Why are the dark ages called the dark ages?

Answer 1

it was their insularity to term the centuries after fall of roman 'the dark age' because it was dark only for Europe not for other continents as Asia, it was not dark it was flourished actually

Answer 2

The phrase "Dark Ages" is from Latin "saeculum obscurum", which was coined by Italian historian Caesar Baronius in 1602. (Baronius, Caesar. "Annales Ecclesiastici", Vol. X. Roma, 1602, p. 647.) He was referring to the tenth century and to the lack of documents that have survived from that time. Modern scholar use the phrase to refer to the 500 to 1000 period, or Early Middle Ages. There was a drop in agricultural production and the cities became very small. Classical learning was lost in Western Europe and subsistence agriculture was the norm.

Answer 3

The term "Dark Ages" has been obsolete and out of use since the 1970s. No historian ever uses that term any more. It was never used to describe the whole of the Middle Ages - that is an entirely false idea.

It used to be applied to the period between the collapse of the western Roman Empire and 1066, on the basis that so little was known about that era (due to an acute shortage of documentary and archaeological evidence) that it was "dark" in the sense of mysterious and unknown.

After the mid-1970s more intensive and scientific archaeological techniques meant that more information on the period became available, more finds were made and better knowledge of the period became widespread. The period then became known as the Saxon/Viking era.

Up until very recently this Saxon/Viking era was not included with the Middle Ages, but was treated as completely separate - in Scandinavian countries (where the Vikings originated) it still is so treated today. Today it has become fashionable to include the Saxon/Viking era with the medieval period - some people use the term "Early Medieval".

Many historians, however, still begin the medieval era in 1066 and treat the Saxon/Viking period as separate; others begin the medieval period with the collapse of the western Roman Empire. There is definitely no agreement on this point.

But there is agreement that "Dark Ages" is a term long abandoned and forgotten.

Answer 4

Compared to the Roman Empire which preceded the Dark Ages, or compared to the renaissance which followed the Dark Ages, we find relatively little progress in terms of art, science, political systems, or other innovations during the Dark Ages. During that period of history, most people were concerned only with religious issues, and devoted little thought to anything else. And the religion tended toward fanaticism and intolerance, so that wasn't very enlightening either.

Answer 5

The fall of the Western Empire to the Goths, Vandals, Franks, Bulgars and others destroyed the civilising control of the Romans, with a loss of culture which blotted out the benefits of Roman control and civilisation. Some was retained on the fringes by Arabian regimes, particularly in Spain and Baghdad, which provided the seeds of revival in the later Middle ages.

Answer 6

After the fall of the Mycenaean civilisation in the 12th Century BCE the civilisation had fallen apart and culture dwindled until Greek culture exploded in the 5th and 4th Centuries BCE.

Answer 7

There was little formal education.

Answer 8

it insular for European historians to term the centuries after the fall of the roman empire the dark ages as it was only the christian Europe that was dark but Spain which was Muhammadan HAD a brilliant culture