Copied from Website
The Middle Ages form the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three "ages": the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Modern Times. The idea of such a periodisation is attributed to Flavio Biondo, an Italian Renaissance humanist historian.
The Middle Ages are commonly dated from the fall of the Western Roman Empire (or by some scholars, before that) in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period by the 16th century, marked by the rise of nation states, the division of Christianity in the Reformation, the rise of Humanism in the Italian Renaissance, and the beginnings of European overseas expansion. Which field of study a scholar specializes in, or what regions of Europe they study cause much of the variation. Commonly seen periodization ranges span the years ca. 400–476 AD (the sackings of Rome by the Goths to the deposing of Romulus Augustus)[1] to ca. 1453–1517 (the Fall of Constantinople to the Protestant reformation begun with Martin Luther's 95 theses). These dates are approximate, and are based upon nuanced arguments; for other dating schemes and the reasoning behind them, see "periodisation issues", below.
The Middle Ages witnessed the first sustained urbanisation of northern and western Europe. Modern European states owe their origins to events unfolding in the Middle Ages; present European political boundaries are, in many regards, the result of the military and dynastic achievements in this tumultuous period, as it "set the table" for the decisive events and movements like the Protestant Reformation forming the huge shifts in attitude that led to the rise of modern nation-states which came to increasingly dominate the world from the seventeenth century on.
The era which followed saw the rise of strong centralized monarchial states in Denmark, Sweden, Spain, France, England (and then further evolution to Great Britain), and eventually Russia and Germany; the independence of Switzerland and the Dutch Republic, and the decline of power by the two territorially largest international powers of the era, the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania. Concurrently, the trade-rich late Medieval financial powers, Portugal and the Serene Republic of Venice lost their hold on mercantile trade to the more vigorous shipping efforts of newer sea powers, or lost struggles with the old.
Contents
Subject: Medieval Ages 
Thu Jan 17, 2008 7:03 pm
