worst: 2017 when the first dog I have ever loved enough was hit by a car so much that he was paralysed best: 2017 when the vet told me he was just being melodramatic and nothing was wrong with him
KingTesticus I wish my old man would just do that. He's been trying those vapors smokers it sorta worked for awhile but we haven't had money for awhile and he's frankly just too thick headed to quit cold.
Best year: 2015 Worst year: 2020 Thank you John Green, for writing amazing books and being so supportive of students and teachers everywhere! As someone who just finished being a student, and is about to be a teacher, I am grateful for your work. Best wishes, Clara Nims
In the face of cancer, you're still kicking ass at the entire idea of DFTBA. :) You deserve all the gold stars and high fives - and here's a virtual high five from me. Keep rockin' it!
Always. Genghis khan was probably the only guy to snort coke from a 100 girl's asses with each being a different ethnicity in a row, you never know with these Mongols.
Best Year: Literally anything other than 2020 I am stuck and home watching our special guest John Green for the next month (I do love john green tho) but also ah
Huss S About the Arabic empire in the Middle Ages. It's not like people are criticising Islam 1000 years ago, and the Islamic world today is a total mess.
Fakey Directly because of western imperialism trying so vehemently to force democracy on people that DONT WANT IT. But intervention from the west is caused mostly by the desire to continue their extortion and oppression of the Middle East. Gaddafi for example wanted a pan African gold dinar currency for trading, which would topple the west's economic dominance of Africa and finally liberate the continent from western influence. America and NATO didn't like that, and they funded terrorists to destroy the greatest country in Africa. Sad really, how the West used the knowledge of the east i.e. Gunpowder to imprison us in impoverishment. As of now, Russia is the last bastion against the influence of the west.
Fakey Not imperial, imperialist, those are two different things. Russia is way more imperialist than the US? Are you joking? The US has over 600 military bases outside of the US, and Russia has only about 2 or 3. The US has WMDs pointed straight at russia and moscow in eastern europe. I've already explained this, the US seeks to indirectly control the economy of any place it can, and as I said, when Gaddafi proposed an idea that would dismantle America's extortion of Africa, they funded radical and savage Islamist to destroy the greatest country on the continent. That isn't globalist, that is intensely imperialist. The US wants to control the African and middle eastern economy, not guide it. "Islam with it's lack of personal freedoms " What lack of personal freedoms? This has nothing to do with personal freedoms. The middle east is a shithole strictly because of western imperialism. Jesus christ, westerners with their overly biased view of the world. Absolutely disgusting.
***** No one needs to hear it, it's obvious from their actions. Example: Gaddafi was planning on a pan african gold dinar currency that would topple western banking in Africa. Soon after, US funded terrorists destroyed Libya and savagely murdered Gaddafi. I wish I could see every american behind the libyan terrorists murdered just like Gaddafi was, slowly, while begging for mercy.
Of course my people, the Indians, Invented zero. "How much are we going to pay, sahid?" "Hold on" Draws a circle "...What is it?" "Nothing" "...How much is in it?" "Nothing" 'sniff' "It's beautiful!" 'sniff' If you get the reference you are awesome.
Life expectancy was short because infant mortality rate was so high due to lack of knowledge in hygiene. Once people passed certain age, they actually lived relatively longer than what we thought. The skeleton findings prove this.
@@jcincorporated6207 other places were the same. Psalm 90 says "As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years" And Isiah 23 says "Now in that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years like the days of one king. " There are other sources from other places too, but these are quickest examples to quote.
I actually find it interesting how the end of the dark ages and the beginning of the enlightenment in Europe coincided with the start of a regression in the Middle East, and how heavily intertwined both were.
+ahens74ah Except it wan't just Muslims. Throughout the dark ages Europe was constantly under siege; the Visigoths, the Vikings, the Eastern Empire, the Muslim Caliphates, the Mongols-the list goes on. Toward the end, that dynamic switched-the Muslim Caliphates were the ones under siege from Persians, Turks, Mongols, and Europeans. And in fact, it was knowledge brought back from the Caliphates during the Crusades that helped spark the intellectual awakening that became the Enlightenment.
+Daniel Ryan it did not end. It simply did not happen. The historians called this period of time dark because they find only very few evidences the life was going on. But Herbert Illig theory (this times never happened) seems right. Around 300 years was insert into the calendar.
+qd FATE Its one of those ironies of history. As utterly brutal and even pointless as the Crusades and the Mongol invasions of Europe where, the flow of knowledge, goods, and languages that both brought to Europe was undeniably a key contributor to the start of The Enlightenment.
We're Europe! The Prime Meridian runs through us, we're in the middle of every map, and we get to be a continent even though we're... not a continent! Watch in 0.5 speed!
This is crazy to learn right now here on this thread because I am reading The Fault in Our Stars right now, I am at about 50% in it, and I just started binge watching Crash Course World History last week. Mind blown
Excellent content! Thank you for putting together all of these... the histories of the Persian, European, and a bit of Chinese during the “Dark Ages.” I’ve been looking for something like this. I’ve always been interested in correlating time periods in history! Thank you very much!! It helps a lot in my lifelong journey in learning our world’s history!!
worst: 2016. was cheated on, kicked out of home, totaled my car, contacted bacterial meningitis, and became homeless. best: so far 2018. I have an amazing boyfriend, my mental illness is somewhat under control, I have a job that I think will lead to my career, and I'm pretty much fully independent. in short?? life gets better. just keep on living.
You might say endless because angels are not from a physical form rather a spiritual form so no matter how many angel fit inside the head of a needle it is still have enough room for more angels to fit Just like faith it is endless
Speaking of prejudices like "Eurocentrism", the example he holds up as a typical theological debate owes its origins to the anti-religious, anti-clerical prejudicies of the so-called 'Enlightenment': medieval theologians/philosophers NEVER debated how many angels could dance on the head of a pin, that was made up by one of their critics to make fun of them.
And there was a renaissance called "Carolingian Renaissance," where universities were built and standardized writing with Carolingian Miniscule. Then, Charles' stupid sons managed to ruin it all.
***** Well, any presentation that tries to cover all of the "dark ages" in such a short time is going to gloss over a lot -- especially because despite the common prejudice, those ages were not really 'dark'. But I have to agree that there were several things he could have talked about less in order to spend more time on 1) the Carolingian Renaissance and 2) the Roman Empire in the East, which avoided most of this 'darkness'.
Maybe it's just because I really enjoy medieval European history but I find John Green's outlook here a bit bothersome. It seems like many people, in an attempt to avoid euro-centrism he is rather dismissive of Europe in general(including poetry although he does mention a few notable European theologians from that period). He chooses instead to speak incredibly positively regarding Muslim culture, which really could have used a more balanced approach. I understand time is limited, but I feel like this video should have been divided into a few parts, one for the Muslim world of the middle ages, another for Europe.
That's interesting. Since i enjoy medieval European history as well, I extra much enjoyed this particular episode specifically because it went into different directions. I had no idea what China was like in those centuries; this was a great, fresh, new perspective that made my day.
Unfortunately its hard to find good documentaries/books on china, other than the ones meant for PHD's. actually, it's hard to find any history documentary, what with the history channel as it is.
I too felt this was a tad dismissive. There are many dark ages in world history, but the period between the fall of the Western Empire and say the Norman invasion of England, generally known as The Dark Ages, is the title so, yeah, weak. He made the feudal system sound benevolent, as though lords didn't use their knights against peasants, other lords or their king constantly. Not to mention the threat of constant invasion by tribes displaced by the Huns or over-population, or just because you're a Viking and that's what you do! (Where are the Vikings in this show?!) For the the Romanized peoples of Europe, the withdrawal of the legions and ensuing chaos WAS the end of the world -- exactly the level of social breakdown that "preppers" build bunkers for. Yes, do talk about the accomplishments of the Arab world at this time, they carried the torch of civilization (maybe devote an episode to it, deserves one) but talk about China in an episode on, say, China. I'd also add that The Black Plague, while obviously not a great time, was key in dismantling the feudal system and in setting the stage for Europe's social, economic, artistic and scientific rebirth. The episode about the Crusades didn't talk about China. It was about the Crusades. If you want "Stuff that happened in the world between 500 AD/CE and 1400" call the episode that. There are so many brilliant tacks one could take on this both destructive and formative moment in history, this seemed like an intellectual cop-out. I thought, maybe all he'd say was 'the Dark Ages weren't so dark', but benevolent feudal rule? Guess he forgot to be awesome that day.
