Q&A: "Were The Dark Ages Actually A Time of Cultural Regression Outside of Europe?"

Q&A: "Were The Dark Ages Actually A Time of Cultural Regression Outside of Europe?"

originally composed January 14, 2019

Question: "Were the Dark Ages actually a time of cultural regression outside Europe?"

Defining and then measuring culture is tricky. For this answer, let’s say that the hallmarks of a civilization include economic prosperity, trade and material wealth, urbanization, safety/security (no invading armies, no rebellions, lower rates of starvation, etc), scientific achievements and prowess, advanced construction and production (be it huge monuments, state-of-the-art boats, or whatever), and artistic achievement.

So, based on that measure:

No.

Actually, while the eurocentric viewpoint teaches us that after the Fall of Rome—the Western part, containing Italy, France, England etc—marked a sudden decline in science, culture, commerce, art, that simply doesn't hold true across the entire globe.

The Visigoths, under Alaric I, sacked the Eternal City in 410 AD, leading to a chronic state of decline in Western Europe that only marginally began to turn around with the coronation of Charlemagne as ‘Emperor of the Romans’ some 400 years later. And even with that, it took until the turn of the millennium for any real recuperation to take hold. But before then, pretty much all signs of civilization stop on a global scale, the narrative (unintentionally) goes. People lived worse than their forefathers did. Many have dubbed this set of centuries “The Dark Ages.”

In areas other than the western half of Europe, though, this type of bleak collapse simply didn’t happen, or occurred much less severely. Of course, empires rise and fall at different times for different reasons yielding different outcomes.

First, let’s look at the other half of what was once Rome. By the 5th century, the Western Roman Empire collapsed, leading to chaos and cultural regression. A lot of people don’t realize that half of the former empire remained largely in tact. In the east, “Rome” remained an empire for literally 1,000 more years (though its grandeur and power declined steadily over that timespan).

Based in Constantinople (now called Istanbul), the capital of “Rome” (which no longer contained the city of Rome) saw over an empire which included what is now Greece, Bulgaria, Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Israel, Cyprus, and more. Commerce and culture continued to thrive. Constantinople boasted a massive population rivaling that of Rome at its peak.

Interestingly, the Eastern Roman Empire (often called the Byzantine Empire) consisted largely of Greek people who spoke the Greek language, yet called themselves Rome and Romans until the nation’s total collapse in 1453.

Persia—the archnemesis of ancient Rome—changed rulers roughly around the time when Rome started to slip, yet managed to hold onto its territories and continue to thrive through their rival’s demise. Even after the Muslim invasions, Iran merely integrated Islamic elements into its already rich culture. So while technically the throne changed hands a few times, it did not effect the people of Persia in such a way that things fell apart. Life went on, and went on pretty well (comparatively).

By the 7th century, Islam sprang up in Arabia and spread like a wildfire to most of the Middle East, North Africa, intruding even into Europe. The Arab conquerors swept through Spain and Sicily and advanced all the way to southern France. Though they did not conquer France, Spain and other areas remained Islamic for centuries.

In the domain of Islam, science actually flourished at first: the fields of astronomy, navigation, and mathematics come to mind. Baghdad, among other cities, became a city of great cultural and intellectual achievement. The Muslim world had several large cities, an economy that included trade with distant places, and scientific development.

Look west to the Americas: 1,000 years prior to the arrival of Columbus, the Mayan civilization dawned in Central America. Like the ancient Greeks, the Mayans never had one unified empire. Instead, many different city-states with separate governments but similar customs thrived. Again, the Mayans showed the hallmarks of civilization and culture: fairly large urban areas, trade networks, massive feats of construction like pyramids, scientific knowledge (developing a calendar more accurate than the Gregorian), and a rich set of customs.

Slightly before the collapse of Rome, the Chinese Empire began to crumble into smaller states. Thus, the glory of one gigantic ancient empire was shattered in China much like in Europe—though Chinese civilization seems to have recuperated much faster. China had its share of large cities, economic/material wealth, and profound thinkers, artists, and inventors.

Not everywhere sustained its earlier grandeur though. India’s enormous Gupta Empire (akin to Western civilization’s Rome or the Han dynasty of the Chinese) collapsed roughly around the time that Rome fell. The once unified subcontinent fragmented into smaller states. Again though, like in China, Indian culture seems to have at least partially revived itself faster than in the West.

Ethiopia bore the Kingdom of Aksum in the 1st century AD, which began to decline in many ways shortly after Rome’s collapse. Once a bustling commercial country which traded extensively with others via the sea, as the 1st millennium went on its political power receded until by the dawn of Islam the kingdom only controlled the highlands—no more coast. So it can be said that the Ethiopians of that age saw a fair degree of cultural regression and economic decay.

Peripheral areas of major civilizations usually absorbed some of its culture, ideas, items, etc. Southeast Asia, for example, soaked up elements of Indian culture and traded together, with increasing Chinese influence as time went on. Thus when the larger civilizations waned, it took a toll on these somewhat ‘orbital’ peoples. Again, a generalization; just trying to summarize things. The Horn of Africa, Arabia, Ukraine, much of Central Europe, Southeast Asia, Korea—all these areas interacted with the major powers in influential ways, sometimes benefiting from their strength (trade, alliances, science and new ideas permeating into their land), sometimes benefiting from their demise (e.g. invading pieces of the once-great states).

For the most part, sub-Saharan Africa, Siberia, Australia, and most of the Western hemisphere unfortunately had little culture to regress from. Though this is a debatable statement (as of course all peoples possess notable cultures), generally these regions didn’t have advanced societies to begin with in that era.

Keep in mind that even in the most ‘advanced’ areas of the world back then, people still lagged behind the modern world in innumerable ways. Some civilizations had some large cities. The biggest never contained a population above one million, and those were few and far between. The world’s largest city circa 500 AD was Constantinople, containing somewhere around 400,000 to 500,000 people. Even if you go by the higher estimates of the biggest city on Earth back then, it still had fewer citizens than Albuquerque or Portland, Oregon today. Meanwhile, the vast majority of people still toiled in rural areas in small villages producing just enough to survive.

Half of kids died by age 5. Starvation was endemic and an illness almost certainly meant death. Travel beyond the next village over was reserved only for royalty, traveling merchants or sailors, and military (for the most part). In most places, perpetual war stayed the norm—only a few lucky lands managed to stave off invaders from marching into their heartland for a few generations or quelling rebellions (like Rome did for several centuries). Virtually no one anywhere had civil rights—certainly not women.

Also, not many people could read. Direct accounts of ancient ‘culture’ only reaches us through writing, and since only the very rich and/or privileged could read, we only get their side of the story 99% of the time. Mass literacy didn’t occur until the 16th century. The arrival of the printing press meant literature could be produced on a large scale, and the Protestants during the Reformation believed everyone should be able to read the Bible themselves and thus advocated for mass literacy. Prior to that, conditions could’ve been much worse for the average person than the already usually grim accounts left by our predecessors…