1. The ‘Middle’ Ages?

The term ‘Media aetas’ or ‘Middle age’ was first used by the poet Petrarch (1304–74), and later by intellectuals who wished to emphasize their own achievements agains a background of that ‘darker age’. In fact, the period from 500 to 1500 saw many and diverse transformations of late antique institutions. The Germanic tribes of the Ostragoths, Franks, Burgundians, and Visigoths transformed the Roman Empire through often violent interactions; the Mediterranean Empire was transformed by the spread of Islam in the 7th century; and the 12th and 13th centuries saw a remarkable consolidation of political units and increased European integration. The famine of 1314–17 and the Black Death (1347–52) resulted in a loss of half the population and the remaking of the European economy and the next century saw the effect of the Ottoman challenge as well as the beginnings of exploration in Africa and the Americas.