Robert J. Maxwell
The Roman Empire imploded around 470, overrun by bands of barbarians from the north. With the dissolution of Roman law, there WAS no law except that which could be imposed by local warlords. The continent of Europe was fractured -- no Germany, no France, no England, no nothing. The sole unifying force during this period was Christianity. Christians were no longer thrown to the lions. Instead the religion had spread rapidly after its adoption by the Roman emperor Constantine in the midst of a battle. So it became a kind of good-luck ideology among the regional despots. If it was good for Constantine, it might be good for me. And besides, ordinary people were now scratching the earth to make a living. It was a miserable existence, and here was a religion that promised a peaceful afterlife. How nice.Christianity failed to bring about peace, though. Instead it became a motivating force behind battles, which were now turned into "Holy Wars." If I can say it here, new religions often appear just in time to support the prevailing geopolitical and economic sentiments. The sociologist Max Weber has convincingly shown how the Protestant Ethic provided the ideological foundations for capitalism.But while the Latinate West fell apart, the Greek East maintained its identity as part of the Roman Empire. The Emperor Justinian led an army to fill the power vacuum in Western Europe. He pretty much did it too. He ruled most of Italy, northern Africa, Turkey, and the Middle East, and turned the Mediterranean back into a "mare nostrum." He was also brutal and thoroughly corrupt and had married a beautiful hooker but Justinian created the Byzantine Empire with its distinctive architectural domes. He was responsible for the construction of the Hagia Sofia in Constantinople (now Istanbul). His ambitions were knee-capped in 540 AD by an epidemic of the black plague, a disease caused by fleas hopping off imported rats, biting people, and infecting them with a rod-shaped bacillus called Yersinia pestis. It killed half the population of Constantinople and reached as far as Britain and Ireland. Justinian failed to restore the original empire. After his death, around 700 AD, the conquered territory was given up and the Dark Ages became even darker.The Moslems invaded fractured Europe, took all of Spain and most of France until they were defeated by Charles ("The Hammer") Martel, aided by Frank ("The Enforcer") Nitti. Charles the Hammer had a grandson, Charlegmagne, who united much of Europe and proclaimed himself emperor. He spread his sperm around with such profligacy that a recent study estimated that most of Europe and America had some Charlemagne in their blood. He promoted reforms and ruled a kingdom from the North Sea to Italy, but he was brutal too. The sentence was death for anyone who was caught worshiping a pagan God, cremating a body instead of burying it, or had not been baptized. He realized that education was needed to improve the quality of life. Everyone except the monks was illiterate. Charlemagne devoted himself to learning the alphabet which was not typical of warriors, and this may have begun the Western undercurrent of anti-intellectualism or, as John Wayne put it, "Talkin' words is fer WIMMIN." The program goes on to describe the raids of the Vikings, who brought nothing of importance to the rest of Europe except mobilization. Nothing about the Normans. With the end of the Vikings, there were a lot of footloose soldiers with a lot of energy. They turned their attention to the Middle East and began the Crusades. The Crusades captured no territory but brought back with them the knowledge that the Moslems had acquired over the years -- medicine, surgery, astronomy, algebra, Aristotle, architecture, technology, and soap. All of this influx of knowledge brought about an intellectual revolution and paved the way for the end of the Dark Ages and the beginning of the Rennaissance.It's mostly about politics and war, with an emphasis on famous leaders like Justinian and Clovis. The daily life of the people is only alluded to once in a while, and there is nothing about the development of philosophy -- partly because there was so little of it -- and even the diverse beliefs of Christians is given short shrift.
marczygmunt
Just watched the Dark Ages from the History Channel. It was very well done and held my interest.However,I detected a serious historical error.Specifically, it stated with colored map that Poland was invaded and made part of Charlamagne's Empire.While some western Slavs on the west side of the Oder were subdued and became allies of Charlamagne ( Sorbs and Wilzians) ,which is now Germany,Charlamagne never conquered the land east of the Oder river which is now present day Poland. In the interests of accuracy I point out this error.Charlamagne Christianized mostly all of Western and Central Europe up to the Oder river by 813 but Poland remained pagan until the 10th century. Dr Marc
crw63
First let me say that this is a good documentary with accurate costumes and settings.The film leaves one believing that the Vikings simply retreated from Alfred "The Great" because of his defense mechanisms and no longer played a role in this part of history. While the raids on southern England did abate, Vikings continued to plunder northern Britain and northwest France.Left out of the documentary was the assimilation of the Vikings into Normandy with the Rollo and Charles "The Simple" agreement. In exchange for peace, the northwest portion of France was given to the Vikings with the condition that they also convert to Christianity. The six Dukes of Normandy were not even mentioned although they played a crucial role during this time period.This Viking settlement in northwest France ultimately led to the Battle of Hastings with William "The Conqueror" (a Viking descendant) defeating King Harold Godwinson to become the ruler of England. It is worth mentioning that immediately before the Battle of Hastings that Harold was fighting Viking marauders in northern England and his troops were probably somewhat battle worn and the battle may have had an entirely different outcome had this not been the case. I have wondered if it was possible that William may have planned the northern attack with his northern brethren to wear Harold down before the Battle of Hastings took place.All of this information was omitted with the documentary jumping from Alfred "The Great" directly to the Crusades, leaving out a lot of extremely relevant history that helped bring about the Crusades and the knowledge to end the Dark Ages.
Lee Eisenberg
We've probably all heard of the period in European history between the Roman Empire and the Renaissance. But unless we see this documentary, we can't even begin to understand how unpleasant it was (and what we see here is probably tame compared to how things really were). "The Dark Ages" shows how Rome's collapse led to the balkanization of Europe and the rise of the Catholic Church, then the Holy Roman Empire and the Vikings, and all the while a semi-successor to Rome was going on in Constantinople. Not to mention the Bubonic Plague.There is a brief look at how the Catholic Church and the monarchs were intent on forcing their religion on conquered people, but I think that the documentary could have looked more at how vile the Catholic Church got in its full-scale corruption. But the part about the Crusades was well done, in that it showed how the soldiers went over there with the aim of conquering the region but found a more advanced society (the Arabs were keeping alive the knowledge that the Catholic Church suppressed in Europe).Anyway, we get a sense of how the Dark Ages - or Middle Ages, if you want to call them that - led to the Renaissance. Hearing about some of what happened during the Dark Ages, it seems like in some ways, things haven't gotten much better: we still have wars, oppression, and disease. Can technological advancements really mean anything? Overall, I recommend this documentary.
