The content and chronological framework of the history of the Middle Ages. What is the chronological framework of the Middle Ages and what is the significance of this era. Distinctive features of the European and Russian periods

The term "Middle Ages"(more precisely, the “Middle Age” - from Latin medium aevum) arose in Italy in the 15th-16th centuries. in humanist circles. At different stages of the development of historical science, different content was put into the concept of "Middle Ages". Historians of the 17th-18th centuries, who fixed the division of history into ancient, middle and new, considered the Middle Ages a period of deep cultural decline as opposed to the high rise of culture in the ancient world and in modern times. Subsequently, bourgeois historians were unable to put forward any single scientific definition of the concept of "Middle Ages". In modern non-Marxist historiography, the opinion prevails that the terms "Middle Ages", "ancient world", "modern time" are devoid of a definite content and are accepted only as traditional divisions of historical material.

Nevertheless, the concepts of "Middle Ages" and "feudalism" are not completely identical. On the one hand, in the period of the Middle Ages, other socio-economic structures coexisted with feudalism (patriarchal, slaveholding, then capitalist). Moreover, for a long time in the early Middle Ages in a number of regions of Europe (especially in Byzantium, the Scandinavian countries), the feudal mode of production was not dominant. On the other hand, the feudal system was preserved in the economy of many
From this Latin term originates the term "medieval studies", which is called the field of historical science that studies the history of the Middle Ages.
countries centuries after the medieval era. Therefore, only considering the formation in the dialectics of all stages of its development, we can say that the medieval era was essentially feudal.
Almost all the peoples now inhabiting Europe and Asia, as well as many peoples of Africa and Latin America, have gone through the stage of feudal formation in their development and, consequently, have survived their Middle Ages.

Periodization of the history of the Middle Ages.

The transition to feudalism among different peoples did not occur simultaneously. Therefore, the chronological framework of the medieval period is not the same for different continents and even individual countries. In the countries of Western Europe, at the origins of the Middle Ages, according to the periodization adopted in Soviet historiography, there is a collapse in the second half of the 5th century. The Western Roman Empire, which perished as a result of the crisis of the slave system, which made it defenseless against the barbarian invasions of the Germanic and Slavic tribes. These invasions led to the collapse of the empire and the gradual elimination of the slave system on its territory, they became the beginning of a deep social upheaval that separates the Middle Ages from ancient history. For the history of Byzantium, the beginning of the Middle Ages is considered the 4th century, when the Eastern Roman Empire took shape as an independent state.
The boundary between the Middle Ages and the new time in Soviet historiography is considered the first bourgeois revolution of pan-European significance, which marked the beginning of the dominance of capitalism in Western Europe, the English revolution of 1640-1660, as well as the end of the first pan-European - the Thirty Years' War (1648).

It is, however, neither the only one nor the indisputable one. In foreign historiography of both capitalist and socialist countries, the line separating the Middle Ages from modern times is usually considered to be either the middle of the 15th century, or the end of the 15th - the beginning of the 16th century. That is, the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks and the collapse of Byzantium, the end of the Hundred Years War (1453) or the beginning of the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries, especially the discovery of America by Columbus, are considered as a milestone. In particular, some Soviet researchers believe that the 16th century, the era of the first bourgeois revolutions, should be attributed to a special period of modern times. On the other hand, a number of historians adhere to the point of view that if we consider the Middle Ages as a period of domination of the feudal formation, then it should include for Western Europe the 18th century - before the French Revolution of 1789-1794. Thus, this issue belongs to the number of discussions.
In Soviet historiography, the history of the Middle Ages is usually divided into three main periods: I. The end of the 5th century. - the middle of the 11th century - the early Middle Ages (early feudal period), when feudalism was just taking shape as the dominant mode of production; II. The middle of the XI century - the end of the XV century. - the period of developed feudalism, when the feudal system reached its peak; III. 16th century - first half of the 17th century - the period of decomposition of feudalism, when capitalist relations are born and begin to take shape in the bowels of feudal society.

1) Early Middle Ages

2) classic,

3) Late Middle Ages

The crisis of the late Roman Empire and attempts to overcome it.

The novelists insist on the role of the Roman principle. The Germanists point out that barbarism became a decisive element in the formation of the Middle Ages.

Rome reached its power by the 2nd century BC. From the end of the 3rd century, a systemic crisis begins.

Slave-owning villas, latifundia, small farms of possessors.

The use of slave labor. Existence due to the influx of cheap labor. The foreign policy of Rome leads to failures, there is an increase in the price of slaves.

Latifundia are huge farms based on the labor of slaves. Expenditures for overseers.

Possessors are small owners. They were the backbone of the Roman army. They are being massively destroyed.

Crisis in agriculture.

Crisis in the city. Agrarianization of the economy. Moving to the village, transition to subsistence farming. Loss of unity within the Empire.

Crisis in the financial sector. Damage to the coin and its depreciation.

Crisis in the social sphere. The gradual rise in the status of a slave and the lowering of the status of a free person. The slave gets the right to create a family and piculi (property). The status of a slave approaches that of a tenant. There are fines and punishments for killing a slave. The position of the free is changing (the impossibility of exploiting a free person)

Columns - settlers on foreign land, with some rights to it, it could be slaves, freedmen and freemen, planted on land for the purpose of paying taxes. At the end of the 4th century, the columns were finally attached to the ground.

Increasing instability in society. Numerous uprisings, flight of slaves.

