history: middle ages

For many people, this was an exciting time of knights, kings, and queens.

It is also an age of amazing architecture.

However, this was also a difficult time when many people were forced to live in near slave conditions under the feudal system.

Two of the world's major religions, Christianity and Islam, began to have great influence over both nations and the lives of the people who lived in them.  The Roman Empire was transformed and a new system of religious government became powerful in Europe, the Holy Roman Empire.

Once this period of history was known as "the Dark Ages" because many of the advancements in human culture, philosophy, science, and mathematics that had been made during the Classical Period were forgotten.  However, this doesn't credit many advancements and achievements that came about during this time period, and therefore it is now more commonly known as the Middle Ages.

By far the most difficult challenge for humanity came in the form of a disease known as the Plague, or Black Death.  The Plague claimed the lives of over 75 million people.  In some places over 70% of the population died from the disease.