the turmoil and tribulations that came with it. They were an absolute mess of a time for Europe
Byzantines being ignored that they preserved Roman books and is the actual continouation of Rome: am I a joke to you.
The Islamic world being known only for the Conquests and the Crusades and not Baghdad, its advancements in Mathematics and Medical know how: bruh
Western Europe expanding trade after the Crusades and also preserving what they could with Roman texts and keeping up with Byzantium and the Islamic World: Oof
@@carterghill
That's true. But it was also true in antiquity, so not much really changed from that perspective. During antiquity, just like in the middle ages, being able to read and write manuscripts was the privilege of a small clique relative to the vast majority of the population.
@@carterghill
Considering the tedious time of copying these works, that implies those who were literate did study them at least enough to know they were worth preserving.
Do you know why they were called the "DARK AGES"?
It's because there were so many KNIGHTS
bruh
Bruh (2)
Bruh(3)
Bruh (3)
Get out.
You know I've been waiting for you guys to talk about this, I hope you can make more of these types of videos.
Fantastic video ! Thank you for all your work.
Wonderful artwork with this video
A much needed clarification. Thanks
I think you're confusing "tempestas", a word that meant "time" in latin but could also be used to mean "weather/storm" as having the latter meaning in this case. “Media tempestas” just means "middle time", or “season”.
In modern Italian also the word "tempo" means both time and weather, with its derivatives "temporale" etc meaning storm or weather more specifically.
yes in portuguese it's the same
Same in French !
The same in Spanish
In Norwegian we use "tempo" to mean "pace". As in "Keep up the tempo", a football trainer might say "tempo tempo, boys!" meaning "hurry up/don't slow down", or a high-pressure job or situation where things change quickly, might be described as having a "high tempo".
Tempestas or temporale, we do not use.
@@Spacemongerr I think (THINK) your use of tempo like that while still sounding Italian could stem from classical music. Don't take my word on it, but it would be cool to check.
Wow! One of the most interesting videos on history, and that I’ve ever seen in general
Amazing, stunning, excellent!! Are the best words that I could find to describe how incredibly well done, researched, and written this video was! Big congratulations again to the team. The editors/animators did an incredible work to synchronise with the script. By the way a special acknowledge to the researcher and writer, wow!! Looking forward for more videos written/researched by Riccardo!
Thanks again K&G for your outstanding job, today I'll learnt a lot and debunked some wrong ideas that I had about the period!
same here
Appreciate you bro 🙏
Very interesting Vid!
Thanks
Awesome analysis. Thank!
Fantastic video keep it up your doing amazing job
Well it was definitely dark around the year 536 ad when that volcano caused massive amounts of death by blocking the sun. There’s a reason it’s called the worst year to be alive.
I was going to mention this! I'm glad you did. It's amazing how much one Volcano can change the history of the world.
You mean Western Civilizations? Because in 536, other part of the world like India subcontinent to Southeast Asia to China were chill and prosperous
@@kadaltokek3953 Actually China was also pretty much hit by that volcano eruption. Their crops dwindled, there was some famine, and they did say that snow (ash) was falling in summer. Plus they noticed that sun was blocked due to some heavy clouds for a long period of time.
@@DarkSamael55 it could be true, but mostly for Northern Hemisphere, while people in Equator were just chill and make some money
@@kadaltokek3953 South America also experienced similar effects that year. Maybe the Equatorial regions were the only ones that had enough sunlight to remain temperate during that year. Or maybe it just wasn't recorded well. Even Ashoka's expansion had very little documentation surrounding it, just a few monuments here and there, unlike the detailed (if maybe biased) recordkeeping of Caesar's conquests, for example.
Great work
Can’t wait for the video detailing the advances of the Medieval Age
Thanks for the video
Well I think we can agree that the sequal of the "Dark Age" began in late 2019
Wait a minute..........
Just wait, you're gonna see *heretical movements* pop up too just like in the dark ages.
Don't insult the Dark Ages like that
Excellent! Follow up with the achievements please!
