High Middle Ages

We explain what the High Middle Ages was and what were its characteristics. In addition, what society, economy and art was like.

What was the High Middle Ages?

The High Middle Ages (or Early Middle Ages) was the History period of Europe and Middle East understood between the 5th and 10th centuries. It is the first of the three stages in which the Middle Ages is divided, followed by the middle ages (XI to XIII centuries) and Low Middle Ages (fifteenth and fifteenth).

It is considered a transition period between the Antique classic and feudal orderof consolidation of Christianity as a majority religion in Europe and of the emergence and expansion of the Islamic religion in the Middle East and North Africa. Its beginning is usually placed in the fall of the Roman Empire of the West in the year 476, when the Emperor, Romulo Augústulo, was deposed by a Germanic leader.

The end of the High Middle Ages in the 10th century corresponds to the beginning of the feudalism In Europethe consolidation of the Macedonia dynasty in the Roman Empire of the East (also called Byzantine Empire) and the decline of the Abasí Caliphate (founded in 750) in the Middle East.

To take into account: This subdivision of the Middle Ages is not universally accepted, since some historians propose to separate the medieval era in only two stages (high and low middle ages) or use other dates to locate the beginning and end of each stage.
Anyway, the delimitation of the high Middle Ages between the 5th and X centuries allows to identify the changes that laid the foundations of the feudal society.

See also: medieval era

Characteristics of the High Middle Ages

High Middle Ages can be characterized as follows:

• It was a period of political and social transformation In Europe, it implied the progressive abandonment of the classical culture of Greco -Roman antiquity and the emergence of new social and cultural life forms that characterized the Middle Ages.
• The ethnic composition of Europe varied greatly due to migrations of the Germanic peoples that settled in the territories of the Old Roman Empire of the West and formed the Germanic kingdoms. These migrations continued the attacks of Vikings, Magiares and Muslims from the ninth century.
• Wider political entities emerged and consolidated who claimed the inheritance of the Roman Empire, such as the Carolingian Empire and the Byzantine Empire. Both empires faced the expansion of Islam, which began in the seventh century and led to the Muslim conquest of broad territories, such as North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula.
• The Catholic Church arose as a global power, due to the context of political instability and thanks to the consolidation of Christianity and the evangelization of the north and east of Europe. Over time it became a more powerful institution than the monarchs.
• Although it was traditionally known as a “dark age”, Important artistic works were carried outas demonstrated by Byzantine art, pre -Romanesque art and architectural and literary works of the Islamic world. It was, in any case, a period of consolidation of monotheism (Christian and Muslim) in all facets of cultural and artistic life, and the abandonment of cultural and artistic traditions of the classical world.
• A slow replacement process of Latin beganthe official language of the Roman Empire, by the Romance languages ​​of Europe, that is, languages ​​derived from Latin. This did not happen in the Byzantine Empire, where Greek was imposed as an official language.

The historical context of the High Middle Ages

At the end of the fourth century, Hunos attacks on Eastern Europe pressed the Germanic peoples that inhabited the borders of the Roman Empire. These peoples, called “barbarians” by the Romans, sought refuge in the land of the empire and the situation caused conflicts, rebellions and invasions.

Between 406 and 409, some of these villages (vandals, Alans and Suevos) invaded Gaul and Hispania. Burgundios, Alamans and Franks did the same in Gaul and, in 410, the Visigoths attacked and looted Rome, prior to settle in the Iberian Peninsula. In 455 Rome was looted again, this time by the vandals, and In 476 the last Roman Emperor of the West, Romulo Augústulo, was deposed by the Hérulos.

This fact marked the dissolution of the Roman Empire of the West and the configuration of a new society in Europe, characterized by The formation of new kingdoms and the combination of Germanic and Roman traditions. At the same time, it resulted in the consolidation of the Roman Empire of the East, which survived the “barbarian” attacks, and the political expansion of the new Muslim states.

Middle Ages Society

The society of the High Middle Ages experienced the Transit of the forms of social organization of the Roman Empire to feudal forms that characterized the full Middle Ages. This transit can be explained by the instability of the period, marked by wars and invasions and the coexistence of Roman and Germanic traditions.

In general, The European society of this period experienced a phenomenon of offalthat is, of abandonment of cities and return to rural life. This was accompanied by a decrease in the population of the continent. However, The new kingdoms formed by the Germanic peoples absorbed many aspects of the political and social organization of the Romans, so that the rupture with the society of classical antiquity was not abrupt.

The combination between traditions also caused the replacement of the centralized administration of the Roman Empire by monarchical systems that were based on the loyalty of warriors and aristocrats, which in some periods acquired some autonomy with respect to the monarchs, as happened after the disintegration of the Caroling Empire in the ninth century. The High Middle Ages It was also a period of expansion of Christianity and of evangelization of the “barbaric” peoples and their leaders, so that the Catholic Church became a global power.

