From when to when would you date Britain's

[DarkAngelBGE]

Klaas ? Matteo ?

[Klaas]

I would start when the Roman armies left the island (407 AD) and maybe end when the Henry VIII summons the Reformation Parliament (1529) or when he was excommunicated by the pope (1533).

Well dates and figures are just virtual things to draw lines in history. Basicly I think the Medieval period started with the Germanic influence and the end of the Roman influence and ended when the foundations for the big reformation were laid.

Some historians would also argue (from an economic view) that the Middle Ages ended with the rise of the first independent cities in northern Europe (eg. Bruges, Ghent, the Hanse in Germany, etc., late 13th - 14th century)

[rohirwine]

Yeah it's not always clear when an era ends and begins another (there is the fascinating issue of long duration phenomena: characteristics wich tend to remain influent for over than an historical period).

But i'd left out Henry the VIII, since his struggle with the Pope has much more to do with the religion clashes and the founding of the modern state typical of the subsequent historical period (wich in Italy we call "modern", while we call "contemporary" the one starting from the french revolution: as you can see it's diffcult to share the same definitions...)

[Klaas]

Yeah we do that in Belgium too:

prehistoric period (before the were written texts)

protohistoric period (this concerns civilisations who didn't write but contemporary people wrote about them, eg. the Celts)

classical period (ends with the fall of the Western Roman empire)

medieval period (ends with the fall of the Eastern Roman empire)

modern period (ends with the French revolution)

contemporary period (until present day)

[rohirwine]

medieval period (ends with the fall of the Eastern Roman empire)

Basically the same here, but scholars tend to stick with the "discovery of America" for this one.

Actually those dates do not matter much if not to have a timeline and a sketchy division of periods (some scholars make the Medieval age end with the Black Death in the middle of XIV cent., as istance): those are subtleties better left to boring erudites.

[Mystic-Al-Bob]

How was your talk Tim?

Did you get a 1?

[rohirwine]

Yes, i'm curious to know the disasters we could have nurtured...