Awesome video
This is interesting to know understand more of how “Dark” were the Dark Ages? and it is awesome to learn history from you.
Almost 3 million subs baby LETS GOOOOOOOO
A good companion to this would be a video on the rise of the universities.
Dark Ages is just a period of absense of an large and powerful Empire on central Europe who make possible to establish and sustain complex relations between individuals and groups such science and trade
Exactly the "interregnum" era in Westen Europe before either Merovingian or Carolingian Empire took over the seat
This was a very informative look into one of the lesser known ages of human history. Nice video.
This was a fascinating video, talking about the historiography of the Middle Ages.
I hope you make more content like this.
Best ever❤️❤️🙏thank you so much
Really love to see more dark ages episodes especially from the pre classic era. The gothic kingdoms in Spain and Italy which you’ve touched but not dedicated full episodes too. The argument that they carried on the legacy of Rome best in the west.
No! not Dark Ages. Middle Ages that term "dark age" as this episode showed is wrong.
@@Autobotmatt428 agreed!
@@Autobotmatt428 I mean if we are honest it was less advanced being technically more “dark” in innovation.
Hey! Can you recommend any literature or videos that expand on that? Sounds interesting.
@@mmelo2334 books by Tom holland go in that direction. Look for books that take about the fall and you can find the ones that do go into the kingdoms after. It’s pretty fascinating in my opinion. Just doesn’t get the same fan fair of Charlemagne or byzantine empire
As every human age. It had its darkness and its brightness. nothing more. Remember ww1 and ww2 and its consequences happened in the past century...
I would rate the year 536 to 560 as the Dark Ages because of the volcanic eruptions in 536 and 547 that caused the "Little Ice Age"
"The whole period is now finally being looked at through a more objective lens"
I'm glad we have learned from our ancestors mistakes in believing THEIRS was the time of true knowledge.
(I say this as a friendly jab. 😀Great video! )
Good point.
Yep, pretty much every generation thinks that THEY are finally the smart, sensible, and mentally sound ones....only to be treated like absolute fools by the following generations, lol.
This kinda ties in to how Carl Sagan lied about the library of Alexandria and how the modern Cosmos series still relies on these misconceptions as the main pillar of the documentary.
i dont think he lied, more like relied on old sources plus his own prejudice. But if the modern cosmos does as you say that really a scientific blunder
@MioAkiyama3686 fair enough I should be more charitable. But frankly, someone with his reputation should have actually done the proper diligence. I feel it's more than appropriate to hold him to a standard of excellence that he failed to maintain when discussing history. Nobody is safe from Dunning-Kruger, and bias blindspot is more common among educated people. So I reserve the right to disparage Sagan's historical opinions. The modern version of the cosmos fails in the same way the old one did, except Carl Sagan is dead but Neil DeGrasse Tyson keeps Sagan's bullshit historical takes alive with Seth McFarlane's help in the Bruno section.
@@Teutonicredneck Agreed. Historical myths used for political reasons piss me off so much.
Thank you!
Byzantines had a mini dark age 600's and 700's but not THAT bad.
Why? What happened during those times?
@@gujjewman96 In 7th century avars and slavs were ravaging mainland greece and the control of that region virtually slipped from the Empire for over a century and alongside that the last but catastrophic phase of Roman Persian wars happened. Following the war Roman and Persian armies were completely exhausted ,so when the Arab muslims came screaming out of the deserts of arabia they couldn't do much. All the holdings of the Roman Empire in middle east , Egypt and North Africa were conquered by the Arabs ,this cut off grains shipments to Constantinople and Anatolia (heartland of the Empire at that time). The standard of life reduced by a great extent ,so the term Byzantine dark ages.