Crisis in the political system of government. The period of the principate from 1st century AD -3rd century. AD Dominate rule from the 3rd c. -5v. The fall of the role of the Senate and the rise of the role of the Imperial Council. The support is the union of riders. Monarchic foundations of statehood. In the West, a negative attitude towards the title "Rex", and in the East the title "Vasileus" - the role of the East is increasing.

The decline of police management. Decurion performs duties without compensation, their incomes are declining. The collapse of the polis and polis self-government. Citizenship could be obtained by every citizen of the Roman Empire. Rome withdraws garrisons from distant provinces. The central government cannot influence decentralization. Christianity gives people hope. The empire is being barbarized.

Diocletian 284-305. the end of the period of soldier emperors.

Monetary reform - the introduction of a new monetary unit "nomisma / solid" from gold.

Tax reform - levying a tax on the most profitable area. Possibility of non-payment of taxes in case of emergency (30 years), after this period of time the site was transferred to the community.

administrative reform. Recognition of the private power of magnates. Establish tight control. The principle of election was replaced by the principle of appointment.

Konstantin 313

The Edict of Milan ended the persecution of Christians. 325 - First Council of Nicaea.

The military problem is the active involvement of barbarians for military operations, this contributed to the penetration of huge masses of the barbarian population into the territory of the empire.

Slaves did not receive guaranteed rights to piculi. Villas turned out to be 2 times more profitable than latifundia.

Empire of Charlemagne.

They ruled from the end of the 7th century (majordoms), from 751 - kings. .social stratum: large landowners and already dependent cross-not (exploitation of landowners)

Charles Martell (715-741). He pacified the internal unrest in the cor-ve. 732-battle at Poitiers. property for a lifetime (land taken away from the church in Neustria). Beneficiary - life holding subject to military service. Strengthening the layer of small and medium feudal lords who became the main troops. The cross lost its significance as the main military force. ). Beneficial awards created a land connection between the complainant and the recipient and established a relationship of personal loyalty => the beginning of the formation of vassal-seigneurial relations. The reform strengthened central power.

Pepin Short.(741-768). All the beneficiaries of the church lands were recognized as the property of the church (payments from the owners of the church). Without the permission of the king, the church had no right to take the land. The union of the Carolingians and the church (pope). Pepin forced the Lombards give to the pope the capturer of the city of Rome.region (from 756 - the Papal state) => received the title of king from the pope.

Charlemagne (768-814). The rise of the state. 774 - the conquest of the Lombards. The struggle against the Arabs: 778 - an unsuccessful campaign (death of margr. Roland). 801 - the capture of Barcelona and the creation of the border. Spanish brand. Wars with the Saxons (772-802). 788 - annexation of Bavaria. The Saxons pay tithes to the church. 778-803 - wars with the Avars. 800 - a trip to Rome to protect the pope from the Roman nobility => coronation in the church of St. Peter (Byzantium recognized his title in 812). The frontiers were fortified with marks. The territory of the Frankish state was divided into about 200 counties. Each of the counts had the highest military, judicial and fiscal power. To control the activities of the counts, a kind of inspection was created: the royal "messengers." The feudal lords needed a strong center of power to keep the cross in obedience. "May Fields" - congress of beneficiaries. Military reform: they only serve well. Free landowners, the poor unite in groups and put up 1 armed warrior. The cross was suspended from military service.

11. Military colonization movements of the Middle Ages (reasons, general characteristics, examples at the choice of the examiner - except for the Crusades).

Causes: population growth; the need for new land for settlement and agriculture.

General characteristics and examples: the first centers of colonization appeared in northern Europe, i.e. in Scandinavian countries. The Scandinavians had little fertile or suitable land for agriculture and pastoralism, and this leads to a period of Viking invasions (late 8th - late 11th centuries). In search of new land, they discovered and settled Iceland, at the end. 10th c. founded the first settlement in Greenland, also ca. 1000 Vikings reach the shores of America (Leif Happy). Formation of the Duchy of Normandy in the north of France (according to an agreement between King Rolf and the French king Charles the Simple, 912). The Normans, in turn, captured England (William the Conqueror), and were able to gain a foothold in southern Italy (Sicilian Normans). The following foci arise in Central Europe, for example, in Germany, where, under Frederick Barbarossa, expansion to the east begins, into the lands of the Slavs (the capture of the right bank of the Elbe, Berlin was founded already in 1221. Attempts were made to conquer the north of Italy. For France, the military-colonization movement was marked by the conquest of England by the Normans, the Albigensian wars in the south and the founding of the Angevin dynasty in Naples.One of the most important areas was the conquest of Flanders, and the subjugation of France.A significant event in this period was the Reconquista, i.e. the reconquest of lands on the Perinean Peninsula from the Muslims, which began with the kingdom of Asturias in 718 (or 721) and ended only towards the end of the 15th century.The kings of Spain and Portugal generously sponsored Atlantean expeditions in search of a shorter route to the Indies, and here we can distinguish Marco Pollo, Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci, the main figures era of the Great Geographical Discoveries.

12. Crusades (reasons, general characteristics, examples at the choice of the examinee).

Causes: if we consider the crusades as part of the military-colonization movements, then this is a demographic rise and a lack of free land. On the other hand, this is the Holy March to Jerusalem, directed against the infidel Muslims, preparations for which were carefully prepared in the Vatican.

