Nullary Sources

Fantastic answer from an anonymous Quora user. The gist of it is that in studying the Middle Ages you’ll see:

• The emergence and development of modern parliamentary democracy
• The emergence and development of individual rights
• The emergence of the concept of the “nation-state” / the growth of modern languages.¹
• The emergence of the modern system of education
• The creation of mass media

and this is my favorite bit

• The invention of guns, “Europe’s killer app. Europe 1, rest of world 0.”

You should really go read the whole thing — much elaboration on each of the above points.