Ancient World History
Chapter 8
The Rise of Europe
Section 1
 The Early Middle Ages
Geography of Western Europe

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Rome linked great parts Europe, with roads,
classical ideas, Latin language, and Christianity
Location
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Europe is relatively small – the second smallest in land
area of the seven continents
Resources

From 500-1000 A.D. a frontier land
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sparsely populated, underdeveloped area on the outskirts
of a civilization
Rich in raising crops, fishing, mineral resources
Seas and large rivers ideal for trade
The Germanic Kingdoms

Germanic tribes were farmers and herders

Culture greatly different than Romans
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No cities or codified laws
Small communities with unwritten customs
Kings ruled with warrior nobles
The Franks

Strongest Germanic kingdom to emerge between
400-700 A.D. was the Franks


486 A.D., Clovis, King of Franks, conquered the former
Roman province of Gaul
Clovis converted to Christianity, gaining support from
the Church of Rome
The Germanic Kingdoms (Con’t)
 Europe and the Muslim World
 With emergence of Islam in 622, Christians in
Europe were stunned
 Islam was taking over the holy lands of Palestine
 Islamic rulers took over Spain, but were
defeated at the Battle of Tours
 Ending the emergence of Islam into Europe
The Age of Charlemagne
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
Around 800 A.D. Charles the Great took over
much of Europe from present-day France,
Germany, and part of Italy
A Christian Emperor

Pope Leo III called for support from Charlemagne for
help in Rome


Pope showed gratitude by pacing a crown on
Charlemagne’s head and proclaiming him Emperor of
the Romans
Revived the ideal of a united Christian community

Also brought power struggle between future Roman
Catholic popes and Germanic Emperors
The Age of Charlemagne (Con’t)

Government

Charlemagne exercise control over his many lands
and create a united Christian Europe
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Charlemagne also appointed powerful nobles to rule
local regions

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Converted many conquered peoples
Nobles were given land in order to support and supply
soldiers to the army
He also sent out Missi Dominici

officials who checked roads, listen to grievances, and
administer justice
The Age of Charlemagne (Con’t)
 Revival of Learning
 Tried to revive Latin learning, and started a
school at Aachen
 They created a curriculum based on Latin learning
•
•
Formal course of study
included grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry,
etc.
 Also copied ancient manuscripts, like bible
 Basis for the educational model for medieval
Europe
After Charlemagne
 After Charlemagne’s death, empire was
split by the Treaty of Verdun
 Split the Empire into three regions
 Legacy of Charlemagne
 He extended the Christian civilization into
northern Europe and blended German,
Roman and Christian traditions
 Set a strong model for an efficient
government
After Charlemagne (Con’t
 A New Wave of Invasions
 Despite the victory at the Battle of Tours,
Muslim invaders still continually gave
Europeans problems
 Magyars controlled Eastern Europe for
roughly 50 years
 Vikings looted and burned communities along
the coasts and rivers of Europe
 Vikings helped set up sea trade from northern
Europe to the Mediterranean Sea
Section 2
 Feudalism and the Manor Economy
1
Invasions of Europe, 700–1000
The Emergence of Feudalism
Due to invasions from outsiders, European
Emperors and Kings developed a new
system called feudalism
A loosely organized system of rule in which
powerful local lords divided their landholdings
among lesser lords
In exchange for their landholdings, vassals
pledged service and loyalty to the greater lord
Lesser Lords
The Emergence of Feudalism (Con’t)

Mutual Obligations

Lords and Vassals established a feudal contract

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The Lord would grant the Vassal a fief
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Exchange of pledges between a lords and vassals
Estate
Usually between a few acres to hundreds of acres
The Lord would also promise to protect the vassal
In return, the Vassal promised 40 days of military service
and money payments
The Emergence of Feudalism (Con’t)
 A Structured Society
 Monarchs at the top of the hierarchy, followed
by powerful lords
 Each Lord was followed by vassals
 Vassals had peasants to work the fiefs
The World of Nobles

Warfare during this time was a way of life


Many nobles trained from boyhood to be a knight, or
mounted warrior
Achieving Knighthood