General characteristics: on prepared soil (after the Reconquista), the Catholic Church gradually led the people to a campaign against the Muslims, and the papacy needed only an excuse. It was provided by Emperor Alexei 1 Komnenos, who asked for help against the Sildzhuk Turks. Pope Urban 1 reacted instantly, reading a sermon at the Council of Clermond in 1095 about the first crusade, but it was not about a campaign to help Byzantium. The lower strata of society were the first to respond, forming the Crusade of the Poor, but it quickly fell apart, because. the participants mainly devastated the lands through which, in their opinion, the path to the Holy City went. Real first crusade gathered in 1096, and as a result turned out to be the most successful: the orders of knights crossed the Mediterranean Sea, took Jerusalem and founded the crusader state (it included the County of Edessa (the first founded), the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli and - the largest - the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which existed until before the fall of Acre in 1291). This campaign ended in 1099. Initiative start second campaign was shown by the French king Louis 7, and soon supported by the German emperor Conrad 3. Initially, Louis 7 planned to move by sea, because he was on friendly terms with the Sicilian king Roger 2, but Conrad 3 convinced him to follow the path of the first Crusade: through Eastern Europe and Byzantium. This led to the conclusion of two Christian-Muslim alliances: between Roger 2 and Egyptian Muslims, and between Emperor Manuel 1 Komnenos and the iconic sultan. The German and French armies moved slowly, devastating the lands through which they passed, and this pretty much frightened the Byzantine emperor, who quickly transported the army of Conrad 3 across the Bosphorus (and already in the first battle in Cappadocia, the German army was defeated), and the Germans began to wait for the French. Manuel 1 assured the French army that had approached by this time that their ally was winning brilliant victories, which woke up the spirit of rivalry, and soon this army also crossed the Bosphorus, and only there learned about the defeat of the Germans. In a long and difficult campaign to Dorilea, two armies quickly decreased under the pressure of Muslims, heat and lack of food, and as a result, Conrad 3 from Ephesus by sea to Constantinople, and Louis 7 stopped in Antioch. Due to the tension between the Byzantine and German emperors, the army of Conrad 3, without waiting for the French, moved straight to Jerusalem, where an alliance was concluded with King Baldwin 3, but the failure in the conquest of Damascus finally turned the German emperor away from the Crusade. The French king doubted for a long time whether to continue the campaign, but was convinced by his entourage that it was not worth the risk. The result of this campaign was only the increased confidence of Muslims in their own abilities. Third Crusade was organized in 1189 with the support of Frederick 1 Barbarossa, the French king Philip 2 August, the Austrian Duke Leopold and Richard 1 the Lionheart, it was preceded by the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin (Salah ad-din). This campaign can be divided into three stages: the Anglo-French movement, the German movement and the siege of Acre. Richard 1 the Lionheart, in the course of his advance from England through France and Italy, stopped in Sicily, where there was a conflict not only between him and the French, but also with the German rulers, in view of the claims of the English king to the Norman crown. The crown, through the marriage of the heiress of the Norman king with the son of Frederick 1 Barbarossa, belonged to the German emperor; Richard 1 had to stay in Sicily, while the French king moved on to Syria. Once again, the English army had to linger in Cyprus, where Isaac Komnenos took the king's bride hostage, and thereby provoked a war that ended in the triumph of Richard 1. Cyprus was presented to the (titular) king of Jerusalem, and the British began the siege of Acre. Before setting off on a campaign, Frederick 1 Barbarossa entered into a number of alliances, including with the Byzantine emperor and the Iconian sultan, and began moving overland to Constantinople. Ambassadors from the Bulgarian and Serbian rulers arrived to the German emperor, offering an alliance against Byzantium, but Frederick 1, with the aim of the Crusade, evaded the answer, trying to avoid unwanted and difficult relations. However, the deeper into the Byzantine Empire Frederick 1 Barbarossa moved, the smaller his army became due to enemy raids in dangerous places, and as a result, this led to open conflict with Byzantium. The German emperor contributed to the formation of an alliance between the Serbs and Bulgarians, who marched with a large army against Constantinople, and Frederick 1 managed to cross the Bosphorus, but soon after a major victory in Iconium, the emperor drowned. Acre was taken only by exhaustion, as personal disagreements between the English and French kings made it impossible to join forces and defeat the Muslims, but in 1191 the city was taken, and Philip 2 August, having finally quarreled with Richard 1, returned to France. After the remaining one English king attempted to negotiate or capture Jerusalem and failed, Richard I the Lionheart began his long journey home, marking the end of the Crusade in 1192. Last, fourth crusade was launched in 1202 and was, in fact, directed not so much against Muslims as against the Byzantine Empire. Initially, however, the crusader army moved to Constantinople at the request of Alexios Angelos, whose father, the rightful emperor, had been thrown into prison. The angel asked for help to return the throne to him in exchange for a generous reward, and the crusaders agreed, but there was no promised reward, and the city was captured. Thus, the Latin Empire was founded, which lasted until 1261. The French who participated in the campaign received feudal inheritances in Greece and Thrace, and the Byzantines controlled the port of Constantinople. The Crusaders did not reach the Holy Land.

Outcome: during the Crusades, relations between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches were finally aggravated, anti-Semitic movements flourished, and the growing power of the Ottoman Empire was now undeniable. But there were also pluses: this period weakened internal political conflicts in Europe, many achievements of the Arabs and the works of antiquity preserved in the east were borrowed, a synthesis of cultures took place and the trading system stabilized.

