Feudal Lords, Nomads, Empires: on the Subject of Medieval Studies

Abstract

The article deals with the concept of medieval history, which is the basis for the second volume of “World History”. Its main differences from the methodology of “World History” edited in the USSR are determined. In addition to the text of the volume, its maps are analyzed because they reflect the features of the volume. The new revised edition, published in 2019, in the context of a “global turn” and an increased interest in national “World histories”, is based on the principle of synchronization of events, phenomena, and processes, on the desire to show the connectedness of the world and to see features of similarity in the development of different societies, but above all to understand the originality of the “world Middle Ages” in comparison with other periods of world history. The most important distinguishing feature of this edition is showing the key role of nomads and especially nomadic empires. The answer to their challenge was the strengthening of sedentary empires, which had to pay a high price for the opportunity to organize effective resistance.Some countries adopted the imperial model of government; in others, bearers of certain nomadic traditions came to power, and still, others embraced the results of the interaction of nomadic and sedentary empires.The interaction process between the nomadic and sedentary world went far beyond the limits of the border territories themselves; they served as centers from which waves of mutual influences radiated. The zonesmost protected from nomadic empires included Western Europe, which in many ways made the “European miracle” possible. It is in the context of the interaction of nomadic and sedentary empires that “European miracle” appears not as a general pattern but as a historical anomaly, which, however, played a crucial role in subsequent history.