MIDDLE AGES Early Middle Ages (476-1000)

High Middle Ages (1000-1300)

Late Middle Ages (1300-1500)

EARLY MIDDLE AGES - POLITICS

• 476 – Last Roman Emperor dismissed!

• Feudalism – Manorism

• The Fief (grant of land) – land was of extreme importance

• Vassalage – Bond between rulers and vassals (inferiors)

• Private justice – taxes, law and punishment were in the hands of the local lord

• Oaths of loyalty in exchange for land and military service (knights…)

• Decentralization – led to weaker kings and a grewing nobility

EARLY MIDDLE AGES - ECONOMY

• Latifundias – huge land estates

• Landed nobility

• Set of rights and obligations between landed nobility and serfs

• Self-sufficient communities producing a variety of goods

• International trade limited

EARLY MIDDLE AGES - RELIGION

• Meeting in Nicae 325

• Augustinus – ”The City of God”

• Christianity as a unifying force

• Power of people’s everyday lives

• Monopoly of education

• Involved in politics

EARLY MIDDLE AGES - EVENTS

• Germanic Migration: Huns (Attila) – Visigoths – Vandals – Burgundians – Franks – Ostrogoths – Angles – Saxons – Jutes…

• Merovingians – France

• Clovis Charles Martel ”The Hammer” Charlemagne

• Treaty of Verdun 843

• European crisis:

• Arab expansion 622-750

• Magyars 896-100

• Vikings 793-1066

EARLY MIDDLE AGES - PEOPLE

• King Arthur (late 5th Century – a myth?)

• Clovis – Louis I (481-511) – Unified Gaul

• Attila the Hun (433-453)

• Prophet Muhamad (570-632) – Arabic expansion

• Charles Martel (Battles of Poitiers and Tours 732/733)

• Charlemagne (768-814) – French Empire

• Otto I (936-973) – First German Empire

HIGH MIDDLE AGES - POLITICS

• Feudalism

• Chivalry developed

• Display courage and valor in combat

• Devotion to a feudal nobleman and the heavenly lord (God)

• Respect toward women…

HIGH MIDDLE AGES - ECONOMY

• Landed wealth of the nobility

• Agricultural revolution

• Putting-out system

• Technological development

• Urban development

• Growing international trade

• Italian City States

• Hanseatic League

HIGH MIDDLE AGES - RELIGION

• Problems between the Church and rulers

• Problems within the Church – led to reforms

• SPLIT – between the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church 1054

• Crusades 1095-1291

• Universities founded – 1100-1200’s

HIGGH MIDDLE AGES - CRUSADES

• The Crusades started by Pope Urban II

• Religious reasons: Stop the arabic expansion – reconquer Jerusalem

• Economical reasons: Trade

• Political reasons: To strengthen the Roman Catholic Church (and weaken the Holy German Empire)

• A tradition…

HIGH MIDDLE AGES - EDUCATION

• Universities – started in South Europe in the 1100’s

• Scholasticism – medieval teaching, especially the art of analyzing logic relationships among propositions in a

dialogue or discourse (dialectic)

• Arsistotle – a revival of Aristotelian philosophy (adjustment between the Aristotelian reason and Christian beliefs)

• Geocentric view

• Philosophy and science…

HIGH MIDDLE AGES – EVENTS

• Climate change – Medieval Climate Optimum (made the farming season longer and increased the yield)

• Population increase – from around 38.5 million people

in the year 1000 to 73.5 million in 1340

• RUSSIA – The Kievan State before 1223

• RUSSIA – After Genghis Khan crushed Kiev 1223

a new small principality became important – Moscow!

HIGH MIDDLE AGES - PEOPLE

• Pope Urban II (1042-1099)

• Saladin (1137-1193)

• Richard Plantagenet (the ”Lionhearted” – 1157-1199)

• Genghis Khan (1162-1227)

• Marco Polo (1254-1324)

• Dante (1265-1321)

LATE MIDDLE AGES – POLITICS

• Feudalism weaker in Western Europe

• Growing National States – Centralized Monarchies

• Peasant risings

• Nobility advances (Magna Carta 1215)

LATE MIDDLE AGES – ECONOMY

• High inflation and a stagnation of the economy

• Problems within agriculture

• Problems within international trade

LATE MIDDLE AGES – RELIGION

• CRISIS

• Avignon Exile (the ”Babylonian Captivity” 1308-1377)

• Great Schism (1378-1417)

• Economic problems within the Church

• Raised funds from forced tithes and the grant of indulgences

• Economic/political appointments of Bishops

• Fall of Constantinople 1453

LATE MIDDLE AGES – EVENTS

• Climate change – ”Little Ice Age” – shortened the growing season

• Hundred Year’s War (1337-1453)

• Bubonic Plague (1347/1348 ) – killed ⅓ to ¼ of the European population

• War of the Roses (1455-1485)

but also…

• The printing Press – Gutenberg

• European exploration…

LATE MIDDLE AGES - PEOPLE

• Joan of Arc (1412-1431)

• Medici (Florence – 1300-1400’s)

• Johann Gutenberg (1400-1468)

MIDDLE AGES – WOMEN

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EARLY MODERN TIME

•Renaissance & Humanism

•Reformation

•Scientific Revolution