Why the Dark Ages were truly Dark

Were the Dark Ages really “Dark”?

The darkness of an age can be measured this way: the quality of daily lives, the level of communication and cooperation, the level of advancement in technology and society, the average life span, and the death rate. Important events can also describe the era, and so shape how all mentioned factors result as an aftermath. The Dark Ages do live up to their name, because of how the average life was in poor conditions compared to the past and the other regions around it, how technological and intellectual development was low or even detrimental, how everyone was either at constant conflict with very little unity among the people, and how the death rate was very high. This "darkness" evaluation will first explain and compare Europe during the Dark Ages to Europe in the past and other powerful empires that existed during its time. It will then explain the ordinary lives of the people during the Dark Ages in secular terms then spiritual terms, due to how important religion was at that specific period of time. At last, it will then evaulate the important events of the Dark Ages, explaining how the events portrayed the era in a dark manner.

 

Just before the Dark Ages was the period of the Roman Empire. The massive size, wealth, and power of it can describe the overall life style of the era at least for the richer of people of the upper class. There were slaves and Plebeians, but the Empire also consisted of advanced public facilities that improved the daily lives of people. There were public bathes, aqueducts for running water, and a certain degree of medication. Other signs of power include knowledge from philosophers and the architecture of buildings. The Dark Ages that followed in Europe showed none of that. Around the same time, the Muslims and the Chinese clearly had a superior lifestyle than what came after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The Muslim caliphates represented a time of prosperity between the united Muslims with many technological developments to develop a whole united empire, while Europe at the time was completedly isolated and lost within itself. Every Chinese dynasty represented a moment of peace and unity, with the "Mandate of Heaven" justifying each rule and appealing to the average people. It wasn't until the end of the Crusades that Europe became less isolated and had contact with other regions, vastly improving the populace's daily lives.

 

During the Dark Ages, the cities were ransacked and broken down, therefore removing all functions of public facilities. There were no running water through aqueducts, and people relied on wells, which were considerably more difficult to rely on. Farming as a result turned a lot less efficient. People moved to small villages or worked as serfs/peasants under powerful people. Either way, people were isolated from what happened around them, and the lack of communicate often disabled them from learning of important events or dangers. Furthermore, the people were hardly united. Different lords of different estates would attack each other for land almost constantly. The lack of a central government, cooperation, and communicate turned each shelter into an internal world. The high crime-rates (if there were even laws) hindered any personnel on the outside. This also meant that there weren't any trade, and the producing of goods was limited to the population within a household. These were clearly a lack of technology, lack of cooperation, lack of communication, and lack of unity in secular terms.

 

The daily basis for serfs was similar to slaves, only that they truly relied on the lord. They lived in uneven conditions, usually with a very small percentage of food that they worked hard for, poor sheltering, possibly heavy taxes, and lack of decent medication. The main reason for the protection from the lord were technically because of the lords themselves, causing constant warfare across the land. Other than suffering and hardworking, the higher population of serfs and peasants found it really easy to die. One can offend a "superior" such as a knight accidentally and end up being decapitated. One can accidentally come across a skirmish between warriors, or be directly raided by bandits. Or one can simply die of sickness at a really young age. The degrading of society also brought a lack of sophisticated medication, and made everyone prone to sickness. Another side effect was that the average life span was heavily decreased during these times.

 

Everything explained above focused on secular subjects. An important factor that could've easily defined the Dark Ages was Christianity. Nearly all peasants and lords of Europe believed exclusively in Christianity. Most that defied were often persecuted, and this represented the only unity of the Dark Ages. The powerful factor of this religion was that it convinced the peasants to work. It seemly supported them, although it was often an excuse for the quest for power by Kings, lords, or the Pope. The whole point of their lives was to work hard and to enjoy paradise. The darkness of the Dark Ages focuses mainly on secular factors, and if the common people were so eager to leave the world, then the world may possibly not be very friendly. It may have brought an upside in moral to "leave" the world of the Dark Ages (which would contradict why the Dark Ages weren't dark), but Christianity also represented the misconceptions of the time. This post is not a fight about religion- it's focusing on the fact that because Christianity, the medication was misguided, and that the brutal ideas of justice presented by the powerful, influential people support the reason why the Dark Ages were dark. The "heretics" were slaughtered in brutal ways, and anyone brought to the court (innocent or not) were subject to harsh, unfair treatments. Society may not have necessarily degraded, by its development slowed down. The average people were lost in this dark reality. This was another reason why there was the lack of technology improvement.

