Free «Changing Concept» Essay Sample

For any form of development to be encountered, several changes must occur in the current systems or ways of doing things. This has been the case from the early periods as can be viewed by humanities.

The Early Middle Ages (400-1000). A period characterized by illiteracy, war, brutality and superstition as many historians would regard it. This period was marked with economic decline, political, religious, and social crisis in the Roman Empire. By the end of that period, manorialism became the predominant social and economic system in the Central and Western Europe. The entire Europe had a wave of conversion from barbarianism to Christianity. After the migrations of the Germanic and the Slavic people, there was the arrival of new people in Europe. The new people that were the Avars and the Bulgarians killed some of the indigenous people and merged with others, to form new ethnic groups (McKitterick 2001)..

The High Middle Ages (1000-1200), after the universalization of the Christian religion it acted as the bonding institution. There was independence from feudal rule because of the rising towns, and the guilds system perpetuated the Christian and the medieval spirit of economic life, which among other principles insisted on collective entity, minimized the motive of gaining profits and strongly disapproved competition that is unregulated. Christian values and efforts pervaded literature and scholarships. There was the spread of Christianity beyond the old Roman Empire and increase of literacy during this period (Spielvogel 2011).

Late Middle Ages (1300-1500), followed the High Middle Ages. This is a period during which the growth and prosperity of Europe came to a standstill. There were a series of famines and plagues such as the great famine of (1317-1317) and Black Death (1346-1351). These reduced the population to almost a half of the previous population before the calamities. As a result of the dramatic loss of population, the price of labor rose and the value of land declined. The poor lot increased and as a result of them demanding more from the upper classes, there were uprisings by the peasants. This was a period of misery when even the great Hundred Years War occurred. The church also experienced profound misery during that era (Spielvogel 2011).

In every dark cloud, there is a silver lining. When these entire crises occurred positive developments occurred. Wars were the forces that necessitated taxes, the shortage of labor due to the plague led to technological innovation to save on labor, chiefly the invention of the printing press. The overseas explorations led to the discovery of the New World.