Middle Ages Vs Dark Ages

The Medieval Times, also known as the “Dark Ages” is criticized as a time of stagnation, where learning and technological advancement were halted by both feudalism and manorialism. During the Medieval Times, Europe pales in comparison to other civilizations and empires. While Europe’s Dark Ages were a time of ignorance, China had invented several revolutionary items such as clocks, and Medieval Islam had a “Golden Age” in which scientific discoveries advanced greatly. Europe was virtually the only troubled society at the time, and generalizing the rest of the world based on Europe is inaccurate and ignores the achievements of the rest of the world. Therefore, the “Dark Ages” is not an accurate title for the Medieval Times. During the Medieval …show more content…
These weapons transformed wars, disabling knights’ armor with powerful speeding bullets, breaking down large defensive walls, and enabling armies to damage large groups at a time. Not only that, but the locations of battles had to be changed because of weapons with gunpowder, completely changing strategy and increasing casualties. Gunpowder continues to be used in modern times, in similar ways that they were used in China, such as fireworks shows and powerful ballistic weapons. Printing was also a revolutionary invention which allowed information to spread more quickly than it would by spoken word. The first method of printing was developed in China during the Tang (618-906 CE) and the Song (960–1279 CE) Dynasties. By comparison, the European printing press was invented in 1440 to 1450 CE. Historians have concluded that the first appearance of woodblock printing had appeared around 600 CE, and was most likely inspired by bronze seals used to imprint wax on official documents. Later on, Bi Sheng, a common man experienced in the art of block printing, created “movable type …show more content…
While Medieval Europe was struggling with foreign threats and invaders, Medieval Islam bloomed in a “Golden Age” of learning and education. Astronomy was not only important to Muslims for religious purposes, but for practical purposes as well. Astronomy was used to create a lunar calendar and telling time, allowing them to pray at the proper times. It was also used in navigation, assisting Muslims on a pilgrimage to Mecca on long-distance trips, and helping them orient themselves properly (facing Mecca) as they pray. Tools such as the astrolabe were created to improve the study of astronomy, and many Muslim scholars, such as Al-Tusi and Al-Farghani wrote books which also assisted European astronomers such as Galileo and Copernicus, giving them vital information and research which lead to the correction of false information. While Chemistry was not a field study exclusively, it was a large part of several other important fields, such as metal-working, ceramics, pharmacy and dyeing. While studying chemistry for the individual improvement of each of these fields, the process of distillation (the process of purifying a liquid through both heating and cooling) was discovered. This lead to many other important advancements in modern times, an example being water treatment and purification. The properties of acids and alkalies were also discovered, leading to the eventual creation of the PH scale, which is