Reasons Why Middle Ages is Also Called “Dark Ages” Part I

The Middle Ages is one of the greatest period not only important in the European History but also of the entire world.  There are thousands of beautiful, controversial, and critical stories about it. However, sometimes you may be confused about it because it is also sometimes called Dark Ages. 

However, it is not the entire period of Middle Ages is considered as the “DARK” one. It could be in the first or in the middle of it that it became dark. There are different explanations too which are being formulated by different Historians. So, there’s no exact explanation because there are many factors being considered why this particular period was considered as “dark”.

So, for you to have a clearer picture on what is it all about, here are the reasons why Middle Ages is also called Dark Ages.

1.       The Fall of the Great Roman Empire 

Rome during this time was the greatest empire in the world. Its scope was very wide with the help of their great leaders such as Julius Caesar, Augustus Aurelius, and many other great Roman leaders. However, time came when there were no more leaders like them, Rome slow down and its economy and the whole system of the entire empire fell down. Many problems arise like no able leaders, corruption, civil wars, and most importantly was the barbarian invasions. These barbarian invasions of the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, etc. from Germany and from North Europe just entered and invaded Rome when the empire itself was already weak. So, this event makes the Middle Ages dark because of so many chaos. Just imagine how barbarians killed a lot of Romans brutally. Since barbarians were known for this…

2.       The Crusades

Crusades were also the Holy wars led by the popes in the Roman Empire with the aim of preserving Christianity over Islam faith in the countries or places that surrounded the Holy City- Israel. The people or the warriors who joined the crusades were of mixed reasons why they joined. Some really wanted to stand firm in the Christian belief and defend it. However, others who were sent by their lords to join may had different motives like for money, territory,, discoveries, etc. And because crusades were holy wars, many people have died; lost their money and properties in supporting it; and even the Roman Empire itself lost one or some of its territories and wealth.

3.       Intellectual Stagnation

Since during these times, there were many wars from invaders as well as civil wars, the education or the intellectual side of Rome did not flourish. And especially that the barbarians who invaded were not that educated as the Romans. Therefore, intellectual things stopped and some even vanished. But good that the monasteries which were being taken care of by the monks were able to safeguard some important data in History and other fields of   education. Accordingly, even some historical data disappeared during the slaughter of the barbarians. Therefore, this particular period became dark because “things were not that known”. There was little information only about this era. Thus it’s not clear. This reason is always being point out by the futuristic historians.

There are many things for you to dig in for you to know the whole thing. Just keep reading anyway. I’ll be posting a part 2 of this topic. I hope these reasons why Middle Ages is called “Dark Ages’ help you to understand about this matter. Till next time…