Posted: February 07, 2000 at 11:19:10: by Tauron
I generally agree, but I will say that you do see references to "medieval" in Chinese, Indian, and other Asian histories. The term does have some use there. Although the histories are only very loosely linked to Europe, there were some links such as Turkish or Mongol invasions where it is nice to have a term to fix the events in time against "better known" European history. But it generally takes quite a shoe-horn to fit Asian historical patterns in with European ones. That is, The European middle ages fit between the collapse of a "universal" empire that was really never revived, and the beginning of European world domination. In China, the Empire has always been revived over and over. In India, the empires and states rise and fall so fast that it is a blur. But it makes no sense at all to use the term for American or African history.
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