What period comes after Antiquity in European history?

The story behind the answer

By standard European periodization, the Middle Ages follows Classical Antiquity, beginning after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE and ending in the 14th–15th centuries as the Renaissance ushers in the Early Modern era. The other options belong to later phases.

This era saw feudal kingdoms, castles, and soaring Gothic cathedrals; the rise of monasticism and the first universities; crusades and expanding trade networks; and devastating crises like the Black Death. Scholars preserved and translated classical texts—often via Arabic intermediaries—helping spark later intellectual renewal. Innovations such as the heavy plow, windmills, the magnetic compass, and mechanical clocks reshaped daily life and set the stage for Europe’s transformation.