Aim: How did towns affect the High Middle Ages?
I. High Middle Ages
a. 11th and 12th century
b. population increased
c. Rise of trading centers
d. Venice & Genoa in Italy, Flanders in Northern Europe
e. 70 Germanic cities joined the Hanseatic League
f. The Hanseatic League made trade fair between Russia, Flanders and England
g. Protected against piracy
h. Rise of capitalism: economic system where business is owned privately for profit
i. Use of banking and investment
II. Growth of Towns
1. Trading centers led to the birth to towns
2. Urbanization: movement of people to towns and cities
3. They are walled and protected near the Manor
4. Small in size about 5000 per town
5. Decline of feudalism
6. Towns became over-crowded and polluted towns
7. King or lord allowed the people to govern themselves
8. King or lord sold people rights, weak military
9. Decline of feudalism
10. Towns became over-crowded and polluted towns
III. Guilds
a. 12th century business associations
b. There were guilds for blacksmiths, carpenters, goldsmiths and others
c. Set rules + hours, fixed prices + wages, ensured quality
d. Strangers had to pay a toll to the guilds to sell goods
e. Guilds also took care of families of deceased members
IV. Result
a. Growth of the middle class, also called the bourgeoisie
b. New job titles: bankers, manufacturers, and craftsmen
c. Rise of national kingdoms
d. Conflict between Catholic Church and monarchs: power struggle for who has more
influence (investiture)
V. High Middle Ages
a. largest threat to security were Viking invasions from the North
b. Viking invaders destroyed many villages but tended to settle and adopt the culture
(Normandy)
c. Trade: Vikings kept contacts between eastern and western Europe when Mediterranean trade
was unsafe.
d. Feudal monarchs increase their power
e. The Vikings prompted nations to centralize their governments
VI. England
a. 1066 Anglo-Saxon King Edward the Confessor died without an heir
b. The Normans (Viking descendants) invade England
c. William of Normandy claims the right to rule England
d. Harold Godwinson challenges his claim
e. They fought in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings
f. William was victorious and centralized the government
g. Created the Doomsday Book, which was a census used for tax collection
h. Successful rulers follow:
i. King Richard the Lionhearted: crusader king
j. King John: signed the Magna Carta in 1215
k. The Magna Carta created trial by jury, adjusted taxes and limited the power of the monarch
l. Also created the British Parliament
VII. France
a. The Carolingian Dynasty ruled from 843-987
b. The Capetian Dynasty followed from 987-1328
c. He also set up the estates general which was the legislative body in France
VIII. The Holy Roman Empire
a. Located in Eastern France, modern day Germany, Austria and Northern Italy
b. The Hapsburg family ruled from Austria from 1452-1740
IX. Italian States
a. Decentralized states
b. All governed in city-state form
X. Spain and Portugal
 the Muslim’s ruled the Iberian Peninsula from 711 until 1492
 Reconquista: Christians tried to remove the Muslims and was completed by King Ferdinand
and Queen Isabella
 They centralized Spanish gov’t
 Spanish Inquisition: thousands of Jews + Muslims were killed
 They are also responsible for the Spanish conquests of the New World
Aim: Why was the Black Plague a turning point in European History?
I. Two Kinds of Plague
1. Bubonic Plague:
a. Swollen Lymph nodes
b. Blotches on the Skin
c. Death (3-7 days)
II. Birth of the Plague
 The Plague began in China in 1331
 Carried by rats and transported by flea bites
 Spread along the trade routes toward the West.
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By 1345 the plague was in Russia.
III. The Plague Spread West
 1347: Constantinople and Sicily
 1348: Alexandria and Cairo
IV. The Plague
• Millions were infected and died
• Corpses were removed quickly to prevent spread
• People feared being near plague victims
• wore protective clothing but still affected
• People turned to religion for salvation
V. Consequences of the Plague
1. Political
a. Feudal governments were weakened
b. Lords were powerless
2. Economic
a. Labor shortages
b. Increased prices for goods, labor, and food
c. Higher taxes
3. Social
• The Church was ineffective finding a cure
• People believed: religious punishment and witchcraft
• Christians believed that Jews poisoned the wells
• Anti-Semitism: hatred of Jews
• Pogroms: Violent attacks on Jews
• Christians targeted destroyed many Jewish communities
• Christians burned many Jews because they believed they were responsible
VI. The Flagellants
 people that performed penance in public.
 Self-inflicted punishments to atone for the evil of the world.
 killed Jews and in 1349 the pope condemned them.