The dark ages weren't named "dark ages" because they were unenlightened, but because they didn't leave behind much written history, leaving historians "in the dark" about their civilizations.
Adelester The Dark Ages was a time where people lacked knowledge. Everything they were told they believed in and didn't question. The importance of the Age of Enlightenment, is it changes people's views of the world they knew. Without Enlightened ideas Feudalism and the strict absolute rule would have been around much longer. As peasants would not have question how unfair their lives were
Umm, no. Modern historians would object to the term Dark Ages to cover anything other than the first couple of hundred years following the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. It is called dark because very little written documentation exists from that period. Starting with the Carolingian Renaissance in the 9th century, literacy and learning definitely started to spread again. Things were slowed down a bit by the Viking invasions (which actually played a major role in the development of Feudalism), but after the end of the Viking Age (1066 is a good end point), things started to develop pretty rapidly. The 12th century would see the development of Universities leading to a whole bunch of important philosophers (Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus and William of Ockham among others showing up in the 13th. Also, the 14th century (still part of the Middle Ages which essentially would end with the the 15th century) saw peasant revolts. And actually absolute rule was not a Medieval thing; Feudalism was a relationship of mutual obligations; obviously the military classes took advantages of it, but the Peasants in that era had rights. In addition, following the Black Death in the 14th century, the system started breaking down because following the Black Death, the power of the peasants grew in direct proportion to how many fewer of them there were. Absolutism actually came with the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment were for the first time the princes and emperors of Europe no longer had to worry about answering to the Pope.
2016: When I got straight A's in my A levels and had a great year all around, making many new friends and enjoying my courses 2017: When I stopped enjoying my courses, they became substantially more difficult, one of my friends killed himself and my mental health rapidly deteriorated btw congrats on graduating and beating your depression - two significant achievements
I watched this, and then did a project on the Golden Age of Islam / Islamic Golden Age in school. So thank you for showing me such an interesting side to the Middle Ages.
+Matthew Hardcastle You can always say 'so far'. I'm only 20, and so far my worst year was 2012 and my best year is 2016. That will probably change with time, but with my current experience, that's what it is.
I feel like people really missed the point of this video. Rather than sitting down and ranting about how the Europeans had some nice poetry and were starting to re-embrace science, he decided to show people that East was flourishing quite well at the time - and that other two major powers in the world at the time actually existed, and should not be glazed over as they so often are. He's made videos about Rome where he never once mentions Carthage, yet people don't complain about that (much). Yet when he makes a video about a time period, people go insane that he doesn't mention that the Europeans were paving the way to their enlightenment era while the rest of the Eurasian world happily continued on with theirs.
***** He dedicates at minimum a twelfth of this video to the discussion of European feudalism. He mentions that Europe in this time saw theologians rising, with his major examples being Thomas Aquinas and Saint Hildegard. He isn't saying Europe sucked - he consistently says that the Dark Ages in contemporary views are quite Eurocentric, which they are, but beyond that all he's saying is that the little goods Europe saw were overshadowed by the goods outside of it.
I, for one, didn't miss the point of the video. I just think the title is misleading. "The Dark Ages" refers to a period in the history of Europe. Interesting though it was, John's content dealt, not with the Dark Ages, but with things happening contemporaneously with the Dark Ages. If John was going to focus so little on Europe, he shouldn't have named the video after a period in European history.
Worst year 2015 (started smoking, brother left for college, depression) Best year 2018 (second and third semester at college, met my girlfriend, started the shamefully long process of quitting smoking)
The dark ages are one of my favorite periods in world history. The weaponry advanced at a very amazing speed, and the battles were absolutely amazing, for example, Lechfeld
And scientist, who could advance weapns even more (and do other great things, too), were killed and treated as witches, if were women. Yeah, a great period, really...
Daaloul Chiheb Ummm, that was a myth actually. Medieval Church tend to frown on Witch Burning since it's pagan culture. Well, Monks do research on science but tend towards sheep breeding and clock making.
Best year and worst year= 2019. Mom and Best Friend died. BUT I also branched out, fixed my bulimia, made friends, and learned what it was to smile because I wanted to (not because it was expected to make them family look better or make someone else happy).
As a History teacher, I enjoy watching these courses and how simply they are explained. However, most of my students complain about them due to the rapid speech. Is there any way you could slow it down a bit in order to allow for deeper understanding?
baseballlover312 same here bro. But personally I think that humans never should have even come down from the trees. Maybe we shouldn't have ever left the water.
I find this series a little too focused on the eastern world. I mean, there's a lot to be said about the European middle ages. How come there isn't an entire episode describing the relations, treasons, and wars between the different european kingdoms ? Nothing about the Hundred Years' War ?
Because focus in western school lies with the west, while history is not just the west. Plus the term Dark ages is a western based word, in the Dark ages the Eastern part of the world (Islamic Empires and China, Asia and so on) where enlightened and most certainly not Dark. so to explain why the Dark ages are a wrong way of describing the world you should focus on the east. Greetings a western History student. Besides western school's drown you in European History XD
Tripserpentine You are completely right. Its pains me that our history classes focus so much on europe and later north america. this leaves an expression that nothing major or intresting happened outside of europe and because of this many people think that Africa and Asia were just full of tribal barbarians who never did anything great.
Another of his misconceptions: it was not Muslims who translated the works of the ancient greeks into Arabic: it was Arabic speaking Christians absorbed into the Muslim empire who did it. Not all gave up their faith for Islam as those mentioned in this video did. The Encyclopedia Iranica makes brief mention of them as Bin Ashaq's 'collaborators', but that is why many of Galen's volumes were translated first into Syriac, not Arabic: because his collaborators were Syriac (Monophysite) Christians.
Your argument is a non sequitur, tylor. Since ther eis no clear estimate, we do not know how many there were, but we DO know there were some. We also know that the educated classes tended to remain Coptic in Egypt -- that is why Copts are disproportionately represented in the educated classes even today in Egypt. We also know because the translations took place into Syriac. If it had been done solely by Muslims, they would have translated straight into Arabic. But they did not. Ergo...
After the work of Peter Brown, the concept of 'dark ages' in Europe in this period has been refuted. It was not a golden age, but it was certainly filled with improvement and advances that paved the way for the Renaissance.
Not really sure it's fair to characterize Europe as being particularly ethnocentric... It's not as if other cultures (or collections of cultures) aren't as equally given to it at various times and places in history.
Actuall, speaking from a psychological background, ethnocentrism is universal to everyone and every culture on record. It is a very fundamental human sensation, and people who deny it do so usually from shame as a result of over-the-top political correctness. It is also something everyone has to be very self-aware about. There is nothing unnatural oder especially depraved about being ethnocentric (people can't help the impuls), but one has to be reflective as well, and check emotions with rational thinking.
the point is that world history classes are supposed to teach about, well, the whole world, but instead its stuck to an european point of view, so the common knowlege says that the middle ages were dark...and they were not. That's not over the top political correctness, it's basic hystorical correctness (i'm not sure that sentence makes sense, english is not my first language, sorry)
Thiago Navarro Dragoni Yeah but I've never seen or heard the Dark Ages taught as something that was universal rather than localized to Europe. So, I imagine that if it's being assumed, its being assumed by uneducated people. So, while that would be a problem, I'd think the more important issue there is the lack of education in general.
+Flying Spectacles I can't relate to any comment LESS. Just reading the words "high school" puts an anxious pit in my chest that spirals into an existential crisis where I have to reconcile my morality and feelings of responsibility to my family with my overwhelming urge to cause suffering to people who have wronged me and a sincere desire to die. It helps to talk though.
Reading over the comments, it looks like the primary point of contention is that John seems to be implying that the term "Dark Ages" was meant to refer to the entire world during this period, when really it's SUPPOSED to just refer to Europe - because, as he says, other groups were doing pretty well. These commentators then see the video as off-topic and/or "revisionist." The issue that I think they're missing is that the pop culture view of the "Dark Ages" is that it really WAS a worldwide phenomenon. And given that the Crash Course videos are meant as a simple introduction to world history, it makes sense to debunk that narrative. It's not Eurocentric to talk about a solely European phenomenon. It IS Eurocentric to let people keep believing that because Europe wasn't improving by leaps and bounds, other cultures weren't either.
True but he also seems to be producing a negative stereotype of medieval Europe i.e. the medieval Catholic church. This is why I have a problem with him.
