The Dark Ages...How Dark Were They, Really?: Crash Course World History #14

John Green teaches you about the so-called Dark Ages, which it turns out weren't as uniformly dark as you may have been led to believe. While Europe was indeed having some issues, many other parts of the world were thriving and relatively enlightened. John covers European Feudalism, the cultural blossoming of the Islamic world, and the scientific and artistic advances in China, all during these "Dark Ages." Along the way, John will raise questions about the validity of Europe's status as a continent, reveal the best and worst years of his life, and frankly state that science and religion were once able to coexist.

Hi there my name’s John Green; this is Crash
Course World History and today we’re going

to talk about the Dark Ages,
possibly the most egregious Eurocentrism in

all of history,

which is really saying something.

(We’re Europe! The Prime Meridian Runs Through
us; We’re in the Middle of Every Map; and

We Get To Be a Continent Even Though Were
Not a Continent.)

But let’s begin today with a pop quiz:

What was the best year of your life, and what
was the worst year?

Mr. Green, Mr. Green: Best 1994, Worst 1990.

Oh, me from the past. It gets so much better,
and also so much worse.

For worst year I’m gonna go with 2001; best
year 2006.

Alright now it’s your turn, dear pupils:
share your best and worst years in comments

during the intro.

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Right, so what you will quickly find is that
your worst year was someone else’s best

year.

So, too, with history.

The period between 600 and 1450 CE is often
called the Middle Ages in Europe because it

came between the Roman Empire—assuming you
forget the Byzantines—and the beginning

of the Modern Age.

And it’s sometimes called the Dark Ages,
because it was purportedly unenlightened.

But was the age so dark?

Depends on what you find depressing.

If you like cities and great poetry, then
the Dark Ages were indeed pretty dark in Europe.

But if like me your two favorite things are
Not Dying From Wars and not dying from anything

else,

the Dark Ages actually weren’t that bad—

at least until the plague came in the 14th
century.

And meanwhile, outside of Europe,

the Dark Ages were truly an Age of Enlightenment.But
we’ll get boring Europe out of the way first.

Let’s go to the Thought Bubble.

Medieval Europe had less trade, fewer cities,
and less cultural output than the Original

Roman Empire.

London and Paris were fetid firetraps with
none of the planning of sewage management

of places 5,000 years older like Mohenjo Daro
in the Indus Valley Civilization,

let alone Rome.

But with fewer powerful governments,

wars were at least smaller, which is one reason
why Europeans living in Medieval Times—

Uhh THOUGHT BUBBLE I KNEW YOU WERE GOING TO
DO THAT.

Anyway, people in Medieval Times lived slightly
longer—

life expectancy was 30—

than Europeans during the Roman Empire—

when life expectancy was 28.

Instead of centralized governments,

Europe in the middle ages had feudalism, a
political system based on reciprocal relationships

between lords, who owned lots of land, and
vassals,

who protected the land and got to dress up
as knights in exchange for pledging loyalty

to the lords.

The lords were also vassals to more important
lords,

with the most important of all being the king.

Below the knights were peasants

who did the actual work on the land in exchange
for protection from bandits and other threats.

Feudalism was also an economic system,

with the peasants working the land and keeping
some of their production to feed themselves

while giving the rest to the landowner whose
land they worked.

The small scale, local nature of the feudal
system was perfect for a time and place where

the threats to peoples’ safety were also
small scale and local.

But of course,

this system reinforces the status quo –

there’s little freedom and absolutely no
social mobility:

Peasants could never work their way up to
lords,

and they almost never left their villages.

Thanks, Thought Bubble.

One more point that’s very interesting from
a world history perspective:

this devolution from empire to localism has
happened in lots of places at lots of different

times.

And in times of extreme political stress,

like after the fall of the Han dynasty in
China,

power tends to flow into the hands of local
lords who can protect the peasants better

than the state can.

We hear about this a lot in Chinese history
and also in contemporary Afghanistan,

but instead of being called feudal lords,
these landlords are called warlords.

Eurocentrism striking again.

The other reason the Dark Ages are called
Dark

is because Europe was dominated by superstition

and by boring religious debates about like
how many angels can fit on the head of a pin.

And while there’s something to that,

the Middle Ages also saw theologians like
Thomas Aquinas,

who was quite an important philosopher,

And women like Hildegard of Bilgen,

who wrote all this important liturgical music
and also basically invented the genre of the

morality play.

