Essay on The Dark Ages: Was It Good or Bad?

Many say that the Dark Ages were good, but evidence concludes that the Dark Ages were actually a horrible time in European history. At this time learning, agriculture, and the economy were spiraling downhill, and this, in turn, made Europe go progressively downhill into barbarism and isolation.

The Dark Ages were a hard time in European history. This time period was around years 500-1500. One account said that the “early Middle Ages, from 476 to about 1100,” (Textbook A) some called this the good times of the Dark Ages. during this time people were making many advancements in agriculture and technology. This was a part of the beginning of the Dark Ages. It was going well at the beginning of the Dark Ages, with a life expectancy of up to 30 years, but millions of people started dying when the Black Plague hit. This is when things took a turn for the worse and many places started to implement warlords, and war rang out over Europe. People were dying from disease and war. Europe slowly started to become isolated from the rest of the world and stopping trade ended up stopping trade with the outside world in the process. In the end, when the Dark Ages ended the results left Europe weak and in need of serious re-order.

It was going well at the beginning of the Dark Ages, with overall life made better. a life expectancy of up to 30 years, but millions of people started dying when the Black Plague hit. This is when things took a turn for the worse and many places started to implement warlords, and war rang out over Europe. People were dying from disease and war. Europe slowly started to become isolated from the rest of the world and stopping trade ended up stopping trade with the outside world in the process. In the end, when the Dark Ages ended the results left Europe weak and in need of serious re-order.

There were many impacts of the Dark Ages, one of which was that there were barely any laws or government at that time, this was making Europe weak and open to attack. Others saw this too and took it as a time to make their move. This is seen in document c which “focuses on invasions by heathens, or non-Christian barbarian tribes, (Document C)” the monks describe the Saracens, Vikings, and Arabs heathens or non-believers.  The Saracens raided the eastern and western sides of Europe. This just shows how the government during that time was failing. They burned and pillaged towns and villages with no remorse. The inability of governments to protect their people is what made this weakness for  This is why the Dark Ages were not good for Europe.

Despite this, most will say that in the end, it was actually better because of all the technical and overall life success. The Dark Ages were filled with achievements. People built cathedrals such as the Notre Dame as the “Construction on the cathedral began in 1163 and was completed in 1345” (Document G). This was only one of the many gothic cathedrals that were built around the time. Additionally, they built schools for children and the first-ever collages were made. While all of this is good, we cannot forget that these small things do not show the long-term effects that happened during that time and the Black Plague. The plague killed millions, and people’s lives were ruined by various warlords squabbling for more power. The Dark Ages may have had some advancements, but not enough for it to be impactful in the end.

In conclusion, the Dark Ages was a terrible time. The overall effects of the Dark Ages had good and bad conclusions but in the end, the bad overlooked the good. This matters because so many will look at the good parts and forget about the death toll and horrible economy. People need to remember that it is important that we should always look at both sides of the time and not just the sides that we want to see, and in so doing we can realize exactly how bad the Dark Ages truly were.