PolledHistory - 28 July: Medieval Europe

 Hello! After a week poll, Medieval Europe has won as the historical topic, with half of the votes. Let us begin!

First of all, I want to emphasize that Medieval Europe is not a history of a specific country, but rather an entire continent over an interval of a thousand years. One of the other entries in our poll, the Byzantine Empire, is a part of Medieval Europe, so it will be mentioned and talked about, but not as much compared to how much I would cover it if it won.

Medieval History, specifically in history, begins in 476 AD. The once invincible Roman Empire has been divided (395 AD) into two halves: The Western Roman Empire, and Eastern (Byzantine) Empire. In 410 AD, Rome was attacked for the first time in centuries. In 476 AD, the barbarians finally destroyed the Western Roman Empire with the Battle of Ravenna, and the Western Roman Empire, for the most part, fell. The East remained powerful.

With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, general living conditions and technologies were lost, and a new social system called Feudalism arose in the areas which Rome used to hold. In the Eastern Roman Empire, meanwhile, they were busy fighting the Sassanid Persians with limited success for each side. 

Feudalism was a social system where the common people were given land and protection but must work for them and fight for them. However, the lower classes often had bad living conditions and it was a bad time compared to the times of Rome. 

By the early 500s AD, emperor Justinian of the Eastern Roman Empire, the surviving half of Rome, decided to restore the Roman Empire by sending his skilled generals to reclaim the territories of Northern Africa, which was invaded by the Vandals, the Italian Peninsula and taken by the Ostrogoths. The Eastern Roman Empire, however, spent many rescources, and the claimed lands were soon lost.

Also in the early 500s AD, Clovis I of the Franks (in modern day France) attacked the Visigothic tribes, and he would eventually form the Empire of Francia that would be relevant soon. In Rome, the city, the pope still reigned, and the Catholic Church (the Catholic Church was the only main Christian denomination at the time, besides Nestorianism) still continued after 476.

By 600 AD, the Islamic Caliphates began and expanded, threateaning Byzantium, conquering Northern Africa, Arabia, Persia, the Middle East and Turkey. Though not in Europe, it made a huge difference in Medieval European history. In Italy, the Lombards took over, and feudalism became widespread during the time.

By the eighth century (700 AD), the Muslims and Moors invaded Spain and Portugal, taking over Iberia and Iberia was under their control for a long, long time. In Northern Europe, the Scandinavians began to take over and explore.

Back in Iberia, the Muslims tried to invade France, but the Franks (Francia) managed to destroy them, and the Arab expansion ended, though the Caliphate (an islamic empire ruled by a caliph) remained powerful. Another halt of arab expansion was when the Umayyads (the current ruling Arab dynasty over the caliphate) tried to destroy Constantinople (modern day Istanbul), which was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, but failed. The Byzantines used boats that shot fire to neutralize the Umayyads (true story).

In the 800s AD, emperor Charlemagne of the Franks, king of Francia managed to conquer most of Western Europe - modern day France, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, all the way until modern day Croatia near Byzantium. However, after the death of Emperor Charlemagne, the empire began to decline, and split. One of the halves became the Holy Roman Empire, which wasn't holy, nor roman, nor an empire. Firstly, the Holy Roman Empire wasn't roman since its "founder", Emperor Charlemagne, though proclaimed as Emperor of Rome, wasn't roman. It isn't an empire, since its though one main kingdom under a king, was a confederation of thousand of smaller countries. In the British Isles, the Vikings invaded, but the people originally there (Anglo Saxons) fought back.

By the 900s AD, the Vikings continued to expand, but as they did, they were converted to Christianity. The Europeans began to use Arabic Numerals, the ones we use now, (1,2,3,4,5, etc) rather than roman numerals.

With the first millenia AD, many things changed. Emperor Basil II of Byzantium restored much of Byzantium's old territories with victories against the Bulgars, and he earned the popular name "Basil the Bulgar Slayer". In 1066 AD, William the Conqueror, who was from Normandy (in France) attacked the Anglo Saxons and the Vikings, starting the United Kingdom, who he was the first king over. The success of William the Conqueror ended the Age of the Vikings.

In the late 1000s AD, the pope called for an attack to reclaim Jerusalem from the Muslims. Soldiers from all throughout Europe attacked, with some success but didn't hold on to Jerusalem for long. More crusades came afterwards, with varying success. Afterwards in the following century, the Holy Roman Empire continued to expand, and the University of Oxford was founded.

By the 1200s AD, things began to go down for the Byzantine Empire. The fourth crusade, instead of attacking the goal (Jerusalem), was accidentally directed at Constantinople, and it was sacked. This began a decline of the Byzantine Empire.  Also, the Mongol Empire from the far east invaded Russia and threateaned the European nations, going as far as the Holy Roman Empire, but eventually being repelled.  

In circa 1345 AD, Yersinia Pestis, an infectious and dangerous species of bacteria spread from Central Asia to Europe, killing a third of the entire population in years. If you ever complain about the Coronavirus Pandemic, remember about this. And this wasn't its only outbreak - around thousand years before this, it also spread through the Byzantine Empire during the time of Justinian. The Black Plague (its popular name) in this outbreak killed possibly a hundred million people. The plague ended because of quarantines, and also because it killed so much it could not spread. The 1300s AD was a time of unrest in general. By the 1400s AD, the Medieval Era began to end. In 1453 Ad, the Ottoman Turks sieged Constantinople and took it, and Byzantium fell. In 1492 AD, Columbus found North and South America, and colonies began to be found there. By the 1500s AD, influential artists and scientists fueled the Rennaisance, and the Medieval Era ended with the Rennaisance, where technologies were rediscovered, and things got better.

That was Medieval History, at least in Europe! Thank you for reading, this is the poll for 2 August.

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