Charlemagne And The Collapse Of Rome During The Medieval Ages

The medieval period lasted from the 5th century to the 15th century. It began with the collapse of the western, Mediterranean region of the Roman Empire. During this time, diseases like the bubonic plague. The plague spread through fleas that were on rats on ships that carried cargo being traded. Warfare also weakened Europe as a whole causing it to change to a more rural and less populated place. People such as the Goths, Visigoths, Franks, Lombards, Angles, and Saxons also emerged as the dominant people in terms of literacy instead of the Romans. This is a big change because the Romans viewed those groups of Germanic people as barbarians. Romans also had kings and emperors while the Germanic people had elite warriors who ruled above their …show more content…
Charlemagne was the ruler of the Carolingian Empire, which encompassed modern day France, Belgium, the Netherlands, parts of Germany and parts of Italy. Einhard, who was a great admirer of Charlemagne, once wrote, “Charles educated me and gave me his lifelong friendship…made me so devoted to him in life and death that I might be called ungrateful if I were to forget everything he did…his great and magnificent generosity” (26). This shows how Charlemagne tried greatly to earn respect and be liked by his people to help unify his empire. He also used tactics such as creating an embryonic imperial bureaucracy, used standardized weights and measures, and acted like an imperial ruler. He attempted to unify all the Germanic people once again, and made all his subjects convert to Christianity. He went about this aggressively, by stating that anyone who did not get baptized of practice Christian ways would be executed. He was known for his military tactics and his ability to execute his plans precisely. Einhard wrote in his book when he was talking about Charlemagne and the Slavs that, “In a single campaign led by himself, he crushed and conquered them so effectively that they never again dared to refuse his order” (273). Charlemagne used force to help unify his empire, he did not let anyone stand in his way of him getting what he wants. Charlemagne may have been force full when it came to particular …show more content…
During the medieval times, power was wielded through Charlemagne, whom put great efforts into unifying Europe, created an embryonic imperial bureaucracy, used standardized measures and weights, and acted like an imperial ruler. Those actions were in effort of creating a more uniform society in his empire, Carolinglan, and eventually all of Europe. Another way power was wielded during the medieval period was through feudalism. Feudalism is what the individual city states used to have protection. The elite warrior nobles would have vassels, who provided their warrior elites military services in exchange for protection from the outsiders. The vassels then had the serfs who became a part of the land, paid taxes to their vassels who also gave them security. The power during the medieval period was hard to distinguish between the state and the