What caused the Middle Ages?

Answer 1

The Middle Ages came about partly because of a decline in literacy and power of the Roman government, starting with the Crisis of the Third Century. These happened in turn largely because of a disastrous series of civil wars that took place during that century, and ongoing wars with the Persians.

Another factor leading to the Middle Ages was the division of the Roman Empire into two related empires, the Roman Empire of the West, and the Roman Empire of the East, which was first done in 286 and became permanent in 395. When the Western Empire was attacked by a series of Germanic hordes, the Eastern Empire was too busy to help.

The attempts of Diocletian and Constantine to fix things repaired things a bit, but by that time, the Romans were too dependent on German soldiers to control their own destiny. Piece after piece of the Western Empire fell into the control of Germanic kings who established their own kingdoms within the Empire, and more often than not, these kings only gave lip service to their position in the empire.

Many historians have dated the Middle Ages to the year 476, when the last Emperor of the West was deposed, and event referred to as the Fall of Rome.

The social commercial and literary life of the Empire of the West pretty much collapsed, and did not recover until the Middle Ages were very much under way.

There are links to articles on the Decline of the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages below.