Middle Ages
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 in the 16th century, marked by the rise of nation states, the division of Western Christianity in the Reformation, the rise of humanism in the Italian Renaissance, and the beginnings of European overseas expansion which allowed for the Columbian Exchange.
The Middle Ages witnessed the first sustained urbanisation of northern and western Europe. Many 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 during this tumultuous period.
Read more about this topic: History Of Europe
Famous quotes containing the words middle ages, middle and/or ages:
“Real socialism is inside man. It wasn’t born with Marx. It was in the communes of Italy in the Middle Ages. You can’t say it is finished.”
—Dario Fo (b. 1926)
“I never yet feared those men who set a place apart in the middle of their cities where they gather to cheat one another and swear oaths which they break.”
—Herodotus (c. 484–424 B.C.)
“For if we take the ages into our account, may there not be a civilization going on among brutes as well as men?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)