Several historians have been adamant about this point: “From now on, the ‘Middle Sea’ (or Mare Nostrum [‘Our Sea’], as the Romans called it) would no longer be a highway, but a frontier, and a frontier of the most dangerous kind. War and piracy became the norm-in some areas for the best part of a thousand years. And this is something that has been almost completely overlooked by historians, especially those of northern European extraction. For the latter in particular, the Mediterranean is viewed through the prism of classical history. So bewitched have educated Europeans been by the civilization of Greece and Rome, that they have treated the more recent part of Mediterranean history-over a thousand years of it-as if it never existed” (Scott 2014, 162-163). Similarly, “the consequences of Muslim piracy were important factors in the crisis [Europe’s decline between the ninth and tenth centuries], indeed sometimes decisive, producing social and economic as well as psychological and cultural distress: there was a drastic decline in navigation in general, a reduction in the number of Christian ports and coastal towns, widespread impoverishment, a contraction in the monetary economy and, finally, general fear and anxiety” (Cardini 2001, 18).
@@gujjewman96 Thus, “the classic tradition was shattered,” writes historian Henri Pirenne, “because Islam had destroyed the ancient unity of the Mediterranean” (1939, 28). After the conquest of Egypt, the importation of papyrus into Europe terminated almost overnight, causing literacy rates to drop back to their levels in pre-Roman times.
A... "Little Dark Age" if you will ;)
How to disprove the European dark age with two word: Eastern Rome
No.
Well said my friend especially if we are talking for people who live in western Europe
@@AallthewaytoZ2 bruh, Byzantium is European they are literally Greek Romans
@@forickgrimaldus8301 When people talk of the European Dark Ages, they are primarily referring to Western Europe.
Dark ages is used to refer to the post roman states of western and central europe, never in any context has the Byzantine Empire ever been considered as being part of the dark ages
Very good!
Thank you.
500 food and two Dark Ages buildings to advance to the Feudal Age.
Thanks To Video.
I would contend that only in a select few places, dark ages actually occur. Post Roman Britain, and post Bronze Age Aegean, and a few others.
Bronze Age Mediterranean and the Fertile Crescent in general underwent significant cultural change and disruption in general. It might not have been totally dark but its the closest we've seen to a total systems collapse. It took nearly 500 years for the Greeks, Assyrians, and Phoenicians to resume large scale trade and most of the LBA cultures never returned. Most of the early and middle aniquity polities had vritually no idea about who came before them due to the lack of anything that would shed light on that dark age.
I wouldn’t say post Roman Britain was dark at all. Nothing about the Anglo Saxon style government and administration strikes as uncivilized compared to anywhere else
@@roderickclerk5904 Sub-Roman Britain is notorious for being so mysterious due to a lack of records compared to the mainland during the early middle ages. So much about Sub-Roman Britain is speculation and trying to piece the clues together.
@@roderickclerk5904 Post-Roman Britain was one of the few places where technology and culture truly regressed. Almost all major building ceased, and the Roman structures that remained were believed by many to have been built by giants. Outside of a few monasteries, writing almost completely disappeared for a few centuries.
@@genuser9758
King Arthur legends come from that inability to make anything clear out of it probably
It was in the medieval period that universities and hospitals were first created. Also, the first woman ever to be a university professor, Bettisia Gozzadini, did so in the medieval period.
Everytime someone Talks about the brutal dark ages, all i can think about is how the Art work was funny af
I believe if you compared the Antiquity of the Roman Empire and the succeeding Late Middle Ages and Enlightenment Eras, you will see that the time period from say 410 through 1066 was indeed quite "dark". Indeed, Britain for example saw a collapse of monetary systems entirely and reverted back to a barter system for centuries after the Anglo-Saxon invasions. Kings & Generals even admits that there is a scarcity of written resources, which further illustrates the decline of a secular, educated class of persons. Cities shrunk in size, agricultural output decreased and became largely substinance based. While, there were certain periods of "light" during this era (See Carolingian Empire), I think it is a fair historical assessment to categorize this era as the "Dark Ages."
Kant really just said "fuck the Renaissance", and the romantics were like "feudalism was based" lmao 🤣
@Eludin Geniuses are only geniuses in their areas of expertise. Being a genius in one area doesn't mean someone isn't a complete ignoramus in another. That being said, Kant isn't entirely wrong here, although probably not for the reason he thought. The body counts of wars amongst European powers started getting a lot higher during the Renaissance and the quality of life did go down if you weren't an aristocrat.
