Katie Felton

Mr. Haskell

World History

8 October 2004

I. A land of Great Potential

A. The Germanic peoples who ended Roman rule in the shifted the focus to the north, where the people of Europe began to create a new civilization.

B. Europe had great untapped potential; dense forests and rich black earth that were suited for raising crops.

C. Europe’s large rivers were ideal for trade and exploration.

II. Germanic Kingdoms

A. The Germanic tribes who migrated across Europe were farmers and herders.

B. They lived in small communities governed by unwritten customs.

C. Between 400 and 700, the Germanic tribes carved up Western Europe into small kingdoms, the strongest, and most successful kingdom was that of the Franks.

III. Islam: A new Mediterranean Power

A. After the Germanic peoples carved up Western Europe, a powerful new force, Islam swept out of the Middle East in the Mediterranean world.

B. At the battle of Tours in 732, Frankish warriors led by Charles Martel defeated a Muslim army.

C. Muslims advanced no farther into Western Europe, although they continued to rule most of Spain.

IV. The Age of Charlemagne

A. Around 800 a man known as Charlemagne or Charles the Great built an empire that reached across France, Germany, and parts of Italy and this time was a short moment of unity.

B. Late in 800 the Pope crowned Charles the Great “emperor” for his help against the rebellious Romans.

C. Charles the Great created a united Christian Empire; he worked very closely with the church, and helped with the spread of Christianity.

V. A Revival of Learning

A. Charles had a goal of making his capital at Aachen a “second Rome” and wanted to revive Latin learning.

B. Charles himself could read but not write yet he found it very important for his officials to be able to write and keep accurate records.

C. Since education was so important to Charles he set up a school in Aachen and asked the respected scholar, Alcuin, to run the school.

VI. Charlemagne’s Legacy

A. After Charlemagne’s death his empire fell apart and it was fought over for 30 years.

B. Finally in 843 Charlemagne’s grandson drew up the treaty of Verdun which split the empire up into 3 parts.

C. Although his empire crumbled he had a great legacy, he extended Christian civilization, blended German, roman, and Christian traditions, and set up a strong, efficient government.

VII. New Attacks

A. Muslims kept up their pressure on Europe and in the late 800’s they conquered Sicily and it became a center of Islamic culture.

B. The most destructive raiders were the Vikings and they ended Charlemagne’s empire. The Vikings were expert sailors, and vicious fighters and they came from Scandinavia.

C. Although the Vikings were knows for there exploration and fighting skills they were also skilled traders and even set up a short-lived colony on North America.

VIII. A New System of Rule

A. In the time where Vikings invaded the countries, king and emperors were not strong enough to maintain law and order and so a new system called feudalism evolved.

B. Feudalism is loosely organized and it is a system of rule in which powerful local lords divided their large landholding among the lesser lords and these lesser lords or vassals, pledged loyalty to the greater lord.

C. The relationship between a lord and his vassal was where the lord would give the vassal land ranging in size, and it would include peasants to work it, in return for this the lord promised to protect the vassal.

IX. Lords, Vassal, and Knights

A. In this time everyone had a rank in society; the monarch was on time, then the lords, then the lesser lords, then the knights, and finally the peasant.

B. Sometimes people would be both a vassal and a lord; vassal to a more powerful lord above him, and lord to a less powerful vassal below him.

C. Because vassal often held fiefs, or estates, from more than one lord he would have a liege lord to whom he owed his first loyalty.

X. The World of Warriors

A. Boys would begin training to be a knight at age 7 and it would usually take until age 21 where there were knighted and began serving along with other warriors.

B. During the middle Ages, powerful lords would build forts around their homes to protect themselves and gradually these forts became grander and more elaborate and by the 1100’s they were grand stone structures called castles.

C. Noblewomen played a big part in this society; they would take the place of the lord while her husband or father was away and some women owned their own land and servants; Eleanor of Aquitaine took part in politics and owned large amounts of land from her 2 husbands.

D. In the late middle ages knights had to adopt a code of chivalry which was like a code of conduct, some of the rules were things such as a knight agreed to not attack another knight with out waiting for him to out on his armor and prepare for battle.

XI. The Manor

A. A manor, or lords estate, included one or more villages and the surrounding land and the peasant who made up the majority would live and work on the manor.

B. Most of the peasants were serfs who were bound to the land, they were not quite slaves yet they were not free, they could not leave w/o permission from the lord.

C. The medieval manor was a self sufficient type of place; the peasant would produce the food they needed and most manors consisted of, huts to live in, a church, and the manor house.

XII. Daily Life

A. Life was harsh for the peasants, the men, women, and children all worked long hours in the fields, had a strict diet, and then slept in the small hut along with any cows, chickens, pigs, or sheep.

B. Although there lives were very rough they found reasons to celebrate such as marriages, births, Christmas, Easter, and other Christian holidays.

