The Light in the Dark Ages

The Dark Ages were not actually dark. Some people believe that it was dark because of the fall of many empires. There was a lot more positives than negatives though. Advancements in many things occurred during this time. Some advancements were in writing and math. Universities were also created during this time. I am sure that after you read the following, you will think that the Dark Ages were not so dark after all. A reason that some people believe the Dark Ages were dark was that a lot of great empires collapsed. An example of this was the Frankish Empire. Charlamagne was the ruler of this empire and died in 814 C.E. When he died, there were no strong leaders to take his position. His three sons had to take over his position. They then split the Frankish Empire into three parts. The three sons could not maintain the power of the Frankish Empire because they were under constant attack. This eventually led to the collapse of the empire. This was the case for many people and empires. This could be a reason that some people think the Dark Ages were dark. One of the many reasons why the Dark Ages were not dark was that an advancement in writing happened. Charlamagne was the leader of the Frankish Empire. Charlamagne was a great believer in education, scholars, and collected and copied ancient Roman manuscripts. For this reason, he created a type of writing called Carolingian Minuscule. This type of writing became the main style of writing in Europe because of how easy it could be recognized. This made it easier for people to communicate. Carolingian Minuscule is the basis for print today. Charlamagne also started capitalizing letters and doing spaces between words. Without this, reading print could be very hard. This is only one reason the Dark Ages were not dark. Another reason the Dark Ages were not dark was the advancement of math. A few of these things included algebra and the decimal point system. Another thing was the

Bibliography: Morris, Neil. The Atlas of the Medieval World. Chicago: Peter Bedrick Books, 1999. Rice, Earle Jr. Life During the Middle Ages. San Diego: Lucent Books, 1998. “Top Ten Reasons the Dark Ages Were Not Dark.” Listverse. Online. http://listverse.com. 2011. This is an example of Carolingian minuscule. Charlamagne (the king of the Franks) created this style of writing. This style is the basis of print today. This is a picture of the University of Bologna. It was the first university in Europe. When this opened in 1088, they taught art, law, medicine, and theology. It was also the first university to give out degrees. This is a spherical trigonometry. It was developed by Greek mathematicians. This is used today to measure outer space. It allows us to measure where stars are and predict when eclipses are going to occur.