FINALLY!!!
I'm embarrassed to admit that up until I was around 11, I thought the "dark ages" were called that because the world was literally darker. We had started learning about the different cycles of change the earth has gone thru over its existence such as ice ages and what not and I just figured it was a period of darkness lol.
It doesn't help that alot of the images you see of the dark ages are portrayed as dark and gloomy. So I don't blame you for that misunderstanding 😆
same!
Volcanic winter of 536 made it darker for a while
During the 6th century it actually was darker due to a volcanic explosion. Late antiquity was probably the most insane time to be alive ever.
This channel does well in showing things in an objective way. So many times history is twisted to suit personal opinions as this channel has shown.
Fun fact the first modern theory on Magnetism was developed by a Frenchman named Pierre Pelerin De Maricourt in the thirteenth century if this doesn't show scientific advances I don't know what does.
book "God's Philosophers: how the medieval world laid the foundations of modern science" by James Hannam 2009.
Nice channel, advice for someone trying to make videos like these?
Reading about this makes me grateful that I live in today's era. Ironically, people from the future will read about our era and be glad that they live in their time.
The term "Dark Ages" should only be used up until the rise of the Carolingians, and even that is questionable. Anybody using the term to describe the High or Late Middle Ages, obviously got all their knowledge of the era from Monthy Python. Not to mention that the term itself refers to a lack of historical primary sources, not that the living conditions were especially brutal or hard. If the latter was the case, much of the Early Modern period 1500-1800 would also be considered "Dark Ages". The 1500s, 1600s and 1700s were the by far bloodiest period in human history, with colonisation, piracy, wars of religion and monarchs with absolute power waging constant wars with their personal standing armies.
Thank you for this, and I hope there's more medieval content here in the future. The amount of absolute morons I've met who resolutely insist that we know literally nothing about the thousand years after "the fall of rome" has wounded me permanently.
It's amazing how warped our perception of things has become thanks to bad history before, especially by those trying to elevate themselves as special (which honestly gave me a heck of a good kick hearing "so-called Renaissance" given how several things went backwards in that time like sanitation). And even those the other way, like the Romantic movement, who could easily turn it into an idyllic time that absolutely did not exist.
People have always been complicated, messy creatures. Just because we don't have records doesn't mean they were uncultured swine who lived short and brutal lives, nor does not having to deal with some things make them an idyllic fantasy. There were heroes and villains (and not just villeins :P ) alike.
I don't view the Medieval age as a Dark Era because they were other dark eras in the historic, mythological, or religious lore!
As a student of history, I've stopped using the term "Dark Ages" some time ago (exception 635 AD) in my own attempt to break out of the enlightenment paradigm that pervades Euro-American education.
I like to think that the dark ages ended with Charlemagne in France Otto in Germany and Alfred in England as the formation of unified polities allowed more funding for the arts of architecture and literature.
Yeah the audicity of some narcissistic people concluded the whole world as Dark Age when its only happened in Westen Europe at that time was fascinating
@@kadaltokek3953 why do we assume people are speaking about the whole of Europe or the world. Western Europe declined when Christianity became dominant, I don't care if the post modern view is an ideology cannot be so worthless it cripples a society. But it does
It happened to the Roman's and it is happening in the present day west
Took a medieval studies class in 2000s at university and the understanding of “Dark Ages” there (taught by history professors) was a dearth of intellectual and cultural output and general loss of intellectual knowledge from the Romans (scientific/empirical, philosophical, and otherwise). They generally restricted it from the fall of the western half of the Roman Empire to the Carolingian Renaissance (900s/1000s-ish).
My sense even then was that any talk of the “dark ages” was pretty old-timey and that anything after the western Roman empire and before Charlemagne was more accurately referred to as an early Middle Ages or as a transitional period, with more granular definitions for periods and specific centuries.
While I may be misremembering some details, I can say pretty confidently that was generally what mainstream academic historians generally referred to as the “dark ages” in the 2000s, if they even used the term (got the sense many didn’t).