Middle Ages Economy

THE ECONOMY OF THE HIGH MIDDLE AGE was marked by the end of the slave production modelcharacteristic of classical antiquity, and the gradual emergence of the feudal production model, typical of the Middle Ages. This means that food production was no longer in slaves, but corresponded to free settlers or peasants, although often subject to servitude conditions, since they did not own the lands they reaped.

The lands used to belong to a local nobleman, so the settler had to pay a rental to your lord in exchange for being able to work and receive protection. During the Carolingian empire, the monarch gave land to the nobles loyal in exchange for their military services, which increased the local power of the nobles who could arise.

The economy during the high Middle Ages was mostly agricultural. The Mediterranean trade was mainly administered by the Byzantine Empire, but was affected by the growing commercial control of the Arabs in the region. In the Muslim field, the abasi caliphate promoted the trade and flowering of cities.

Kingdoms and empires of the High Middle Ages

Throughout the High Middle Ages there was an important political instability in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The fall of the Roman Empire of the West caused the emergence of Germanic kingdoms in Europewho sometimes faced each other or fell to the aggression of new empires.

The Roman Empire of the East (Byzantine Empire) came to reconquer old Western imperial territories for a time but then saw its domains reduced. Finally, at this time Islam was born and Muslim expansion began by the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

The Germanic kingdoms

The settlement of the Germanic peoples in the territory of the missing Roman Empire of the West (francs, visigoths, ostrogods, Anglo -Saxons, judges, Ávaros, Vandals, Suevos, Lombardos) gave rise to New Germanic kingdoms that assimilated the Roman legacy and contributed ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity to the region.

In most of them, the Roman provincial system continued in use and lived by Germanic and Roman political traditions. Many of these kingdoms had a short existencebecause they fell to each other or before the attack of the new empires of the time (such as the Byzantine Empire or Muslim states).

In Italyafter the dismissal of the king of origin Hérulo Odoacro the kingdom of ostrogods was establishedwhich was conquered by the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Justinian I. Shortly after the Lombardos were installed, whose reign concluded in the eighth century with the conquest of the Franks, who gave up a strip of territory known as pontifical states.

In the Iberian Peninsula the Visigoths were establishedwhich founded a kingdom that originally also covered the south of France. The end of the Visigothic kingdom took place in 711, when Arab Troops and Berbers of North Africa invaded the Peninsulathey beat the last Visigoth king and proceeded to conquer the rest of the region. The territories dominated since then by the Muslim authorities in the Iberian Peninsula received the name of Al-Andalus.

The Franks were installed in the north of the current territory of France And one of his kings, Clodoveo, managed to extend his dominance over the entire territory. In addition, he became Christianity and established the capital in Paris. The merovingia dynasty founded by Clodoveo ruled the Franco Kingdom until the seventh century. In the British islands, on the other hand, a series of Anglo -Syscles were established.

See also: Visigoth kingdom

The Byzantine Empire

In the third century, the Roman Emperor Diocletian established a division of the Roman Empire into two halves (oriental and western) with the aim of improving its administration and defense. Subsequently, Constantine brought together the Empire, founded the city of Constantinople on the ancient Byzantium (today Istanbul) and adopted a tolerant attitude towards Christians, which until then had been persecuted.

Shortly after the death of Constantine, who became baptized as a Christian in his death bed, Emperor Theodosius and established Christianity as the state religion of the empire. At the death of Theodosius in 395, the Empire was definitely divided into two halves: the Roman Empire of the West, focused on Rome, and the Roman Empire of the East, also called Byzantine Empire, with capital in Constantinople (Byzantium).

Unlike the Roman Empire of the West, which fell in the 5th century due in part to the invasions of Germanic peoples, the Byzantine Empire could deal with the attacks directed against its territory and survived throughout the Middle Ages, until the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453.

The Byzantine Empire reached its greatest extension during the reign of Justinian I (527-565), who had proposed to restore the old Roman borders and expanded to the West. He managed to conquer North Africa, Sicily, Italy and the south of the Iberian Peninsula, but their successors lost most of these territories, in addition to others such as Egypt and Syria, before peoples such as Lombardos, Slavs, Persians and Arabs.

In the seventh century, Emperor Heraclio promoted the use of Greek instead of Latin In official documents, which made a clear difference with Western Christian kingdoms. Some time later, in the eleventh century, the Schism of the East that separated the Catholic Church from the West of the Orthodox Church of the East took place.

