General History: Notable Terms

Civilization (All Facts)

• Characteristics of the namesake include

  • Urban centers

  • Complex social structures

  • Centralized government

  • Organized religion

  • Monumental architecture

  • Writing systems

  • Economic system and trade

  • Division of labor

Fluvial Civilization (All Facts)

• Most common ancient civilization, founded near a river

• Rivers and the water they provided were vital to early civilizations, offering

  • water for

    • drinking

    • cultivating crops

    • caring for domesticated animals

  • a gathering place for wild animals that could be hunted

  • rich soil deposits as a result of regular flooding

Irrigation (All Facts)

• System developed to help direct water where it was most needed, to

  • sustain herds of domestic animals

  • nourish crops of increasing size and quality

Autocracy / Autocratic / Autocrats (All Facts)

• Form of governmental in which a single ruler served as the head of the government and was the main religious ruler as well

  • These rulers were often tyrannical, militaristic leaders who controlled all aspects of life including law, trade, and religious activity

Fief (All Facts)

• In a feudal system, this was a tract of land granted by a monarch to a lord

Vassal (All Facts)

• In a feudal system, they were

  • a person who owed service to another person of higher status

Knight (All Facts)

• In a feudal system, they

  • Were provided land by the lord

    • In return, they became vassals of the lord and pledged to fight for the lord or king

Lord (All Facts)

• In a feudal system, they

  • were granted fiefs from the monarch (king)

    • In return, they became the king’s vassal, providing him services

  • provided land to knights

  • provided land and protection (from bandits, rival lords, etc.) to peasants

  • oversaw the peasants, which

    • provided them with work to farm their land

    • provided them with crops and livestock

    • had to obey them

• In a manorial system, they

  • provided land and protection to serfs

    • In return, serfs provided them with tribute in the form of crops, labor, or coins

• In a feudal system, if they displeased the Roman Catholic Church, the Church could pressure the namesake in various ways

  • For example, a local bishop might cancel religious services for his serfs

  • This would make the serfs angry, and they would demand that the lord give in to the bishop

• During and after the Black Death,

  • their power waned and they had no leverage against the serfs given the high demand for labor due to the millions of deaths that occurred as a result

Peasant (All Facts)

• In a feudal system,

  • In return for the lord’s protection, they were obligated to

    • farm the lord’s land

    • provide the lord with crops and livestock

    • obey the lord’s orders

Manor (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to a large fief or estate within a feudal system

• Serfs typically spent their entire lives on the namesake large fief or estate, unaware of the events occurring throughout the rest of Europe

• Each consisted of small villages that often included a church, a blacksmith shop, a mill, and wine presses and the homes of serfs

Serf (All Facts)

• In a feudal or manorial system, it was a worker who

  • was not enslaved

  • was tied to the land under their lord

  • could not travel without permission from their lords

  • could not marry without gaining approval from their lords

  • paid tribute in the form of crops, labor, or coins

    • in return, the lord provided them protection

  • if they had children, would inherit their namesake status

• During and after the Black Death,

  • They increased their bargaining power with their lords due to the growing demand for labor due to the millions of deaths that occurred as a result

Plows (All Facts)

• New versions of the namesake emerged during the Middle Ages, in which

  • heavier versions with wheels worked well in the denser soils in northern Europe

  • lighter versions worked better in southern Europe

• Promoted population growth

Bourgeoisie / Burghers (All Facts)

• Middle class between the elite clergy and nobles and the peasants that emerged out of the Middle Ages in Europe that included shopkeepers, merchants, craftspeople, and small landholders

  • In other words, they were a social class consisting of municipal residents, that is, free persons subject to municipal law

• Its emergence represented the trend of economic success that started to rival religious vocation or military service when it came to winning status in society

Gunpowder (All Facts)

• Black powder invented in China which revolutionized the nature of warfare in Europe and around the world

  • By the 1100s, there were descriptions of its use in iron fragmentation bombs

  • By 1221, there were records of its use in arrows and packages being projected in battle

• Consisted of a mixture of charcoal, sulfur, and saltpeter

• By the 1300s, it was made in the west to be used for artillery, where it rapidly changed the technology of military strategy and was being manufactured throughout Europe on a considerable scale

  • It hastened the development of large metal-barreled guns which made preexisting weapons of war obsolete

  • The explosive’s force meant that attacks could be made at a greater range

  • The power of the impact of projectiles meant that architects had to revise their plans for fortifications, setting walls lower and curved to minimize damage

