http://home.earthlink.net/~pwigington/earlybritain.htm

The middle ages was a period of time between ancient and modern times in western Europe. This period of time went from about the 5th century to the end of the 15th century.

The middles ages were after the Classical Age of Greece and Rome and before the Renaissance.

Classical Age Middle Ages Renaissance

Before the Middle Ages western Europe was part of the Roman Empire. The Roman Army was very organized and was able to take over control of most of western Europe.

Roman soldier

Not a Roman soldier!

The Romans were an incredibly advanced society because of many things.

1. The Romans are famous for their incredible army. The Romans were able to defeat almost everybody. Their army was called the Roman Legion. It is probably the most powerful army ever. They could defeat armies much larger than themselves. They did this using mostly just shields, spears and swords.

http://www.ronatvan.com/Facts/images/Roman_Legion.jpg

http://www.wildfiregames.com/0ad/pages/pictures/legionarymain3.jpg

2. The Romans were also famous for their advanced building techniques. They built aqueducts (water systems that brought water to towns and homes), roads, baths, walls, theatres, amphitheatres, temples, arches, cities and palaces.

The colosseum is a famous amphitheatre the Romans built. 70 000 spectators could sit and stand in this amphitheatre. It is 188 m x 156 m and about 15 storeys tall.

It even had a canopy as a roof that could be moved to shade people from the sun.

This is what the colosseum looked like 1 920 years ago. Do you see the poles at the top? They are holding the ‘sun’ canopy in place. The colosseum was so well built that it managed to stay in fairly good condition until a huge earthquake occurred in 1349 which destroyed the southern outer walls.

The canopy

Rome Monuments Past and Present ISBN 88-8162-000-6

It had elevators operated by slaves to bring up gladiators and wild beasts.

It could even be filled with water and mock sea battles would be played out. All 70 000 people could leave the colosseum in about 15 minutes. That is like putting every person in Red Deer in 1 building and they could all line up and walk out in 15 minutes. Those Romans were very clever!

Julius Caesar built a bridge across the Rhine in only 10 days. Trajan, another famous Roman built a huge bridge across the Danube River. These were incredible accomplishments and they only used basic tools. No other civilization but the Romans could have achieved this at the time.

wikimedia.org

In fact, the Romans really left their mark all over Europe. Below is an aerial view of a Roman road that still exists in England.The road originally ran from Lincoln (in the east) to Bristol (in the west). It was built by the Romans around 40-50 AD. That is about 2 055 years ago.

http://www.paracletesystems.co.uk/inj/inj050roman.htm www.highways.gov.uk

http://www.ecastles.co.uk/hadrianwall.html

The Romans even built a stone wall along the border with Scotland to keep the ‘barbarians’ out of the Roman Empire.

They started it in 80 AD and it still exists today. It took them 80 years to complete! It was 118 km long and 8.5 metres tall.

nettlesworth.durham.sch.uk/time/hadmap.gif

http://www.battle1066.com/romans.shtml

You can see the Romans built many roads all over England and Scotland.

3. The Romans invented an alphabet that is still used today. Only the letter ‘W’ has been added. We still use Roman numerals too.

4. In 451 BC, the Romans created laws which we still use. They wrote them down on twelve plates made of bronze, which became known as the Twelve Tables. These were the first examples of written law.

5. Art The Romans were also very advanced in art. They created very realistic sculptures of their gods, battles and famous Romans.

Then things began to change.The Roman Empire lost it’s strength and its armies were not as strong. Tribes from Germany which the Romans called ‘barbarians’ began to invade Roman territory. They were very uncivilized compared to the Romans. They fought with spears and shields and wore animal skins, long hair and beards. They looked very fierce. Soon ‘barbarians’ from many other tribes also fought the Romans and conquered portions of their land. This started to occur around the year 400 AD.

They probably looked a lot like this:

It is hard to believe that these barbariansbarbarians who had never created laws, an alphabet, magnificent sculptures and sophisticated buildings, could defeat the Romans, but they did!

Below you can see how the invasions took over Europe.

wwnorton.com/college/history/ralph/ralimage/map10bar

When the Romans were in power they encouraged trade and money was commonly used. The barbarians stopped trade from happening and money stopped being used. People were forced to make a living farming so they had their own food to eat.

Europe entered a period of time called:

The barbarian invasions divided up Europe into many kingdoms. The barbarians were only loyal to their tribal chief or their own family.These tribes were very superstitious and replaced some very fair Roman laws with some of their own. Each tribe would have its own laws. These laws were used for many centuries too! allmoviephoto.com/2006

The Dark Ages were the beginning part of the Middle Ages. It started after the Romans were defeated, around 450 AD and continued until 1000 AD.

http://www.kidspast.com/world-history/

By the year 800 AD, all of Europe was broken up into many large estates of land called manors. Lords ruled the manors. It was a dark period in time. The Romans had believed in the arts and educating people, but not these ‘barbarians’. During the time of manoralism there were no schools, no painting or building of great architecture and no creation of sculpture. These beautiful skills were not handed down and were lost.

http://www.lancefuhrer.com/middle_ages.htm

During the early part of the middle ages people believed in the importance of the family (clan). If a person was accused of doing something bad then that person and all his clan were responsible. The criminal had to pay back in some way, the person he had done wrong to.

aliciapatterson.org/APF0304/Denenberg/Denenberg01.jpg

Barbarian Laws

Ever heard of ‘Trial by Fire’? It was created over 1000 years ago. It was a barbarian rule to see if you were guilty of a crime or not. Here is how it worked: If you were accused of something you would have to walk barefoot over red hot iron. If you survived that, and your wounds healed after three days you were considered innocent. Do you think many were found innocent?Or you could be tried by ‘Trial by Ordeal’. The trial by ordeal was to plunge your arm into boiling water or make you hold a burning hot bar. If you had no blisters, you were assumed to be innocent. How likely would that be!

arthistoryclub.com

People called missionaries, began to travel and told the barbarians about God. Many barbarians became Christians. Missionaries also taught ideas about justice and government too. Some leaders like Charles the Great, a great French king, also called Charlemagne believed in Christianity, and influenced the spread of the Christian faith throughout Europe.

Then a new invasion occurred. The Danes Invaded England!

These invaders were from Norway and Denmark. These pirates rowed up the rivers in their longboats, stole from the rich monasteries, and went home with the loot.

Then permanent Danish settlers moved into England. But Alfred the Great defeated the Danes' army in 878. The Danes promised to be baptized, and many did become Christians.

Because of Alfred the Great the church continued to thrive. The church began to collect taxes and had courts to punish criminals. Churches also cared for the sick and allowed travelers to stay overnight.

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Cathedrals and monasteries became places of learning. Monks and clergy learned to read and write and even set up some schools in Europe.

Charlemagne set up a school in one of his palaces and teachers gathered there. They created libraries and schools.

cartage.org.lb/en/themes/GeogHist/histories/middleages/lifemiddle/

With the improvements Charlemagne made, the Middle Ages did get a bit better, but life was still hard, especially for people who were lower down in the ranks of the feudal system.

http://gcuonline.georgian.edu/wootton_l/Feudal.jpg