Civil Society History II: Medieval Period

Introduction

The medieval world spans the period between the end of antiquity, symbolized by the Barbarian sack of Rome in 410 AD, and the advent of the Renaissance approximately a millennium later. It is widely represented as a distinctly Western phenomenon, since the Eastern Roman Empire survived at Constantinople, until it was overwhelmed by the Turks in 1453. While the medieval world is directly associated with the advance of Christendom, Islam played a defining role in its inception, according to historian Henri Pirenne, whose controversial thesis argued that the real break with antiquity did not occur until the seventh century and was due to the rapid and unexpected expansion of Islam, through its conquest of south-eastern Turkey, Syria, Palestine, North Africa, and southern Spain. Consequently, Western civilization was pushed northwards to France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Western Germany, central and northern Italy, and northern Spain. The popes changed their political...