1st Answer The Dark Ages, while still interchangeable with the Middle Ages, is historically different. The Dark Ages are typically more associated, academically speaking, to the Early Middle Ages which spans from the fall of Rome to about 1000 AD. 2nd Answer This question is subjective, so perhaps it should get a subjective answer.
Both the terms Middle Ages and Dark Ages are misleading, and personally I think neither should be used.
The idea of the Middle Ages came about because the people after the time wanted to compare themselves favorably with ancient Rome, and did so by denigrating the people who had gone before them.
The idea of the Dark Ages is that people were ignorant.
But a study of the periods that get these names tells me, and other people I know who are educated on the subject, that the Middle Ages were not inferior to the Renaissance and might have been less ignorant.
Consider, witch hunts began very late in the Middle Ages and continued to become more common and more deadly through the Renaissance and Reformation.
Take a look at art of the middle ages. Admittedly it is less realistic than the art of Michelangelo, but I can hardly buy the idea that it is really all inferior to the art of the Renaissance in any objective way.
The Church and civil authorities did not try to regulate science in the Middle Ages, but they did in the Renaissance.
We look at the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages through a lens that was strongly colored by the people of the Renaissance, and the effect of this is misunderstanding. Calling the period dark is only a part of this, but it is not helpful.
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The Dark Ages was never a synonym for the Mediaeval period, but used to be applied to the less-well known, unstable time following the end of the Roman Empire and its relatively high standards of living; and possibly ending with the time of the Saxons.
The third period of the Middle Ages was the Late Middle Ages. The first is called the Early Middle Ages or the Dark Age. The second period was the High Middle Ages.
This period is called the Middle Ages, a period of little scholastic advancement in Europe that leads to its other name, the Dark Ages.
The "dark" ages and the "middle" ages.
There were two times called Dark Ages associated with Greece. The first was the Greek Dark Ages, which lasted from 1200 to 800 BC. The other was a period in the Early Middle Ages lasting from about 630 to 800 AD. This is a time in the Early Middle Ages, or Dark Ages, that is sometimes referred to as the Byzantine Dark Ages.
Dark Ages and\or Medieval Ages
It is called the Dark Ages.It is called the Dark Ages.It is called the Dark Ages.It is called the Dark Ages.It is called the Dark Ages.It is called the Dark Ages.It is called the Dark Ages.It is called the Dark Ages.It is called the Dark Ages.
The third period of the Middle Ages was the Late Middle Ages. The first is called the Early Middle Ages or the Dark Age. The second period was the High Middle Ages.
This period is called the Middle Ages, a period of little scholastic advancement in Europe that leads to its other name, the Dark Ages.
The Dark Ages or the Middle Ages
The "dark" ages and the "middle" ages.
There were two times called Dark Ages associated with Greece. The first was the Greek Dark Ages, which lasted from 1200 to 800 BC. The other was a period in the Early Middle Ages lasting from about 630 to 800 AD. This is a time in the Early Middle Ages, or Dark Ages, that is sometimes referred to as the Byzantine Dark Ages.
Dark Ages and\or Medieval Ages
the dark ages
The Middle Ages or the "Dark Ages".
The Renaissance was not labeled the "dark ages". Renaissance means "rebrith" and it came AFTER the "dark ages or the middle ages."
Some people regard the Middle Ages as beginning when the ancient times ended. Others have the ancient times ending in the middle of the 5th century, and the Middle Ages starting in the 11th. According to the first of these, the time between the ancient times and the Middle Ages is called the Early Middle Ages, but the later usage would have it be called the Dark Ages.
The term "Dark Ages" typically refers to the first half of the Middle Ages.