• As a result of its development and widespread manufacture, military technology changed rapidly

  • At the time of its emergence, possibilities in offense and defense seemed boundless

  • Metallurgists had a hard time thinking of new ways of containing the namesake within weaponry in order to protect soldiers from it better

Chain-Mail Armor (All Facts)

• Form of armor previously worn prior to the development of Full-Plate Body Armor, which provided limited protection, such as an arrow or a crossbow bolt that could penetrate the openings of the namesake

Full-Plate Body Armor (All Facts)

• Form of armor prominently worn in Europe in the 1400s, in which its complete suits were made of metal plate and were born on the battlefield with considerable success

• They were developed to overcome the weakness of chain-mail armor, which provided only limited protection as an arrow or a crossbow bolt could penetrate the openings in chain-mail armor

Harnais Blanc / White Armor (All Facts)

• Developed in the 1400s in Europe due to greater sophistication in metal-manufacturing techniques

  • Tougher iron and steel were being produced using a new carburizing process and blast-furnaces

  • The white hot plates were then hardened by “quenching” the fluid

  • Improvements were also taking place in the workshops where the plates were fashioned, so that the namesake form of armor offered greater resistance to missiles

• Its pros included the incorporation of a lance rest at the side of the breastplate, making heavy lances easier to handle

  • Thus, cavalry could lower their lances from the vertical to the horizontal and take accurate aim while charging at speed towards the enemy

• Its cons included being heavier and more tiring to wear

Free Companies (All Facts)

• Army of mercenaries between the 1100s and 1300s that were recruited by private employers during wars in Europe that included

  • The English Routiers

  • The French Echorcheurs

• They also operated as

  • German mercenaries in Italy

  • Spanish mercenaries in Greece

• They acted independently of any government

• They regularly made a living by plunder when they were not employed

• Armies of freebooting mercenaries who roamed and laid to waste great swathes of Europe, in which they

  • lived off the land

  • terrorized the townspeople and peasantry

  • took hostages for ransom

  • threatened to destroy the political fabric of much of the European continent

• When legal action was attempted against their leaders, they generally claimed that they were men of chivalry and acting on the king’s behalf

  • Many of their leaders were pardoned, bought for cash by the king or king’s government

• Most local people preferred to pay their ransom to the namesake freebooters and stay quiet rather than complain and face punishment for the crime of paying it

Commercial Fishing (All Facts)

• Industry which grew rapidly during the Middle Ages in Europe, encouraged by the many meatless fast-days of the Christian (Catholic) calendar

1280 / 1300s - Spinning Wheel (All Facts)

• Invented on the former namesake date, but commonly introduced into Europe in the 1300s

• It replaced the distaff and the loose spindle

1300s - Linen Clothes (All Facts)

• Widely worn across Europe for the first time during this time

• Their widespread use led to

  • improvements in personal cleanliness

  • decline in diseases

1300s - Drainage Mills (All Facts)

• Type of windmill that operated drainage scoops invented during this time

• By the 1500s, they were used for recovering land for agriculture, especially by the Dutch

Steel Cross Bows (All Facts)

• They were mechanically wound

• Developed in the 1300s

Weight-Driven Clocks (All Facts)

• Often employed elaborate striking mechanisms

• Appeared in Europe around the late 1300s

1400s - Textile Industry (All Facts)

• Used alum to fix vegetable dyes - such as indigo, madder, and saffron - to cloth

• Black dyes were made at this time by mixing green vitriol (Iron Sulfate) with oak galls to make the intensely black Iron Stannate

1400s - Gigmills (All Facts)

• First drawn by Leonardo da Vinci

• Used to raise the nap of cloth into a woolly texture

Bubonic Plague (All Facts)

• Form of the Black Plague that was seen in the swellings that inflate the lymph notes at the neck, armpit, or groin

Pneumonic Plague (All Facts)

• Form of the Black Plague that affected the lungs as victims choked on their own blood

French Pox (All Facts)

• Highly contagious disease that arrived in Europe around 1494 whose cases had been recorded not just in the namesake kingdom but also in Spain and Italy

• Disease which

  • attacked the genitals and, according to experts, was a punishment for sexual excess, gluttony, drunkenness, and a generally dissolute life amongst Europe’s inhabitants