All that noted,

things were certainly brighter in the Islamic
world,

or Dar al Islam.

So when we last left the Muslims,

they had expanded out of their homeland in
Arabia and conquered the rich Egyptian provinces

of the Byzantines and the entire Sassanian
empire,

all in the space of about 100 years.

The Umayyad Dynasty then expanded the empire
west to Spain and moved the capital to Damascus,

because it was closer to the action, empire-wise

but still in Arabia.

That was really important to the Umayyads

because they’d established this hierarchy
in the empire with Arabs like themselves at

the top and in fact

they tried to keep Arabs from fraternizing
with non-Arab muslims throughout the Empire.

This of course annoyed the non-Arab Muslims,

who were like,

“I don’t know if you’re reading the
same Quran we are, but this one says that

we’re all supposed to be equal.”

And pretty quickly the majority of Muslims
weren’t Arabs,

which made it pretty easy for them to overthrow
the Umayyads,

which they did in 750 CE.

Their replacements, the Abb(ah)sids, Abb(uh)sids?

Hold On...

D’ahh, I’m right twice!

Right,

so the Abbasids were from the Abb(ah)si or
the Abb(uh)-see family

which hailed from the Eastern and therefore
more Persian provinces of the Islamic Empire.

The Abbasids took over in 750 and no one could
fully defeat them—

until 1258, when they were conquered by—

wait for it—

the Mongols.

The Abbasids kept the idea of a hereditary
monarchy,

but they moved the capital of the empire to
Baghdad,

and they were much more welcoming of other
non-Arab Muslims into positions of power.

And under the Abbasids,

the Dar al Islam took on a distinctly Persian
cast that it never really lost.

The Caliph now styled himself as a king of
kings,

just like the Achaemenids had,

and pretty soon the caliph’s rule was a
lot more indirect,

just like the original Persians’.

This meant that his control was much weaker,

and by about 1000CE , the Islamic Caliphate
which looks so incredibly impressive on a

map had really descended into a series of
smaller kingdoms,

each paying lip-service to the caliph in Baghdad.

This was partly because the Islamic Empire
relied more and more on soldiers from the

frontier,

in this case Turks,

and also slaves pressed into military service,
in order to be the backbone of their army,

a strategy that has been tried over and over
again and has worked exactly zero times.

Which you should remember if you ever become
an emperor.

Actually our resident historian points out
that that strategy has worked--

if you are the Mongols.

More important than the Persian-style monarchy
that the Abbasids tried to set up was their

openness to foreigners and their ideas.

That tolerance and curiosity ushered in a
golden age of Islamic learning centered in

Baghdad.

The Abbasids oversaw an efflorescence of culture
unlike anything that had been seen since Hellenistic

times.

Arabic replaced Greek not only as the language
of commerce and religion,

but also of culture.

Philosophy, medicine, and poetry were all
written in Arabic

(although Persian remained an important literary
language.)

And Baghdad was the world’s center of scholarship
with its House of Wisdom and immense library.

Muslim scholars translated the works of the
Greek Philosophers including Aristotle and

Plato

as well as scientific works by Hippocrates,
Archimedes

and especially the physician Galen.

And they translated and preserved Buddhist
and Hindu manuscripts that might have otherwise

been lost.

Muslims made huge strides in medicine as well.

One Muslim scholar ibn Sina, wrote the Canon
of Medicine,

which became the standard medical textbook
or centuries in both Europe and the Middle

East.

And the Islamic empire adopted mathematical
concepts from India

such as the zero, a number so fascinating
and beautiful

that we could write an entire episode about
it but instead

I’m just gonna write it a little love poem:

Oh, zero.

Pretty little zero.

They say you’re nothing but you mean everything
to mathematical history

....and me.

Oh it’s time for the Open Letter?

[Scoots to chartreuse throne of pure velvety
awesomeness]

An Open Letter to Science and Religion:

But first lets see what’s in the Secret
Compartment.

Oh, champagne poppers?

Stan, what am I supposed to do with these?

Dear Science and Religion,

You’re supposed to be so irreconcilable
and everything,

but not so much in the Abbasid Empire.

I mean,

Muslim mathematicians expanded math to such
a degree

that we now call the base ten number system

and the symbols we use to denote it “Arabic
numerals.”

And religion was at least part of what pushed
all that learning forward.

