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1.6 Developments in Europe (1200-1450)

Europe (1200-1450)

Religion: Christianity

  • Christianity became the official state religion of the Roman Empire under Emperor Constantine.
  • It united Romans but the Western Roman Empire fell in 476 CE.
  • The Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantine Empire, maintained Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which rulers used to consolidate their centralized power.
  • By 1200, the Byzantine Empire had lost territory to Islamic powers but still had influence until 1453 when the Ottoman Empire sacked Constantinople, renaming it Istanbul, ending the Byzantine Empire.
  • Eastern Orthodox Christianity was then embraced by the Kievan Rus, who adopted Byzantine architectural styles, the alphabet, and church-state organization.
  • In Western Europe, Roman Catholicism provided a common structure with the church hierarchy (popes, bishops, cardinals) despite political fragmentation.
  • The Church initiated the Crusades, religious wars against Muslims, which connected Europeans to larger trade networks.
  • Islam and Judaism existed as minority religions.
    • Muslims controlled the Iberian Peninsula after an invasion in the 8th century.
    • Jews, scattered throughout Europe, facilitated trade but faced anti-Semitism.

Political Organization

  • Around 1200, Europe lacked large empires, unlike the Americas (Aztecs, Incas), China (Song Dynasty), and Islamic empires.
  • Western Europe was characterized by decentralization and political fragmentation, organized around feudalism.

Feudalism

  • A system of allegiances between powerful lords and monarchs.
    • Greater lords and kings gained allegiance from lesser lords and kings, with land exchanged for loyalty.

Manorialism

  • Patches of land were independently owned and ruled, organizing peasants into serfs.
  • Serfs were bound to the land and worked in exchange for protection from the lord and his military forces.
    • Serfs were not owned but were bound to the land.
  • Around 1200, monarchs began to centralize power by creating large militaries and bureaucracies, challenging the power of the European nobility.
  • Increased centralization led to competition and wars of conquest among monarchs vying for influence and territory.