EUROPE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Chapters 17 and 20

INTRODUCTION

With the fall of the Roman Empire at the

beginning of the Post-Classical Era, western Europe

collapsed into an “every man for himself ” situation

with no unifying armies, laws or educational

systems.

THE DARK AGES (500-1000 CE)

Much of Roman civilization was lost, such as

written language, innovative architectural and

building techniques, organized government, and

long distance trade.• The Germanic people could not read or write, and

retained the isolated nomadic lifestyles of their ancestors.

THE FRANKS

Germanic peoples who migrated into the former

Roman Empire largely lived according to tribal and

customary law.• Clovis, the king of the Franks, became the first

Germanic ruler to convert to Christianity in 500 CE.• Created an alliance with the papacy and expanded in to

France.

THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH

The Christian church remained intact and, in the

social and political vacuum left by the fall of Rome,

emerged to fulfill those duties.• Most western Europeans flocked to the church seeking

comfort in faith, but more than that, the hierarchy in Rome also provided dearly needed social order and political stability.

THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH

The pope served not only as the spiritual leader in western

Europe, but through the organization of the Catholic Church,

he was also the de facto political head of Europe.• The pope was served by bishops with regional spiritual and

political authority and also by priests who served on the local level.

• Change occurred as the era continued because the hierarchy expanded to include cardinals and archbishops who served as more layers of authority between the pope and bishops.

THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH

• Serving in education and missionary work were monks and nuns, men and women who lived in communities under the authority of a local priest (abbot).

• Membership in a community of nuns offered women opportunities for leadership, something almost unheard of in Europe’s secular world.

SECULAR LEADERSHIP (LOCAL)

Land owners (“lords”) ran large farms, or manors, with pool

landless peoples (“serfs”) working the land.

Privately hired soldiers (“knights”) protected their lord’s land from

attacks by rival lords, bandits, and sometimes Vikings.

Over time, the winners gained more land and more power until a

lord had enough power to declare himself king of his country.

CHANGES

Political power began to shift back into secular

hands around 700 CE• It began when Charles Martel, a Christian leader of the

Germanic Franks, defeated a Muslim army that had entered France from Spain in the Battle of Tours.

• Turning Point! Had the Franks not defeated the Muslims, all of Europe might have been conquered by them.

CHARLEMAGNE

In 800 CE, Martel’s grandson, Charlemagne, united much

of modern France, Germany, and northern Italy into a “New

Roman Empire” – the first large secular government in

western Europe since the fall of Rome.• This began a power struggle for political authority with

Christian church leaders that lasted for centuries in western Europe.

CHARLEMAGNE

Charlemagne united his realm through the use of

the missi dominici, who were messengers sent to

proclaim his laws and report back to him on events

throughout the realm.

CHARLEMAGNE

Charlemagne’s empire fractured after his death,

but this led to the formation of new types of

government in western Europe – in particular,

kingdoms in England and France.

THE CRUSADES

The Crusades were a series of Muslim-Christian

clashes over control of Southwest Asia beginning in

the late eleventh century and lasting about 200 years.

CAUSE #1: RELIGION

Christians sought to re-establish their faith in

Southwest Asia, which they felt had been pushed

aside by Muslims through jihad.

CAUSE #2: POLITICS

The Byzantine Empire wanted to retake land it

had lost to the Seljuk Turks and asked Christians in

western Europe for help.• Despite the split in Christianity in 1054, the westerners

sent both trained forces (knights) and woefully untrained forces (monks and laypeople).

CAUSE #3: ECONOMICS/TRADE

Europeans were concerned that luxury goods from Asia

(spices and silk) would be cut off if the Byzantine capital,

Constantinople, came under Muslim control.

In addition, some wealthy western Europeans went on

crusades to establish trade with Muslim merchants.

RESULTS OF THE CRUSADES

Militarily, the Europeans gained only small

territories along the eastern coast of the

Mediterranean. • These so-called Crusader states became centers of

Christianity and trade with “the East.” • Jerusalem became a city jointly occupied by Muslims,

Jews, and Christians.

RESULTS OF THE CRUSADES

Culturally, the Crusades resulted in great advancements for

the Europeans, who, for example, rediscovered Roman and

Greek literature that Muslim scholars had maintained for

centuries.• The science, math, and philosophies of those Classical

civilizations began an intellectual revival in the 14th and 15th

centuries (The Renaissance).• This started western Europe on a path toward global

hegemony (control) in the 19th century.

RESULTS OF THE CRUSADES

Economically, spices, foods, silk, cotton, and many other

products entered western Europe on a greater scale than ever

before.• The demand for these goods led to an increase in the number

of towns along trade routes to the “East” and an increase in wealth in the “West”, which led to more trade.

• Finding alternate and (hopefully) cheaper ways of trading these goods ultimately led to expeditions funded by European monarchs.

RESULTS OF THE CRUSADES

Increased contacts between western Europeans and Asians

via trade also led to the introduction of unfamiliar diseases

into the West.

THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES

Europe was rapidly becoming a richer, more urban, and

more dynamic society• By the year 1000, threats from Vikings and other nomadic

invaders were fading.• The Norman rulers of England, Capetian kings of France,

and Holy Roman emperors of Germany and Austria began to consolidate their feudal states under centralized control.

• People began to develop a sense of national, rather than regional, identity.

THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES

• Challenges to church authority by the Dominicans, Franciscans, and Cathars.

• The Great Schism (1417 – two popes elected) divided the church temporarily and it never regained complete authority.

• Standard of living was rising• Creation of guilds to set standards and rules for creating

products and regulating trade.

THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES

Two challenges to growth• Famines and plagues

• Reduced the population as much as a quarter in the 14th

century• The Hundred Years War between France and England

(1337-1453)• Gunpowder was common• Use of cannon developed• Joan of Arc inspires the French who eventually win