By less dark, I mean less decline in population, urbanisation, education levels, long-distance trade, and the like. What would be the best way to achieve this?
Population increased 2,5 times in 1100 years during the medieval era.
The trade decline happened in the Crisis of the Third Century, no?
Another question - when you say Dark Ages, do you mean the Early Middle Ages, ~500-1000? Or do you mean the entire Middle Ages, through 1500? Because even Italy had more people in 1500 than in the Roman era, despite not having an empire to tax into starvation.
What I was taught in school and Age of Empires makes it seem like the Dark Ages were pretty much from the fall of Rome to about Charlemagne.
The British History Podcast went quite extensively about it and there was, at least in Britain, quite a contraction, including a devolution of power structures in the vacuum of Rome.
So Rome falls as OTL but somehow, what's after isn't as bad is the scenario here. It's not gonna be easy if your Po is after 476 as most of the problems originated there, what with the massive estates becoming independant more or less, after Diocletian's reforms.
What about the Church becoming interested in trade? They were the only stable structure that kept going OTL, maybe they become earlier banks like they did after the crusades or start creating militant orders to keep stability?
That way you'd get a unifying power much earlier
The Caliphate was far more damaging to the North Africa and Southern Mediterranean trade, taking a couple hundred years before it recovered - like with the Ummayad Caliphate in Spain.The trade decline happened in the Crisis of the Third Century, no?
Yeah, Britain did really badly after the Fall of Rome, probably worse than any other part of Western Europe.
The POD doesn't have to be after 476, as long as the Western Empire falls at roughly the same time as OTL.
Maybe an earlier invention of the horse collar would help? That would make it possible to grow more crops in the heavier soils of Britain, northern Gaul and Germany. More crops would lead to higher populations, likely leading to increased urbanisation, wealth and trade.