Generally, we can say the Middle Ages are the period between the 5th and the 15th century. (500 CE -1500 CE). The Middle Ages or medieval times can be divided in Low, High, and Late.
The Low Middle Age started in 476 C.E. when the last Western Roman Emperor named Romulus Augustus was overthrown by the Barbarian Germanic leader Odoacer. After ca. 1000 year the Western Roman empire collapsed, and Odoacer became the first Barbarian to rule in Rome. The early Middle Ages had a lot in common with the barbarian societies of the late prehistoric Europe. Excavations at Roman sites are teaching us that the societies were primarily rural and agricultural. Around the year 950 the climate started to change. Temperatures in Europe were rising. The early Middle Ages are ending with the change from Gothic architecture into the rise of the Romanesque style of architecture in the eleventh century.
The High Middle Ages also called the Later Middle Ages started in the 11th century and ended ca 250 years later. In the beginning of this period, under influence from the climate change, known as medieval Warm period, technical and agricultural innovations like wide scale cultivation of beans and other crops, started. Towns flourished and the European population increased. A balanced diet came, for the first time in history, available to all social classes. Traveling and communication became faster, safer, and easier. The merchant classes began to develop. The population therefore rapidly expanded. These factors led to the breakup of the old feudal structures. (a peasant or worker known as a vassal receives a piece of land in return for serving a lord or king, especially during times of war). During the High Middle Ages, the first Crusade was held, which led to the conquest of Jerusalem from the Fatimid rule.
The Late Middle Ages Around the year 1250 the climate changed again. Winters were getting harsher and the summers cooler, rainfall was increasing. This period is called the “Little Ice Age”. The changing climate during the little ice Age made crop growing unstable leading between 1315 and 1322, to mass starvation.
(In 1270 the 8th Crusade to the Holy Land, launched by King Louis IX of France started and lasted till 1291 when Acre, the last remaining Crusader base in the Holy Land was recaptured by the Muslim enemy.)
Weakened Europe came in a difficult period with calamities including famine and war. But it even got worse. In the year 1347 merchant ships returning from Asia accidentally brought the plague to Italy. The plague or black death who is spread by flea bites and inhalation, quickly overran Europe, and killed in a few years about a third of the European population. In 1453 The Ottoman sultan Mehmed the Conqueror captured Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman empire. During the siege Constantine XI, (the last Eastern Roman emperor) died, marking the end of the Roman empire which lasted 1480 year (27 B.C.E. to 1453). Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492 and Vasco da Gama discovered the sea route to India in 1497.
The above facts marked the end of the Middle Ages and the start of Early Modern Age.
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