VII. Art and the Plague
a) Artists began to paint pictures of death and depression.
VIII. Boccaccio
• Italian author and poet.
• wrote in the time of the Black Plague
• wrote the Decameron, a series of short tales about the Plague
IX. The Plague’s Toll
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Black Death - Disaster Strikes
25 million people died in just under five years between 1347 and 1352.
The Estimated population of Europe from 1000 to 1352:
1. 1000 38 million
2. 1100 48 million
3. 1200 59 million
4. 1300 70 million
5. 1347 75 million
6. 1352 50 million
Aim: How did the Hundred Years War affect Europe?
I. Dynastic Conflict
a) King Phillip IV of France dies in 1328 without a male heir
b) The king’s daughter Isabelle married the king of England
c) They had a son Edward III
d) This made the Edward III the heir to both France and England
e) The French revived Salic Law
f) Property (even the throne) cannot be passed down through a female
g) This caused the Hundred Years War
II Hundred Years War
a. King Edward III of England claimed the right to rule France.
b. War broke out over the throne in 1338.
c. New weapons: cannons and long bows allowed England to dominate the early years of the war
d. The Hundred Years’ War was fought for many years and battles were one by both sides
III Joan of Arc
a. 1420's a young woman, Joan of Arc, inspired France
b. Joan convinced the French army that God was on their side
c. The English captured Joan and burned her alive in 1431.
d. The French continued to win the war.
e. In 1453 the England gave up the claim to rule France.
f. France was again ruled by a French king.
IV. Results of Hundred Years War
 Nationalism grew in both England and France
 Population and property loses hurt France
 New weapons: Cannons, longbows, and gunpowder
 This weakened the role of the Knights and the castle
 Helped end feudal system in England and France
Aim: How did civilizations develop in South and Central America?
I Mesoamerica
a) Central America and South America
b) Mother civilization The Olmec
c) The Olmec were the first Mesoamerican civilization
d) laid many of the foundations for the civilizations that followed
II Mayas
 250-900 CE
 Located in the Yucatan peninsula
 City-states ruled by same king
 Capital Tikal
 Ceremonial center- Chichen Itza
 Built pyramids and temples
 Religion
a. Polytheistic
b. Quetzalcoatl: god who will return and rule
c. Started human sacrifice
III Warfare
 Kings and nobles fight with soldiers
 Wanted slaves for work and sacrifice
IV Achievements
 Advanced farming
 Pyramids and ball-courts for religious purposes
 Excellent mathematicians (concept of zero)
 Hieroglyphics
 18 month 20 day calendar (lunar and solar calendars
V Collapse
 Late 800-900 Mayans vanished
 Nobody knows why?
 Disease, warfare, drought, disaster
 900s Toltec take over Central Mexico
 1200 the Toltecs collapse to Aztecs
VI. Andean Civilization
 Oldest civilization was the Chavin 900 – 250 BCE
 Skilled in weaving, pottery, metalworking
VII. North American Civilizations
a. The Anasazi or ancient ones settled in the Southwest around 1200
b. Mississippian (700-1500 CE) were linked with South American tribes and used similar temple
structures
VIII.
Aztecs
a. Formed late 1200’s
b. Settled in Valley of Mexico
c. Capital Tenochtitlan 1325
d. Built an empire through military conquest
e. Developed long distance trade
f. Developed a merchant class
g. Tribute empire: collected tribute from conquered peoples and ruled them harshly
h. They were hated by their subjects
IX.
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Aztec Society
Ruled by a single emperor
organization by family clans
Social classes
Emperor, Nobles and Priests, Warriors, peasants, Slaves
women honored for certain duties but no political power
Religion: polytheistic
Cannibalism: criminals and conquered peoples were used
Large scale human sacrifice also used prisoners of war and slaves
X. Contributions
a. Medicine, pyramids, calendar
b. Adapted to their surroundings: city in a lake and Chinampas: floating gardens, to add farm
land to the city
XI. Decline of the Aztecs
a. 1500’s Aztecs had internal weakness
b. many outside tribes hated the Aztecs
c. 1519 Cortez and Spanish conquests destroy the Aztecs
XII. Incas
a. Empire located in the Andes Mountains
b. Capital was Cuzco, Peru
c. unified diverse peoples into one empire
d. Created a tribute empire without ruling them harshly
e. The Inca married into alliances for political reasons
XIII. Incan Society
a. professional army
b. bureaucratic government
c. Society: family clans
d. women had traditional role of homemaker
e. no merchant class
f. Limited long-distance trade
g. Complex system of roads and tunnels
h. No large animals, all human labor
i. No writing system used Quipus, system of knots on cotton cords
j. Mainly used to keep data on population, taxes, harvests and the economy
k. Used terrace farming
XIV. Incan Religion
a. Polytheistic
b. Not much human sacrifice, did sacrifice animals
c. Incan rulers considered gods, and mummified
d. Famous temple: Machu Pichu
XV. Decline
a. 1525 civil war broke out
b. Internal weakness
c. Invasions: Francisco Pizzaro
Small Pox and new weapons of Spanish helped end the Inca’s
Aim: How did China reunify after the Han dynasty?
