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There were huge changes in the social structure in western Europe during the middle ages. There was some development in the East, but it was not as great because the government was more stable.

The middle ages started out with territories that had been Roman being dominated by the leadership of Germanic tribes that had taken them over. Initially, Romans and Germanic peoples did not mix much, and in fact in many places it was illegal for members of the two groups to intermarry. Romans spoke Latin and obeyed Roman laws. Germanic people spoke Germanic languages and obeyed Germanic laws. In some places the two were geographically separated and members of one group had to obey laws of the area (France, for example). In other places, the two legal structures applied simultaneously (Spain, for example). At the same time, literacy, art, roads, and so on, were in a rather chaotic state.

As the leadership of nations began to regard themselves as owning fixed property and having responsibilities, things changed rapidly. Schools became important; the oldest extant school, King's School in Canterbury, dates from 597. Even the Viking raids did not put an end to the rise of literacy; several English schools survived Viking occupation of decades, and in the end, the Vikings were building schools themselves.

In fact, if we take the end of the Viking Age rather arbitrarily at 1200 AD, then we can say that there were schools in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland during the Viking Age. And there were several universities open too. And by the end of the middle ages, there were over seventy universities, many of which were granting their own secular degrees, without control of the church. In addition over seventy of the primary and secondary schools opened in Europe during the middle ages remain open to this day; there must have been rather a lot of them.

The feudal system, which developed from a need for mutual protection, slowly declined. At the end of the middle ages, it was virtually nonexistent in some countries, such as England, Wales and Scotland. What replaced it was partly a rise in mercantilism, which included dominance of the North Sea and Baltic regions by the Hanseatic League, which, though not a feudal organization, was powerful enough to dominate countries. In the South, there arose powerful families of merchants, such as the Medici family, which opened banks and had powerful connections crossing the boundaries of countries.

The arts went through periods of rapid growth, beginning with emulation of older Roman styles in the Romanesque, and moving on to the lofty buildings of the Gothic Era, with their impressive stained glass, for example. Music developed from organum, in which everyone sang pretty much the same thing, but pitched differently, to counterpoint, in which each person sang his own thing, as it were. And this really is both a reflection of and a driving force for the idea that a person is an individual with his or her own private importance. Music reflects society, and perhaps society reflects the music.

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15y ago

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