The development of the culture of Byzantium.

At various stages of the cultural development of Byzantium, this synthesis was dominated by either eastern or western elements. No less impact on the culture of Byzantium was exerted by the originality of the state system of the empire. The preservation of a centralized empire and a strong imperial power in Byzantium had a great influence on the ideology and culture of Byzantium. The Byzantine Empire preserved the state political doctrines of Rome and the cult of the emperor, which was reflected in various spheres of the cultural life of society. In Byzantium, with the ever-increasing influence of Christianity, secular artistic creativity never died out. The cult of the empire and the emperor gave impetus both to the development of the capital's court culture and to the convergence of secular and ecclesiastical ideologies. The formation of the culture of Byzantium took place in an atmosphere of deeply contradictory ideological life of early Byzantium. It was the time of the formation of the ideology of the Byzantine society, the formation of the system of the Christian worldview. Christianity absorbed many of the philosophical and religious teachings of that era. In the IV-V centuries. fierce philosophical and theological disputes unfolded in the empire: Christological - about the nature of Christ and trinitarian - about his place in the Trinity. In the early Byzantine period, Christian scholarly literature reached a high degree of sophistication, combining elegance of form with profound content. In the Christian philosophy of this era, the figure of the outstanding thinker, theologian and philosopher Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite rises. His religious and philosophical system combines Neoplatonism with Christianity. The 6th century was rich in outstanding historical writings (Procopius of Caesarea, The Secret History). In the VI - VII centuries. Byzantine artists managed to create their own style in art. Since that time, Constantinople has been turning into an Orthodox artistic center of the medieval world. Rapid construction in the cities of early Byzantium became a powerful stimulus for the development of architecture (the Church of St. Sophia in Constantinople, 532-537). World recognition in the Middle Ages received works of artistic crafts and applied arts of Byzantium.

In the middle of the 7th century the first stage in the development of Byzantine culture and ideology is completed. By this time, Christian dogma is finally taking shape. From 1 ¼ VIII c. theological and ideological disputes flare up with renewed vigor, this time taking the form of iconoclasm (the thesis about the indescribability and unknowability of the deity).

In VIII - 1 floor. 9th century the influence of religious ideology on Byzantine literature is increasing, such literary genres as the lives of the saints and liturgical poetry are becoming especially popular. Since the X century. a new stage in the history of Byzantine culture begins. From that time on, a certain stabilization of social consciousness began, and the systematization of Christian theology was completed. There is a generalization and classification of everything achieved in science, theology, philosophy, and literature. In Byzantine culture of the tenth century. was associated with the creation of generalizing works of an encyclopedic nature. An important place in the artistic creativity of Byzantium was occupied by folk literature. Its formation and development fall on the IX-XII centuries. In the IX-X centuries. the so-called "Acretic songs" and military stories glorifying the exploits of the organic warriors-Akritas are widely spread in the empire. In the XI-XII centuries. Byzantine culture undergoes serious ideological shifts. The growth of provincial towns, the rise of handicrafts and trade, the rapprochement with the West under the Komnenos could not but be reflected in culture. The development of cultural communication with the countries of Europe and the Arab world - all this leads to the enrichment of Byzantine culture and major changes in the worldview of Byzantine society. In the XI-XII centuries. in Byzantium, the genre of "stories" is reviving again.

Along with religious hymns, secular love lyrics and accusatory satirical poetry develop. Ethics are changing. The creative position of artists is noticeably changing. The passive admiration for the church-dogmatic representation of the world is gradually being replaced by the artist's conscious perception of reality. In the XII century. in Byzantium, the old literary genre of the late antique novel is being revived. Almost simultaneously, a number of novels appeared, prose, poetic, based on an ancient plot. The Byzantine novel differs from its ancient prototype by the slow development of the event, the deepening of symbolism and the abundance of allegories, the duplication of episodes, and the presence of naturalistic details. Motives for denial, criticism of the social system with its unification and canonization of cultural values. The heyday is experienced by folk literature of various genres. In the XIV - 1st half. 15th century Byzantine painting is experiencing a short-lived, but bright heyday ("Paleologian Renaissance"). It is characterized by the desire of artists to go beyond the established canons of church art, to turn to the image of not an abstract, but a living person. The decline of the Byzantine state in the XV century. negatively affected the development of Byzantine culture

23. Germany 10-15 centuries. Peculiarities: lack of heredity of power, electivity, dynasties exist, only if a strong ruler forces the princes to recognize his son as the next ruler, the influence of the king's personality on the internal. processes, the absence of a permanent royal domain → the impossibility of centralized unification after fragmentation, unifications are carried out by princes who sought to prevent the strengthening of imperial power. Nominally there is an emperor, but there is no real power → discord, robbery on the roads and other + two-level political life: local with princes and imperial - a nominal emperor and the identification of all lands with the legacy of Rome (Germany was then called the Holy Roman Empire). The Netherlands is one of the most developed places of the Middle Ages. There is no unified system of measures and weights, there are a lot of customs.

9th-11th centuries: 9th century - formation of the East Frankish kingdom. An archaic, poorly differentiated society (only a little better in the south - the Roman heritage). Weak, but more variegated state of affairs with the subordination of the patrimony to its owner. Otto 1 - the German king in the 10th century - becomes the king of Italy, then the emperor of the Roman Empire from 962. He loved the church - it is a means of power, endowed with land, privileges, but he strongly influenced her himself - the highest positions are under his control - imperial church . The rise of culture under the Ottons - the Ottonian revival - contacts with Italy and Byzantium, the marriage of Otton 2 to a Byzantine princess, a weak revival, but still.