I. China 220-589
 political turmoil caused many kingdoms to appear after the Han
 Including the period of 6 dynasties
 Each small dynasty had a weak economy and gov’t
 Buddhism rose
 Reunification in 589 Sui dynasty
II. Sui Dynasty
a. Ruler Wendi
b. Lowered taxes
c. Created legal code
d. Built Grand Canal of China
e. Scholar gentry on rise
f. 618 Sui declined
III. Tang Dynasty
a. Li Yuan created the Tang dynasty 618-907
b. Empire was extended into Tibet, Manchuria, Korea, and Vietnam
c. Restored bureaucracy and Confucianism
d. Confucian ideals, the civil service exams and scholar-gentry dominate government
e. Buddhism was attacked and weakened by Confucians
f. Monasteries were destroyed, but Buddhism remained in China
IV. Tang Decline
1. Experience golden age under Xuan-zong (arts, literature)
2. Xuan-zong fell in love with concubine, stopped caring about government
3. civil unrest
4. An Lushan rebellion weakened Tang
5. Empire fades out of power.
Aim: How did the Song affect China?
Rise of the Song
• 960 the Song reunited China
• Emphasized Confucian ideals
• Weak military paid tribute to Manchuria
• Song promoted the scholar-gentry and civil service exams
• Focused on tradition, social order, education, and the arts
II. Neo-Confucianism
 Revival of Confucianism
 Male dominated
 Scholar gentry less receptive to outside ideas and technologies
 Emphasis on tradition, social order and gender distinction
III Decline of the Song
 Weak military
 Paid tribute to numerous tribes
 Eventually conquered by the Mongols in 1279
IV. Women
1. Status was low and inferior
2. Tang and Song develop foot-binding
3. Done at age of 4-7
4. Began in10th century and abolished in 1949
5. Wanted to create a “lotus” or little foot 3-4 inches long
6. Women were usually unable to move quickly, sometimes not at all
VI Achievements of Tang and Song
1. Art, architecture, roads, bridges and canals built
2. Porcelain
3. Paper money
4. gunpowder
5. compass for navigation
6. abacus
7. movable type to print books
8. gov’t focused of Confucian philosophy
AIM: Describe the early, origins of Japan.
Geography
a. Archipelago: chain of islands
b. 4 main islands, over 3,000 smaller islands
c. Located in the Ring of Fire (prone to earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes)
d. 11% of land can be farmed
e. Ethnocentric and Isolated
f. Shintoism: “way of the gods”
g. Worshipped the kami or Divinities.
h. Worshipped nature and ancestors
II. Rise of Japan
i Society based on clans
ii Yamato Clan 300-700
iii Seventh century Yamato Prince Shotoku wrote the Taika Reforms which modified Japanese government
iv Japan took Chinese gov’t, writing, Confucianism and Buddhism
III. Classical Japan
a. Rise of Buddhism during the Nara period in 710
b. Heian period 794-1185
c. Golden Age improved culture
d. Tale of the Genji Written by Lady Murasaki
e. Gave noble women status
f. Birth of Samurai (those who serve)
g. Zen Buddhism- enlightenment achieved suddenly or through self-discipline
IV Kamakura Shogunate
1. 1185 powerful noble creates empire
2. Shogun has real power (general of the military)
3. This is the birth of feudalism in Japan 1192
Kamakura fell in 1333 but laid foundation for feudal Japan
AIM: Describe FEUDAL life in Japan.
Japanese Feudalism
Japan did not like the bureaucracy
Stressed military ability
Fujiwara built huge military estates, self-sufficient
Heian period the gov’t was inefficient
Gov’t became decentralized
Feudalism was born 1185-1600
II. Japanese Society
Emperor: figurehead, continued to rule but no power
Shogun: Military general
Daimyo: Landowners, nobles, collected taxes, created armies, controlled peasants
Samurai: “those who serve”, warriors on horseback
Peasants: Bound to land like serfs
III. Bushido
Samurai warrior code
“way of the warrior”
Stressed self-discipline
Death over life
Revered courage, strict obedience and loyalty to Shogun and Emperor.
