Western Europe 500 - 1500 CE

1.

WESTERN EUROPE
500 CE – 1500 CE

2.

MEDIEVAL EUROPE: PERIODIZATION
• Early Middle Ages: 500 – 1000 CE
• High Middle Ages: 1000 – 1250 CE
• Late Middle Ages: 1250 – 1500 CE

3.

CHANGE IN WESTERN EUROPE
• By the year 1000 = invasions from
outsiders (Vikings, Muslims, Magyars)
had stopped
• Either stopped or were absorbed
into western European society
Result = peace and stability = things
took a positive turn in Western Europe
• At the same time = general climate
change warmer conditions = better
agriculture

4.

POLITICAL LIFE IN WESTERN EUROPE
• Western Europe = now a
series of regional kingdoms
instead of one united
empire
• Many Germanic rulers were
influenced by and
embraced Roman culture
• Many leaders wanted to
recreate that unity that
existed with the Roman
Empire

5.

CHARLEMAGNE
• Ruled the Carolingian
Empire from 768 to 814 CE
• Set up an imperial
bureaucracy
• Standardized weights and
measures
• Acted like an old imperial
ruler
• Christmas Day of 800 CE =
he was crowned the “new
Roman emperor” by the
Pope

6.

CHARLEMAGNE
• His empire was divided
among his sons after his
death
• Attempt at unity =
unsuccessful

7.

OTTO I OF SAXONY
• Created the Holy Roman
Empire (mostly Germany
and its surrounding areas)
• Ruled from 936 to 973
• Tried to regain unity in
Western Europe just like
Charlemagne
• Also received title of
emperor from the Pope
• Unsuccessful

8.

A NEW POLITICAL SYSTEM
• These new kingdoms = created a highly fragmented and
decentralized society
• Europe full of thousands of independent and isolated manors
(estates)
• Gave rise to a new system in Europe = feudalism = a political,
economic, and social system based on loyalty and military
service

9.

A NEW POLITICAL SYSTEM
• Power = exercised by monarchs
and elite landowning lords
• Lesser lords and knights swore
allegiance to greater lords and
kings
• Lesser lords = vassals =
people who entered into a
mutual obligation to a higher
lord or monarch
• Gave them: military protection
and support
• In return they got: land or fiefs
• Fiefs = estates that came with
serfs to work the land

10.

PROBLEMS WITH FEUDALISM
• Possible to have allegiances to more than one person
• System relied on loyalty of subjects
• No strong central government
• King must ask his lords for knights in time of war.
• King must ask his lords for money to pay for things.
• Lords hold most of the power.
• Lords constantly fighting among themselves.

11.

12.

LIFE OF THE NOBILITY
• Nobility consisted of lords, ladies, and knights
• A lord had almost total authority over his fief
• A lady had few, if any, rights
• For entertainment, tournaments were held
• Mock battles between knights
• Other entertainment = archery, big dinners, minstrels, and
singers

13.

BECOMING A KNIGHT…
• Boys became knights by:
• Starting as a page (assistant) to
the lord at age 7
• At 15, he became a squire who
assisted a knight
• Once he proved himself in battle,
he was knighted in a ceremony

14.

BECOMING A KNIGHT…
• Knights’ behavior was governed by a code of chivalry
• This became the basis for good manners in western society

15.

THE MANORIAL SYSTEM
• Peasants lived on & worked the lord’s
land
• This agricultural economic system is
known as manorialism
• In return for the lord’s protection, the
peasants provided services for the lord
• Farming, herding, weapon making, etc.
• Most peasants were serfs = people
who couldn’t leave the lord’s manor
without permission

16.

SERFS VS. SLAVES
• Serfs = tied to the land; not
the personal property of a
specific person
• Slaves = belong to their
master

17.

CHRISTIANITY OF WESTERN EUROPE
• Roman Catholicism
• How did it spread throughout Western Europe?
• Church leaders and missionaries used a
“top-down” strategy
• Converted people at the top (kings and
higher lords) first then they would
persuade those below them to convert as
well
• Many kings & lords chose to convert
because: they liked the Church’s
connection to the “civilized” and “grand”
Roman Empire

18.

