Everyday Life in the Middle Ages
Undoubtedly a Hard Struggle
Good Times, Bad Times
Generally speaking the higher the social and economic status of individuals and their respective families the better their standard of living was. However as mentioned below there were factors that made everyday the life in the Middle Ages tougher than the majority of lives in our contemporary world.
Everyday the life in the Middle Ages was different and in the majority of cases more difficult than everyday life in modern times. The lower levels of economic activity and the much more primitive forms of technology meant that even the richest people in the Middle Ages had relatively few luxuries and limited opportunities for education or indeed travel.
Short Lives
Everyday the life in the Middle Ages was often short as well as been at the mercy of the forces of nature. To a very great extent even the richest people in the Middle Ages were reliant upon good weather and therefore good harvests. Poor harvests meant that the poorest people were actually at increased risk of starving to death.
Life expectancy was generally low because there was not enough medicines or medical knowledge available to keep people alive. What we would consider to minor ailments or medical conditions frequently proved to be fatal in the Middle Ages. Minor infections, small wounds, and even childbirth frequently killed people.
Religion, the Black Death, And Slow Progress
Perhaps because nature could wipe out large sections of local communities as well as individuals people in the Middle Ages tended to take a greater interest in religion, although during the Middle Ages admitting that you were an atheist would have got most people executed. Christianity was the dominant religion throughout Central, Eastern, and Western Europe, whilst Islam was the dominant religion in the Middle East during the Middle Ages. This era was of course when the crusades were launched as well as many Jewish communities being attacked.
Perhaps the worst event for everyday the life in the Middle Ages was the Black Death, or bubonic plague that killed at least the third of the population in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. The Black Death killed millions of people, with nobody being safe from its deadly spread.
For the majority of people everyday the life in the Middle Ages was undoubtedly a hard struggle yet towards the end of the epoch life for some people started to get better. For instance in Western Europe the Renaissance began the process of giving more people education as well as improving their understanding of the world. The origins of the capitalist economic system can also be traced back to this period.
Bibliography
Bideleux R and Jeffries I (1998) A History of Eastern Europe – Crisis and Change, Routledge, London
Breuilly J (1998) Nationalism and the State 2nd edition, Manchester University Press, Manchester
Cameron A (1993) The Later Roman Empire AD 284 – 430, Fontana Press, London
Roberts, J.M (1996)- A History of Europe, Penguin, London
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