I read medieval historians who claim, based on their readings, that those who call the Middle Age dark, are ignorant. The term Dark Age comes from "enlightened" French philosophers who were anti-God and church. These gentlemen are Voltaire, Diderot, D'Alambert. By reading Pierre Duhem who researched philosophy and history of science, one can realize what an enormity is to say, "Dark Middle Age." This guy should go back to school and de-brainwash himself.
I'm disappointed. Your heading is misleading. The dark ages, in most minds, refer to EUROPE. Whether that's Eurocentric or not is irrelevant. I came here to listen to what happened in the dark ages in... you guessed it... Europe. Now you focus mainly on the Arabs and the Chinese. So now I'm non the wiser about what happened in Europe during that time.
the headline doesn't include the word europe so just because your eurocentric mind only thinks of europe when you hear the dark ages doesn't mean that's all hes going teach because we need to know about the whole world to understand the world and to not repeat the bad parts of history. this is world history not european history
Dylan Fry the dark ages refer to a time in EUROPE.... Like what the heck. Its like if he made a video about the three kingdom era in china and the last half talks about europe..
i get what ur saying but this is a course on WORLD history, hes gonna have to talk about Europe and Arabia and everything else. I think he did a good job in explaining the European side of it. And i do think that in history it is necessary to sometimes acknowledge when traditional historians have been a little bias. Also its a 12 minute video so appreciate how much detail he fed u on both Europe and the rest of the world.
worst 2008 I was violently bullied best 2011 started a new school, was actually challenged mentally, made cool new friends, discovered my passion for theatre.
Thanks for putting a different perspective in an otherwise euro centric definition of Middle Ages. Also, I like the point regarding Religion and Science. I don't see why people think the two can't coexist together.
I'm about 2 minutes in: 1) The Dark Ages usually only refer to the Early Middle Ages (at least nowadays it does), which runs from about the 600s to the 1000s (fall of Rome and Germanic Tribe Kingdoms up to Carolingian Empire and its fall, which led to the creation (somewhat) of the modern states of Western and Central Europe). 2) Feudalism (generally) was a political system. Manorialism (generally) was an economic system. Generally refers to the generality of the terms (like there were a bunch of different types of feudalism and manorialism), not that sometimes one was the other.
***** In general historical practice, Feudalism is the set of political relationships between actors in the Middle Ages, while Manorialism was the set of economic relationships between actors. Feudalism can appear to take on more of an economic aspect once inter-manor relations (like Noble-Noble relations) are the object of study, but that's just because trade wasn't as prevalent or defined in that period, so the political relationships necessarily took on more of an economic aspect.
To be fair, The Dark Ages *are* generally understood to be a European thing. I don't think I've ever associated it with Ancient China or Arabia or anywhere else. I'm not entirely sure you can call that Euro-centrism. It's just a term used to describe European history. I'm sure there are equivalents in other places. If it is used, it's more to get a sense of time-scale.
Ok, hold on. The average lifespan of medieval Europe was ~60, not 30. The 30 average age takes into account a high level of infant mortality and has nothing to do with actual lifespan. And where did you segue off into the middle east when you started talking about post-Roman Europe? Tighten your shot group. Lot more going on there than you mentioned. ...vikings, perhaps? The Dark Ages were only dark for the former Roman frontier which experienced a power vacume and breakdown of society. For the East it wasnt so bad, so why even bring them up in an episode dealing with the Dark Ages? Also, the only reason literacy and science was maintained at all in Europe was bcause of the Christian church which filled the power vaccume left by Rome. Should probably have been mentioned.
The video is meant to give you a quick summary of the Dark Ages, not every single aspect. If it were to be that way, then the video would last for a long time and wouldn't be as entertaining.
Khalil Hijazi You can still hit many aspects of the "Dark Ages" with a quick summary, the thing is he went off topic complacently. It's like we are going to talk about the Civil War in the U.S. than have little to say about it than go off talking about how the rest of the world has their own Civil wars or how they were not effected by the US Civil War. And yes the average lifespan in medieval Europe was ~60,or 65 years not 30. Just like today hear in the U.S. it is 75. BUT if you take everything about our own time like car accidents, wars, abortions, illness, our high cost of hospitals, and so on; today our average lifespan would be about 20.
Ahhh and see we all pick and chose our history & statistics; this tend to be much more true with modern history then farther back. I was trying to make a point, not that I am for or against abortions. But still my point is that we had a chance that we would not make it this far in life or to live... This is exactly what we do to the past; some or many people in future civilizations may count as this a statistic as this is still has to do with populations and the Human genome as we are heading in a age of cloning soon... Also how backwards our health care system is, as it is VERY high cost to do anything.
"The Dark Ages weren't a time of great poetry" Beowulf, the Arthurian Legends, the Song of Roland, the Tales of Alexander the Great, the Divine Comedy, the Canterbury Tales, etc.: Are we a joke to you?
@@hallamhal Yes, but the "historian" in this video does not realize that the "Dark Ages" designation only used to refer to the period between 500 and 1000, so when he uses it, he is also referring to the 14th and 15th centuries.
'Great historical overview, but it misses one point; 'The Dark Ages' describes a period in EUROPEAN history. Consequently, what was happening in the rest of the world was pretty much a separate matter. In fact, the prosperity and progress going on elsewhere, by contrast, makes the European situation look even more dismal.
Well, he does mention that things are better on the outside. But, in an age when communication was so limited, this can have had little effect on the lot of the Europeans of the day.
Okay, this one I CAN answer. The last "golden age" began with the publication of Action Comics #1, cover dated June 1938 and ended in the late '40s, as the popularity of the super hero began to fade, after WWII.
Worst: 2021 Best: 2022, 2023 A very close cousin died in a car accident in 2021, and because of that I completely changed my direction in life. Now I’m in engineering classes doing great and I’m actually excited about my future.
I find life expectancy of 30 hard to believe. Maybe if you don't count in all the dead newborns you'd get more realistic picture. It's simply hard to imagine that most people would die around 30 years old. It makes no sense.
Well the life expectancy at that time was 30 cause then they didn't have much medical professionals as we do Today making them weak to many sicknesses and eventually kill them now we can live to 70 or such do to medical and technological advances
The problem here is non-specific use of statistics; they don't actually mean anything by themselves. An average has no real-life predictive qualities, so we can't use it to reproduce a real life in our mind. People like throwing around numbers, mostly because other people really enjoy having numbers thrown at them.
Also I know this was hard to believe but smallpox was so common back then that pretty much everyone was expected to get it, and a lotttt of people died from that, I know it seems small compared to other reasons but this in combination with other factors led to such a low life expectancy
Yep. Our calculations of life expectancy in most historic periods are misleadingly low. The high infant mortality brings the average down drastically, but if you made it past childhood (and for women childbirth), your life expectancy was actually a lot higher and much closer to ours than one might think, assuming that you didn't happen to live in a time with some type of plague or famine
BeanturdBrain n You're right but 2006 was the PINNACLE of my childhood because we always play C.T.R (Crash Bandicoot Racing) on my PlayStation 1 GOOD TIMES!
I love how emphasized the fact that "the Dark Ages" may have been "dark" in Europe, but for the rest of the world, there was an incredible amount of progress made with technology, art & trade
Worst: 2011 - shoulder surgery right before summer school, college transfers, school & personal crises Best: 2017 - trip to Australia, solar eclipse, multiple graduations, family reunion
Funny how you said the Arabs translated the works of the greeks which otherwise would've been lost, when if it wasn't for the Arabs, the Byzantines wouldn't have lost them to begin with.
He refers mainland Europe, particularly in Spain where many Greek and Latin texts were really just passed over by the Europeans at the time, but were eventually embraced by the Arabs.
"lost" here is not just literal loosing... intellectual interest and the ability to understand and to develop upon such works..... the Arabs took roman and Hellenistic works and comparatively studies them against Persian, Indian and Chinese works.... thereby weeding out what was wrong, leading to better technological advancements.... the Caliph had decreed a task force to search and translate all manner of books.. their relevance and worth later researched upon, it dint matter to them if it was going against their scripture... while in europe even if there was scientific evidence, they would be burned along with the author.....
Avinash Varman You think the Byzantines couldn't understand the works of the Romans? They "Lost" it to the Arabs after the middle east was conquered by said Arabs.
