The Debate about Whether Dark Ages Was an Alarm

The Middle Ages began from 900 AD and ended at around 1300 AD. During that period of time, it was often to be referred to as the “Dark Ages”, and this period of time was, in fact, a “Dark” age for most people because there was a lack of government. It was not that safe in that area, and because of the feudal social classes. There was also a lack of education for the general population, the living standards for a majority of people were grim, and the land was considered the source of wealth.

The Middle Ages went through a time of ignorance, lawlessness, turmoil, and confusion. They had a lack of government, and with no government, things became bad, out of control and unexpected because there were no laws, rules, and directions for people. Traveling around was not safe during that period of time because there were highway robbers. People in Europe were also not able to get education, literature, the arts and there only started manufacturing in fewer and fewer institutions. After all of these misconceptions happened, cities grew smaller, and some cities just disappeared. This also made Western Europe became a community of extremely poor farming communities that would soon become isolated from the rest of the world.

During the period of the Dark Ages, Germany wasn’t that safe compared to other countries because of the invasions by the heathens and nonchristian barbarian tribes. This is also because an earthquake happened twice in the same area in the same year, and killed more than 12 thousand Christians. Another group of invaders also came into Gaul, which is another party and more than 600 people died. These two dreadful things happened in 845 AD. One year after that, the Northmen stole all the goods from eastern and western Frisia and burned down the town of Dordrecht, and two other small villages. The Emperor was in the castle Nimwegen, so they could not punish the attacker. With no punishment for the crime, the Northmen returned to their own country with many goods and men from other countries such as Eastern and Western Frisia. The heathen from the North also caused a scene and carried the men and women away from the prisoners, and their crimes today are still remembered and bring sorrow to the Christians today

The Dark Ages went through a time where a monk named Richer in France during the late 900s, where they got to show people what daily life looks like for them because back then they were the only knowledged ones. Since he was one of few only educated people from that period, monks had to learn and go through education to teach at the churches or monasteries. A very well educated man named Rheims wanted to teach Richer. He was taught liberal arts, but he wanted to learn more, something more challenging such as the works of Hippocrates which is an ancient philosopher. The monk got invited to go see the very well educated man and learned so much. They learned about the study of the Aphorisms with Hippocrate with Herbrand. They learned the ordinary symptoms of diseases and some surface knowledge about aliments. He wanted to learn even more, so Rheims guided him on his pharmaceutics, botany, and surgery. That’s usually how monks were trained by the best and well educators at that time.

The Dark Ages was a “Dark” time because people were not being treated as they should be treated back then. There were different social classes to represent everyone's status. The highest of them all was the pope. Someone with just slightly less power and control from the pope was the king. The king was not able to control all the lands himself, so he had to split his lands to different noblemen. In return, the noblemen gave the king loyalty and protect him no matter what. Beneath the king were the noblemen. The noblemen had large areas of land which were called fiefs. They had to provide food, prepare the armies for the king. They were also sometimes given the job to collect taxes for the king from the lower status people who worked for their lives to earn some money called the peasants. The noblemen were in charge of peasants, serfs, and the villages. Beneath the noblemen were knights. The knights were prepared by the noblemen, and the knights had to fight in wars just to protect the king and the pope. Finally, the lowest class you could be in during the dark ages were being serfs or peasants. The serfs and peasants were the lowest class in the feudal system because they needed more serfs and peasants to do all the hard work to produce crops and good for the whole village. Since most of the population of the villages are made up of peasants, the higher classed people such as the noblemen and the king would look down at them and they would be treated like slaves. They needed to obey everything the nobleman/ king wanted them to do, and they were the ones that needed to provide food for everyone. They themselves barely had enough food and money for a living, so this was why lots and lots of peasants died because of food shortages. The kings and noblemen/lords would also occasionally kill the peasants who don’t listen to what they are told or they would be treated miserably and have a severe punishment, such as not getting that much wage in a week to survive.

The Dark Ages were as “Dark” as people thought it was. The lack of government made this environment not organized and out of control because there were no laws. The lack of education, because only monks were highly educated so they spend most of their time trying to get new information to teach at the churches and monasteries for everyone to learn. The lack of support for how the feudal system worked, and how people just judged you on what social class you were in, and don’t care about the people are being slaved but somehow providing food for the village. The feudal system just wasn’t fair, and no one was being treated equally or had the same rights. The environment also wasn’t a safe place for the villagers, which made it hard for people to trust their own countries, and scared if they are just suddenly going to disappear. These are all the reasons why the Dark ages were truly “Dark.”