11th century The process of feudalization began. Fast pace. Fight for investment between the pope and the king (transfer of power through the symbolic presentation of a banner (secular powers) and a ring and a staff (ecclesiastical). Because of the investiture of bishops. Henry 4 and Pope Gregory 7. End of the struggle for investiture - 1122 - Concordat of Worms: the emperor concedes the investiture, but the procedure in the presence of the king is a convention of the king's authority in this matter.This is a “blow to the imperial church.” Further, the role of local princes is strengthened due to the weakening of the king.

12th century The Staufen dynasty - 1138-1254 A characteristic feature of their policy is the desire to subjugate all of Italy, to make it their support - clashes with the popes and the Kingdom of Sicily (1176 - defeat at Legnano, renounces a number of claims in northern Italy, after another struggle under other emperors, but with the same success). Crusades. The 12th century Ser is an advanced urban community in the west. Formation of workshops. At the turn of the 13th century - the appearance of the city council - the members of the council are consuls. Councils were formed with the consent of the lords in order to facilitate the duties of management (unlike France, but since the 13th century, too, speeches against the lords). The church and the nobility founded new cities, as own city is profitable (Munich, Leipzig). The merchants of the northern cities were called Ganza - a brotherhood, a guild. 3 trading areas - northern, southern and middle, as a connection between the first two → only an intermediary function + internal trade.

13th century 1254 - the last staufen dies. Interregnum - approx. 30 years. fragmentation. southern germany – mining develops - silver for trade. Deep mines have already been made since the 12th century. Iron ore. Using the energy of the falling water to inflate furs. Colonization to the east at this time - Livonia, Prussia.

14th century The flourishing of crafts, trade. There are no clear and stable boundaries either within the empire or external (until 2/2 of the 15th century). 1291 - the formation of the Swiss Union on the territory of the empire. (3 free communities united against the attempts of the Habsburgs to seize the trade route to Italy, at the beginning of the century they defeated the Habsburg cavalry. Recognition of the political independence of Switzerland only in 1648.). Hansa becomes a union, similar to the state, wages wars - a victory over Denmark - the urban patriciate represented power in it, and each city represented autonomy. There are others city unions– Swabian, Rhine . 1356 - golden bull- legal consolidation of political fragmentation - confirmed the electoral procedure for the election of emperors by a collegium of 7 princes-electors. Habsburgs from 1438 after the Luxembourg dynasty.

15th century “closing the workshop” - the appearance of eternal apprentices. mid century - typography. By the end of the century there were about 50 printing centers. Territory losses(Schleswig and Holstein - Denmark, Provence - France, upper and lower Austria - Hungary. The estate-representative power that has been formed since the 14th century is called Reichstag at the end of the 15th century - an advisory body. Also formed Landtags(bodies of territorial administration in separate principalities, irregular in nature.).

Peculiarities: Nominal power of the Ga dynasty

Chronological framework and periodization of the history of the Middle Ages.

1) Early Middle Ages - the time of the formation of the feudal mode of production, V-XI centuries.

2) classic, or developed Middle Ages - the period of developed feudalism, the end of the XI-XV centuries.

3) Late Middle Ages - the period of decomposition of feudal relations and the emergence of the capitalist mode of production, XVI - the middle of the XVII centuries.

2. Origin and content of the terms "Middle Ages" and "Feudalism".

The term Middle Ages was first introduced by the Italian humanist Flavio Biondo in 1483. Before Biondo, the dominant term for the SW was the concept of "dark ages" introduced by Petrarch. In modern historiography "Dark Ages" means 6-8 centuries in modern historiography.

In the 15th-17th centuries, this period was media tempestas c 1469, media antiquas c 1494, medium tempus c 1531…

In the 17th century, the term "Middle Ages" was introduced by Christopher Keller - the division of history into antiquity, the Middle Ages and modern times. He believes that the Middle Ages lasted from 395 (the division of the Empire) to 1453 (the fall of Byzantium). The term "Middle Ages" is applied to the Western Middle Ages. Features: feudal land use system, vassalage system, church dominance, ideals of monasticism and chivalry

Feudalism is a type of society that characterizes the presence of social classes - feudal lords and commoners.

Under feudal relations, land owners (feudal lords) are lined up in a feudal ladder: a subordinate (vassal) receives a land allotment (flax, feud or fief) for service and serfs from a superior (seigneur). At the head of the feudal ladder is the monarch, but his power is usually significantly weakened in comparison with the powers of large lords, who, in turn, do not have absolute power over all landowners below them in the feudal ladder (the principle “my vassal’s vassal is not my vassal ”, which was in force in many states of continental Europe).

The producer of material goods under feudalism was the peasant, who, unlike the slave and wage worker, ran the household himself, and in many respects quite independently, that is, he was the owner. The peasant was the owner of the yard, the main means of production. He also acted as the owner of the land, but was a subordinate owner, while the feudal lord was the supreme owner. The supreme owner of the land is always at the same time the supreme owner of the personalities of the subordinate landowners, and thus also of their labor force. Here, as in the case of slavery, there is an extra-economic dependence of the exploited on the exploiter, but not complete, but supreme. Therefore, the peasant, unlike the slave, is the owner of his personality and labor force, but not complete, but subordinate. Thus, not only the ownership of the land was split, but also the personality of the workers.

