Foreign look at the Western Middle Ages

Abstract

Is therereally a 'Middle Ages'? This article first attempts to contextualise the origin of the name or expression 'Middle Ages', the delimitationsthat are generallyfixed to it, namely the fall of the last Western Roman emperor (476) and, as an alternative, the fall of Constantinople (1453) or the voyage of Christopher Columbus (1492). He thenattempts, with an outsider'seye, to understandthischronological division around the Western Middle Ages. Thesedelimitationsonlymakesense if one keepsone'seye on the Western world. And even for the West, theseboundaries are only relevant in certain respects.

Key words : Middle Ages, West, periodisation, acceptance, rejection, Eye, Exterior