(WIP) Unit 1.6 Developments in Europe 1200-1450

As the Roman Empire declined, Western Europe entered the Middle Ages, a period of declined trade, intellectual life, and smaller kingdoms that frequently fought for territory. However, between 1000 to 1450, learning and trade began to revive in the High Middle Ages.

Political Systems in Early Middles Ages

-After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe’s decentralized, weak gov. necessitated protection from bandits, rival lords, & invaders

• Feudalism: Exchanges for land for loyalty

  1. Monarch granted fiefs (land) to lords in exchange that lords became king’s vassal (owed service to superior)

  2. Lords granted land to knights in exchange for knights’ pledge to fight for their superiors

  3. Lords provided protection and fiefs to peasants in exchange for farming the land, pay w/ crops, livestock, or labor & obey superiors’ orders

  • Code of Chivalry: Unwritten rules of conducting honesty, courtesy, & bravery to settle disputes, emphasizing the protection of women

• Manorial System: Acitivites were controlled within a manor (large fiefs) to promote self-sufficiency

  • Serfs: Peasants lived in small villages & were tied to the land, could not travel/marry w/o lord’s approval

-Later Middle Ages: Monarchies grew more powerful & installed bureaucracy & knights that worked directly for them

France

-1180-1223 King Philip II made first bureaucracy, but 1285-1314 King Philip IV made first Estates-General

• Estates-General: A body to advise the king w/ representatives from each estate

  • Weak: Peasants were taxed, but not clergies & nobility who didn’t care to invest in gov. (led to French Revolution)

Norman England

-In 1066, Norman king, William the Conqueror invaded England, adding a strict feudal system w/ bureaucracy of royal sheriffs.

• Magna Carta: 1215 English nobles force to sign & respect their rights like jury trial & scutage (knight who paid money rather than military service) (didn’t include peasants)

• English Parliament: 1265 House of Lords (church & nobles) & House of Commons (wealthy townspeople), became stronger than other Euro bodies

Roman Catholic Church in Middle Ages

-1054 Great Schism divided Christianity, birthing the most powerful institution in decentralized Europe & religious unity

• Edu. & Art: Est. first universities in Europe & placed thinkers as religious leaders & artists to illustrate bible for illiterate serfs

• Hierarchy: Popes, Bishops, supervised & selected local Priests held great power over serfs & pressured lords if they were displeased

• Monasticism: Influential monks & nuns still participated in West Euro economy & manorial system

• Reform: 1200-1400 Wealthy, corrupt monasteries + theological disagreements = 1500 disunity & reform (Martin Luther)

Lay Investiture Controversy

-1000-1100 Holy Roman Empire disputed whether a secular leader, rather than the pope, could invest in bishops w/ symbols of office

• Concordat of Worms: 1122 Resolution where Roman Catholic Church achieved autonomy from secular leaders

Christian Crusades

-Crusades: 1095-1200s Euro military campaigns in Middle East, recruited believers w/ relief from atonement/penance & to “get into heaven faster”

• Reasons: divert attention primogeniture (eldest son inherits land) that led to pillaging from nobles & unemployed peasants

  • merchants’ desire for freer Middle Eastern trade b/c Seljuk Turks’ persecution

• First Crusade: July 1099 Only victory but reconquered by Saladin in 1187, stronger cultural exchange

• Fourth Crusade: 1202-1204 Venetians were not paid for transporting Crusaders, so they attacked Zara & Constantinople in exchange (never went to Palestine)

• 1492: Centuries of Reconquista finally took control of Spain & Sicily

Hundred Years War

-1337-1453 English & French battles that changed how ppl fought & identified as

• English won first battles w/ longbows, but France won w/ gunpowder weapons spread by Mongols

• “English” or “French” rather than a particular region

Bourgeoise/Burghers

-Economic success from new middle class in trade rivaled religious/military vocation

• Urban Growth: Marco Polo’s late 1200s writings of Mongols increased curiosity of Asia & cartography, reviving commercial markets, agricultural adv, pop growth

  • Three-Field System: Wheat/Rye, Legumes (added nitrogen), Fallowed

  • Windmills & heavy plows for dense, northern Alps soil/lighter plows for south

• Decline: Black Death kills 1/3 of Euro & Little Ice Age reduced productivity, increased crime, & antisemitism

Antisemitism

-Prejudice towards ppl of Semitic descent (typically Jewish ppl)

• More Jewish moneylenders b/c Christians can’t add interest to other Christians’ loans & connected Christian & Muslim trade b/c lived in urban areas = economic growth

  • 1290-1497 Expulsions from North-Central Euro increased Jewish pop in East Euro

• 1492 Spanish expulsion of Muslims increased pop in Ottoman Empire, including Balkan countries

Women

-Increased patriarchal thinking & urbanization = less rights, edu. (often handled manor accounts), & property rights

• Guilds & Nunnery: greater opportunities for leadership & craft

Renaissance

-The revival of classical Greek & Roman culture in literature, art, & civic virtue b/c of increased trade, agriculture, & patronage to arts

• Tech: Johanne Gutenberg 1439 Movable-type printing press = more literacy & diffusion & affordable mass production of manuscripts

• Gov: Rise of monarchies, centralized gov, & nationalism

• Culture: Humanism, or focus on ppl over God, meant secular literature, edu, & reform

  • Dante Alighieri’s “The Divine Comedy”: criticized corrupt religious officials in Italian vernacular rather than Latin

  • 1400 Spread to North: Geoffrey’s Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” focused on middle class & mocks religious leaders in Middle English

Origins of Russia

-Late Middle Ages: Eastern Orthodox & extensive trade in furs, fish, & grain connected Scandinavia-Mediterranean centered in Kievan Rus

• 1200: Mongols took control & required nobles to collect taxes who began resisting them

  • Late 1400: Moscow-based ruler Ivan the Great overthrows Mongols