Middle Ages Signals That the Term Paper

Technology and education were booming, as inventions of the cannon and gunpowder changed the face of war, compasses and clocks improved tremendously, and universities taught advanced mathematics in a new setting. These advances could only mean an introduction to a new age where war became civilized, everyday life became easier and books and education changed the meaning of the phrase "upper-class." Music and the fine arts flourished with the advent of new musical instruments and polyphony, and new kinds of paint for visual artists.

Large nations had been formed out of the smaller city-states, consolidating small kingdoms in Italy and England. France and England's Hundred Years' War put land and taxes into the hands of royalty. But the people were growing dissatisfied with the Church which had instituted "papal indulgences," leading the wealthy to become more corrupt as they could purchase forgiveness. Pope Martin V replaced a series of popes, who loved to go to war using the Churches' money, and the legitimacy of the papacy was questioned, paving the way for widespread theological reformation and Martin Luther's split with Catholicism.

The Middle Ages ending date is in dispute.Perhaps that is because it ended with a whimper, rather than a bang. No one realized how much a plague and the rise of nations could and would change economics, politics and religion.

Citations

Britannica. 2001. The End of Europe's Middle Ages. University of Calgary, Canada. 1. Available at http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/endmiddle/.

Fiero, Gloria. K. 2002. Medieval Europe and the World Beyond. The Humanisic Tradition, Book 2. Boston: McGraw Hill. 177 pp.

Kagan, Donald; Ozment, Steven, Turner, Frank M. 1993. The Western Heritage: Since 1300, eighth edition, Prentice Hall.

Rosenwein, Barbara H. 2001. A Short History of the Middle Ages. Broadview Press.

Treadgold, Warren. 1997. A History of the Byzantine State and Society, first edition, Stanford University Press.

Warren Treadgold. 1997. A History of the Byzantine State and Society, first edition, Stanford University Press.

Britannica. 2001. The End of Europe's Middle Ages. University of Calgary, Canada. 1. Available at http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/endmiddle/.

Gloria. K Fiero,. 2002. Medieval Europe and the World Beyond. The Humanisic Tradition, Book 2. Boston: McGraw Hill. P. 142.

Britannica, Ibid.

Donald Kagan, Steven Ozment, Frank M.Turner, (1993). The Western Heritage: Since 1300, eighth edition, Prentice Hall.

Barbara H......