Brief Summary of the Late Middle Ages

The middle ages are, as they are often called, quite “Dark.” Corrupt and disorganized political activity brews with gruesome physical suffering, such as famine and plague, to create a terrifying world for its inhabitants. Poor harvests and natural disasters wiped out the food supply, stopping economics, and starving the population. Immediately afterwards, the plague arrives, diminishing the population even further. Terrifying recounts of this disease were written everywhere while a third of Europe’s people are wiped out. Then, not a moment too soon, the Hundred Year’s War begins, taking most of the nobility, and the working men, which destroys the noble class, and forces women to take jobs such as priests, which is highly disliked by critics. During all this chaos, however, the life of the people must continue, and it reflects the mood of Europe very well. Marriage was very restricted, and divorce did not exist; the church was corrupt, and the people doubted their religion – the only thing keeping them together, and sane. Nobles, who were supposed to be gracious and dignified, committed crimes for lack of better things to do. All this led to the people being outraged that their government cannot prevent all this terror, and revolts began to dot the continent, to the point that governments were being greatly weakened by the incidents. All this shows that the feudal system in the middle ages was now out of date, and that a new government was needed to institute peace within the people. However, rulers were far from willing to undergo such reform, and many revolutions followed in the years after.