western europe feudal kingdoms world map

By contrast, the Eastern Roman Empire, mostly known as the Greek or Byzantine Empire, survived and even thrived for another 1000 years. The Western Roman Empire collapsed, starting the Early Middle Ages. The division between these two was enhanced during Late antiquity and the Middle Ages by a number of events. The Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire controlled the two divergent regions between the 3rd and the 5th centuries. This cultural and linguistic division was eventually reinforced by the later political east–west division of the Roman Empire.

As the Roman domain expanded, a cultural and linguistic division appeared between the mainly Greek-speaking eastern provinces, which had formed the highly urbanized Hellenistic civilization, and the western territories, which in contrast largely adopted the Latin language. Prior to the Roman conquest, a large part of Western Europe had adopted the newly developed La Tène culture.

Schism of 1054 (East–West Schism) in Christianity, the predominant religion in Europe at the time

Western europe feudal kingdoms world map