CHRISTIANITY OF WESTERN EUROPE
• Church authorities also had a lot of
political power
• They worked together with kings,
nobles, and knights
• Rulers gave the Church: protection
and support of the religion
• The Church gave the rulers:
religious legitimacy for their power
(“It is the will of the Creator…”)
• Sometimes they competed for power
as well

19.

THE INVESTITURE CONFLICT
• Conflict over: who should appoint bishops
and the pope himself
• The Church? Or kings and emperors?
• Compromise = the Church can select its
own officials and rulers retain an informal
and symbolic role in the process

20.

THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES 1000-1300

21.

CHANGE IN WESTERN EUROPE
• Population of Europe more than
doubled
• Increased agriculture
• More agriculture = more trade
• Major European centers of trade:
• Northern Europe from England
to the Baltic coast
• Italian towns such as Florence,
Genoa, and Venice

22.

CHANGE IN WESTERN EUROPE
• Large European trading fairs
held merchants from Northern
and Southern Europe met to
trade products from their
respective areas

23.

CHANGE IN WESTERN EUROPE
• This led to the growth of banking
• Moneychangers exchanged
one currency for another
• Also took deposits and
arranged loans
• Set up ways to transfer
money from one place to
another

24.

CHANGE IN WESTERN EUROPE
• Increased population = increased
urbanization
• Growth of cities/towns and
different groups within them
• Merchants
• Bankers
• Artisans
• Lawyers, doctors, and
scholars

25.

GUILDS
• Guilds = business associations organized by merchants
and artisans in the same line of work
• Created rules concerning foreign trading, pricing of goods,
wages, etc.
• Guilds were controlled by masters = artisans who owned their
own shops and tools

26.

GUILDS
• Apprentices worked for masters to learn the craft --> were not
paid
• Apprentices became journeymen and received pay
• To become a master, had to submit a sample of his work to the
guild for approval

27.

GROWTH OF TOWNS
• A number of towns in western Europe grew tremendously
• Townspeople built walls around towns for protection
• Buildings were mostly made of wood, making fire a constant
hazard
• Cities were dirty, smelled terribly, and had almost no sanitation
• Garbage and sewage tossed into the streets
• Caused the rapid spread of diseases such as typhoid,
influenza, and malaria
• Could become epidemics

28.

THE BLACK DEATH
• Worst = Bubonic Plague
(1348-1350) --> killed 1/3 of
the population = called the
Black Death
• Ring around the Rosie
is a reference to the
Black Death

29.

THE CRUSADES

30.

THE CRUSADES
• The Crusades = a series of 9 “holy
wars” led by European Christians to
recapture the holy lands and
spread Christianity
• Lasted several centuries
• Authorized by the Pope
• Belief that it was “God’s
command”
Pope Urban II calling for the Crusades

31.

THE CRUSADES

32.

THE CRUSADES
• Participants = knights, peasants,
middle-class, nobles, kings,
church authorities all walks of
life!
• Participants received:
• Indulgences = removed any
penalties for their confessed
sins
• Immunity from lawsuits
• Cancellation of debts
• Honor and glory

33.

THE CRUSADES
• Most famous Crusades = those
aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem
and other holy places in the
Middle East from the Muslims
• Crusaders = very violent
• 1099 = seizure of
Jerusalem thousands of
Muslims and Jewish people
slaughtered

34.

THE CRUSADES
• The 1st crusade managed to conquer Jerusalem
• The Europeans then created 4 feudal “Crusader States” in the Holy
Land, each ruled by a European noble.
• The 4th crusade sent Knights back to the Holy Land, however they never
made it to Jerusalem.
• Instead attacked the city of Constantinople because they were in
desperate need of supplies and funds.
• The Children's Crusade in 1212
• They believed God would protect them because they were children.
• When the ships landed in North Africa, some children were slaughtered
and others were sold in to slavery.

35.

THE CRUSADES
• Other targets of the Crusaders:
• Muslims on the Iberian
Peninsula (Spain)
• Lands along the Baltic Sea
• The Byzantine Empire and
Russia
• Enemies of the Popes
• Opponents of the Catholic
Church

36.

