[Tax-chick]

Interesting. Thanks for the big picture.

However, if agriculture and trade and so forth continued uninterrupted through all that time, what caused the tremendous decline in population and economic activity in Europe in the period from the 6th century to the 12th, roughly? What happened to Roman Britain, Roman Gaul, Roman North Africa, Roman Dalmatia, etc., if there was all this continuity?

[Conservative4Ever]

I may be wrong, but outlying roman posts like Britain after a time were simply absorbed into the local culture. A Roman soldier soldiers in Britain until he retires. His children might remember Rome might not, by the third generation, Rome is a vague memory and local customs are predominate.

[muawiyah]

The depopulation of Northwestern Europe in the 6th Century had a simple cause ~ a Fimbulwinter happened ~ that's when it stays cold, snows, and no crops are grown. They happen every now and then in Scandinavia, but those guys eat lots of fish and reindeer and dont' really notice it.

There are a number of theories concerning the cause, but the evidence suggests Krakatoa blew up about 538. This is the time it separated the island of Sumatra from the island of Java. Before that they had been a single island.

The Eastern Mediterranean, Southern Italy and Eastern Mediterranean were not much affected. China, on the other hand, was wiped out for 300+ years, which sounds pretty bad but was nothing compared to the 1000+ years for most of Western Europe.

An alternative theory is that a comet did the job.

Now, why did the people die? Well, even where they survived, the climate changed such that the dry high pressure zones moved in all around the Mediterranean. This fostered the growth of grass to the detriment of other plants, particular normal agricultural crops. Rats and mice do well in prairie. Black Plague is carried by rats and mice. The result was known as the Plague of Justinian.

Where people didn't survive well, more of them died and no record was made. Civilization ceased to be a factor in much of the West.