I’m sure nowadays “dark ages” is probs pretty outmoded terminology and only restricted to a loss of Roman intellectual texts and knowledge in the west after the collapse of western Roman Empire. While there was a general “crap-hitting-the-fan” withdrawal after Rome fell with warlords solidifying their land holdings and Germanic tribes holding sway over large parts of former Roman territory, intellectual culture didn’t disappear. I’m oversimplifying a lot but you could think of intellectual activity as changing from speculative and urban like the Greek and Roman model, to something more localized, bureaucratic, Church-centric, and dealing with more pragmatic day-to-day mundane things particular to each of the new various nationalities, tribes, and fiefdoms that emerged after the fall of Rome. It also pretty much was restricted to Church matters for much of the early part and widespread secular literacy of Latin collapsed. Many norms, previously written, were reformulated to newer exigencies, particularly between Latin and Germanic peoples. There was no longer a widespread high literary tradition and it was more-or-less replaced by the Bible. And with many of the Germanic tribes, cultural life and traditions were now oral, rather than written in the Latin tradition, and weren’t recorded until centuries later.
Those oral traditions were not just confined to the Germanic peoples, but to the Celts also. Much of the Roman intellectual texts and knowledge weren't lost, but preserved in the Eastern Roman Empire, and interestingly in the Monasteries of Ireland. Simply put, access and dissemination of these works became far more limited in the period. However I consider that an addendum to your comment, rather than any dispute. An interesting parallel to this argument of differing interpretations relates to the presence and role of Druids in Celtic society, and whether they actually existed at all.
The term comes from "obscurum", which means both dark as in not lit, but also dark as in not understood. "Obscure". Later authors used "nigrus" or some variation thereof, "black", or in the colloquial of the 14th century, "dark" as in bad. That is where the "the dark ages were so shitty" started based on the word. But the people who invented the term were using it to mean the period where secular power was at its weakest (in Italy), circa 400-800CE.
The dark ages is an appropriate term, which could even be extended all the way to the beginning of late middle ages, Roman (mediterranean) culture and society was superior built
is that a new scriptwriter in the description? rlly good shit
Thanks for the well-info video. People should really stop using the term Dark Ages.
I'll appreciate it if Kings and Generals start to create content about pre-colonial African Kingdoms, especially those of West Africa.
my original take to it was that it only exclusively been used in great Britain before the Normans conquered the lands stabilising it ushering a new era of peace and stability under Williams line of Kings but after watching this video this era didn't only affected great Britain but rather the rest of Europe
edit:though I think it makes more sense now as the Western roman empire collapses migrations starts happening in all around Europe of people of various factions and races I. e. vandals in Rome, Anglo saxons clans in England etc all of causing chaos to spread throughout the lands between..
Normans stablishing a new era of peace? That's quite laughable.
Still, the fall of the Western Roman Empire, while it did happened, came as a whimper, not as something of massive scale. There were invasions, sure, sometimes quite violent, but after 476 AD, life was carrying as usual throught Western Europe.
@@mercianthane2503 well in England mainly yes as they did eventually establish a kingdom for themselves ofc there was some minor skirmishes and rebellions and maybe some smaller invasions but the kingdom itself wasn't in particular danger..
as with the fall of the western roman empire it was devastating for sure but still these invasions or large scale migrations to other countries wouldn't have happened in my opinion as the Romans would most likely had have to stop it. ordinary life wouldn't be so affected such as farmers or merchants end of the day for them is that as long as they paying whoever is in charge such as taxes, food etc then they would be okay I guess..
@@shahhaque5242
You know, to think the constant invasions of Wales were smaller, is funny. England invading Scotland wasn't smaller, neither was the Hundred Years War. There no such a thing as peace after the Normans. That's a fact. The country was, possibly not in danger, but they were a danger for other countries like Ireland. So, no, "new era of peace" my ass. No kingdom in the medieval period was happy without war.
