The Middle Ages are often equated with the millennium from about 500 to about 1500. The term refers primarily to Europe and the Mediterranean region as a cultural area and can therefore only be applied to non-European history to a limited extent, although in historical research specific historical periods are also referred to as the respective Middle Ages with regard to the cultural areas of India, China and Japan. The term Middle Ages is especially relevant for the Christian-Latin influenced part of Europe, since there was a political and cultural break in late antiquity. But also the Byzantine-Greek and Islamic-Arabic areas are essential for the understanding of the Middle Ages, since all three areas were in a reciprocal relationship.
Historical scholarship still debates how to temporally delineate the Early Middle Ages from Late Antiquity and the High Middle Ages. With the end of antiquity and the beginning of the early Middle Ages, a period began that was often regarded as a rather "dark period" in older research. This already began with the emergence of the term "Middle Ages" (medium aevum) in humanism and finally consolidated with the historical model of the Enlightenment in the 18th century, in which this form of periodization became predominant and historical processes were interpreted in a certain sense (a "middle period" between antiquity and modern times). Thus a deliberate devaluation was made from the outset. The early Middle Ages in particular were regarded as a "dark epoch" compared to Antiquity and the Renaissance. This view of history was still influential into the 20th century. In modern research, however, the problem of such sweeping judgments is pointed out and a more differentiated view is pleaded for.
Various dates and events have been proposed for the beginning of the early Middle Ages from different perspectives:
- 306-337: Constantine's reign, Constantinian turn in religious policy
- c. 375: The Huns invade east-central Europe; this is considered the beginning of the migration of peoples and the resulting transformation of western and central Europe.
- 476: The last Western Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus, is deposed by Odoacer.
- 486/87: The Merovingian king Clovis I defeats Syagrius, the last representative of Roman rule in Gaul.
- 529: Benedict of Nursia founds the Abbey of Montecassino in southern Italy, which becomes the cradle of medieval monasticism. In the same year, the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I bans the Platonic Academy in Athens.
- 565: Justinian, who had sought the restoration of Roman rule in the West, dies.
- 568: With the invasion of Italy by the Lombards, the last successor empire of importance for the early Middle Ages is founded on Roman soil.
- 632: The spread of Islam begins.
The early dating is no longer represented in recent research. Instead, the period from about 500 to the middle of the 7th century is now regarded as a fluid transitional period from late antiquity to the early Middle Ages with overlaps. It is taken into account that this process varied greatly from region to region and that (to varying degrees) ancient elements were preserved. Often, the development in Late Antiquity from the 4th century onwards is also included in the consideration, insofar as important preconditions for the later development of Western Europe were created in this phase. This is because Late Antiquity was a transitional period that anticipated individual characteristics of the Middle Ages. While the older research, oriented on classicism, emphasized a break between the antiquity, which was considered exemplary, and the supposedly "dark" Middle Ages ("catastrophe theory"), today's research therefore emphasizes the aspects of continuity and gives them greater weight. The multitude of current publications shows the clear increase of research interest in the transitional period from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages, whereby the research approaches vary greatly.
In recent research, the events in the Eurasian region in the first millennium - the emergence of the late Roman Empire with all the associated upheavals, the "migration of peoples," the conflicts with Persia, the emergence of the Islamic world and the Romano-Germanic world in the west of the former empire - are increasingly viewed in a temporal and spatial context. In this context, a model of the period from the 3rd to the 9th century, referred to as "long Late Antiquity," emerged and is advocated by a minority of researchers. It is now undisputed that Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages should not be understood as rigid chronological entities and that rather regionally different transitional periods should be taken into account. In recent research, early medieval Europe is increasingly no longer viewed in isolation, but is embedded in a global historical context.
The end of the Early Middle Ages and the beginning of the High Middle Ages are also not fixed to any single date. Cornerstones are considered to be the final disintegration of the Carolingian Empire and the formation of the successor empires around and after 900, the adaptation of the Western Roman imperial idea by Emperor Otto I in 962 (including the following development, which led from the Eastern Frankish Empire to the later so-called Holy Roman Empire), the end of the Ottonian imperial house (1024) or generally the period around 1050. The outline approaches in German-speaking research are mainly oriented towards Central European dynastic history; in English, French and Italian research, other points of view are in the foreground. This is related to the different scholarly traditions. In Great Britain, for example, the Norman conquest of England in 1066 is considered a caesura. From the Byzantine point of view, the year 1054, which marked the beginning of the Oriental Schism between Rome and Constantinople, and the conquest of Anatolia by Turkish nomads beginning in 1071 are important watersheds. The dating approaches therefore vary in the specialist literature, even in the "European"-oriented overviews, between ca. 900 and the middle of the 11th century.