Like the great philosopher Ibn Rushd argued
that

the only path to religious enlightenment was
through Aristotelian reasoning.

And Muslim mathematicians and astronomers
developed algebra

partly so they could simplify Islamic inheritance
law.

Plus they made important strides in trigonometry

so that people understand where to turn

when trying to turn toward Mecca.

You were working so well together, science
and religion,

but then like Al and Tipper Gore, just couldn’t
last forever.

Nothing gold can stay in this world, nothing
gold can stay.

Best wishes,
John Green

Baghdad wasn’t the only center of learning
in the Islamic world.

In Spain, Islamic Cordoba became a center
for the arts,

especially architecture.

This is perhaps best exemplified by the Great
Mosque at Cordoba,

built by the Umayyad ruler Abd al-Rahman I
In 785-786 CE.

That’s right, this building,

still standing today and one of the most amazing
mosques in the world,

was built in a year,

whereas medieval cathedrals typically took,
like,

a million years to finish.

The Muslims of Spain were also engineers who
rivaled the Romans.

Aqueducts in Cordoba brought drinkable water
into the city,

and Muslim scholars took the lead in agricultural
science,

improving yields on all kinds of new crops,

allowing Spanish lives to be longer and less
hungry.

Everybody wanted to live in Spain,

even the greatest Jewish philosopher, Maimonides,

wanted to live in Spain, but sadly he was
expelled

and ended up in Alexandria Egypt.

There he wrote his awesomely titled defense
of rationality,

A Guide for the Perplexed.

I’m translating the title, of course, because
the original text was written

…in Arabic.

Meanwhile, China was having a Golden Age of
its own:

The Tang Dynasty made China’s government
more of a meritocracy,

and ruled over 80 million people across four
million square miles.

And they might’ve conquered all of Central
Asia

had it not been for the Abbasids, whom they
fought at

the most important Battle You’ve Never Heard
Of,

the Battle of the Talas River.

This was the Ali-Frasier of the 8th century.

The Abbasids won, which ended up defining
who had influence where with the --

with the Abbasids dominating to the west of
the river and China dominating to the east.

The Tang also produced incredible art that
was traded all throughout Asia.

Many of the more famous sculptures from the
Tang Dynasty feature figures who are distinctly

not-Chinese,

which again demonstrates the diversity of
the empire.

The Tang was also a golden age for Chinese
poetry

with notables like Du Fu and Li Bo plying
their craft,

encouraged by the official government.

And the Song Dynasty, which lasted from 960
to 1258,

kicked even more ass-it’s-not-cursing-if-you’re-talking-about-donkeys.

By the 11th century,

Chinese metalworkers were producing as much
iron

as Europe would be able to produce in the
18th century.

Some of this iron was put to use in new plows,

which enabled agriculture to boom,

thereby supporting population growth.

Porcelain was of such high quality that it
was shipped throughout the world,

which is why we call it “china.”

And there was so much trade going on that
the Chinese ran out of metal for coins,

leading to another innovation–

paper money.

And by the 11th century, the Chinese were
writing down recipes for

a mixture of saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal,

that we now know as gunpowder.

That becomes kind of a big deal in history,

paving the way, as it does,

for modern warfare and arena rock pyrotechnics,
and—

ohhhh, THAT’S WHY.

[Pulls Champagne popper along with a mysterious
lady hand from behind chalkboard.]

Not so dark after all.

Thanks for watching. We’ll see you next
week.

Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan
Muller,

our script supervisor is Danica Johnson. [bazinga!]

The graphics team is ThoughtBubble,

and show is written by my high school history
teacher Raoul Meyer and myself.

Last week’s Phrase of the Week
was also good advice:

Quit Smoking!

If you want to suggest future Phrases of the
Week or guess at this week’s, you can do

so in comments

where you can also ask questions about today’s
video that will be answered by our team of

historians.

If you liked today’s video

please click the thumb’s up button.

You can also follow us on Twitter @thecrashcourse
or on Facebook.

There are links in the video info.

Our writer and historian, Raoul Mayer,

also tweets awesome Crash Course pop quizzes,
so there’s a link to follow him as well,

and me, you know,

because I’m a narcissist.

[music outro]

We get to be a continent,

even though we're not a continent...

[music outro]

We get to be a continent,

even though we're not a continent...

[music outro]

We get to be a continent,

even though we're not a continent...