Thats the point-The dark ages was just a period of time that was bad for Europe. But as the video shows, it was a period of success and enlightenment in other areas. The WHOLE point of the video is to show you that in TODAY'S time, we define our history through what happened in Europe. Which is unfair- because history should be defined by what happened around the WHOLE WORLD. not just one section of the world simply because it is a powerful force today.
wit bat nope..they were ages....ages that were dark in europe...but non the less,a period of time.comparative history is everything.He even started the video wondering why europe is a separate continent ..
why didn't you mention that Ireland was in a golden age at this time with high literacy and strong lasting peace... Until Strongbow invaded because nobody beats strongbow...... unless your the king of enland(plays Mongol Scene only with King Henry the second)
I point to Saint Patrick(probably the most well known saint in the world) who brought Christianity to Ireland and also kept the Irish language and culture alive.Ireland also was the only Christian nation to be more literate than illiteracy. So more than worth at least a mention
NOICKNOICK I love the Roman Empire too, but you should be glad Constsntinople fell. The Byzantines were useless in terms of science compared to the Muslims.
“Your worst year is someone else’s best year.”
Pretty sure nobody’s having their best year in 2020
Toilet paper manufacturers disagree with you
*Mask companies laughing in the corner*
Zombie Man I’m not having the best but it’s my top 5 best (I’m 14)
this is my best year for me. i'm doing three hour long home schooling and spending the rest of my time playing roblox or watching youtube
im kinda living it up tbh, in boston all school was canceled
John: 2001 is the worst year
2020: hold my corona
Well played
wow
Nice😂😂😂😂😂😂
this was made in 2012
@@anthonyJones-ll4ei yes I am aware of that
worst: 2017 when the first dog I have ever loved enough was hit by a car so much that he was paralysed
best: 2017 when the vet told me he was just being melodramatic and nothing was wrong with him
WOW
LMAO OOPS
Omg hahahah
Dark lol!
weird flex but ok
the best year: every year in the 2000's except for 2020
Best year: 100 BC (Birth of Julius Caesar)
Worst year: 100 BC (Birth of Julius Caesar)
I'm both Patrician and Plebeian.
That's impressive
Professor Mercury So basically you're Julius Caesar?
Professor Mercury So technically you are 2100+ years old?
If you like July then you should probably like Julius lol
+Professor Mercury nice
i just studied that in school
Literally live for the "wait for it...the Mongols"
*Cue Mongoltage*
Aaaaaaaaaaaa!
Same
*The Mongol tide*
We’re the exception!
worst year: 1993 (i quit smoking)
best year: all that followed because i quit smoking :-)
Lol life is upside down
+KingTesticus Well good on you pal that's a hard thing too do.
Jake Azz
been there done that. i think i'll take being a "puss" for a while, thank you very much ;-)
*****
Jake Azz and how many things you can smell and taste after you've quit ;-) how much further you can walk and run, how much longer you can fukk
KingTesticus I wish my old man would just do that. He's been trying those vapors smokers it sorta worked for awhile but we haven't had money for awhile and he's frankly just too thick headed to quit cold.
Best year: 2015
Worst year: 2020
Thank you John Green, for writing amazing books and being so supportive of students and teachers everywhere! As someone who just finished being a student, and is about to be a teacher, I am grateful for your work.
Best wishes,
Clara Nims
Worst year : 2009 Diagnosed with cancer
Best year: This Year. :) Graduated high school, made a lot of good friends, becoming an adult, etc.
Wow.
HoldUpStrong Yup. ^^
You're an awesome person just know that !
In the face of cancer, you're still kicking ass at the entire idea of DFTBA. :) You deserve all the gold stars and high fives - and here's a virtual high five from me. Keep rockin' it!
I wish you good luck!
it's always the Mongols.
They are the exceptions.
Always....
Always. Genghis khan was probably the only guy to snort coke from a 100 girl's asses with each being a different ethnicity in a row, you never know with these Mongols.
Godamn Mongols
Mania115 hey they are the exception
Abbasids vs China was definitely not in my history books growing up, thank you for the brain food
Me Too
studying for ap world history quizzes here. i can't find the crash course on islam in india.
da best he has a mughal dynasty video
Pete oh sweet thanks. luckily my ap world quiz on it wasn't very hard and i was able to get by with the textbook
751 ad :D
Best Year: Literally anything other than 2020 I am stuck and home watching our special guest John Green for the next month (I do love john green tho) but also ah
I feel you
Retweeted 💕
Same feeling
SAME ikr
Me too
Finally someone speaks truthfully about Islam . thank you
Huss S About the Arabic empire in the Middle Ages. It's not like people are criticising Islam 1000 years ago, and the Islamic world today is a total mess.
Fakey
Directly because of western imperialism trying so vehemently to force democracy on people that DONT WANT IT. But intervention from the west is caused mostly by the desire to continue their extortion and oppression of the Middle East. Gaddafi for example wanted a pan African gold dinar currency for trading, which would topple the west's economic dominance of Africa and finally liberate the continent from western influence. America and NATO didn't like that, and they funded terrorists to destroy the greatest country in Africa. Sad really, how the West used the knowledge of the east i.e. Gunpowder to imprison us in impoverishment. As of now, Russia is the last bastion against the influence of the west.
Fakey Not imperial, imperialist, those are two different things. Russia is way more imperialist than the US? Are you joking? The US has over 600 military bases outside of the US, and Russia has only about 2 or 3. The US has WMDs pointed straight at russia and moscow in eastern europe. I've already explained this, the US seeks to indirectly control the economy of any place it can, and as I said, when Gaddafi proposed an idea that would dismantle America's extortion of Africa, they funded radical and savage Islamist to destroy the greatest country on the continent. That isn't globalist, that is intensely imperialist. The US wants to control the African and middle eastern economy, not guide it.
"Islam with it's lack of personal freedoms "
What lack of personal freedoms? This has nothing to do with personal freedoms. The middle east is a shithole strictly because of western imperialism. Jesus christ, westerners with their overly biased view of the world. Absolutely disgusting.
"Truth about Islam" is a history lesson of the 'dark ages'?
***** No one needs to hear it, it's obvious from their actions. Example: Gaddafi was planning on a pan african gold dinar currency that would topple western banking in Africa. Soon after, US funded terrorists destroyed Libya and savagely murdered Gaddafi. I wish I could see every american behind the libyan terrorists murdered just like Gaddafi was, slowly, while begging for mercy.
Of course my people, the Indians, Invented zero.
"How much are we going to pay, sahid?"
"Hold on" Draws a circle
"...What is it?"
"Nothing"
"...How much is in it?"
"Nothing"
'sniff' "It's beautiful!" 'sniff'
If you get the reference you are awesome.
that one indian comedian , russel is his name , not sure tho
Potato
You are awesome! Now take it, and go.
+rowyne madayag Hello my twin
Joshua Toeppe
It's been a long time... brother!
Somebody gonna get a hurt real bad, Russel Peters!
Just a sneaky little hand behind John at 10:44 who also wants in on the fun
STAN
STAN LEE CAMO
stan fix this now
Worst Year: 19BBY - When order 66 happened.
Best Year: 4ABY - When the Empire has fallen.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSS!!!!!!!
the force has brought me here
Ik it has something to do with a battle but I always read that as “before baby yoda” and “after baby yoda”
fan star wars see i
Yay
I love how this channel sheds light on history that is not taught in American classrooms. Thank you guys so much for educating all of us!!
Life expectancy was short because infant mortality rate was so high due to lack of knowledge in hygiene. Once people passed certain age, they actually lived relatively longer than what we thought. The skeleton findings prove this.
Well that and increase to standards of living due to industlization helped as well.
Bryan Yang
The Greek philosophers’ lifespans were relatively long; I don’t know if the rest of the Greek population lived long lives though.
@@jcincorporated6207 other places were the same. Psalm 90 says "As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years"
And Isiah 23 says "Now in that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years like the days of one king. "
There are other sources from other places too, but these are quickest examples to quote.
I actually find it interesting how the end of the dark ages and the beginning of the enlightenment in Europe coincided with the start of a regression in the Middle East, and how heavily intertwined both were.
+ahens74ah Except it wan't just Muslims. Throughout the dark ages Europe was constantly under siege; the Visigoths, the Vikings, the Eastern Empire, the Muslim Caliphates, the Mongols-the list goes on. Toward the end, that dynamic switched-the Muslim Caliphates were the ones under siege from Persians, Turks, Mongols, and Europeans. And in fact, it was knowledge brought back from the Caliphates during the Crusades that helped spark the intellectual awakening that became the Enlightenment.