Supported by Confucius thought
Seppuku: Ritual suicide that allowed death with honor for those among the Samurai class by
disembowelment
Received payment through agriculture from lord in return for service
IV. Similarities between Feudal Europe and Japan
Developed around the same time
Strict political structure
Strict social structure
Honor code: chivalry vs. Bushido
V. Differences between Feudal Europe and Japan
Role of the Shogun
Treatment of women
Europeans: held in high regard and adored
Japanese: no freedom, and had a harsh life
European feudalism was legal and contractual
Japanese feudalism was less focused on law more on morality and loyalty
AIM: What was Japan like under the rule of Tokugawa Shogunate?
Japan 16th Century
1. 16th century: feudalism began to weaken
2. 1542 contact with the west
3. Portuguese and Christian missionaries and Jesuits came to Japan
II. Tokugawa Shogunate
1. Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu three rulers who united Japan
2. 1600 Ieyasu became shogun and created Tokugawa
3. They ruled until 1868
4. Daimyo obeyed the hostage system
5. Daimyo controlled hans or territory
6. Rigid Class System
7. Warrior, Farmer or peasant, artisan or craftspeople and merchants, bottom ETA
8. Like caste system because your place is hereditary
9. Persecuted Christians and Western Ideas
10. Hostile to foreigners
11. Japanese could not travel abroad and no foreigners could visit
III. Culture
1. No foreign influence
2. Kabuki theater
3. Haiku poetry
4. Women lost status
IV. Results
1. Samurai became educated scholars and teachers
2. Literacy rate improved
3. Isolation helped develop uniqueness
4. Merchant class developed new wealth
5. Banking system
6. Paper money
AIM: What impact did the Mongols have on the world?
I. Rise of the Mongols
a) Nomads from Northern China
b) Superb horsemen and archers
c) For centuries they were isolated
d) Men ruled the tribes
II. Mongols Expand
a) 1206 Temujin becomes Genghis Khan or universal ruler
b) ruled from 1206 until 1227 his death
c) Great military strategist
d) Organized military units called tuman (10000 soldiers)
e) Unified tribes, Russia and China
f) Started Mongol invasion of China
III. Mongol Conquests
a) Split groups into hordes (khanates) individual provinces
b) 4 hordes
c) China- Kublai Khan
d) Central Asia/ Persia
e) Russia: the Golden Horde
f) The largest empire in world history
IV. Mongol War Machine
a) Weapons: lances, hatchets, short bows, gun powder
b) Excellent archers
c) Rapid movement 80-90 miles a day
d) Strike in surprise, retreat and hide
e) Tuman- 10,000 soldiers broken up in tens
f) Demanded tribute from the conquered (one-tenth of everything even people)
V. Mongol Culture
a) Ruthless and illiterate
b) Granted religious toleration
c) The Mongols had no unique cultural achievements
d) Assimilated other cultures
e) Borrowed ideas from other conquered cultures
AIM: How did the Mongol Empire expand and decline?
I. Mongol Conquests
1. Kublai Khan created Yuan Dynasty
2. Mongols best jobs in gov’t, army
3. Invited Marco Polo to palace in 1250s
4. Attempted to conquer Japan in 1274 and 1281
5. Was unable to do so because of kamikaze: divine wind
6. United China and controlled Korea
7. Mongols rule Russia for 250yrs
8. 1240-1242 the Golden Horde (Russia) attacked Eastern Europe
9. Mongols also conquered Tibet, Middle East, Turkey, Persia, and Syria
10. They also destroyed the Abbasids
II. Pax Mongolia
1. 1250s-1350s
2. Increase in trade on Silk Roads
3. Religion spread by missionaries, Ibn Battuta Muslim traveler
4. Peace and stability throughout empire
5. Paper Money
6. Cultural advancements technology, goods and ideas
III. Fall of the Mongols
 The empire was over-extended
 Civil wars and corruption
 The Black Plague weakened the empire
 weakened by the death of Kublai Khan
 Resentment of Mongol tribute system caused problems in China and Russia
 Ended in 1369
Aim: Explain the impact of the Renaissance on Europe. (REMEMBER: John Green’s Crash
Course Notes asked the question… “Was the Renaissance a thing?” )
I. Post Middle Ages
1. Black Plague ends
2. Population Increased
3. Demand for goods increased
4. Rise of the middle class
5. Rise of cities
6. People now want to recapture past
II. