ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores how far for the development of Europe, in political, religious, cultural, social, and economic terms, the period from 300 to 1050 was one of the most formative in its history. Europe was by no means an island, but was always closely connected to the lands to the east, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, and to the south, equally bordering that sea and extending to the fringes of the Sahara Desert. The book explores the case for the importance, or otherwise, of these changes. Modern scholars have refined our understanding of their nature and extent, and they have sometimes disputed their importance. Although modern scholars have sometimes emphasised the European aristocracy's continuity with the Roman world and many of its branches believed that they had originated in the course of this period, notably in the ninth century.
