Dark Ages (historiography)
The Dark Ages is a historical periodization used originally for the Middle Ages, which emphasizes the cultural and economic deterioration that supposedly occurred in Western Europe following the decline of the Roman Empire.[1][2] The label employs traditional light-versus-darkness imagery to contrast the "darkness" of the period with earlier and later periods of "light".[3] The period is characterized by a relative scarcity of historical and other written records at least for some areas of Europe, rendering it obscure to historians. The term "Dark Age" derives from the Latin saeculum obscurum, originally applied by Caesar Baronius in 1602 to a tumultuous period in the 10th and 11th centuries.[4] The term "Dark Ages" originally was intended to denote the entire period between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance; the term "Middle Ages" has a similar motivation, implying an intermediate period between Classical Antiquity and the Modern era.
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment (or simply the Enlightenment, or Age of Reason) is an era from the 1650s to the 1780s in which cultural and intellectual forces in Western Europe emphasized reason, analysis and individualism rather than traditional lines of authority. It was promoted by philosophes and local thinkers in urban coffeehouses, salons and masonic lodges. It challenged the authority of institutions that were deeply rooted in society, such as the Catholic Church; there was much talk of ways to reform society with toleration, science and skepticism. New ideas and beliefs spread around the continent and were fostered by an increase in literacy due to a departure from solely religious texts. Publications include Encyclopédie (1751–72) that was edited by Denis Diderot and (until 1759) Jean le Rond d'Alembert. Use of the term[edit] If there is something you know, communicate it. Chartier (1991) argues that the Enlightenment was only invented after the fact for a political goal. Goals[edit]
Middle Ages
In European history, the Middle Ages, or Medieval period, lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: Antiquity, Medieval period, and Modern period. The Medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, the High, and the Late Middle Ages. Depopulation, deurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, which had begun in Late Antiquity, continued in the Early Middle Ages. During the High Middle Ages, which began after AD 1000, the population of Europe increased greatly as technological and agricultural innovations allowed trade to flourish and the Medieval Warm Period climate change allowed crop yields to increase. Etymology and periodisation[edit] Later Roman Empire[edit] Map of the approximate political boundaries in Europe around 450 Early Middle Ages[edit] New societies[edit]
Renaissance
The Renaissance (UK /rɨˈneɪsəns/, US /ˈrɛnɨsɑːns/, French pronunciation: [ʁənɛsɑ̃s], from French: Renaissance "re-birth", Italian: Rinascimento, from rinascere "to be reborn")[1] was a cultural movement that spanned the period roughly from the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. Though availability of paper and the invention of metal movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century, the changes of the Renaissance were not uniformly experienced across Europe. In politics, the Renaissance contributed the development of the conventions of diplomacy, and in science an increased reliance on observation. Historians often argue this intellectual transformation was a bridge between the Middle Ages and Modern history. Overview[edit] The Renaissance was a cultural movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Origins[edit] Black Death/Plague[edit]
History of the world
World population[1] from 10,000 BCE to 2,000 CE. The vertical (population) scale is logarithmic. The history of the world is the history of humanity, beginning with the Paleolithic Era. Distinct from the history of the Earth (which includes early geologic history and prehuman biological eras), world history comprises the study of archaeological and written records, from ancient times on. Ancient recorded history begins with the invention of writing.[2][3] However, the roots of civilization reach back to the period before the invention of writing. Outside the Old World, including ancient China[27] and ancient India, historical timelines unfolded differently. Prehistory[edit] Early humans[edit] Modern humans spread rapidly from Africa into the frost-free zones of Europe and Asia around 60,000 years ago.[32] The rapid expansion of humankind to North America and Oceania took place at the climax of the most recent Ice Age, when temperate regions of today were extremely inhospitable.
What did the Knights Templar Do
The Knights Templar were created by the pope to escort and protect "tourists" going to the Holy Land, and to fight Muslims there. There were originally only a handful, but there were thousands by the time they were disbanded in the 1300's. They were the first bankers. Eventually they became so wealthy, and so many royals owed them so much money, that they became a target. Interestingly, at the time the Templars were disbanded, the Swiss people (right across the border from France, of course) were mainly farmers with little or no military training.
