The world then... The 5th century Western Empire dissolves from Roman authority. In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages, known as the Medieval Period began, in the 5th century and lasted to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Roman Empire and ended with the merging into the Renaissance period. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. Roman Empire - Medieval (Middle) Period - Renaissance Medieval Period straddles the two on either side The Medieval World Roughly 5th c CE - 15th c CE The 15th C. CE marks the Renaissance forward. Renaissance Humanists regarded the period as the “dark age” — because of the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire, decline and rise of barbarism. The Medieval World stood in the “middle” straddling the tw...