The Early Middle Ages, The High Middle Ages, And The Late Middle Ages

One of the most widely accepted timeframes for the Middle ages extends from the end of the Western Roman Empire in the year 476 A.D., up until the beginning of the Renaissance in the 15th century. However, the Middle Ages can be broken into three different parts for the purpose of this expository paper: Early Middles Ages, The High Middle Ages, and the Late Middle Ages. Each of these periods are characterized by the historical events that shaped Europe, but Western Europe and more specifically, Northern Europe will be the focus of this essay. Through events such as famine, migration, technological advances, and the creation of wealth. The building of wealth was interrupted constantly due to the instability of most nation-states in this time, but a few monarchies and merchant states were able to accumulate wealth for a short while, due to their attention of how currency created stability and sense of nationality or regionality in the populace. “Indeed the Roman Empire is seen to often as a whole, too seldom as a collection of provinces” (Wickham, Pg. 3 2005). Unfortunately, this school of thought is often
(Wickham, Pg. 305). A peasant society is defined as being much less rigid in terms of the owner of the land, which allows for greater autonomy for the masses, and a more equal distribution of wealth in contrast to the feudal system, but also provides a lesser amount of security due to the sheer insignificances of so many lesser owners. As with the decline of the Roman Empire and the Villa Estate Model, the changes happening in rural areas are seen historically as cultural changes, rather than those of recessionary effect (Wickham, Pg. 307). Thus, this transition of a peasant society to a feudal society may have been prompted by not for militaristic reasons, but because of currency and the value behind a common