@@mercianthane2503 these conflicts you are mentioning happened way after the middle ages during the late middle ages for example for the hundred year war this is way after Williams line and as for the England invading Scotland this has been happening since 934 when ethelestan the king of the Anglo saxons trying to invade Scotland with a massive naval and land army the war itself was inconclusive but did managed to get Constantine to acknowledge ethelestan's over lordship of Scotland. I get it the middle ages were dangerous and kind of bad especially the early middle ages but this discount the fact the Normans did conquer and ruled England with somewhat of an peace yes there were incursions with the factions you have mentioned but again they didn't overthrew them
Not chaos. A dearth of recordkeeping and writing. Hence there was no "light" elucidating what happened in that time period, so to history, it is dark.
yes very cool content
The funny thing about Kant... thinking of the period as the Dark Ages, as an era of regression.... He was born in Konigsburg, how developed was that area immediately before the fall of the Western Roman Empire??
I would love to see a documentary about the altaic peoples(categorized by their languages): turkic, mongolic(and para-mongolic), and specially the tungusic! Love nomad and steppe history!
Lol then we will have right wing Turks claiming all nomads as Turkic even though almost all nomads have different physical appearance and spoke different language
The idea of the Altaic language family has long been debunked
@@dominicguye8058 the altaic languages is a proposed theory about a language family including turkic, mongolic and tungusic languages, with its acceptance being controversial and up to debate. It has not been debunked(give me your sources for this claim).
@@roooo8327 Ok, fine. I looked it up and found that there is a legitimate controversy. Still, you had presented it as if the existence of the language family was the consensus.
Panturkism propaganda
A good entry-level book on this subject is Dr. Rodney Stark's "The Victory of Reason", which discusses the wealth of technological, social, cultural, political advances achieved during the Middle Ages. Interestingly, in contrast to earlier Protestant denigration of the Medieval period, Dr. Stark was a faculty member at Baylor University, one of the largest Protestant universities in the world.
We need the battle of Karensebes
Guys, this piece is ABSOLUTELY PERFECT to be shown at schools. Any History teacher, prepping their classes for covering that era NEED to show this to their pupils. Covers all the bases in 20 minutes, PERFECT.
The "Dark Age" was born out of a nostalgia for the Roman Empire during the time during the post-Roman period and the Renaissance period.
Interesting.
The UK's school regarded it in the 1980s to be put from when Rome left the UK to the Norman Conquest for British history and Western Rome's collapse to the Carolingian Era for Europe's history.
For me it seems that people see history as suits their political opinions.
When the Dutch republic rose in the 16th and 17th century, they viewed the medieval period as backwards. Not because it really was, but because it suited and justified the existence of the "new" political system of the republic.
also on how after the french revolution they decided to start a year one again, as if history is divided between before them, and after them, really arrogant way of thinking.
as far as i know there is no phrase or expression equivalent to "dark ages" in french when speaking of a historical period between the roman era and the "Renaissance" in the 15th century : it is only ever called "le moyen âge" (the middle age) or "l'époque médiévale" (the medieval epoch)
the french versions of those derogatory expressions from the begining of the video generally refer instead to "l'âge de pierre" (meaning the stone age) because it came before civilisation as we know it
Kant having the hubris to say that *he* brought humanity out of a dark age because religion guided humanity.
It’s amazing how the world developed after the fall of western Rome, thanks Kings for covering these 👍
World is not eurocentric. Correct it as western world . Orient was already ahead at that time. Later colonialism and industrial revolution catapulted western world ahead. That doesn't mean it was always like that
no problem
@@sagaramskp I'm sure you would agree you're being a little pedantic here. Clearly the "western" aspect is implied considering this topic specifically relates to only European events and historiography. To argue the extent to which the Orient, by which I presume you really mean China was ahead is arguable, considering that the Sixteen Kingdoms Period had ended mere decades before the fall of Rome, and at the time of Rome falling in 476CE China was experiencing the Northern and Southern dynasties era, which it could be argued were part of the larger Six Dynasties era. Against this backdrop of both civil war and strife, sinicisation increased, which is easily comparable to the colonialism you mention. Admittedly, in China much progress was made in the understanding of medicine, cartography, mathematics and astronomy but I digress.
