Introduction

Medieval castle in Spain
Image: Alcázar of Segovia, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Middle Ages are a period of European history that began with the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 A.D. and ended with the beginning of the Renaissance in the 15th century.

During the medieval period , Christianity and Islam became popular religions. It was also a time during which castles and cathedrals were built throughout Europe.

During the Middle Ages migration, wars and plagues killed millions of people. Feudalism emerged in which peasants worked on the land that noblemen owned.

Scholars often called this era the Dark Ages because they believed there was little progress during this thousand-year period.