+Daniel Ryan it did not end. It simply did not happen. The historians called this period of time dark because they find only very few evidences the life was going on. But Herbert Illig theory (this times never happened) seems right. Around 300 years was insert into the calendar.
+Daniel Ryan That seems to be a bit of an overstatement for the middle east. The Ottomans and Safavids were just starting to flourish at this time.
*****
wrong lmao..it was the muslims.
+qd FATE Its one of those ironies of history. As utterly brutal and even pointless as the Crusades and the Mongol invasions of Europe where, the flow of knowledge, goods, and languages that both brought to Europe was undeniably a key contributor to the start of The Enlightenment.
*People in the Comments:* God 2020 is the worst!
*2021:* I'm about to ruin these peoples' whole education
what?
@@fordakacar he knows something we don't
Yes Ive been thinking about that and omg
GOD :
*Parry this you filthy casual*
We're Europe! The Prime Meridian runs through us, we're in the middle of every map, and we get to be a continent even though we're... not a continent! Watch in 0.5 speed!
It's good at any speed.
+Lanivan King I followed your suggestion, it's really funny ;)
+Lanivan King He sounds a little like Emo Phillips at that speed
+Lanivan King try the into in speed 2x
+Lanivan King needs to be more drunk
I JUST REALIZED YOU ARE THE JOHN GREEN, THE ONE WHO MADE FAULT IN OUR STARS AND PAPERTOWN. I LITERALLY WOULD'VE NEVER KNOWN EXCEPT FOR AN AD IN TARGET
Yeah, I learned John Green was the author of those books just last night. Pretty mind-blowing.
Wow
What really
I’ve googled it and its legit, yeah he’s the same dude
This is crazy to learn right now here on this thread because I am reading The Fault in Our Stars right now, I am at about 50% in it, and I just started binge watching Crash Course World History last week. Mind blown
Excellent content! Thank you for putting together all of these... the histories of the Persian, European, and a bit of Chinese during the “Dark Ages.” I’ve been looking for something like this. I’ve always been interested in correlating time periods in history! Thank you very much!! It helps a lot in my lifelong journey in learning our world’s history!!
“Nothing gold can stay”
*sobs* stay gold ponyboy 😭
worst: 2016. was cheated on, kicked out of home, totaled my car, contacted bacterial meningitis, and became homeless.
best: so far 2018. I have an amazing boyfriend, my mental illness is somewhat under control, I have a job that I think will lead to my career, and I'm pretty much fully independent.
in short?? life gets better. just keep on living.
Did it get worse again?
WELL SCREW YOUR EX!
Life gets better just you wait~
Just you wait~
(Hamilton lyrics! What! I can’t help myself!)
your the best
weird flex but ok
@Sass Master I'm very proud, must have been hard to carry on yet you did! :D
Okay, but how many angels CAN fit on the head of a needle??
One for every brain cell I lose by thinking about it
Nicholas Kjerland You listen to me!! We are NOT going BACK!!
my friend dean might know someone with an answer
You might say endless because angels are not from a physical form rather a spiritual form so no matter how many angel fit inside the head of a needle it is still have enough room for more angels to fit
Just like faith it is endless
Nicholas Kjerland How big is the needle?
Speaking of prejudices like "Eurocentrism", the example he holds up as a typical theological debate owes its origins to the anti-religious, anti-clerical prejudicies of the so-called 'Enlightenment': medieval theologians/philosophers NEVER debated how many angels could dance on the head of a pin, that was made up by one of their critics to make fun of them.
And there was a renaissance called "Carolingian Renaissance," where universities were built and standardized writing with Carolingian Miniscule. Then, Charles' stupid sons managed to ruin it all.
powerist But they did not manage to "ruin it all" for the Eastern Roman Empire.
***** Well, any presentation that tries to cover all of the "dark ages" in such a short time is going to gloss over a lot -- especially because despite the common prejudice, those ages were not really 'dark'. But I have to agree that there were several things he could have talked about less in order to spend more time on 1) the Carolingian Renaissance and 2) the Roman Empire in the East, which avoided most of this 'darkness'.
My worst year was 2017, a year where idiocy and anxiety almost took over.
I'm still looking for a best year, since the rest were mostly good.
Maybe it's just because I really enjoy medieval European history but I find John Green's outlook here a bit bothersome. It seems like many people, in an attempt to avoid euro-centrism he is rather dismissive of Europe in general(including poetry although he does mention a few notable European theologians from that period). He chooses instead to speak incredibly positively regarding Muslim culture, which really could have used a more balanced approach. I understand time is limited, but I feel like this video should have been divided into a few parts, one for the Muslim world of the middle ages, another for Europe.
That's interesting. Since i enjoy medieval European history as well, I extra much enjoyed this particular episode specifically because it went into different directions. I had no idea what China was like in those centuries; this was a great, fresh, new perspective that made my day.
Unfortunately its hard to find good documentaries/books on china, other than the ones meant for PHD's. actually, it's hard to find any history documentary, what with the history channel as it is.
I too felt this was a tad dismissive. There are many dark ages in world history, but the period between the fall of the Western Empire and say the Norman invasion of England, generally known as The Dark Ages, is the title so, yeah, weak. He made the feudal system sound benevolent, as though lords didn't use their knights against peasants, other lords or their king constantly. Not to mention the threat of constant invasion by tribes displaced by the Huns or over-population, or just because you're a Viking and that's what you do! (Where are the Vikings in this show?!) For the the Romanized peoples of Europe, the withdrawal of the legions and ensuing chaos WAS the end of the world -- exactly the level of social breakdown that "preppers" build bunkers for. Yes, do talk about the accomplishments of the Arab world at this time, they carried the torch of civilization (maybe devote an episode to it, deserves one) but talk about China in an episode on, say, China. I'd also add that The Black Plague, while obviously not a great time, was key in dismantling the feudal system and in setting the stage for Europe's social, economic, artistic and scientific rebirth. The episode about the Crusades didn't talk about China. It was about the Crusades. If you want "Stuff that happened in the world between 500 AD/CE and 1400" call the episode that. There are so many brilliant tacks one could take on this both destructive and formative moment in history, this seemed like an intellectual cop-out. I thought, maybe all he'd say was 'the Dark Ages weren't so dark', but benevolent feudal rule? Guess he forgot to be awesome that day.
DoneAnd Dusted Try Michael Wood "Legacy: The Mandate of Heaven." It's on CZcams.
yeah but what is called the middle ages in europe wasn't so dark everywhere else.
The dark ages weren't named "dark ages" because they were unenlightened, but because they didn't leave behind much written history, leaving historians "in the dark" about their civilizations.
That term was first used by Francisco Petrarch (1304-1374) to basically mean nothing happened. No advancements.
It was called the fall ages because there were many knights
True man
Adelester
The Dark Ages was a time where people lacked knowledge. Everything they were told they believed in and didn't question. The importance of the Age of Enlightenment, is it changes people's views of the world they knew. Without Enlightened ideas Feudalism and the strict absolute rule would have been around much longer. As peasants would not have question how unfair their lives were
Umm, no. Modern historians would object to the term Dark Ages to cover anything other than the first couple of hundred years following the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. It is called dark because very little written documentation exists from that period. Starting with the Carolingian Renaissance in the 9th century, literacy and learning definitely started to spread again. Things were slowed down a bit by the Viking invasions (which actually played a major role in the development of Feudalism), but after the end of the Viking Age (1066 is a good end point), things started to develop pretty rapidly. The 12th century would see the development of Universities leading to a whole bunch of important philosophers (Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus and William of Ockham among others showing up in the 13th. Also, the 14th century (still part of the Middle Ages which essentially would end with the the 15th century) saw peasant revolts. And actually absolute rule was not a Medieval thing; Feudalism was a relationship of mutual obligations; obviously the military classes took advantages of it, but the Peasants in that era had rights. In addition, following the Black Death in the 14th century, the system started breaking down because following the Black Death, the power of the peasants grew in direct proportion to how many fewer of them there were. Absolutism actually came with the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment were for the first time the princes and emperors of Europe no longer had to worry about answering to the Pope.
2014: When I was diagnosed with Depression
2017: When I graduated high school and beat my depression.
DarkSoulsUnleashed congrats my dude
Dang
Gay.