C. On the Sabbath people might go to chapel but after they would dance and gossip. Also people in medieval Europe believed in elves, fairies, and potions.

XIII. A Spiritual and Worldly Empire.

A. After the fall of Rome the Christian church split into eastern and western and the western was headed by the pope and became known as the Roman Catholic Church.

B. The pope was said to be Christ’s representation on earth and held himself above everyone else.

C. Medieval Christians believed that to get to heaven you must have faith in God and participate in the sacraments yet the church chose who could participate or not and in this held total power over the people religious lives.

XIV. The Church and Daily Life

A. The village church was where the peasants would attend and this was a very big part of their daily lives, it was a social center and often the priests would set up schools.

B. To pay for its expenses the church required the people to pay a tithe or 10% of their earnings to cover to cost of the church and help the poor.

C. The church taught that men were equal to women and tried to help protect them but were often unfair and easier on the men.

XV. Monks and Nuns

A. There was a Benedictine rule started by the monk benedict it included things such as an oath of poverty, vows of chastity or purity, and obedience to the abbot.

B. In a world w/o hospitals, public schools, or social services the monks and nuns helped out. They tended to the sick, helped the poor, and set up schools for children.

C. Monasteries had a lot to do with preserving the writing of the ancient world.

D. Many nuns and monks were missionaries who were people who risked their lives and traveled to other areas to spread the word of God.

XVI. Hildegard of Bingen: Adviser to Popes and Kings

A. Hildegard was an extraordinary person from the very beginning; her parents placed her in a convent and by age 14 she decided to become a nun.

B. The Pope even referred to her as a prophet

C. She wrote many books about science, medicine, and philosophy, to Christian teachings and morals.

D. Restriction on women grew and women were no longer aloud to preach to gospel, hear confessions, and the church frowned on too much learning for women.

XVII. Reform Movements

A. As the church wealth and power grew the ethics of the people in the church began to weaken; the clergy tended to be worldly, monks and nuns ignored their vows, married priests cared more of their family then the church. The growing corporation led to the moral decay and led to the demand for reform.

B. A new Pope, Gregory VII, made many changes such as the priests couldn’t marry, asked the Christians to renew their faith, and asked the kings and nobles to choose church officials.

C. Many new ways of teaching were started; the friars were to live in poverty, and teaching through example were some of the ways.

XVIII. Jews in Western Europe

A. After the Romans expelled the Jews from Palestine they scattered around the Mediterranean and particularly flourished in Spain.

B. Jews were not treated very well. Many rulers in northern Europe tolerated Jews and even game some highly educated Jews position sin their courts yet the Jews were taxed much more.

C. Many Jews were persecuted by Christians and were blamed for Jesus’ death and this is what laid the foundation for anti-Semitism, or prejudice against Jews.

XIX. An Agricultural Revolution

A. By 1000 Europe’s economy was recovering and was thanks to the adapted new farming technologies that made the fields more productive.

B. Peasant were using tools such as iron plows, new harnesses, and windmills which all helped raise the production on fields.

C. Peasant adopted the three-field system which was where they planted grain in one field, things such as peas and beans in a second and left eh third one empty. This way certain crops helped the soil and helped put the land to the best use.

XX. Trade Revives

A. There were many things that were not available on the manor and people started needing things such as iron, farming tools, wools, furs, and spices which could only be obtained by trading.

B. At first traders and customers met at trade fairs which were near rivers where the people could come and enjoy food and entertainment.

C. Slowly these cities that were once small center of trade grew into huge cities with population of 10,000 and sometimes even 100,000.

XXI. A Commercial Revolution

A. Many new business practices were created to meet the need of the changing economy.

B. Many social changed were made to with the peasant selling their food to the people and paying the lords with their money instead of their labor.

C. By 1000 a new class appeared and they were the merchants, traders, and artisans.

XXII. Role of Guilds

A. A guild is an association and they would decide things like whether the city street should be paved, have a protective wall put up, or build a city hall.

B. Craft Guilds were formed and these were guilds that represented workers in separate occupations.

C. To become a member of a guild meant many years of training and hard work as an apprentice. At the age of 7 a child was apprenticed to a guild master and they would learn the trade and not receive any pay.

D. Women were involved in dozens of crafts and often worked in the same trade as her father or husband. She sometimes could even become the guild master herself. Women were apprenticed in trades ranging from ribbon making, to papermaking, to surgery.

XXIII. City Life

A. Medieval towns were surrounded by high walls to protect the people and as the city grew the walls would fill to overflowing and so every few years a town many rebuild its walls to expand.

B. During the day the cities were crowded and noisy and many things could be seen but at night the cities were deserted and quite.

C. Towns had no garbage collection and trash was simply thrown out on to the street so cities were smelly and dirty.

XXIV. Looking Ahead