  • was transmitted through sexual intercourse, appearing as a sore on “the parts of shame” before eroding the palate and uvula, eating away the lips, nose or eyes; then weakening muscles and nerves before bringing its victim to an early and highly painful death

  • had an unknown origin; some said it was of heavenly influence, others of small winged worms

  • spread with increasing speed, especially after King Charles VIII of the namesake kingdom and his army had besieged Naples; with the army having seemingly infected every country through which it passed

  • was combatted with several drugs, but few of which actually helped; the most successful treatment having been mercury ointment, which was already used as a cure for other skin diseases

  • was so terrifying that numerous charlatans have emerged, all peddling their expensive but useless “cures”

Quadrants (All Facts)

• Used for determining latitude at sea

• Began to be used in the 1450s by European seafarers

Adulterant (All Facts)

• Substance used to intentionally debase, dilute, or contaminate another substance—typically food, drugs, or drinks—to lower costs or increase volume, often making the final product unsafe or less effective

Darnel (All Facts)

• Adulterant that was used in breadmaking in 1500s Western Europe which affected most of the poor

  • This was due to a shortage in what grain at the time experienced throughout Western Europe

• Grass which causes mind-altering states including disorientation, tiredness, and nausea

Vetch (All Facts)

• Adulterant that was used in breadmaking in 1500s Western Europe which affected most of the poor

  • This was due to a shortage in what grain at the time experienced throughout Western Europe

• Plant which causes depression and is poisonous when consumed in large amounts

Poppy (All Facts)

• Herb with odd side-effects that was used in breadmaking as a common seasoning in 1500s Western Europe which affected most of the poor

  • This was due to a shortage in what grain at the time experienced throughout Western Europe

• It induced euphoria and sleep

Lysergic Acid (All Facts)

• Used in rye breadmaking in the 1500s Western Europe which affected most of the poor

  • This was due to a shortage in what grain at the time experienced throughout Western Europe

• Powerful hallucinatory likely responsible for the convulsions and madness associated with “St. Vitus’s Dance”

Bastion Fort / Star Fort (All Facts)

• Also known as “trace italienne;” it consisted of a circuit of low, thick walls punctuated by square bastions, which

  • replaced the high and thin walls of the Middle Ages as new defenses

  • were designed to absorb the punishment of the heavy siege guns which were a part of every successful army by that time

  • changed the entire pattern of warfare because the cities protected by them could no longer be taken by traditional methods of blowing a hole in the walls and pouring infantry through the breach and instead forced towns to be encircled by siege-works and batteries and starved and frightened into submission

  • essentially made warfare more a matter of engineering and logistics

Guns (All Facts)

• They

  • brought about great changes at sea since

    • ships no longer rammed and boarded each other, but pounded each other with formidable arrays of guns firing through ports in ships’ sides

    • gunships eventually set the pattern which all maritime nations must have followed if they wanted to avoid facing inevitable defeat

Print (All Facts)

• Technology whose presses operated in every country in western Christendom by the 1540s from Sweden in the north to Sicily in the South and from Poland in the West to Hungary in the East, catching on rapidly and surely

• Technology which saw both technical and aesthetic developments up to and after the 1540s

  • Initially, its technicians followed the old scribes in the type-faces which they used

  • Eventually, possibilities opened up, with metal punch cutters being used to produce distinctive type styles

    • Roman font began to supersede the traditional Gothic font

• Few factors in 16th Century European technological advance had more impact than the namesake

Oil-bound Ink (All Facts)

• Technology which clings closely to the metal type in order to produce a smudge-free impression in print

• Technology invented by Johannes Gutenberg

• It was among the purely technical developments to assist the explosive spread of printing by the 1540s in Europe

Print Presses (All Facts)

• Technology that improved constantly up to and through the 1540s throughout Europe

• The original version of the namesake technology was modified so that the screw which forced the paper onto the linked type could be worked with a smaller amount of movement of the bar, thus speeding up the printing of each individual sheet

Screw Fastener (All Facts)

• Technology introduced in 1550s Europe

• For a long time pieces of furniture and other wooden objects had been held together by wooden joints; however, these were not adequate when metal had to be held fast to wood; thus, gunsmiths found that a nail given a twist before being driven home will hold a gun mechanism tight to the stock; it thus seemed natural to fix the “screw” with a blade fitting into a slot on the nail head

Spanner (All Facts)

• Technology introduced in 1550s Europe

• It tightened nuts and bolts together to fasten materials

• Both tools and fasteners were hand-made