2016: When I got straight A's in my A levels and had a great year all around, making many new friends and enjoying my courses
2017: When I stopped enjoying my courses, they became substantially more difficult, one of my friends killed himself and my mental health rapidly deteriorated
btw congrats on graduating and beating your depression - two significant achievements
This conversation certainly includes a range of emotions
This was 8 years ago?!
This is 2020-Quarantine Quality show ❤️
Excellent job!
At 10:44 somone pops their head behind the chalkboard.
2013 worst broke my back and lost my mom.
2014 best I'm still alive. I miss my mom but I know she'd be happy I'm learning on my free time.
Best wishes and stay strong, my friend.
best year 2013, worst year 2016 tommorow because of the test
+DJ Ryan lol the AP test right?
+Justin Loeung yep
I feel you👌
2014 worst. 1015 best.
HIV test?
Worst, 2025. So much studying.
Best 2026-2015. When I finally finished the time machine and invested in Bitcoin. Man, it was a weird year.
Can I loan your time machine?
drizzeN Sure. Meet me yesterday at the pub.
@@TheJulioToboso Can't we meet tomorrow instead? I'll pay for your studies once I start earning the money from the bets I intend to make.
drizzeN you mean borrow... unless you mean that you want to loan it to a third party
2023 was by best and worst year. This first time through it was great, then I used the time machine to try it again, and it was awful.
I watched this, and then did a project on the Golden Age of Islam / Islamic Golden Age in school. So thank you for showing me such an interesting side to the Middle Ages.
I'm only 16 so I don't think I've lived long enough to know if I've had a worst year
+Matthew Hardcastle You can always say 'so far'.
I'm only 20, and so far my worst year was 2012 and my best year is 2016. That will probably change with time, but with my current experience, that's what it is.
I feel like people really missed the point of this video. Rather than sitting down and ranting about how the Europeans had some nice poetry and were starting to re-embrace science, he decided to show people that East was flourishing quite well at the time - and that other two major powers in the world at the time actually existed, and should not be glazed over as they so often are. He's made videos about Rome where he never once mentions Carthage, yet people don't complain about that (much). Yet when he makes a video about a time period, people go insane that he doesn't mention that the Europeans were paving the way to their enlightenment era while the rest of the Eurasian world happily continued on with theirs.
***** He dedicates at minimum a twelfth of this video to the discussion of European feudalism. He mentions that Europe in this time saw theologians rising, with his major examples being Thomas Aquinas and Saint Hildegard. He isn't saying Europe sucked - he consistently says that the Dark Ages in contemporary views are quite Eurocentric, which they are, but beyond that all he's saying is that the little goods Europe saw were overshadowed by the goods outside of it.
I, for one, didn't miss the point of the video. I just think the title is misleading. "The Dark Ages" refers to a period in the history of Europe. Interesting though it was, John's content dealt, not with the Dark Ages, but with things happening contemporaneously with the Dark Ages. If John was going to focus so little on Europe, he shouldn't have named the video after a period in European history.
Worst year 2015 (started smoking, brother left for college, depression)
Best year 2018 (second and third semester at college, met my girlfriend, started the shamefully long process of quitting smoking)
Worst year(s) 2001-2019
Fun fact, I was born in 2001.
The Lone Wanderer me too
Me too
yeouch
wow thoese depressed kids
2003-19 me!
Al-gebra was an Arabic mathematical invention. Great job CrashCourse.
khwarazmi who invented al gebra was a persian , do not lie bro
al gebra , al chemy , al gorithm
you may be confused with ibn al haytham who studied algorithms who was an arab
Shamlan Hasawi
ok i know ibn al haytham was an arab but khwarazmi invented algorithm and he was a persian
and by the way Ibn Rochd was a north african berber ... keep lying to yourself arab ...
The dark ages are one of my favorite periods in world history. The weaponry advanced at a very amazing speed, and the battles were absolutely amazing, for example, Lechfeld
One invention that we underrepresented, Carolingian Miniscule.
And scientist, who could advance weapns even more (and do other great things, too), were killed and treated as witches, if were women. Yeah, a great period, really...
Daaloul Chiheb Ummm, that was a myth actually. Medieval Church tend to frown on Witch Burning since it's pagan culture. Well, Monks do research on science but tend towards sheep breeding and clock making.
See, a great time to be alive
It just makes you think about all the things you would do if you had a Tommy, a time machine, and a hell of a lot of ammo
Best year and worst year= 2019. Mom and Best Friend died. BUT I also branched out, fixed my bulimia, made friends, and learned what it was to smile because I wanted to (not because it was expected to make them family look better or make someone else happy).
best year 2015 got my gaming pc
worst year 2015 pretty much failed school
i feel u *hugs*
+TooDamnLitten Coincidence? Who knows..
there may be a correlation there bud.
I think not.
As a History teacher, I enjoy watching these courses and how simply they are explained. However, most of my students complain about them due to the rapid speech. Is there any way you could slow it down a bit in order to allow for deeper understanding?
Best year, 1999. It's been all downhill since. And yes, that's when I was born. :P
baseballlover312 same here bro. But personally I think that humans never should have even come down from the trees. Maybe we shouldn't have ever left the water.
baseballlover312 Relatable.... but.... If everything has been downhill since, meaning it got worse, doesn't that mean 1999 was your best year??
To everyone taking the AP World exam tomorrow- good luck, I believe in you!!
Worst year: 1998, cause I was born.
Best year: 1997, cause I wasn’t suffering
found the bhuddist
Edgy
Hi5
The Puppetteer that’s tuff
All life is Suffering
I find this series a little too focused on the eastern world. I mean, there's a lot to be said about the European middle ages. How come there isn't an entire episode describing the relations, treasons, and wars between the different european kingdoms ? Nothing about the Hundred Years' War ?
But it's boring and depressing; do you really want to learn about the plague 40 times.
i believe its because European history is well talked about in many history classes but rest of the world is left allmost untouched.
I'd even say that it could pay more attention to Africa and the Americas.
Because focus in western school lies with the west, while history is not just the west.
Plus the term Dark ages is a western based word, in the Dark ages the Eastern part of the world (Islamic Empires and China, Asia and so on) where enlightened and most certainly not Dark. so to explain why the Dark ages are a wrong way of describing the world you should focus on the east.
Greetings a western History student.
Besides western school's drown you in European History XD
Tripserpentine
You are completely right. Its pains me that our history classes focus so much on europe and later north america. this leaves an expression that nothing major or intresting happened outside of europe and because of this many people think that Africa and Asia were just full of tribal barbarians who never did anything great.
I'm binge-watching this entire series to prepare for my World History SAT. Thanks, John Green, AKA "a student's best friend." (Also Hank.)
I luv John n Hank - they are fighting for education to be fun, open and crazy in a good way. And they are winning
Worst: day i was born
Best: Day i die
that was dark
literally was going to comment that
no mr. poop butt hole!! Life if pretty cool.
Oooo weeee! Mr Poopy Butthole is clinically depressed! Ooooo weeee!
Bear. Tomorrow will be the best day of your life.
i'm just here coz i wanted to hear excited john again, he sounded so sad in the crash course Europe history ;-;
I always thought it was called the Dark Ages because we had very little recorded history of the time.
10:44 someone is trying to do something in the background. o.O
Another of his misconceptions: it was not Muslims who translated the works of the ancient greeks into Arabic: it was Arabic speaking Christians absorbed into the Muslim empire who did it. Not all gave up their faith for Islam as those mentioned in this video did.
The Encyclopedia Iranica makes brief mention of them as Bin Ashaq's 'collaborators', but that is why many of Galen's volumes were translated first into Syriac, not Arabic: because his collaborators were Syriac (Monophysite) Christians.
It is impossible to know that.there were never a clear estimation of copts in egypt pre islamic conquest nor after
Your argument is a non sequitur, tylor. Since ther eis no clear estimate, we do not know how many there were, but we DO know there were some. We also know that the educated classes tended to remain Coptic in Egypt -- that is why Copts are disproportionately represented in the educated classes even today in Egypt.
We also know because the translations took place into Syriac. If it had been done solely by Muslims, they would have translated straight into Arabic. But they did not. Ergo...
Lmao my year gonna be the worst as soon as college board hits me with that 2
lol that's what im thinking with this AP exam . . .
+Atomicnick lmao true
After the work of Peter Brown, the concept of 'dark ages' in Europe in this period has been refuted. It was not a golden age, but it was certainly filled with improvement and advances that paved the way for the Renaissance.
