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Chapter 8 Outline
A Land of Great Potential
v Europe is extremely small to have such a large impact on the earth.
v Europe was covered with forests in the north and had very good soil for growing crops.
v The rivers in Europe helped very much with the development of trade.
Germanic Kingdoms
v Germanic farmers and herders migrated to Europe.
v There were no real towns or laws so small groups of people were ruled by kinds who supported the men as long as the men worked for the king.
v Clovis became the powerful ruler of the Franks who concurred the former Roman province of Gaul.
Islam: A new Mediterranean Power
v After the Germanic peoples carved up Europe Islam swept through Europe.
v The Muslim armies concurred many people including a lot of Christians. The Christian where worried.
v The Muslims were a threat to the Christians.
The Age of Charlemagne
v Charles the Great or Charlemagne united Western Europe under his rule.
v Charlemagne crushed the rebellious Romans and unified everyone under a Christian rule.
v Charlemagne was even crowned by the pope while he tried to convert everyone in Europe to Christianity.
A Revival of Learning
v Charlemagne tried to make Europe a “second Rome” and to do this he felt people needed to learn how to read and write.
v He set up a palace school at Alcuin used for Latin learning.
v Charlemagne had scholars take records of many things because he felt this was important to keep an empire strong.
Charlemagne’s Legacy
v Charlemagne’s empire fell apart after he died and was dived up among his three grandsons.
v He did a good job at blending Christianity throughout northern Europe.
v He also tried to set up a good strong government.
New Attacks
v Muslims kept up the attacks and pressure on Europe until about the mid 900’s.
v In 896 a group called the Magyars settled in Hungry and tried to expand, but were pushed back into Hungry.
v The Vikings were the most destructive raiders and crushed the last little remains of Charlemagne’s rule.
A New System of Rule
v With the Vikings pressuring the Muslims and Magyars feudalism formed.
v Feudalism is a form of rule where greater lords break their land into smaller peaces for lesser lord which in return work for the greater lords.
v The vassal, or lesser lords were given fiefs, or estates, to them by their greater lords.
Lords, Vassals, and Knights
v Monarchs, or dukes and courts were the most powerful.
v These monarchs had their own vassals who then hade their own vassals.
v If vassals had more than one lord, they usually had a liege lord, or a first lord.
The World of Warriors
v The boys were sent to their fathers lords who trained them till they were 21 and then knighted them and turned them into knights, or mounted warriors.
v Rulers normally had big castles which were protected by fences, moats and towers. These castles held a lot of food so the people who lived in them could survive an attack for a while without needing more food.
v Noble women had to manage the household while their men were fighting. They had to perform medical and agricultural tasks as well as having to go to war to protect the estate even.
v The knights created a code of conduct called chivalry which stated that knights should be brave, true, and loyal as well fight fairly during warfare.
The Manor
v The manor was the heart of the medieval economy and usually was made up of a few towns and the lords estate.
v The peasants in the manor were serfs who were provided for by their lord but had to do whatever their lord said.
v The peasants produced whatever was needed for the manor and never wandered very far away from it.
Daily Life
v The farmers paid very close attention to the sessions and based their harvest upon it. During Winter was the hardest time, and that is when most people went hungry.
v Peasants still celebrated during holidays and other such occasions where they were aloud to butcher one animal to eat.
v Peasants went to church on Sabbath but still believed in many myths and old beliefs such as magic spells.
A Spiritual and Worldly Empire
v The Christian Church in Western Europe had a lot of power and was a big force in Europe at the time.
v People at the time believed everyone was doomed to hell unless they perform sacraments, or sacred rituals of the Church.
v The Church had their own laws even, and if these laws were not obeyed a person could face excommunication from the Church in which people could not receive sacraments and were doomed to hell.
The Church and Daily Life
v The Church was a huge part of the people daily life in Europe, it would even be a center of gossip.
v People would pay a tithe of 10 percent of their income to the Church which was used to help poorer people.
v Women of the Church were taught that they were seen as equals before God, and the church would try to protect women from harsh husbands and other things.
Monks and Nuns
v Monks and Nuns could take live by the Benedict Rule which made monks and nuns take an oath of poverty, purity, chastity, and obedience.
v Monks and nuns attended the sick and helped out the poor. The Church had most all the social programs of the time.
v Monks and nuns studied and read a lot,; as a form of work they would copy the ancient books.
Hildegard of Bingen: Adviser to Popes and Kings
v Hildegard was a religious lady who believed that god spoke to her many times, and even the pope recognized her as a religious prophet.
v She believed that God spoke to her to write, and she wrote books from medicine to religion.
v Kings started to call upon her as a prophet to predict things and give helpful advice.
v As time went on more restrictions came upon women and pretty soon women were not being educated, even nuns.
Reform Movements
v As time lead on problems started to happen in the Church. Discipline weakened and monks and nuns started to ignore their vows.
v Abbot Berno started to reform the Church again by setting up the old Church rules once again. A new pope named Gregory VII got elected and he outlawed buying your way into a position in the Church and priest marriages.
v Monks started to travel and preach and they were called friars. These friars spread the Church’s teaching as they traveled. Some women started to reform to, setting up hospitals and shelters for the poor.
Jews in Western Europe
v The Jews were scattered all over Europe ever since the Romans booted them out of Palestine.
v The Jews were basically tolerated and left alone. Even in some cases the Jews served as officials in Muslim royal courts.
v The Church lied out the foundations for anti-Semitism though, or prejudice against Jews. As this increased the Christians started to blame Jews for everything including illnesses and famines.
An Agriculture Revolution
v Economic recovery was on its way in 1000 where farming improved forming the agricultural revolution.
v New inventions such as iron plows increased the quality and output in agriculture.
v Other agricultural techniques made production faster such as rotating the crops grown on different fields.
Trade Revives
v Traders created new trade routs and merchant companies traveled in caravans for safety over these routs to trade. As the wars died down trade gradually got better.
v Traders had trade fairs which were almost like a big party because they traded, ate, drank, and watched entertainment.
v These little trade fairs grew into extremely large towns, so large no towns were that large before the Romans. The king would make a charter, or set of rules for these towns.
A Commercial Revolution
v Merchants would barrow money from moneylenders because they needed capital for investment.
v Merchants formed businesses with one another to lower the cost instead of piling them all on one person. Merchants developed insurance and even deposited money in bank accounts.
v This new economic setup caused a middle class of people which were mainly farmers who paid rent and hired people under them.
Roles of Guilds
v Merchant guilds dominated the town life. They made decisions like about razing taxes or building town walls. These guilds became very powerful.
v To become a guild member people had to train many years as an apprentice, or trainee.
v Women worked in a ton of different crafts for guilds, for either their father or husband.
City life
v Cities were centered in the middle of massive walls for protection but when to many people were living in a town some people had to live in field outside the wall.
v There were a bunch of streets and houses in theses towns.
v There was no waste collection system, people threw their trash into the streets.
Looking Ahead
v Western Europe was a lot different than when it was in the Middle Ages.
v More money was being made because of trade.
v The economic revival of Europe brought them into contact with civilizations much more advanced than theirs.