Feudalism in Western Europe, according to a number of concepts, began to be established as early as the 5th century AD in the late Roman Empire. The distinctive features of feudalism in Western Europe were a high degree of political decentralization, the dualism of secular and spiritual authorities, the specificity of the European city as a center of crafts and trade, the early development of horizontal social structures, public private law. Then, in the Middle Ages, he began to dominate Europe until the bourgeois revolutions. The feudal system was replaced by the capitalist one.

The term "Middle Ages" entered the scientific circulation in the Renaissance, thereby humanist philosophers emphasized the connection of their time with antiquity: they were separated from the "golden age" of mankind by a certain middle, intermediate period, "dark ages", as Petrarch called them. Later, the term, of course, lost its semantic load, however, in historiography, as a generally accepted concept, the name “Middle Ages” was preserved, the time frame of which covers the period from the 5th century to the beginning of the 16th century. These boundaries are relative and vary in the history of different states.

Chronology Conventions

Chronology and periodization are relative criteria artificially introduced by researchers, used for the convenience of designating a particular time, comparing events in different countries, etc. This fully applies to the period called the “Middle Ages”, the spatial and time frames of which are Russian and foreign historians substantiate differently. As A. Ya. Gurevich correctly noted, the people of the Middle Ages, like those of antiquity, or did not give names to their era, did not realize that they were living in the period of the Middle Ages. When dividing into chronological segments, scientists are guided by some original features, qualitative characteristics inherent in a particular era.

periodization

How does the historiographic tradition designate the Western European Middle Ages? Time frame (centuries) - from the 5th century. until the beginning of the 16th century. Within this almost thousand-year period of time, the following stages are usually distinguished:

5th-11th centuries called the Early Middle Ages (or "Dark Ages", since this period in the history of human civilization remains the least studied due to the extremely poor reflection in the sources). It began after the fall of the Roman Empire. One of the most striking phenomena is the great migration of peoples, the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by Christians (the so-called Reconquista), the flourishing of Byzantium, the Frankish state.
XI-XIV centuries - This is the classical (or High) Middle Ages. The main events are the rapid growth of the population of Western Europe, the almost universal spread of Christianity, the development of cities and urbanization, the emergence and development of feudal relations.
XIV-XVI centuries attributed to the Late Middle Ages (some researchers rank this period as early as the New Age). This is a period of disasters, famine, plague, the Hundred Years War and the Mongol-Tatar invasions, which seriously devastated Western Europe. At the same time, this is the time of the church reformation, great geographical discoveries, the development of science, inventions, and achievements in traditional medicine.

time frame for Russia

On the territory occupied by Slavic tribes, the formation of the feudal state was slower than in the West, therefore many historians attribute the beginning of the medieval era to the 9th century. And the New Age begins at the end of the 17th century. with the reign of Peter I. Within the era, separate periods are distinguished:

IX-XII centuries - the existence of a centralized Kievan state.
XII-XIII centuries - the beginning of feudal fragmentation and the fall of part of the land under the rule of the Mongol-Tatar yoke.
XIV-XVII centuries - formation and development of the Russian state with the center in Moscow.

Characteristics of the era

This is how the Middle Ages looks chronologically, the time frame is associated with events that led to irreversible changes. At the end of the 5th century barbarian hordes broke into Rome - the main stronghold of ancient civilization at that time, and at the beginning of the 6th century. the last ancient school of philosophy ceased to exist.

The key characteristic of the Early Middle Ages is the decomposition of tribal relations among the barbarian tribes of Europe and the formation of feudal ones, which by the end of the period leads to the formation of ruling dynasties. The essence of economic relations changed radically in the Middle Ages. The spatial, temporal framework of the era is firmly connected with the spread of the Christian religion, which became spiritually a reflection of feudalism, just as paganism was once characteristic of the communal-tribal system.

Regarding the Slavic tribes, all of the above features are clearly visible in their history only from the 9th century, when the state was established with the center in Kyiv. At about the same time, Christianity of the Eastern (Orthodox) rite penetrated the Russian lands from Byzantium, and by the turn of the millennium it acquired the status of an official religion.

Classic Middle Ages

The High Middle Ages (the time frame of the 11th-14th centuries) begins in Western Europe with the formation of the state of Charlemagne and is characterized by the strengthening of the positions of the Catholic Church, its dominant role at all levels of human activity - from politics to everyday life. The education system is dominated by scholastic teaching, worldview and material culture are deeply religious.

Christianity also defines the Russian Middle Ages, the time frames of which, as well as the event content of the periods, are very different from those of Western Europe. By the XII century. Orthodoxy became not only the official state religion: the last pagans who believed in the ancient Slavic gods remained only in remote forest areas and did not pose a threat to the existence of a centralized state. But the feudal civil strife, which shook more or less any state in the Middle Ages (the time frame in Russia - XII-XIII centuries), weakened the Kievan state and made it easy prey for the hordes of nomadic Mongol-Tatars who came from the east. Thus, the strengthening of the authority of the church was also facilitated by an external threat in the face of ethnically and religiously alien invaders.

Distinctive features of the European and Russian periods

The fundamental difference in this period of the history of Russia from Western Europe is obvious: for the empire of Charlemagne, this is the time of the maximum flourishing of culture, the creation of a canonical image of the Middle Ages, in Eastern Europe, in all spheres of life, there is a decline associated with the heavy burden of confronting a powerful Asian enemy.