When you are doing your history task for the Silk Road and your empire is... wait for it..
*The Mongols*
That's me!
Have fun! The mongols have a looong history.
Was that a joke
@@youllneverknow_123 nope it wasn't. I have to do a presentation with 2 other people about the Mongols in 7th grade :)
Nah man I was talking to the other guy
I thought medieval times were call the dark ages because it was knight....
*ba dum tss*
Ha
Ha
Ha
Get out.
Joseph Murphy lol
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
Worst year 1453, best year 1830
Fall of Constantinople and Greece's independence from the Ottomans? Just a guess.
I love greek people. Good luck liberating Constantinople!
+Uzay Sarıkaya Would be interesting though
Alex Fesler what's bad in 1483
Not really sure it's fair to characterize Europe as being particularly ethnocentric... It's not as if other cultures (or collections of cultures) aren't as equally given to it at various times and places in history.
Actuall, speaking from a psychological background, ethnocentrism is universal to everyone and every culture on record. It is a very fundamental human sensation, and people who deny it do so usually from shame as a result of over-the-top political correctness.
It is also something everyone has to be very self-aware about. There is nothing unnatural oder especially depraved about being ethnocentric (people can't help the impuls), but one has to be reflective as well, and check emotions with rational thinking.
the point is that world history classes are supposed to teach about, well, the whole world, but instead its stuck to an european point of view, so the common knowlege says that the middle ages were dark...and they were not. That's not over the top political correctness, it's basic hystorical correctness (i'm not sure that sentence makes sense, english is not my first language, sorry)
Thiago Navarro Dragoni Yeah but I've never seen or heard the Dark Ages taught as something that was universal rather than localized to Europe. So, I imagine that if it's being assumed, its being assumed by uneducated people. So, while that would be a problem, I'd think the more important issue there is the lack of education in general.
I love how he mentions the Mongols in every single episode
Best year : 2014 - Began year 11 in High school
Worst year : 2015 - Began A levels
+Flying Spectacles
I can't relate to any comment LESS. Just reading the words "high school" puts an anxious pit in my chest that spirals into an existential crisis where I have to reconcile my morality and feelings of responsibility to my family with my overwhelming urge to cause suffering to people who have wronged me and a sincere desire to die.
It helps to talk though.
Alex Peters
lol
Best year: 2015- Found myself
Worst year: 2014- Abused drugs
+WillyTheComposer best year 2013 found a best friend worst year 2007 I got type 1 diabetes
Best year 1996. I was finally tall enough to ride upside down roller coasters.
My worst year will be 2016 when Donald trump will be president
build wall
What do you mean
b
+Joshua Guzman donald trump is a boss and the president will be sworn in in 2017 moron
+Joshua Guzman My best year will 2016 when Donald trump will be president
Reading over the comments, it looks like the primary point of contention is that John seems to be implying that the term "Dark Ages" was meant to refer to the entire world during this period, when really it's SUPPOSED to just refer to Europe - because, as he says, other groups were doing pretty well. These commentators then see the video as off-topic and/or "revisionist." The issue that I think they're missing is that the pop culture view of the "Dark Ages" is that it really WAS a worldwide phenomenon. And given that the Crash Course videos are meant as a simple introduction to world history, it makes sense to debunk that narrative. It's not Eurocentric to talk about a solely European phenomenon. It IS Eurocentric to let people keep believing that because Europe wasn't improving by leaps and bounds, other cultures weren't either.
True but he also seems to be producing a negative stereotype of medieval Europe i.e. the medieval Catholic church. This is why I have a problem with him.
I read medieval historians who claim, based on their readings, that those who call the Middle Age dark, are ignorant. The term Dark Age comes from "enlightened" French philosophers who were anti-God and church. These gentlemen are Voltaire, Diderot, D'Alambert. By reading Pierre Duhem who researched philosophy and history of science, one can realize what an enormity is to say, "Dark Middle Age." This guy should go back to school and de-brainwash himself.
“Was the age really so dark? Depends on what you find depressing : )”
I'm disappointed. Your heading is misleading.
The dark ages, in most minds, refer to EUROPE. Whether that's Eurocentric or not is irrelevant. I came here to listen to what happened in the dark ages in... you guessed it... Europe. Now you focus mainly on the Arabs and the Chinese.
So now I'm non the wiser about what happened in Europe during that time.
I don't know a single person who, when he hears "Dark Ages" thinks about - to show the absurdity - Zimbabwe or Australia.
the headline doesn't include the word europe so just because your eurocentric mind only thinks of europe when you hear the dark ages doesn't mean that's all hes going teach because we need to know about the whole world to understand the world and to not repeat the bad parts of history. this is world history not european history
Dylan Fry the dark ages refer to a time in EUROPE.... Like what the heck. Its like if he made a video about the three kingdom era in china and the last half talks about europe..
PsychicChris I agree. This is ABSURD!
Next thing you know when the topic is the Pax Romana people will start talking about Mesoamerican civilization.
i get what ur saying but this is a course on WORLD history, hes gonna have to talk about Europe and Arabia and everything else. I think he did a good job in explaining the European side of it. And i do think that in history it is necessary to sometimes acknowledge when traditional historians have been a little bias. Also its a 12 minute video so appreciate how much detail he fed u on both Europe and the rest of the world.
Anyone see the hand appearing out behind the chalkboard in the end when he shoots the poppers?
yes omg!!
lmao i did
worst 2008 I was violently bullied
best 2011 started a new school, was actually challenged mentally, made cool new friends, discovered my passion for theatre.
10:44 - 10:45 Anyone else see the hand behind the chalk board?
Best 1975
Worst 2001
Brick convinced me Enron's weather derivatives were a sure fire deal.
best 2002,birth, being a baby means not doing much, worst 2012, horrible schoolmates and general life-suck
+minimooster u were born in 2002...Are u taking apwh or watching for fun?
Mini monster, oddly enough, I agree with you on both of them for the exact same ages.
Hes an 8th grader. I know it
+johnny appleseed for fun😊
+RichireX Oh wow! You can do maths! 😍😍 also **she
Worst year: 1812
best year: 1776
Haha 1812 and 1945 my best years and 1991 worst one....
But what about 1945 and the entire 1920s?
Adonis Excuse me? But do you have a problem with Tchaikovsky masterpiece??????
Adonis 1812 was a good year because it started off the era of good feelings
worst 1204 best 1314
10:45 there was a hand behind the blackboard.
Thanks for putting a different perspective in an otherwise euro centric definition of Middle Ages.
Also, I like the point regarding Religion and Science. I don't see why people think the two can't coexist together.
I'm about 2 minutes in:
1) The Dark Ages usually only refer to the Early Middle Ages (at least nowadays it does), which runs from about the 600s to the 1000s (fall of Rome and Germanic Tribe Kingdoms up to Carolingian Empire and its fall, which led to the creation (somewhat) of the modern states of Western and Central Europe).
2) Feudalism (generally) was a political system. Manorialism (generally) was an economic system. Generally refers to the generality of the terms (like there were a bunch of different types of feudalism and manorialism), not that sometimes one was the other.
***** In general historical practice, Feudalism is the set of political relationships between actors in the Middle Ages, while Manorialism was the set of economic relationships between actors. Feudalism can appear to take on more of an economic aspect once inter-manor relations (like Noble-Noble relations) are the object of study, but that's just because trade wasn't as prevalent or defined in that period, so the political relationships necessarily took on more of an economic aspect.
To be fair, The Dark Ages *are* generally understood to be a European thing. I don't think I've ever associated it with Ancient China or Arabia or anywhere else. I'm not entirely sure you can call that Euro-centrism.
It's just a term used to describe European history. I'm sure there are equivalents in other places. If it is used, it's more to get a sense of time-scale.
3:46 Looks just like when u color ur textbook with ur highlighters
Ok, hold on. The average lifespan of medieval Europe was ~60, not 30. The 30 average age takes into account a high level of infant mortality and has nothing to do with actual lifespan.
And where did you segue off into the middle east when you started talking about post-Roman Europe? Tighten your shot group. Lot more going on there than you mentioned. ...vikings, perhaps? The Dark Ages were only dark for the former Roman frontier which experienced a power vacume and breakdown of society. For the East it wasnt so bad, so why even bring them up in an episode dealing with the Dark Ages?
Also, the only reason literacy and science was maintained at all in Europe was bcause of the Christian church which filled the power vaccume left by Rome. Should probably have been mentioned.