Age seven, a boy slated to become a knight was sent
away to the castle of this father’s lord
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He learned to ride and fight, keep his armor and weapons in
good shape, etc.
Discipline was very strict
After training had finished, the young knight would be
“dubbed” knights by an older knight
As warfare declined, knights began competing in
tournaments

Could enter into contests of fighting skills
The World of Nobles (Con’t)
 Castles
 Powerful lords built large walls around their
homes, with a moat, water filled ditch, for
protection from outside invaders
 Eventually by the 1100’s, these castles
became larger and more grand
The World of Nobles (Con’t)
 Noblewomen
 They played active roles in the warrior society
 When their husband or father were gone, they
were the “lady of the manor”
 Took care of the household, performed agricultural
tasks, and supervised vassals
 However their ability to inherit was very
limited
 Also expected to bear many children
The World of Nobles (Con’t)
 Chivalry
 Later in the Middle Ages, knights developed a
code of conduct called chivalry
 Required knights to be brave, loyal and true to their
word
 Example: Show courtesy to a captured knight
 Also placed women on a pedestal
 women were to be protect and cherished
 Troubadours adopted this view of women
•
Wandering poets
Peasants and Manor Life
 The heart of the medieval economy was the
manor
 Lord’s estate, which also contained many serfs
 Peasants bound to the land
 Mutual Obligations
 Peasants and their lords were tied together by
mutual rights and obligations
 Peasants worked the farms on the lord’s land
•
•
Repaired roads, bridges, and fences
Also paid taxes on different events
 The Lord would give peasants several acres to grow
food for themselves
•
Also gave protection from invaders to the peasants
Peasants and Manor Life (Con’t)

A Self-Sufficient World
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
Manors were generally self-sufficient
Very little to no schooling given to individuals
Peasant Life
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Most peasants worked long hours, especially during the
planting and harvesting seasons
Diet consisted of black bread with vegetables and
seldom ate meat
Very few peasants lived past the age of 35 due to hard
work and diseases
Peasants did celebrate holidays such as Christmas,
Easter, birthdays, marriages

They also received days off for some holidays
Section 3
 The Medieval Church
The Church and Medieval Life
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
During the early Middle Ages, the Church’s most
important achievement was to Christianize the
diverse peoples of Western Europe
The Parish Priest
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
Priest of the parish was usually the only contact people
had with the Church
Priest celebrated the mass and administered the
sacraments

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
The sacred rites of the Church
Sacraments would lead to salvation, or everlasting life with
God
Also helped the sick and needy
The Church and Medieval Life (Con’t)
 The Village Church
 Church was a social center
 Later in the Middle Ages some churches were
built out of stone
 Some housed relics, or remains of martyrs or
holy figures
 Church required Christians to pay a tithe in
order to operate parishes
 tax equal to a tenth of their income
The Church and Medieval Life (Con’t)
 Views of Women
 Church taught that men and women were
equal before God
 However treated women as weak and easily led
into sin
 Church members prayed to Mary, mother of Jesus
Monks and Nuns

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Individuals who withdrew from worldly life in
order to devote their lives to spiritual goals
The Benedictine Rule

About 530 A.D. a monk named Benedict organized
the monastery of Monte Casino in Italy
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Monks and Nuns took three vows
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Became pattern for future monasteries
Obedience to the abbot or abbess, who headed the
monastery
Poverty
Chastity, or purity
Also required monks to worship, study, and do manual
labor

Experimented with crops
Monks and Nuns (Con’t)

