The Middle Ages or Dark Ages

The Middle Ages is a historical time period in Europe. It began a long time ago in
500 AD. People lived in stone castles or homes made from logs and mud. They ate
food such as bread, beans and stew. People also wore special gowns called tunics
during the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages ended a thousand years later in 1500 AD.
The Middle Ages, or Medieval Times, in Europe was a long period of history from the
year 476 (the fall of the Roman Empire) to 1500 approximately.

This was a time of castles and peasants, guilds and monasteries, cathedrals and
crusades. Great leaders such as Juana de Arco and Carlomagno were part of the
Middle Ages as well as events such as the Black Plague and the rise of Islam.
In the Middle Ages most people lived on a manor (feudo) in the country. A manor
was a village with a castle, a church and some land around it. The king gave land to
his most important noblemen and bishops. In return, they promised to give the king
soldiers for his armies.
The Peasants
The lowest people of society were the peasants. They didn't have their own land, but
they got land from the lords . The lords also gave them protection.
Peasants worked on the land and produced the goods that the lord needed. But they
did not have a very nice life. They had to pay a lot of taxes and give the lord much of
their harvests.

Poor people didn't get very much to eat. They had to eat dark bread because white
bread was only for the king and his family. Only rich people had meat to eat.

Peasants lived in rustic country huts; the family animals, such as a cow, may also
live inside the home. The home was usually dark, smoky from the fire, and
uncomfortable.
The Knights
The knights were nobles who also fought in battles and tournaments. There were
three types of soldiers during the Middle Ages: foot soldiers, archers, and knights.
The knights were armored soldiers who rode on horses. Only the wealthiest nobles
could afford to be a knight. They needed very expensive armor, weapons, and a
powerful war horse.

The Nobles
Lords, ladies and were called nobles. Knights were also nobles. They had a much
higher status in medieval society than that of the peasants. The peasants served the
nobles and were controlled by them.

A Lord had complete authority over his lands and the people who lived on his lands.
A Lady had very few rights. She was expected to marry whoever her father chose
and could be married at an age as young as twelve years old. Her responsibilities
were to care for the household, and raise children.
A Knight served his lord during times of battle, which was frequent. He enjoyed more
freedoms and rights than peasants, but his life was always dangerous.
The castles were beautiful from the outside, but they were damp, smelly, and cold on
the inside. They were built to protect the lords and ladies, not to be comfortable.

The Power of the Church

The Catholic Church got so much power in the Middle Ages. The Pope had even
more power than the very same Kings. Local bishops also got a lot of power,
influence and, above all, wealth. Because the leaders of the Church were almost
always nobles, they received lands and wealth from the king, and also peasants who
served them. Other nobles often paid them tributes in hopes of obtaining the grace of
God…
As the Middle Ages went on, Priests, Bishops and Church in general obtained such a
high power in society that they even decided on political decisions of their kingdoms.
Life in the Cities
City life was very different from country life, but it wasn't much easier. The cities were
crowded and dirty. A lot of people worked as craftsmen and were members of a
guild. Young boys would serve as apprentices for seven years learning a craft. Other
jobs in the city included servants, merchants, bakers, doctors, and lawyers.
City homes were very crowded and usually everyone slept in the same room. They
were usually dirty, unhealthy and provided a narrow (very small) space for their
occupants.

Did children go to School?

Very few people attended school in the Middle Ages. Schools didn't exist as we know
them today.
Most peasants' children learned their job and how to survive from their parents.
Some children learned a craft through their parents' lessons.
Only rich, princes or noble children often learned through personal teachers in
individual or small-group classes. They would go to live in the castle of another lord
where they would work for the lord, learning about how a large manor was run.

There were some schools run by the church. Here students would learn to read and
write Latin. The first universities also began during the Middle Ages.
Between Ancient and Modern

In 476CE, warriors attacked the city of Rome and ended more than 800 years of
glory for the "Eternal City." Historians mark the fall of Rome as the end of ancient
history. The next one thousand years were called the Middle Ages. The Latin term
for Middle Ages is "medieval."

The beginning of the Middle Ages is often called the "Dark Ages" because the great
civilizations of Greece and Rome had fallen. Life in Western Europe during the
Middle Ages was very hard. Very few people could read or write and nobody
expected conditions to improve. The only hope for most people during the Middle
Ages was their strong belief in Christianity, and the hope that life in heaven would be
better than life on Earth.

The Dark Ages were anything but dark in other parts of the world. The Muslims in the
Middle East and North Africa studied and improved on the works of the ancient
Greeks while civilization flourished in sub-Saharan Africa, China, India, and the
Americas.

Europe began to experience great change by about 1450. Within one hundred years,
Columbus had sailed to America, literacy spread, scientists made great discoveries,
and artists created work that still inspires us today. Historians call the next period of
European history the "Renaissance," or the "rebirth." The Renaissance is the
beginning of modern history.

VIDEOS:

https://youtu.be/6EAMqKUimr8
https://youtu.be/Cqzq01i2O3U

WORKSHEET:
https://www.liveworksheets.com/w/en/social-science/220840

The Renaissance

The Renaissance was a period of time from the 14th to the 17th century in Europe.
This era bridged the time between the Middle Ages and modern times. The word
"Renaissance" means "rebirth".

Coming out of the Dark

The Middle Ages began with the fall of the Roman Empire. Much of the advances in
science, art, and government that had been made by the Greeks and Romans were
lost during this time. Part of the Middle Ages is actually called the Dark Ages
because so much of what was learned earlier was lost.

The Renaissance was a time of "coming out of the dark". It was a rebirth of
education, science, art, literature, music, and a better life for people in general.

