In the West, most kingdoms incorporated extant Roman institutions, while the influence of Christianity expanded across Europe. The Byzantine Empire survived in the Eastern Mediterranean and advanced secular law through the Code of Justinian. In the 7th century, the Middle East and North Africa came under caliphal rule with the Arab conquests.

The large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including of Germanic peoples, led to the rise of new kingdoms in Western Europe. Population decline, counterurbanisation, the collapse of centralized authority, invasion and the mass migration of tribes, which had begun in late antiquity, continued into the Early Middle Ages. Late medieval scholars at first called these the Dark Ages in contrast to classical antiquity the accuracy of the term has subsequently been challenged. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: antiquity, medieval, and modern. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD and ended with the fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD before transitioning into the Renaissance and then the Age of Discovery. In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period (also spelled mediæval or mediaeval) lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, aligning with the post-classical period of global history. It depicts the Parable of the Sower, a Biblical narrative.

For other uses, see Middle Ages (disambiguation).Ī stained glass panel from Canterbury Cathedral, c. For a global history of the period between the 5th and 15th centuries, see Post-classical history.

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