A Life of Service
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Centers of Learning
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Monasteries were the hospitals and schools for the
time
Gave food and lodging to travelers
Often Monasteries and convents performed a vital role
in preserving the writings of the ancient world
Priests and Nuns kept learning alive
Convents
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Women could not become priests, but could become
nuns
Eventually convent power and rights were limited
The Power of the Church Grows
 Christian Church gradually became the
most powerful secular, or worldly force in
medieval Europe
 The Church and Feudal Society
 The Pope was the spiritual leader of the
Roman Catholic Church
 Eventually popes claimed papal supremacy
 authority over all secular rulers
 There were high clergy such as bishops and
archbishops
The Power of the Church Grows
(Con’t)
 Religious Activity
 Christians believed that all people were sinners
and that many were doomed to eternal suffering
 In order to avoid hell, people had to believe in Christ
and participate in sacraments
 Medieval Church also developed the canon laws
 body of laws
 Anyone who disobeyed church laws faced a
range of penalties
 Most severe was excommunication
•
Could not receive the sacraments or a Christian burial
 Including Interdict
•
Excommunication of a whole town
Reform Movements
 Eventual problems arose over the
growing wealth and power of the church
officials
 Cluniac Reforms
 By 1073 A.D., Pope Gregory VII, extended
reforms by ending simony and outlawing
marriage for priest and nuns
 selling of Church offices
 Also encouraged Churches to select their
leaders, as opposed to kings or nobles
Reform Movements (Con’t)
 Preaching Orders
 Early 1200’s A.D., Francis of Assisi Dominic
set up the order of friars
 Monks who did not live in isolated monasteries but
traveled around Europe’s growing towns preaching
to the poor
 Stressed poverty, humility, and love of God
Jews in Europe

Jews flourished in Spain during the Early Middle Ages


Eventually as the Churches power grew, they began
blaming the Jews for the death of Jesus

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Forbidding Jews to own land or practice most occupations
In bad times, anti-Semitism worsened throughout
Europe


Jews preserved the oral and written laws that were central to
their faith
Prejudice against Jews
Due to being outlawed from other professions, many
Jews became moneylenders and migrated to Eastern
Europe
Section 4
 Economic Expansion and Change
An Agricultural Revolution
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
By 1000 A.D. European peasants had adapted
new farming technologies, which made their
fields more productive
New Technologies
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By 800’s they began using iron plows that carved
deep into heavy soil
Also began using harness that allowed horses to pull
plows
Another major technology was a watermill and
windmill
Expanding Production


Peasants adopted the three-field system, which
rotated crops on fields, and left one field empty
Between 1000-1300 A.D. Europe’s population doubled
Trade Revives
 Europe’s growing population needed
goods that were hardly available on the
manor
 New Trade Routes
 Merchant companies formed groups that were
armed caravans, in order to maintain safety
on the trade routes
 Constantinople was a trading center for goods
from the East
Trade Revives (Con’t)

Trade Fairs
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Initially trade fairs were local and along navigable
rivers
People enjoyed seeing the goods and enjoying
entertainment
New Towns

Slowly these small centers of trade developed into
cities
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Riches cities were in Italy
Each town setup a charter with the king

written document that set out the rights and privileges of
the town, including a fee to the lord or king
A Commercial Revolution

To support business, many merchants sought
capital from moneylenders
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Money for investment
New Business Practices

To meet their needs, many people setup partnerships
with other merchants
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merchants that pooled their funds to finance a largescale venture
Also created insurance systems to reduce business
risks
Also adopted a bill of exchange

Money bill that would be accepted at another bank
A Commercial Revolution (Con’t)
 Social Changes
 By 1300’s A.D. most peasants were tenant
farmers
 hired farm laborers, or paid rent for their land
 There arose a new class, the middle class
 Merchants, traders and artisans who were between
the nobles and the peasants
 Church banned usury
 Lending money with interest
Role of Guilds
 Merchants and artisans formed
associations known as guilds
 Merchant guilds passed laws and levied taxes
 Craft guilds were created in opposition to the
wealthy Merchant guilds
 Prevented competition by limiting members to
guilds
 Also helped provide social services
Role of Guilds (Con’t)
 Becoming a Guild Member
 At age of 7-8, a child would become an
apprentice
 Trainee to guild master
 Usually worked for seven years without pay
 Then they became a journeymen
 Salaried worker for guild master
Role of Guilds (Con’t)
 Women and the Guilds
 Women engaged in the same trade as their
father or husband and might inherit their
workshop if they died
 Women could also even become guild
masters
Town and City Life
 As cities grew, new walls had to be built
to accommodate the larger population
 Might contain a large cathedral or
splendid guild hall
 There were no garbage collections or
sewer systems
Looking Ahead
 Trade was greatly changing the
landscape of Western Europe through
the middle ages
 During the High Middle Ages, cultural
diffusion through trade with the east
brought new and more advanced ideas
that greatly change Europe