After the overthrow of the Mongol-Tatar yoke, it was no longer possible to restore the former integrity of Kievan Rus: the western lands united into the Galicia-Volyn principality, and in the east the Moscow princes gained increasing influence.

Final decades of the High Middle Ages

The end in the West is associated with a famine that struck many lands at the beginning of the 14th century, an epidemic of plague, peasant riots, and all these tragic events entailed the literally extinction of half of the population, and therefore a decline in all spheres of life.

At the same time, for Russia, the Middle Ages, the time frame of the XIV-XVII centuries, became the era of the formation and strengthening of the state around Moscow. Russia was strong enough at this time to throw off the burden of the Golden Horde yoke. Moreover, many domestic researchers are inclined to see the characteristic features of the Renaissance in the new Russian state, based on the Vladimir-Suzdal historical and cultural traditions. This is the flourishing of culture, architecture, painting, and the emergence of literary works, the focus of which is a person and his feelings, and not religious issues.

At the beginning of the XVII century. The Romanov dynasty ascends the throne of Moscow, whose representatives ruled the country until the overthrow of the monarchy in 1917.

Late Middle Ages and the transition to modern times

Such a shaky concept as the Late Middle Ages covers time frames and countries in different ways: somewhere the features of the New Age appear more clearly, and in some places the traditional feudal way of life is preserved. In the states of Western Europe, there is a movement for the reformation of the church, industrial revolutions are taking place, philosophy and world views are changing. And in the Moscow kingdom, for almost two centuries, everything remained without significant changes: therefore, the Middle Ages in Russia (the time frame of the 9th-17th centuries) ends much later.

The Western European Middle Ages, the time frame that completes this almost thousand-year period, refers to the end of the 15th - the beginning of the 16th centuries. The most common starting point is the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492.

In Russia, only Peter I managed to complete the period of the Middle Ages through a series of progressive and often unpopular reforms at the end of the 17th century.

Conclusions: the Middle Ages, Western European and Russian

Thus, the time frames of the Middle Ages in Russia and Western Europe vary greatly, although the essence of the period remains similar in most issues. This is the dominance of the church and religion in all spheres of life, and the strengthening of feudal relations, and the subsequent formation of the monarchy, which will continue into modern times.

At the end of the Middle Ages, a clear technical progress began - blast furnaces, firearms were invented, the concept of educational institutions appeared. Progress is gradually manifested in all spheres of life. In the last decades of the Late Middle Ages, a rapid flowering of art began.

The term "Middle Ages" - a translation from the Latin expression medium aevum (Middle Age) - was first introduced by Italian humanists. Roman historian of the 15th century. Flavio Biondo, who wrote The History from the Fall of Rome, trying to comprehend contemporary reality, called the "Middle Age" the period that separated his era from the time that served as a source of inspiration for humanists - antiquity. Humanists assessed primarily the state of language, writing, literature and art. From the standpoint of the high achievements of the Renaissance culture, they saw the Middle Ages as a period of savagery and barbarization of the ancient world, as a time of corrupted "kitchen" Latin. This assessment has long been rooted in historical science.

In the 17th century J. Keller, a professor at the University of Gaul in Germany, introduced the term "Middle Ages" into the general periodization of world history, dividing it into antiquity, the Middle Ages and modern times. The chronological framework of the period was designated by him from the division of the Roman Empire into the Western and Eastern parts (completed in 395 under Theodosius I) until the fall of Constantinople under the blows of the Turks in 1453.

In the 17th and especially the 18th centuries (the Age of Enlightenment), which were marked by the convincing success of secular rational thinking and the natural sciences, the criterion for the periodization of world history was not so much the state of culture as the attitude towards religion and the church. In the concept of "Middle Ages" new, mostly pejorative, accents appeared, because of which the history of this period began to be assessed as a time of constraint on mental freedom, the dominance of dogmatism, religious consciousness and superstition. The beginning of a new time, respectively, was associated with the invention of printing, the discovery of America by Europeans, the Reformation movement - phenomena that significantly expanded and changed the mental horizons of medieval man.

The romantic trend in historiography, which arose at the beginning of the 19th century. largely as a reaction to the ideology of the Enlightenment and the value system of the new bourgeois world, sharpened interest in the Middle Ages and for some time led to its idealization. These extremes in relation to the Middle Ages were overcome by changes in the very process of cognition, in the ways in which European man comprehended nature and society as a whole.

At the turn of the XVIII and XIX centuries. two achievements of a methodological nature, important for the development of historical knowledge, significantly deepened the concept of "Middle Ages". One of them was the idea of the continuity of social development, which replaced the theory of circulation, or cyclic development, coming from antiquity, and the Christian idea of the finiteness of the world. This made it possible to see the evolution of Western European medieval society from a state of decline to an economic and cultural upsurge, the chronological boundary of which was the 11th century. This was the first noticeable departure from the assessment of the Middle Ages as the era of the "dark ages".

The second achievement should be recognized as an attempt to analyze not only eventual and political history, but also social history. These attempts led to the identification of the term "Middle Ages" and the concept of "feudalism". The latter spread in French journalism on the eve of the French Revolution of 1789 as a derivative of the legal term "feud" in documents of the 11th-12th centuries, denoting landed property transferred for use to the vassal by his liege. Its analogue in the German lands was the term "flax". The history of the Middle Ages began to be understood as the time of the dominance of the feudal or fief system of social relations among the feudal lords - landowners.