 

The last important factor of judging the darkness of an age is to look at the significant historical events. One of the first was about Clovis, who conquered much of Gaul and became the first ruler to unite Frankish people. While it did bring less fighting for a brief period between the French people, the land was split between Clovis’ sons, which then lead to more conflicts. He was also one of the first examples of a ruler using Christianity for his own advantage. Siding with the Pope brought advantages in resources and moral, as the soldiers were now warriors of Christianity. It didn't change the fact that they were brutal in fighting and in justice. This would mark the trend of misconception or simple twisting of Jesus's words, and it was generally a dark thing. Another important event was the Justinian Plague. It happened in the Byzantine Empire, just east of Europe. The Bubonic Plaque first surfaced there, which easily killed between 30-50% of the population. The empire could've been considered more "civilized" than feudal Europe, and the plaque destroyed any hopes for a return of the glory of the Roman Empire. What was worst was that more plagues were to come in Europe.

 

Many positive events during the Dark Ages represented slow improvements. In order for a "dark age" to begin and end, it must go from dark to bright. Considering the terrible conditions for general lives and the terrible events that destroyed more life, the Dark Ages should be considerably dark. What can come next would only be improvements, as it can't be any worse. This in fact is a supporting example in why the Dark Ages were dark, which counters any abundance of "positive" events. One such event was for Charles the Hammer in the Battle of Tours against Muslims. While it did save Christianity for priests in Gaul, the average life didn’t improve from this victory. It was however still a positive event that just contributed little to daily lives. The time of Charlemagne's reign as the Holy Roman Emperor seemed to be the most idyllic time of that period. He brought a level of education, which pleased the “prayers” and slightly benefited the others. There was a higher level of stability as he kept a watch on his “vassals” to prevent betrayal or fighting between them. However Vikings have been detracting the lives of villages in Britain near the time of Charlemagne’s death, and it took away most of what little the people had. With constant and yet unpredictable raids on towns, the life went poorer across the whole continent due to the ability of Viking boats to travel through rivers into mainland. To counter this, Alfred the Great built many strong fortifications to avoid the Vikings, and it turned out successful. The peasants had better security, and this contributed greatly to normal lives. The very last event was the Crusades. It was the one time in which Christianity finally worked to help end the Dark Ages. The united holy force was able to gain contact and information with foreigners. First, the people were heavily united. Second of all, the barrier of isolation was broken. This lead to trade, communication, cooperation, new interests, and simply more potenial for development of society. All these were gained through the Crusades, and the long bloody war even thrilled the peasants. They finally had a chance to fight for God, while also having a chance at a different life. They were eager to be placed in heaven after their deaths, whether it were to be in battle or not. This symbolized the very end of the Dark Ages. These were events because they were light that shined from the darkness. Events are meant to have an historical impact. If the timeline passed the Dark Ages and stopped at the modern times, then it would be a considerable rise in development. Positive events happen because life was dark the first place. In this very argument, the bright events were supporting the darkness of the Dark Ages. The dark As explainedevents merely stimulated the darkness.

 

The people's normal lives generally downgraded from the life during the Roman Empire, and the buildings and art seemed to follow. Early death was normal for them, and sometimes even wished for. The events may seem mainly positive, but it was because that life was terrible that made the events shine. Historic events were meant to change things after all, and in this case, it was improvement. In order for the Dark Ages to end, improvement was necessary, which explains the sudden rise of brightness towards the end. Life was dark, and that was why there were light. At the end, this era couldn't be lighter than what came before and what came after. The improvements of society were slow during these times, and the whole continent was dark alright.