What Have We Learned From The Middle Ages?
Introduction
It is often said that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. It is true that technology has changed civilization and wars have shaped the earth, but, loosely speaking: the duties of man, the importance of knowledge and our morals are still almost the same as they were since the dawn of civilization. For the last 8,500 years man has harvested, learned and practiced righteousness. Yet, man is always progressive. We seek to find the most efficient means of working, learn as much as we can and search for what is meaning of “good”. Man has learned a lot from the past successes and past mistakes making written history possibly our greatest invention. What has happened in written
…show more content…
How are the Middle Ages in Europe like the U.S. today and how is it different? How is this good and how is this bad?
The Middle Class
In the Middle Ages
There were many different systems in Europe that rose and fell throughout its colorful history. The system that was very influential of change during the Middle Ages was a duel system called feudalism/manorialism. In a lecture Robert W. Brown defines feudalism as a political structure that is a relationship between the king and his vassals while manorialism is a socio-economic structure that defines the role of the vassal and his subjects (The Legacy of the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages in the West). Timothy C. Hall explains: “local nobles acquired large tracts of land from kings for loyal service during war. In return, these nobles granted land to individuals in exchange for military service. The feudal system established a relationship between the lords and vassals, but the other eighty percent of the population was made up of peasants…” (89, 82). These peasants were responsible for all of the farming done on these manors that fed the nobles and themselves but often-times the food was scarce for the peasants. This was a dark period where the majority of the people were poor
…show more content…
These might sound familiar because these are some of the laws written in the constitution that makes this land of freedom so great; but did we think of them? The answer is no; these were written into a constitution over 500 years older than our own constitution (Hall, 109). The Magna Carta was the first body of laws ever forced upon a king of England; it was done during the reign of a cruel and inept ruler who asked for a tax increase to continue warring only to find that the nobles would not grant him the privilege unless they gathered to have a meeting (Hall, 109). This meeting founded the Magna Carta. About one-third of the US Bill of Rights is akin to the Magna Carta but this is not a coincidence. The Magna Carta was a revolutionary document designed to grant the people their liberties and place the king under the law as well; many countries have found this political ideology attractive and adopted it as well. There was a lot of time between The Magna Carta and The Bill of Rights and they were written for different countries so one can imagine that there are a great number of differences. The most obvious would be that the US does not have a monarchical government so a lot of the same laws don’t apply but the Bill of Rights is more progressive than the Magna Carta. One thing that is noticeable right away is the right to Keep and Bear Arms. Although it might seem like our government is pushing
- - - The New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History. London, England, Penguin Books, no publication
What more is the point of learning and understanding human history than obtaining the knowledge and structure between what is right and what is wrong? We continuously believe that we as humans have the ability and intellect to learn from the lessons taught in our past in order to enrich our future. In comparison to the time frame that is human history the one hundred year period of time we discussed in the second halve of this semester is nothing but a slight blimp on the map that we have traversed. Yet, throughout our recent readings we can easily assimilate into the idea that although time may pass, and that we may attempt to learn from our history it is simply in human nature to repeat the mistakes that we have
...n Society In Medieval Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
5. Howe, Helen, and Robert T. Howe. From the Ancient and Medieval Worlds. N.p.: Longman, 1992. Print.
Howe, Helen, and Robert T. Howe. A World History: Ancient and Medieval Worlds. Volume 1. White Plains, NY: Longman, 1992. 533.
To the extent that one takes the values of Renaissance and Enlightenment as positive developments in human history, the Middle Ages will be viewed as “dark.” From another perspective, in order to dismiss the negative image of the Middle Ages, one has to deconstruct the wholly positive image of the Enlightenment, thereby questioning the presuppositions behind these descriptions. According to the Encylopedia Britannica, the post-Medieval world can be considered to have “invented the Middle Ages in order to distinguish themselves from it.” (2014) The description of the Middle Ages as Dark Ages can therefore be understood according to the shift of values that occurred from the Middle Ages to the post-Medieval world.
The Web. The Web. 23 Nov. 2011. The "Middle Ages - Information, Facts, and Links." ENotes - Literature Study Guides, Lesson Plans.
Conley, Dalton. (2013). You May Ask Yourself: An Introduction to Thinking like a Sociologist (3rd edition). Columbus, OH: W. W. Norton & Company.
In European history, the Middle Ages lasted from the fifth to the fifteenth century. The Middle Ages began with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance. The barbarian invaders, formed new kingdoms in the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East were under the rule of an Islamic empire. During the Middle Ages, people had different religious beliefs (than the church); this was referred to as heresy. This caused people of the church and political officials to fight . The Dark Ages is an accurate characterization of the Middle Ages in some respects, however there were positive aspects of that time that contradict that perception. Government, culture, education, and the economy are factors that show how the Middle Ages changed over time in both positive and negative ways.
Roger Babusci et al. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1994. 115-136. Print. “The Medieval Period: 1066-1485.”
Macionis. J, J. Plummer, K. (2005). Sociology. A global Introduction. Pearson Education Limited. Essex. (UK) Third Edition.
York: Facts on File, Inc., 2005. Ancient and Medieval History Online. Facts on File, Inc.
Rice, Eugene E. and Anthony Grafton. The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460-1559. 2nd. ed. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1994.
Hebding, D.E and Leonard, G. (1996) Introduction to sociology: A text with readings, 5th ed. McGraw Hill Inc. (worldwide).
Parsons, Talcott. (1938). The Role of Theory in Social Research. American Sociological Review. 3(1), 13-20.