Was the end of the Middle Ages a sharp break with the past, or was it a gradual change?
Western Civilization 1
Final Essay
Topic # 2
Matthew Mark Legg
History 1101: Western Civilization 1
Dr. Andrew Reeves
May 2013, Term IV
Word Count: 1610
Was the end of the Middle Ages a sharp break with the past, or was it a gradual change? Discuss. Breaking away from the past and forging a new future, a new way of life, is never an easy thing to do. It does not matter if it is on a personal level or civilization as a whole, rarely is it a clean break away from the normal routine. In the case of the Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) shifting into the Early Modern Age (15th to mid-18th centuries), sometimes classified as the Ages of Discovery and Revolution, is standardly marked by the Renaissance period. This a period in history between the 14th and 17th centuries marked by a re-awakening of sorts by Western Civilization, a movement from the feudalistic organization of Europe into the humanistic culture that balanced a revival of ancient scholarly pursuit with a more secular view of life and new focus on surpassing mankind’s intellectual and physical limits. The transition was prolonged when it experienced pushback by those in power across the rest of Europe and the Papacy. As stated, this period is usually accepted as spanning a few centuries; most would consider this a gradual break due to the narrow vision scope of man as he defaults to seeing his lifespan as an incremental time gauge. History though, sees the average lifespan of a man as a blink of an eye; a few hundred years is a relatively short amount of time. Knowing this, classifying the transition from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Age is subject to how the perceiver distinguishes time. Is it a comparison or classification of how cultures evolved in the past or raw time passed between major events? The Late Middle Ages saw a great number of events both big and small that signaled the arrival of the new era western civilization was entering. Plague, famine,
Final Essay
Topic # 2
Matthew Mark Legg
History 1101: Western Civilization 1
Dr. Andrew Reeves
May 2013, Term IV
Word Count: 1610
Was the end of the Middle Ages a sharp break with the past, or was it a gradual change? Discuss. Breaking away from the past and forging a new future, a new way of life, is never an easy thing to do. It does not matter if it is on a personal level or civilization as a whole, rarely is it a clean break away from the normal routine. In the case of the Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) shifting into the Early Modern Age (15th to mid-18th centuries), sometimes classified as the Ages of Discovery and Revolution, is standardly marked by the Renaissance period. This a period in history between the 14th and 17th centuries marked by a re-awakening of sorts by Western Civilization, a movement from the feudalistic organization of Europe into the humanistic culture that balanced a revival of ancient scholarly pursuit with a more secular view of life and new focus on surpassing mankind’s intellectual and physical limits. The transition was prolonged when it experienced pushback by those in power across the rest of Europe and the Papacy. As stated, this period is usually accepted as spanning a few centuries; most would consider this a gradual break due to the narrow vision scope of man as he defaults to seeing his lifespan as an incremental time gauge. History though, sees the average lifespan of a man as a blink of an eye; a few hundred years is a relatively short amount of time. Knowing this, classifying the transition from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Age is subject to how the perceiver distinguishes time. Is it a comparison or classification of how cultures evolved in the past or raw time passed between major events? The Late Middle Ages saw a great number of events both big and small that signaled the arrival of the new era western civilization was entering. Plague, famine,