The video is meant to give you a quick summary of the Dark Ages, not every single aspect. If it were to be that way, then the video would last for a long time and wouldn't be as entertaining.
Khalil Hijazi You can still hit many aspects of the "Dark Ages" with a quick summary, the thing is he went off topic complacently. It's like we are going to talk about the Civil War in the U.S. than have little to say about it than go off talking about how the rest of the world has their own Civil wars or how they were not effected by the US Civil War. And yes the average lifespan in medieval Europe was ~60,or 65 years not 30. Just like today hear in the U.S. it is 75. BUT if you take everything about our own time like car accidents, wars, abortions, illness, our high cost of hospitals, and so on; today our average lifespan would be about 20.
Jerry R I don't think abortions are generally considered as dying at a young age, at least by government offices.
Ahhh and see we all pick and chose our history & statistics; this tend to be much more true with modern history then farther back. I was trying to make a point, not that I am for or against abortions. But still my point is that we had a chance that we would not make it this far in life or to live... This is exactly what we do to the past; some or many people in future civilizations may count as this a statistic as this is still has to do with populations and the Human genome as we are heading in a age of cloning soon... Also how backwards our health care system is, as it is VERY high cost to do anything.
My man
"The Dark Ages weren't a time of great poetry"
Beowulf, the Arthurian Legends, the Song of Roland, the Tales of Alexander the Great, the Divine Comedy, the Canterbury Tales, etc.:
Are we a joke to you?
He didn't say there wasn't poetry, just no great poetry
Rob B Yes, and that is all great poetry…
The Canterbury Tales and Divine Comedy were both 14th-15th century, weren't they?
@@hallamhal Yes, but the "historian" in this video does not realize that the "Dark Ages" designation only used to refer to the period between 500 and 1000, so when he uses it, he is also referring to the 14th and 15th centuries.
This is a Cultural Marxist channel sponsored to spew a specific propaganda n agenda against European culture
'Great historical overview, but it misses one point; 'The Dark Ages' describes a period in EUROPEAN history. Consequently, what was happening in the rest of the world was pretty much a separate matter. In fact, the prosperity and progress going on elsewhere, by contrast, makes the European situation look even more dismal.
which is exactly what he says at 01:27
Well, he does mention that things are better on the outside. But, in an age when communication was so limited, this can have had little effect on the lot of the Europeans of the day.
for example the nations of South America were in a golden age
Okay, this one I CAN answer. The last "golden age" began with the publication of Action Comics #1, cover dated June 1938 and ended in the late '40s, as the popularity of the super hero began to fade, after WWII.
Worst: 2021
Best: 2022, 2023
A very close cousin died in a car accident in 2021, and because of that I completely changed my direction in life. Now I’m in engineering classes doing great and I’m actually excited about my future.
I find life expectancy of 30 hard to believe. Maybe if you don't count in all the dead newborns you'd get more realistic picture. It's simply hard to imagine that most people would die around 30 years old. It makes no sense.
Well the life expectancy at that time was 30 cause then they didn't have much medical professionals as we do
Today making them weak to many sicknesses and eventually kill them now we can live to 70 or such do to medical and technological advances
Anthony's Entertainment ACTUALLY the real reason life expectancy seems this low is because of infant mortality rates.
The problem here is non-specific use of statistics; they don't actually mean anything by themselves. An average has no real-life predictive qualities, so we can't use it to reproduce a real life in our mind.
People like throwing around numbers, mostly because other people really enjoy having numbers thrown at them.
Also I know this was hard to believe but smallpox was so common back then that pretty much everyone was expected to get it, and a lotttt of people died from that, I know it seems small compared to other reasons but this in combination with other factors led to such a low life expectancy
Yep. Our calculations of life expectancy in most historic periods are misleadingly low. The high infant mortality brings the average down drastically, but if you made it past childhood (and for women childbirth), your life expectancy was actually a lot higher and much closer to ours than one might think, assuming that you didn't happen to live in a time with some type of plague or famine
This video is a good example of why you should never read the CZcams comments
Why, so you can believe his distorted propagandistic history?
My best year in my life is in 2006, because when I arrive home from school, me and my friends always play PS1. Damn I miss my childhood!
2006 sounds like late ps2 era ..
BeanturdBrain n You're right but 2006 was the PINNACLE of my childhood because we always play C.T.R (Crash Bandicoot Racing) on my PlayStation 1 GOOD TIMES!
Gewd Tyms.
THIS GAME! IT IS THE BEST RACING GAME FOREVER!!!
I love how emphasized the fact that "the Dark Ages" may have been "dark" in Europe, but for the rest of the world, there was an incredible amount of progress made with technology, art & trade
2020: corona virus almost WW3
"Almost ww3" sounds a lot better than "start of world war 2"
NOT EVEN CLOSE!
The Mongols... best running-gag EVER in a series. Thank you.
I highly recommend anyone interested in a global view of history read the book 1492.
thank you !
why?
To learn?
This banter is unreal.
I dont know that book but i know the 2 book set 1491 and 1493, two books that have to do with the effects of colonialism
Worst: 2011 - shoulder surgery right before summer school, college transfers, school & personal crises
Best: 2017 - trip to Australia, solar eclipse, multiple graduations, family reunion
Funny how you said the Arabs translated the works of the greeks which otherwise would've been lost, when if it wasn't for the Arabs, the Byzantines wouldn't have lost them to begin with.
Well the Church as well as other parts of Europe had Geek & Roman works as well...
He refers mainland Europe, particularly in Spain where many Greek and Latin texts were really just passed over by the Europeans at the time, but were eventually embraced by the Arabs.
"lost" here is not just literal loosing... intellectual interest and the ability to understand and to develop upon such works..... the Arabs took roman and Hellenistic works and comparatively studies them against Persian, Indian and Chinese works.... thereby weeding out what was wrong, leading to better technological advancements.... the Caliph had decreed a task force to search and translate all manner of books.. their relevance and worth later researched upon, it dint matter to them if it was going against their scripture... while in europe even if there was scientific evidence, they would be burned along with the author.....
Avinash Varman Exactly, great point.
Avinash Varman
You think the Byzantines couldn't understand the works of the Romans? They "Lost" it to the Arabs after the middle east was conquered by said Arabs.
Worst year when I was born and best year prob when I die
Loser Bro Productions
k
+skulduggery pleasantt dont hate yourself that much bro :)
the most accurate answer I've ever seen
Do you need someone to talk to?
100% relatable :D
if you talk about the dark ages, stay in europe please
Thats the point-The dark ages was just a period of time that was bad for Europe. But as the video shows, it was a period of success and enlightenment in other areas. The WHOLE point of the video is to show you that in TODAY'S time, we define our history through what happened in Europe. Which is unfair- because history should be defined by what happened around the WHOLE WORLD. not just one section of the world simply because it is a powerful force today.
the dark ages weren't that bad for europe as some people think, and europe was probably the most important part of the world at that time.
Does that mean that Europe owns history :o ? Eurocentric bastard -_-'
the dark ages are a european period, the rest of the world has nothing to do with it
wit bat nope..they were ages....ages that were dark in europe...but non the less,a period of time.comparative history is everything.He even started the video wondering why europe is a separate continent ..
John Green: Watch as I redefine the Dark Ages into a topic about non-European history.
why didn't you mention that Ireland was in a golden age at this time with high literacy and strong lasting peace... Until Strongbow invaded because nobody beats strongbow...... unless your the king of enland(plays Mongol Scene only with King Henry the second)
what is ireland?
you know that country thats proud, catholic and beat the SAS so ya fuck you
What's Strongbow?
That fucker who tried and somewhat conquered Ireland but never truly took over the country
I point to Saint Patrick(probably the most well known saint in the world) who brought Christianity to Ireland and also kept the Irish language and culture alive.Ireland also was the only Christian nation to be more literate than illiteracy. So more than worth at least a mention
WORST YEAR WAS 1453!
I know what happen on this time.
The fall of constantanoble
I don't get it, why would the year that Constantinople fell be the worst year ever?
Carl IF YOU HAVE TO ASK THAT THEN YOU ARE A DIRTY PLEBEIAN!
In all seriousness, I just love the Roman Empire.
NOICKNOICK
I love the Roman Empire too, but you should be glad Constsntinople fell. The Byzantines were useless in terms of science compared to the Muslims.
Best year 2016, worst year 2010