A significant deepening of the content of the analyzed terms was given by the science of the middle - the end of the 19th century, the achievements of which were primarily associated with the formation of a new philosophy of history - positivism. The direction that adopted the new methodology was the first most convincing attempt to turn history into a science proper. It was distinguished by the desire to replace history as an entertaining story about the lives of heroes with the history of the masses; attempts at a comprehensive vision of the historical process, including the socio-economic life of society; exceptional attention to the source and the development of a critical method of its study, which was supposed to provide an adequate interpretation of the reality reflected in it. The development of positivism began in the 1930s. in the writings of O. Comte in France, J. St. Mill and G. Spencer in England, however, the results of the new methodology in historical research affected later, by the second half of the century.

Subject, chronological framework and internal periodization of the "History of the Middle Ages"

The subject of study of the history of the Middle Ages are the features and patterns of development of society in a given period. This is the formation of feudal relations in Europe, and the political and social development of states, and the cultural development of mankind.

The history of the Middle Ages tells us about heroic wars, the dictatorial influence of the church on the life of the public, the feudal system of states, the first travelers-discoverers and an incomparable original culture.

The boundary between the Middle Ages and the new time in Soviet historiography is considered the first bourgeois revolution of pan-European significance, which marked the beginning of the dominance of capitalism in Western Europe, the English revolution of 1640-1660, as well as the end of the first pan-European - the Thirty Years' War (1648). This periodization is used in this textbook.

In Soviet historiography, the history of the Middle Ages is usually divided into three main periods: I. The end of VB. - the middle of the 11th century - the early Middle Ages (early feudal period), when feudalism was just taking shape as the dominant mode of production; II. The middle of the XI century - the end of the XV century. - the period of developed feudalism, when the feudal system reached its peak; III. 16th century - first half of the 17th century - the period of decomposition of feudalism, when capitalist relations are born and begin to take shape in the bowels of feudal society.

Periodization of Western Europe
5th-11th centuries - the early Middle Ages, the time of the formation of the feudal mode of production.
XI-XV centuries - the classical, or developed Middle Ages, the period of developed feudalism.
XVI-mid XVII centuries. - the late Middle Ages, or early New Age, the period of the disintegration of feudal relations and the emergence of the capitalist mode of production.
Periodization of Byzantium
4th-7th centuries - the first, or early period, the gradual evolution of late antique institutions into early feudal ones.
Deut. floor. 7th-12th centuries - the second, or middle period, the heyday of the Byzantine Empire.
XIII - ser. 15th century (1453) - the third, or late period, late Byzantine feudalism, the crisis of the empire.

Regions of medieval philosophy.

Part II. PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE RENAISSANCE

In the Middle Ages, the "geography" of philosophy changed significantly: philosophy not only continued to develop in the centers of its origin (India, China, Greece - Rome), but also went far beyond their borders.

Speaking about the philosophy of the Ancient World, one could unconditionally operate with the terms "Western" (ancient) and "Eastern" (Indian, Chinese). But for the Middle Ages, the opposition "West-East" already creates some problems. They are associated primarily with the emergence and development of Muslim and Jewish 1 philosophy. Since the term "Western philosophy" has established itself as a synonym for "European philosophy", it would be incorrect to classify them as Western. Referring them to the Eastern, we will make an even greater mistake: firstly, Muslim and Jewish philosophy is much closer (in content and character) to European than to Indian, Chinese, etc.; and secondly, a number of centers of Muslim and Jewish philosophy were territorially located far to the west - on the Iberian Peninsula (for example, in Cordoba).

Since at that time culture in general and philosophy in particular were significantly influenced by world religions, it is conditionally more convenient to single out the following as the main regions where the development of philosophy took place:

Buddhist world;

Christendom;

Muslim world.

The era of the Middle Ages is usually distinguished on the basis of events in European history (i.e. in the Christian world). Its conditional beginning is 476 - the date of the capture of Rome by the barbarians. However, if we talk about the milestone in the development of ancient philosophy itself, then it would be more accurate to name 529 - the time

1 The main centers of Jewish philosophy were located in the territory of Islamic domination.

closing of the last pagan philosophical school (Academy in Athens). The end of the European Middle Ages and the beginning of the next era, i.e. the Renaissance is the middle of the XIV century. for Italy and the beginning of the XVI century. for Northern Europe.

But this Eurocentric (or rather, even Western Eurocentric) periodization does not fully correspond to the situation in other regions. So, strictly speaking, the Renaissance came to replace the Middle Ages not even for the entire Christian world, but only for part of it - Western and Central Europe 1 .

And for the Buddhist and Muslim world, the definition of both the beginning and the end of the Middle Ages presents significant difficulties. Thus, the end of the Middle Ages can only be associated with the emergence in these regions of the culture of the New Age, which happened no earlier than the second half of the 19th century. Similarly, the beginning of the Middle Ages in the Buddhist and Muslim world cannot be unconditionally associated with the 5th or 6th century. and even more so with the dates mentioned above. In general, one can speak about the history of the Muslim world only starting from the 7th century. (when Islam emerged). And for India and China, which are part of the Buddhist world, the conditional dates for the beginning of the Middle Ages fall on the period of the III-VI centuries, for Japan - this is the VI-VII centuries. etc.

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