Editing Middle Ages (section)

{{Short description|European history from the 5th to 15th centuries}}
{{About|medieval Europe|a global history of the period between the 5th and 15th centuries|Post-classical history|other uses|Middle Ages (disambiguation)}}
{{redirect|Medieval times|the dinner theatre|Medieval Times}}
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{{Infobox historical era
| name   = Middle Ages
| life_span = {{circa|AD&nbsp;500|1500}}
| start   = {{circa|AD 500}}
| end    = 1500
| image   = [[File:Canterbury Cathedral, window nXV detail (46220634195).jpg|290px|alt=See caption]]
| caption  = A [[medieval stained glass]] panel from [[Canterbury Cathedral]], {{circa|1175|1180}}, depicting the [[Parable of the Sower]], a [[biblical]] narrative
| before  = {{unbulleted list||[[Ancient history|Antiquity]]|[[Late antiquity]]}}
| after   = {{unbulleted list|[[Early modern period]]|[[Renaissance]]|[[Age of Discovery]]}}
| including = {{hlist|[[Early Middle Ages]]|[[High Middle Ages]]|[[Late Middle Ages]]}}
| key_events = {{hlist|[[Fall of the Western Roman Empire]]|[[Spread of Islam]]|[[Treaty of Verdun]]|[[East–West Schism]]|[[Crusades]]|[[Magna Carta]]|[[Hundred Years' War]]|[[Black Death]]|[[Fall of Constantinople]]|[[Exploration of North America]]}}
}}

In the [[history of Europe]], the '''Middle Ages''' or '''medieval period''' lasted approximately from the 5th to the <!--Do not change the date without finding a consensus on the talk page-->late 15th centuries, similarly to the [[post-classical]] period of [[World history (field)|global history]]. It began with the [[fall of the Western Roman Empire]] and transitioned into the [[Renaissance]] and the [[Age of Discovery]]. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: [[classical antiquity]], the medieval period, and the [[modern period]]. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the [[Early Middle Ages|Early]], [[High Middle Ages|High]], and [[Late Middle Ages]].

[[Population decline]], [[counterurbanisation]], the collapse of centralised authority, invasions, and mass migrations of [[tribe]]s, which had begun in [[late antiquity]], continued into the Early Middle Ages. The large-scale movements of the [[Migration Period]], including various [[Germanic peoples]], formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the 7th century, [[North Africa]] and the Middle East—once part of the [[Byzantine Empire]]—came under the rule of the [[Umayyad Caliphate]], an Islamic empire, after conquest by [[succession to Muhammad|Muhammad's successors]]. Although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with [[classical antiquity]] was incomplete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire, Rome's direct continuation, survived in the Eastern Mediterranean and remained a major power. The empire's law code, the ''[[Corpus Juris Civilis]]'' or "Code of Justinian", was rediscovered in [[Northern Italy]] in the 11th century. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions. Monasteries were founded as campaigns to [[Christianise]] the [[paganism#Ethnic religions of pre-Christian Europe|remaining pagans across Europe]] continued. The [[Franks]], under the [[Carolingian dynasty]], briefly established the [[Carolingian Empire]] during the later 8th and early 9th centuries. It covered much of Western Europe but later succumbed to the pressures of internal civil wars combined with external invasions: [[Vikings]] from the north, [[Hungarian invasions of Europe|Magyars]] from the east, and [[Saracen]]s from the south.

During the High Middle Ages, which began after 1000, the population of Europe increased significantly as technological and [[Agriculture in the Middle Ages#Technological innovation|agricultural innovations]] allowed trade to flourish and the [[Medieval Warm Period]] climate change allowed crop yields to increase. [[Manorialism]], the organisation of [[peasant]]s into villages that owed rent and labour services to the [[nobles]], and [[feudalism]], the political structure whereby [[knight]]s and lower-status nobles owed military service to their [[overlord]]s in return for the right to rent from lands and [[Manorialism|manors]], were two of the ways society was organised in the High Middle Ages. This period also saw the collapse of the unified Christian church with the [[East–West Schism]] of 1054. The [[Crusades]], first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the [[Holy Land]] from [[Muslim]]s. Kings became the heads of centralised [[nation-states]], reducing crime and violence but making the ideal of a unified [[Christendom]] more distant. Intellectual life was marked by [[scholasticism]], a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of [[universities]]. The theology of [[Thomas Aquinas]], the paintings of [[Giotto]], the poetry of [[Dante]] and [[Chaucer]], the travels of [[Marco Polo]], and the [[Gothic architecture]] of cathedrals such as [[Chartres Cathedral|Chartres]] are among the outstanding achievements toward the end of this period and into the Late Middle Ages.

The Late Middle Ages was marked by difficulties and calamities, including famine, plague, and war, which significantly diminished the population of Europe; between 1347 and 1350, the [[Black Death]] killed about a third of Europeans. Controversy, [[heresy]], and the [[Western Schism]] within the [[Catholic Church]] paralleled the interstate conflict, civil strife, and [[Popular revolts in late-medieval Europe|peasant revolts]] that occurred in the kingdoms. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages and beginning the [[early modern period]].