A Cultural Movement
A big part of the Renaissance was a cultural movement called humanism. Humanism
was a philosophy that all people should strive to be educated and learned in the
classical arts, literature, and science. It looked for realism and human emotion in art.
It also said that it was okay for people to pursue comfort, riches, and beauty.

It began in Italy

The Renaissance started in Florence, Italy and spread to other city-states in Italy.
Part of the reason it began in Italy was because of the history of Rome and the
Roman Empire. Another reason it began in Italy was because Italy had become very
wealthy and the wealthy were willing to spend their money supporting artists and
geniuses.

City-states played a big role in the rule of Italy at the time. They were often ruled by a
powerful family. Some important city-states included Florence, Milan, Venice, and
Ferrara.
Interesting Facts about the Renaissance
One of the most popular Greek philosophers was Plato. Many men studied Plato's
writings at the Academy in Florence.
Venice was famous for its glass work, while Milan was famous for its iron smiths.
Francis I, King of France, was patron of the arts and helped Renaissance art spread
from Italy to France.
Artists were initially thought of as craftsmen. They worked in workshops and
belonged to a guild.
Two of the biggest changes to art from the Middle Ages were the concepts of
proportion and perspective.
Michelangelo and Leonardo became rivals when Michelangelo mocked da Vinci for
not finishing a statue of a horse.
Hunting was a popular form of entertainment for the wealthy.
Artists and architects would often compete for a job, or commission, to create a
piece of art.
The Renaissance lasted about 250 years. It started in Italy, around 1350, and ended
around 1600. The word "Renaissance" means rebirth. What was reborn was an
interest in learning. For a long time, after the fall of the Roman Empire, there had
been little to no interest or time to learn much of anything except how to stay alive in
very violent times. Most people had not learned how to read or write. But slowly,
people began to want to learn again. This new beginning was called the
Renaissance.

Many scholars say the Renaissance began in earnest with the invention of the
printing press. The printing press made books available. If you wanted to read them,
you had to learn how to read. The new interest in literature began to include art and
music. Then came an interest in science and exploration. All over Europe, people
became fascinated with new discoveries, new inventions, new works of art and ways
of thinking about things. Some of the famous people who lived during the
Renaissance include William Shakespeare, Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama,
Copernicus, Michaelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci!

Learning did not stop with the end of the Renaissance. Rather the reverse - learning
continued and new discoveries and interests were added, like trade with people from
around the world, and curiosity about a new place that Christopher Columbus was
credited with discovering - a place called The New World! (The Americas.)

WORKSHEET
https://www.liveworksheets.com/w/en/english-second-language-esl-art/104646

What was the Scientific Revolution?

The Scientific Revolution is a concept used by historians to describe the emergence

of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in science
transformed views about nature. While its dates are debated, the publication in 1543
of Nicolaus Copernicus's On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres is often cited
as marking the beginning of the scientific revolution. It is a paradigm shift, because
the key assumption of a stationary earth surrounded by moving heavenly bodies is
replaced by a new heliocentric view of the cosmos. The completion of the scientific
revolution is attributed to the "grand synthesis" of Isaac Newton's 1687 Principia, that
formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, and completed the synthesis
of a new cosmology.

https://youtu.be/w70BkCqgyyI

ABSOLUTISM
Absolutism, the political doctrine and practice of unlimited centralized authority and
absolute sovereignty, as vested especially in a monarch or dictator. The essence of
an absolutist system is that the ruling power is not subject to regularized challenge or
check by any other agency, be it judicial, legislative, religious, economic, or electoral.
King Louis XIV (1643–1715) of France furnished the most familiar assertion of
absolutism when he said, “L’état, c’est moi” (“I am the state”).

https://youtu.be/G8lQSNf9TP8
http://mrheath.weebly.com/absolutism.html

The Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason, began in Europe in the 1700s and spread
to many parts of the world. The thinkers of the Enlightenment objected to the
absolute power of the royal rulers and of the Roman Catholic church. They used
reason, or logical thinking, and science to attack this power. Their ideas helped bring
about the American Revolution and the French Revolution.

For hundreds of years most European countries were ruled by kings and queens.
The countries’ royal rulers, or monarchs, were the sons and daughters of earlier
kings and queens. These rulers claimed their powers to be given by God. The
monarchs, the leaders of the church, and the wealthiest families had always held all
the power and all the advantages.

But in the 1500s, during a period known as the Renaissance, the number of
educated people in Europe began to grow. Many of these scholars adopted the
ideas of the ancient Greeks and Romans. These ideas focused on the importance of
all people and on their ability to reason. Scholars encouraged the study of science.
The Renaissance led to important discoveries in the 1600s. Galileo proved that Earth
moved around the sun. Isaac Newton explained the laws of gravity.
The ideas that blossomed during the 1500s and 1600s influenced many thinkers
during the 1700s—the time of the Enlightenment. Some of the most famous
Enlightenment thinkers were Denis Diderot, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
Adam Smith, and Voltaire.

These thinkers, called philosophers, wrote many books, including a 35-volume

encyclopedia. Some wrote books questioning religion. They objected to the church
having power over everyone. The philosophers criticized the monarchs’ laws. They
also questioned the idea that God had given the monarchs their power.

Enlightenment thinkers applied science and reason to society’s problems. They

believed that all people were created equal. They also saw education as something
that divided people. If education were available to all, they reasoned, then everyone
would have a fair chance in life.
Enlightenment ideas were popular and spread quickly. The Roman Catholic church
and the monarchs tried to censor, or ban, the books and other works of the
philosophers. The rulers were right to be alarmed. The Enlightenment led many
people to think about their government and to think that they should change the
government. They wanted to take power away from the kings and queens and give it
to the ordinary people. This led to the American and French revolutions, when the
monarchs lost their power.