Did the middle ages began when the roman empire collapsed?

Answer 1

yes

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Yes, sort of. The Roman Empire did not collapse all at once.

The Middle Ages started during a collapse of the West Roman Empire that went on for well over 100 years, at least. We might even take the point of view that the collapse of the West Roman Empire started in the 3rd century and continued until the 7th, with the Middle Ages beginning at about middle of that period.

The collapse of the West Roman Empire either started with or was preceded by a chaotic period called the Crisis of the Third Century. Though that was followed by a brief recovery, the recovery was only temporary. Internal conflict went on more or less unabated, and Rome continued to decline rapidly.

Germanic tribal groups began invading in the 4th century and began carving their own kingdoms out of the West Roman Empire. This process lasted through the entire 5th century and into the 6th,

Simplistic history would have us believe that the Roman Empire fell apart in 476, or some such date, but certainly before the end of the 5th century. Among the things simplistic history fails to take into account is that the Roman Senate continued to operate in Italy during the 6th century and into the 7th, with our last surviving record of it dating 603 AD. Also, in many places, the Germanic groups maintained and respected Roman law until well into the 7th century.

Meanwhile, the East Roman Empire did not collapse, but lasted until 1453. Many historians use the date of the final fall of the East Roman Empire as the end of the Middle Ages. We call that medieval Roman Empire the Byzantine Empire, but they always called themselves the Empire of the Roman People.