Saturday, August 24, 2019

A review of “The Dark Ages” (History Channel)



The term “Dark Ages” usually refers to the Early Middle Ages, if it is used at all …

People once used the term “Dark Ages” to refer to the entire Middle Ages. But now, when the term is used at all, it usually refers to just the Early Middle Ages – that is to say, the centuries immediately after the fall of the Roman Empire in the West. A number of people today have actually objected to the use of the term “Dark Ages” itself. But although the History Channel acknowledges the prevalence of this objection, it obviously does not agree with it, as it seems to make clear in this documentary. Whatever you call this period, though, it is clear that the fall of what Westerners today call the “Roman Empire” left chaos in its immediate wake.




The fall of the (Western) Roman Empire is the event that set these things in motion

But when exactly did the Roman Empire fall, anyway? The answer is: Depends on which “Roman Empire” you're talking about. The Western Roman Empire may have fallen in the year 476, while the Eastern Roman Empire may have fallen as late as the year 1453. The latter is today known as the “Byzantine Empire,” which I will cover later on in this post. But it is the former empire that had the greatest importance for the story of Western Europe's “Dark Ages” (if one can call them that), because it is the event that set these “Dark Ages” in motion. This program starts at what it calls the “fall of the Roman Empire,” but this may actually be something of a misnomer. Actually, they start at the sacking of the city of Rome (not the empire), which is a somewhat different story. The city of Rome was sacked in the year 410, but most historians would agree that the Western Empire lasted (at least somewhat) longer than that. On paper, it may have lasted as long as the year 476 (as mentioned earlier), which is some six decades after the sacking of the city. In fairness, some would say that the Western Empire fell in practice, long before it ever fell on paper. But most would agree that it (at least) lasted longer than the year 410, the time at which its capital city was sacked. Where you draw the line is up to you. But one thing is clear: The chaos following the fall of the Western Empire began sometime before it had finished falling on paper. Thus, they may actually be right to begin their story at the sacking of the city, even if it is not truly the fall of the “Roman Empire” (or even of the Western Roman Empire).


The sack of Rome, 410

The Byzantine Empire almost restores the Old Roman Empire, and suffers a major plague

And about the Eastern Roman Empire: As mentioned earlier, the Eastern Empire is today known as the “Byzantine Empire.” It lasted about a thousand years longer than the more famous Western Empire. While the fall of the Western Empire was the event that set Europe's “Dark Ages” in motion, the Byzantine Empire also had a tremendous effect on European history. At one point, they reconquered most of the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea, from Southern Europe down to the Middle East down further to North Africa. It was almost like a restored version of the empire as it had been before the separation. (As this series puts it, “the Empire strikes back.”) There is coverage of the Emperor Justinian, who was one of the most important of the Byzantine emperors. But they also cover the plague that happened during his reign, which was the first major outbreak of bubonic plague. This sixth-century outbreak is not as well-known as the later outbreak of the fourteenth century, but it was fairly destructive in its own right. It is today known as the “Plague of Justinian.” This documentary gives good coverage of it, showing that the “Black Death” is not unique to the fourteenth century.


Emperor Justinian

Is the term “Dark Ages” appropriate? (In general, I agree with this program that it is … )

This documentary also covers the role of Christianity during this period. Europeans in the “Dark Ages” had inherited the religion from their predecessors in Roman times. Among other things, they discuss the church's role in the scholarship of the era. One area of interest is classical scholarship, or the study of their Greek and Latin heritage. Much about classical times was actually forgotten during the “Dark Ages,” but some things were kept alive even during this period. The reason that people call it the “Dark Ages,” though, is because the technology (not to mention the economy) took a few steps backwards. Knowledge of how to build new roads was lost, and the Roman-era roads and aqueducts were actually taken apart for spare resources. Education also took several steps backwards, and the literacy of Europe decreased drastically. There were islands of education even during the “Dark Ages,” and this documentary actually notes some of them. But in general, I would tend to agree with this documentary's summation that these were, generally speaking, the “Dark Ages.” In general, this term is correct; at least for the Early Middle Ages.


St. Michael’s Church – Hildesheim, Germany

A few of the diverse topics that this program covers

One subject that the documentary touches on is the Muslim invasions of Western Europe. Islam actually formed during Europe's “Dark Ages” period, and spread to the northernmost parts of Africa. If you look at a map, Northwest Africa is close to Spain and Portugal, and lies across the “Strait of Gibraltar” from the Iberian Peninsula. Thus, Muslims from this region were able to cross the Strait of Gibraltar and invade the Iberian Peninsula, leaving their mark upon Spain and Portugal in the process. They even got as far east as France, and did battle with the local Franks. This is the area that the documentary most focuses on, in their coverage of the Moorish invasions. They also cover Charles Martel and his famous grandson Charlemagne, whom some consider to be the greatest king of the Dark Ages. Another subject that they cover is the Viking raids, which originated from Scandinavian countries like Denmark. The Vikings struck Atlantic and Mediterranean cities from their ships; getting as far east as the Middle East, and as far west as Iceland and North America. But their greatest target was the British Isles, the area where they are most remembered today. Entire documentaries have been dedicated to this one subject, but the History Channel's brief segment on this is a reasonably good introduction to the subject. Incidentally, it also shows that the Vikings arrived in North America long before Christopher Columbus did – a topic that I don't have the time to explore further here, so I will refer interested readers to Wikipedia instead.


Statue of Charlemagne in St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican

How did Europe emerge from the Dark Ages? (Answer: Learning from the East)

In the late eleventh century, the Catholic Europeans launched their first Crusades into the Holy Land. The History Channel does not attempt to cover these Crusades here, since they did so in another documentary that was focused exclusively on this subject. But some brief mention of the Crusades may have been warranted here, to show how Europe got out of its “Dark Ages.” There were a number of books in the Holy Land at this time, which contained Greek and Arabic learning that were unknown to Europeans at this time. The returning Crusaders thus brought many of these books back to Europe with them, and ignited a period of scholarship that had been unseen since classical times. Some actually refer to this as the “Renaissance of the 12th century,” which is not as famous as the later Renaissance of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. Scholars disagree about whether or not to apply the term “Renaissance” to this period at all, and I will not attempt to settle this controversy here. But suffice it to say that it was a period of expanded learning in Europe, whatever one's feelings about the use of this word. (And personally, I think that this word should be reserved for the later period; but that's just an opinion.) Whatever one calls it, it also brought Europe out of the “Dark Ages,” and set it on the path to its triumphs during the greatest Renaissance.


The Gokstad ship, a 9th-century Viking longship

Conclusion: This is a good overview of an oft-neglected period

Thus, this documentary gives a fairly good overview of this oft-neglected period, in the hour and a half or so that it has to work with. Their argument is that the title of “Dark Ages” is indeed warranted here, at least for the Early Middle Ages. They also believe that there was a sort of “Renaissance of the 12th century” (even if they don't use that phrase here), and that it brought Europe out of the Dark Ages. There were certainly islands of learning even during the “Dark Ages,” but on the whole, I tend to agree with their argument. More to the point, I enjoyed hearing what they had to say in this film, and would recommend it to others who are interested in the Early Middle Ages – or the Middle Ages in general.

Footnote to this blog post:

One of the bonus features on this DVD is a feature-length documentary called “The Plague.” I give a review of this latter documentary here.

DVD at Amazon

Disclosure: I am an Amazon affiliate marketer, and can sometimes make money when you buy the product using the link(s) above.

If you liked this post, you might also like:

A review of “The Dark Ages: An Age of Light” (BBC)


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