In your estimation should the civilisations of the New World, as yet undiscovered be mentioned too? or perhaps the invasions of Atilla the Hun, or the Vandals claiming Carthage in North Africa, or the Gupta Empire of India being invaded in the same time period? Or would it perhaps be better to devote a specific time and place to each of these topics which all deserve it?
As to your last comment pertaining to colonisation and the industrial revolution catapulting Europe "ahead", this is a gross oversimplification, and I am actually of the opinion that China acting as a silver pump towards Europe was one of the main drivers of Europeans beginning attempts to break into the Indian Ocean trade routes, the wealthiest by far in the world at the time Vasco de Gama reached India at the end of the 15th century, and Colombus to the Americas eight years before him in 1492. Instead I consider the view that multiple modernities developed interdependently across the world through a complex web of exchanging commerce, disease, warfare and cultural diffusion of which the Industrial era was one of the latest factors.
Edit: I've been awake for two days, I really got on a rant there, sorry!
@@williampower9583 no problem.
@@williampower9583 But you forgot to mention Southeast Asia, that region located between Indian Subcontinent and China mainland (two most populated regions) and the only region connected China and India by sea
Legit wrote a test on his exact question one hour before this video dropped 🙄🙏
It should be noted that Middle Ages didn't last the same amount of time in all regions in Europe.Some places in Eastern Europe had Middle Ages extended even until the beginning of 19th century, as they never really experienced the Renaissance and had barely been influenced by humanistic and illuminist ideas.
They were so dark, they were directed by Zach Snyder.
"What is this? The Dark Ages?!"
-Dr. McCoy, remarking on the 1980's
Maybe it was dark in a sense that there were very few historical records from Western Europe due to the several wars between nations and the vikings.
Came here for history, left with historiography. Pleasantly surprised.
Whoever wrote that era as Dark Age should be punished. Everywhere outside Europe and Steppe at that time were prosperous from Islamic Caliphate to Indian Subcontinent to Rise of Srivijaya Empire in Southeast Asia to Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty
Even Europe at that time was not dark, they developed and progressed slowly
But if you in Europe and feel you lost your comfort zone (fall of Rome) because Europe turned into chaos and you call it "Dark" before Merovingian Empire took over half of continental Europe, sure
The medieval era was in fact brilliant
The dark ages never existed which is why it is rejected by modern historians due to more evidence.
For eg: The Carolingian monasteries preserved Greek and Roman classical scripts and documents in copying centres. They looked so perfect that renaissance men thought they were the ORIGINALS...
I personally think the first few meanings that involved lack of literature and corruption are the best.
Dark Age is the setting of Dark Souls where time is convoluted.
Another good video. It shows how we can easily misinterpret history when we allow our worldview to overwhelm our objectivity.
To sum it up. It was an Italian reminiscing about the glory of Rome yet many just made it an anti-Catholic rhetoric
If you ever decide to create a full collegate course for your works-
I WILL PAY FULL PRICE NO DISCOUNT
Seriously, I've never been so engaged and enthusiastically involved in history in my life. You're my favorite history teacher.
We appreciate the kind words, but we are nowhere near the level that would allow us to consider it :-)
Can you guys perhaps put out dvd collections because I would definitely buy them especially the Roman series
There are no better times only better people and better seasons. When these combine you get highs + stability and when they diverse you get Lows and deatruction.
Has anyone here ever read the novel "A Canticle for Leibowitz"? Monks preserving ancient texts through a major world system collapse is basically the premise of that novel. Thank you guys for another very informative episode! I'm a fan of the Enlightenment era myself, but I'm not of the mind that reason and religion are mutually exclusive.
God be with you out there, everybody. ✝️ :)
I read the first half around 1960. CS Lewis book “The discarded Image” discusses some of these authors. Venerable Bede 675-725 in NE England Taught monks at his monastery, wrote Bible commentaries and other books like one on science by Pliny elder. There are a lot who don’t believe in the “conflict theory of science and religion”.
@@robertmurphree7210 I really love C.S. Lewis. He's my favorite author. Thank you for the new recommendations to read!