(Ch 1 and 2) Middle Ages

For.....Medieval Era....or Dark Ages if you're Petrarch.

Silk Road

• Trade route established between Asia and Europe, cultivated art, culture, and influence.

• Cultivated by the Mongols.

Silk Road figures

• Niccolo, Matteo, and Marco Polo

• William of Rubruck

• Ibn Batua

The Mongol Empire

• Nomads from Central Asia united by Temujin or Genghis Khan.

• Kingdom stretched from Black Sea to Central Asia.

Pax Mongolica

• Lax period of the empire allowed rulers outside China and Mongolia to retain most power.

• Marked end of Medieval Islam Golden Age, destruction of Baghdad, House of Wisdom (1258) and Herat of Afghanistan (1221).

(Some) Colonization in the Medieval Era

• Private Catalan companies colonized Mediterranean.

• Venice focused on east Mediterranean.

• Genoese (re)discovered Canaries and Azore islands.

• Canary Islands enslaved and converted by Portuguese for Africa voyages.

• Norse colonized Greenland, founding Vinland.

Sovereignty

• Authority over a defined territory

•  Philip Augustus (1190), “King of France”, first to define a geographical area as his own

Black Death

• Bubonic, Pneumonic, and Septicemic plague swept Europe, killing 40-60% of affected areas.

Effects of Black Death and Great Famine

• Better nourishment due to decreased food prices, increased value of labor/higher wages, improved fertility and birthrates.

• Realism and criticism in writing.

• Social rank climbing, creation of merchant leagues (Hanseatic League), popular rebellions (Jacquerie Rebellion, Peasant’s Revolt of 1381, March on London).

Hundred Years War

• Conflict between England, France over succession and territory

Key figures of Hundred Years War

• Edward III: Claimed French Throne, nephew

• Philip VI: Who actually got the French Throne, cousin

• Charles V: Regained territories lost by French to English

• Henry V: Recognized as heir to French Throne after victory at Agincourt

• Jeanne d’Arc: French peasant, numerous military victories 

• Charles VII, Dauphin: Continued conflict 

Three Phases of Hundred Years War 

• Initial declaration, 1337. English won victories before war halted by Great Famine and Black Death.

• Reignition of war in 1376 after refusal to honor English claim on larger duchy of Gascony, ended with English having claim to French Throne

• Continuation of conflict by discarded Dauphin, end of war in 1453 with English losing territory.

War of Roses

Succession war between Houses of York and Lancaster

Ottoman Empire

• Sunni Muslim Turks, kingdom established by Osman Gazi

• Successor to late Byzantine Empire

Great Western Schism

• Roman Church divided between competing papacies in France and Italy

Piety and intellectual reformers

• Catherine of Siena, Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe. Pious women that the Church did not approve of.

• Thomas a Kempis: Taught to appreciate aspects of divine in everyday life. Church did not like.

• John Wylcliffe and his Lollards: Empty sacraments of corrupt Church cannot save anyone. Church did not like.

• Jan Hus: Martyr for Hussite movement. Church burned him at stake.

Prominent writers

• Dante Alighieri: Poet, political and social critic. The Comedy.

• Giovanni Boccaccio: The Decameron, prose about sex, adventure, trickery

• Geoffrey Chaucer: Wrote in a form of English that modern readers could understand, The Canterbury Tales.

• Christine de Pizan: Book of the City of Ladies, criticized misogyny and celebrated Jeanne d’Arc.

Inventions of the Middle Ages

• Double-entry bookkeeping in Italy.

• Eyeglasses invented in the 1280s and perfected in the 14th.

• Magnetic compass and portolani charts

• Clocks, 14th century, helped regulate time and mapped it (bye two sleeps)

• Pistol and musket, improved weaponry