See more in: Byzantine Empire

The Muslim Empire

The term “Muslim Empire” refers to The different caliphates that starred the expansion of Islam from the Arabian Peninsulawhere it emerged in the seventh century, towards the East and West. This expansion was both religious and military and before it the Sasanida Empire (centered in Iran), parts of the Byzantine Empire, all of North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula (including southern France) and parts of Central Asia. During the High Middle Ages they existed Three great caliphates Muslims:

• Orthodox caliphate (632-661). He was founded after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632. His four caliphs (Muhammad Successors), chosen among those who had been companions of the prophet, were Abu Bakr (632-634), Omar (634-644), Otman (644-656) and Ali (656-661). In just thirty years he expanded to the entire Arabian Peninsula, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, the northeast of Africa (including Egypt) and much of what Iran is today.
• The Umayya Caliphate (661-750). It was founded by a dynasty originally from the Arab tribe Quraysh, to which Muhammad belonged. His first Caliph, Muawiya, beat Ali (last Orthodox Caliph) in a civil war and Islam was divided into two branches: the Sunnitas, grouped around Muawiya, and the Shiites, supporters of Ali and his descendants. The Umayyas ruled from Damascus (Syria) and extended the empire to the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula and new portions of Asia. In Galia they were arrested by the Franks, led by Carlos Martel.
• The abasi caliphate (750-1258). It was founded after the revolution that ended the Umayya dynasty and transferred the capital of the Caliphate to Baghdad. At this time, the Muslim culture had its moment of splendor, as demonstrated by the expansion of trade and artistic and scientific works, including the composition of stories that were collected in Arabian Nights. The arrival to the power of the Abasíes caused the independence of Al-Andalus, with its capital in Córdoba, which became an independent Umayya Emirate in 756 and in a caliphate in 929. A good part of North Africa also became independent. In the middle of the ninth century, a stage characterized by civil wars and revolts that eroded the power of the abasi caliphate began, until the last Caliph fell in front of the Mongols in 1258.

The Carolingian Empire

The Franco Kingdom established at the end of the 5th century in the territory that the Romans called Gaul was governed by the merovingian dynasty (of Germanic origin). However, in the seventh century, some Royal Court officials who carried the title of Palace butler were acquired greater power. One of them, Pipino El Brief, was proclaimed king in 751. In this way, the reign of the Carolingian dynasty began.

The successor of Pipino the brief was Carlomagno, who expanded the borders of the Franco kingdom Through successful military campaigns, including the conquest of the Lombardo kingdom of northern Italy. He also fought against the Slavs and the Avaros of Eastern Europe and the Muslims of Al-Andalus, and turned Christianity to the Saxons of the north of the current Germany. Carlomagno tried to restore the Roman Empire of the West and In 800 Pope Leo III appointed him “Emperor of the Romans”.

The moment of greatest extension of the Carolingian empire was the ninth century. He came to cover from the Pyrenees to the west (including the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula) to northern Italy, current Austria, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and most Germany. After Carlomagno’s death In 814, his Ludovico son the pious inherited the throne and divided the empire among his three childrenwhich caused a civil war. Finally, already dead Ludovico, the Empire was divided into three by signing the Treaty of Verdun in the year 843.

The disintegration of the Carolingian empire in the ninth century gave power to regional aristocraciesthat were better trained to deal with the attacks of Magiar (Hungarian), Vikingas and Muslim populations. This was one of the origins of the power of the feudal lords during the middle of the Middle Ages. On the other hand, one of the kings of the eastern portion of the Carolingian Empire, Otón I, managed to beat the Magiares and was crowned emperor of the Romans by the Pope in 962, at the time that some historians consider the birth of the Holy Roman Empire Germanic.

Art of the High Middle Ages

Although traditionally it was considered at the Middle Ages, and especially the High Middle Ages, as a “dark age”, this period produced important artistic, literary and intellectual works. Pictorial art in particular acquired importance And it became the ideal method to convey religious ideas, due to the decline of literacy and the concentration of books in the monasteries, where the monks dedicated themselves to copying them manually.

The Western European Art of the High Middle Ages, usually called pre -Romanesque, He was mainly religious, with themes taken from the biblical tradition. However, there was also an artistic legacy that combined Christianity with aesthetic and narrative traditions of the “barbaric” populations, such as Celts or Germanic populations.

Byzantine art stood out by monumental architecturelike the Basilica of Santa Sofia with its huge dome (in the current Istanbul), and by the mosaics that adorned the churches, such as San Vital in Ravenna (Italy).

Muslim art and thought were particularly relevant. Their philosophers copied and commented on philosophical and scientific works Greco -Roman, the writers wrote poems and stories, and Its architects designed works with very refined styles (such as the Mosque of the Umayyas in Damascus and the Abasí Mosque of Córdoba). By religious mandate, these architectural works lacked images or figures.

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References

• Álvarez Palenzuela, VA (coord.) (2002). Universal History of the Middle Ages. Ariel.
• Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2022). Middle Ages. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
• García de Cortázar, Ja and Sesma Muñoz, Ja (2014). Medieval History Manual. Alliance.
• Hunt, L., Martin, Tr, Rosenwein, BH and Smith, BG (2016). The Making of the West. Peoples and Cultures. 5th Edition. BEDFORD/ST. Martin’s.
• Le Goff, J. (1999). The civilization of the medieval West. Paidós.