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Medieval Europe
Medieval Europe and the Byzantine Empire
Contents » | |
Medieval Europe
By 364 AD, the Roman Empire had been definitively split into two separate states: The Eastern Roman Empire, and the Western Roman Empire. The Western Empire soon collapsed under the weight of barbarians, and Europe was plunged into the Medieval era. Under "barbarian" rule, "civilization" decreased dramatically, with only the church remaining as one of the few institutions for civilization. However, this period was crucial to western history because moden western nations directly trace their roots to kingdoms of this time period. The crusading times beginning at around 1100 AD gave root for significant change. Europe became more centralized and activity with foreigners brought back learning to western Europe. By the 1400s, Western Europe had fully recovered politically and culturally. With the advantages of syncretism, European technology and knowledge in the next period skyrocketed to take the lead in the world.
While the Western Roman Empire collapsed, imperial rule in the East survived the threat of invaders. The Eastern Roman Empire, during Medieval times, is now labled today as the "Byzantine Empire" (for its capital at Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople and during the Ottoman times to Istanbul). In contrast to Western Europe, The cities in the Eastern Roman Empire were a thriving metropolis of culture and learning. The Byzantines were especially important to Eastern Europe, for its influences in art and religion. However, as Western Europe grew more prominent, foreign pressure brought the Eastern Roman Empire to a decline. The empire collapsed to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, one of events that signaled the end of the Medieval period.