High Middle Ages vs Early Middle Ages
Middle ages is the period in history which falls between Antiquity and Modern history. Antiquity is considered to end with the fall of Rome in 476AD and Modern history is supposed to begin with 1500AD. The entire millennium in between refers to Middle Ages. This period is also referred to as medieval period. Middle ages in themselves are divided into early middle ages, high middle ages, and end with late middle ages. There are differences in high middle ages and early middle ages that get reflected in all aspects of civilizations.
Early Middle Ages
Middle Ages is essentially the history of Christian and Jewish Europe and describes the period after the fall of Rome and the beginning of Renaissance around 1500AD. Early middle Ages begin with the invasion of Roman Empire by Germanic people that led to the collapse of Roman Empire. This period saw Visigoths settling in Spain, North Africa being captured by Vandals, Italy being ruled by Ostrogoths, and Franks settling in France. Huns formed a European Empire and then collapsed. England was invaded by Angels and Saxons and this was the time of King Arthur. Vikings took over Northern France and took over the Mediterranean. In the beginning of the 7th century, Ostrogoths were defeated by Lombards and Eastern Europe came under Slavs. By the beginning of 8th century an Islamic Empire began to form that took over Spain and North Africa.
High middle Ages
High middle Ages began around 1000 AD which was also the time when modern European countries were beginning to take shape. Norman Conquest in 1066 AD saw the traces of modern England, Germany and France. Islamic invaders were pushed out of Spain and kingdoms started to take shape in Poland and Russia. In the Eastern Mediterranean, which was until now ruled by Romans, Seljuks gained supremacy with the battle of Manzikert in 1071 AD. Throughout High Middle Ages, people fought to free themselves of Islamic rule and to get to Christianity. These wars are referred to as crusades. Though the first crusade was successful in reclaiming Jerusalem, these crusades became weaker successively with people finally giving up on crusades.
Apart from these historical differences, there were differences in the level of knowledge and advancement of the society. Most of the discoveries were made in the high middle ages and the Europeans did not know about many things in Early Middle Ages. Systems of governance changed quite decisively in the two ages. The most notable social change came about in the form of towns that slowly emerged to take place of self sufficient manors.
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In brief: • Medieval period has been divided by historians into three distinct phases known as early middle ages, high middle ages and late middle ages • Beginning of early middle ages is taken to be the time when Roman Empire fell in 400AD. It continued till 1000 when High Middle ages began. • Both early and high middle ages are characterized by invasions and collapse of Empires.
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