The middle ages, for the most part, were a time of darkness for humanity.  There was no central power, or “great nation” giving cultural guidance or stability to many of the small, struggling nations of the time.  Scientifically and culturally, Europe was in the most backward period of its history.  Literatures, as well as the skills of reading and writing, were lost during this time.  Education systems were lost with the fall of the Roman Empire.  Only certain monasteries preserved important historical documents, which would have otherwise been lost to the ages.  Most organized kingdoms of the time, many of which were Germanic, were in fact not very organized at all.  Several of these groups, such as the Vikings, were renowned for their cruelty and destruction.  Many of these barbaric groups crushed any thread of civilized stability that arose in Europe during the time.   They often lacked cities and written laws and the strongest countries became so by wars and battle.  Although the Frankish empire led by Charlemagne had almost achieved a strong and stable empire, it was short lived and eventually fell poor leadership after his death.  Another power during the time was the Roman Catholic Church, maintained by the papacy and led by the pope; however, the church succumbed to corruption and could easily be bought and sold during the middle ages.  The Church during this time had a great amount of influence in European nations, and often abused or misused their power to grant favoritism towards particular leaders.  The main government of the time, feudalism, was cruel and tyrannical form of government.  The peasants were indebted to the ruling lords, and lived a life of poverty and hardships.  A ravaging plague, among the worst in history, was ravaging Europe.  Known as the “black death,” some account that it had killed over a third of the population of Europe; roughly 25 million people.  It was an overall time of fear and death for the common man; a condition that would last in the region for hundreds of years, worthy of the title of the “dark ages.”

In response to Taylor Morford’s post, I disagree.  Although the Renaissance was a great period of learning and culture in some areas of Europe, the overall state of the Middle Ages were very poor.  The average lifespan of a feudalistic peasant was 35 years old, nearly a decade shorter than the average Imperial Romans’.  The human state was almost despicable, except for a select few nobles.  The Renaissance did not give rise to educational and government bodies; they were first created and put into practical use by Romans and Greeks a century earlier.  They late Middle Ages merely put into place again, a century of technology behind schedule.  There were an isolated few stable states during the late middle ages, such as Italy, but they were limited and the overall state of Europe was backward, compared to a 1,000 years earlier.  In such places as Italy, learning and education were once again being put into society, but not to the same levels as Roman times.  They were, in a sense, restoring culture and science to a level that it had been at in Europe a century earlier.  There were no democracies, republics, or any form of modern governments promoting the importance of the individual or personal rights.  People were still being held under oppression to a few rich and wealthy leaders.  Religious persecution was rampant during these times.  The Roman Catholic Papacy was developing some of the most torturous methods in history to persecute heretics.  The black plague had killed more than 25 million people, nearly a third of the population of Europe, a fact that can’t be ignored when determining the validity of the Middle Ages.  A third of the population of a single continent destroyed by a single disease by today’s standards would be considered catastrophic and apocalyptic.  It was by far the most backward time in the history of Europe, hardly redeemable by the fact that a few countries were trying to restore culture and science to levels previously achieved 1,000 years earlier.