Unit 6 Study Guide

Changes in Agriculture

The population of Europe tripled between 1000 and 1300 and there was new technology

Crop Rotation

3-field system (fallow,grain, and peas/beans)

restored soil, and added protein to diet

Trade Routes

To Constantinople, Middle East

Purchased silk, spices, jewelry

Trade Fairs

Meeting of merchants from across Europe

Where trade routes met

Hanseatic League

German cities worked together to get rid of pirates and protect trade

Cities

Emerged out of major trade centers (Independ under a charter)

City Charter

Written document - rights and privileges of the town

Ability to choose their own leaders

City Life

Walked for protection (overcrowded and dirty)

Changes in Buisness

Rise of Banking (credit and bills of exchange (could travel without large sums of money and take it out on arrival)

Partnerships

People worked together to reduce risk

Insurance system

Protected shipments of goods

Rise of Middle Class

Merchants and tradesmen (between nobles and peasants), familes sent children out as guilds

Guilds

Associations of merchants (political, economic, and social aspects)

Steps to Guild Membership

Apprentice (Ages 7 - 8 years old) to learn trade

Journeymen - worked for guild members (women were also involved in both.)

Norman Conquest of England

Edward the Confessor died in 1066 without an heir and a rival claimed the throne

Battle of Hastings

1066 - William the Conqueror defeated Harold and was crowned King of England on Christmas 1066

William the Conqueror

Who: King of England

What: Required all vassals to swear allegiance to him first, gave some land to vassals but kept much to himself

Where: He lived in England

When - 1029 - 1087

Why: Claimed the throne which lead to the Battle of Hastings

Henry II

Who: Opressive ruler

What: Henry wanted to try clergy in royal courts but Thomas Becket refused. Henry’s knights kill Becket in his cathedral (December 29, 1179). Ends up doing penance for this crime.

Where: England, he was the king

When: 1199 - 1216

Why: Wanted to try clergy in royal courts

Magna Carta

Protect the rights of the barons

King must consult nobles and clergy to raise taxes

Included due process of law

Habeas corpus

Parliament

—> parler - fr. to talk, evolved from King’s “Great Council,” unified England

Rise of Merchants

Relied on begging and donations

Did not have a large territory and income

Lived in the cities

Were mobile - moved between houses

Called fairs

Rise of Universities

It started as schools attached to cathedrals in the 1000s

Mainly taught by priests 

Curriculum:

Liberal arts: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, grammar, rhetoric, logic

Medicine, law, theology

Scholasticism

Saw a unity between faith and reason

Used questions and debate to teach

1100s - translations of Aristotle first make it to Western Europe

Via Muslim scholars (Averroës Avicenna)

St. Thomas Aquinas

1225 - 1274, Dominican friar, Used Aristotle’s philosophy to explain theological truths, Summa Theologiae

Medical Science

Studied Greek and Arab works

Adopted Arabic numerals

St. Albert the Great

1200 - 1280, Dominican friar taught Aquinas, studied astronomy, minerals, plants, and animals, empirical investigations and experiments

The Crusades

Series of wars (1096 - 1291) between Christians and Muslims over control of the Holy Land

Muslim Turks were fighting the Byzantine Empire 

The Byzantine Emperor asks Pope Urban II for help

Holy Land

Jerusalem, Israel 

Council of Clermont

1095, Granted a plenary indulgence to those who fought to help the Christian Byzantine Empire, Sending knights overseas would stop the fighting in Europe between Christian kings.

Crusader States

1099 - Captured JerusalemMost Crusaders returned home

Divided captured Muslim lands into seven kingdoms/dominions

Led by crusaders left behind

Muslims would try to take back the lost land, prompting new crusades

Outremer, Overseas 

Fall of Jerusalem

1187 - Jerusalem captured by Muslim forces under Saladin

The 3rd crusade failed to retake the city

Saladin allowed pilgrims access to the Holy Land

1209 - crusaders forces sack Constantinople on the way to the Holy Land

This causes further division between Catholics and Orthodox

1291 - Kingdom of Acre falls to Muslim forces

Last crusader kingdom

Effects of the Crusades

Religious tension - Both Christian and Muslim forces had committed atrocities; Anger sometimes directed at Jews

Increased trade (More trade with the Middle East, Ships used to carry crusades became merchant vessels)

Papal authority increased

Concordat of Worms

1122 - The pope appoints bishops, and the Emperor grants their land

Pope Innocent III

Ruled 1198 - 1216, height of papal power, usally won aganist secular monarchs, enlarged papal states, reformed canon law

Lateran Council

1215 - Called by Innocent III, defined transsubtantiation - to explain what the church believes about the Eucharist

Avignon Papacy

Philip IV of France wanted to tax the clergy, but Pope Boniface VIII said no. In which, Philip sent troops to capture the pope, but he escaped and soon died

Great Western Schism

St. Catherine of Siena convinced the Pope, Gregory XI, to return to Rome from Avignon in 1377 (he died in 1378), The Church was divided between Avignon and Rome

Franciscans

Founded by St. Francis of Assisi in 1209 (Italy)

Focus - poverty

Poor Clare Nuns - founded by St. Clare in 1212

Dominicans

Founded by St. Dominic in 1216 (France)

Focus - preaching the truth

Nuns: Founded in 1206

100 Years’ War

1337 - 1453

England vs. France

English monarchs owned land in France

Edward III (1312 - 1377) claimed the French crown in 1337

Edward the Black Prince

1330 - 1376

Son of Edward III

Successful military commander 

Died before his father

Long bow

Could shoot 3 arrows at a time

Charles VII

1403 - 1461

Disinherited by his father who made Henry V of England his heir 

Known as “The Dauphin” before he is crowned as king

Siege of Orleans

1428 - 1429

English had a city under siege

In 1429, Joan of Arc led French forces to free the city and forced the English to lift the siege

Considered the turning point in the war

Siege - surround a city & force it to surrender by stopping all transportation in or out of the city 

St. Joan of Arc

1412 - 1431

Inspired French troops to fight

Led French to victories

Captured by the English, tried for witchcraft, burned at the stake 

Results of the War

England lost French lands

Began to focus on other territories

Parliament gained the power of the purse

France

Stregnghed power of the King

Black Plague

First appeared in Sicily in 1347

From a ship coming from the Black Sea

Spread to the rest of Europe within a year

Started in Mongolid, then spread to Asia, the Middle East, Europe

Bubonic Plague

Contagious bacterial disease

Carried by fleas

Causes swelling of lymph nodes, fever, fatigue, nausea

Black Death

Social Unrest

People fled cities, hid in homes

Some blamed the Jews

Some saw it as divine punishment

Results

⅓ of Europe’s population died 

Increased religious fervor (strength of your belief)

But many priests and religious died serving the victims

Arts focused more on death 

Economic Impact

Prices Rose

Farmland turned to pasture

Peasants had to turn to cities, and it was harder to find jobs (leading to peasant revolts)