THE CRUSADES: RESULTS
• Relatively unsuccessful
• Little lasting impact
• Increased power of the popes
• As a result of contact with the Islamic
world, Europeans gained:
• A demand for Asian goods
• Muslim scholarship
• Techniques for producing sugar on
large-scale plantations

37.

THE CRUSADES: RESULTS
• Greater rift between Eastern
Orthodoxy and Roman
Catholicism
• Growth of anti-Semitism
• Solidified cultural barriers

38.

THE MAGNA CARTA
• English King John was a bad king so his
nobles forced him to sign the Magna
Carta
• It limited powers of king.
• Signed in 1215
• Example of Rule of Law

39.

WESTERN EUROPE
A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

40.

CATCHING UP
• Western Europe was much less developed
than: the Byzantine Empire, China, India, and
the Islamic world
• Smaller cities
• Politically weaker
• Less international economy
• Inferior technology

41.

EUROPE’S WILLINGNESS TO BORROW
From:
Received:
Arabs
Scientific ideas, business
practices, goods like spices and
sugar
Philosophical and artistic ideas
Mathematical concepts, spices
Silks, porcelain, gunpowder,
papermaking, compass, iron
casting, nautical technology, a
public postal service
Pagan Greeks
India
China

42.

EUROPE’S OWN BREAKTHROUGHS
• In agriculture = new heavy
wheeled plow that could handle
the dense soils of Northern
Europe
• In energy = non-animal sources =
windmill, water-driven mill,
complex gearing mechanisms,
etc.
• Revolutionized production in
many industries

43.

PLURALISM IN POLITICS
• Political life in Western Europe became
a system of competing states
• Ex: France, Spain, England,
Sweden, etc.
• Why no single European empire?
• Geographic barriers
• Ethnic and linguistic diversity
• Shifting balances of power among
the many states

44.

PLURALISM IN POLITICS
• Result of this type of
political system:
• Frequent warfare
• Enhanced the role and
status of military men
• Drove the “gunpowder
revolution”

45.

PLURALISM IN POLITICS
• 3-way struggle for power in western
European states between: monarchs,
high-ranking nobles, and church leaders
• As a result = most cities ended up
making their own laws and appointing
their own local officials
• In many cities kings granted
charters = allowed citizens to have their
own courts, laws, and governments

46.

PAVING THE WAY FOR THE FUTURE…
• Development of capitalism
• Development of representative institutions and parliaments
• First parliaments represented “estates”
• First estate = the clergy
• Second estate = the landowning nobility
• Third estate = Urban merchants

47.

REASON AND FAITH
• Rising tension in Europe between:
human reason and faith
• Classical Greek philosophy
Does it contradict religion? Or can
it be used to help disclose the
truths of Christianity

48.

RISE OF EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES
• Considered “zones of intellectual
autonomy”
• Professors and students could
pursue their studies with some
freedom from political and religious
authorities
• Guild of scholars organized
• Major universities in: Paris, Oxford,
Cambridge

49.

MEDIEVAL UNIVERSITIES
University of Paris in France
Cambridge in England

50.

MEDIEVAL UNIVERSITIES

51.

REASON AND FAITH
• At these universities is where
scholars and students began to
examine faith and religion using
reason and logic
• Example of a student’s question =
Can you prove that God exists
based solely on reason, without
the Bible or other source of divine
revelation?

52.

REASON AND FAITH
• However, many scholars and students believed that reason
could coexist with faith
• Logic, philosophy, and rationality would operate in service to
Christ

53.

DESIRE FOR ANCIENT GREEK TEXTS
• Focus on reason and rationality =
led scholars to seek out original
Greek texts
• Especially those of Aristotle
his writings became the basis
for university education
• Many translated from Greek and
Arabic into Latin

54.

BIRTH OF THE RENAISSANCE
• The Renaissance will be caused by:
• An increased interest in acquiring new goods from Asia, Africa and the
Middle East.
• Demand for things such as silks, spices, ivory and pearls. This created a
demand for trade with the Middle East.
• Increased trade = Increased income for Italian merchants
• Sophisticated Muslim culture, arts and philosophy were introduced to the
Europeans