Timeline Middle Ages

The late Middle Ages

1453 BCE

The late Middle Ages are best known for not being such a pleasant time to live in Europe. The Black Death in 1347 killed about 50 million people in Europe, about 60% of the population at the time. This was also a time of famine, with worsening weather cycles, and even before the Black Death, severe famines occurred in the 14th century. You can see here that the Hundred Years' War.

Most of the Byzantine Empire

1453 BCE

Most of the Byzantine Empire has now been taken over by the Ottomans, save Constantinople, Constantinople eventually falls in 1453. This map right over here is roughly what Europe looked like in the 14th century. So this period right over here, Constantinople falls in 1453 ending the Byzantine Empire formally.

The late Middle Ages.

1300 BCE

then roughly in the year 1300, historians consider ourselves moving into the late Middle Ages. So you can see here in this map by the late Middle Ages, Europe is starting to resemble the Europe that we know in later periods once we get into the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration. By this point, much of the Iberian Peninsula has been reclaimed from Muslim rule although you still have Muslim rule in Granada

the Crusaders themselves sack Constantinople

1204 BCE

And that really becomes significant in 1204 when the Crusaders themselves sack Constantinople, take Constantinople from the Byzantines, so that's in some ways the point of no return. The Byzantines are eventually able to take Constantinople back but this is really the beginning of the end for the Byzantine Empire.

The high Middle Ages

1105 BCE

Let us now move on to the late Middle Ages. So here we are in the year 1135 on our timeline, which would be appropriate, let's see this is 1100, that would be 1150-1135, which would mean we would be here. And you could already see some interesting things on this map, the Holy Roman Empire under Charlemagne is now divided, the western third is now the Kingdom of France, the eastern 2/3 is still considered the Romano-Germanic Empire or the Holy Roman Empire.

The Crusades

1096 BCE

And so that's where you see the Crusades beginning in 1096 at the very end of the 11th century. You can see the multiple crusades that occur over roughly the next 200 years. And the Crusaders were trying to reclaim land from the Muslims and especially the Holy Land, much of which is below the map where you can't quite see it over here. But it turns out that when they are able to reclaim some of that land they don't give it back to the Byzantines.

Great Schism

1054 BCE

Now one of the things that has happened by the time we look at this map and it's not clear by looking on the map is that you have in 1054 the Great Schism between the Latin Church centered at Rome and the Eastern Greeks Church centered at Constantinople and we have a whole series of videos on that and all of the factors that led to it. But as we get to the time of this map one of the things that the high Middle Ages is most known for, the Great Schism or the East-West Schism.

The title of Holy Roman Emperor

962 BCE

The title of Holy Roman Emperor, or Emperor of the Romans, did not continue with the descendants of Charlemagne, but in 962 Otto, who was King of Germany, was crowned Holy Roman Emperor again.

The early Middle Ages.

814 BCE

The early Middle Ages. Now the Eastern Roman Empire, which claims to be the Roman Empire as its capital in Constantinople under Justinian's rule, has a bit of the last hora and is able to reclaim the Italian peninsula, thus being able to reclaim part of the territory that was formally part of the Western Roman Empire, some territory in North Africa that cannot be seen on this map. But most of Western Europe is under the control of the various Germanic kingdoms.

The fall of the Western Roman Empire.

493 BCE

the Western Roman Empire. So as you can see here, this map is referring to the time period between 476 when Odoacer takes over Rome and 493. And you can see the Eastern Roman Empire is still here but the Western Roman Empire is now fragmented amongst many Germanic kingdoms, you have the Visigoths, you have the Franks, you have the Kingdom of Odoacer.

King of Germany

483 BCE

who was King of Germany, was crowned Holy Roman Emperor again. There were Holy Roman Emperors until 1806. Another important feature of the High Middle Ages, which can be seen on this map, is Islam, which appeared in the 7th and 8th centuries by the Arabs and was able to conquer much of the Middle East. In the Middle East, Persia, North Africa, which you cannot see on this map, and much of what we now consider Spain.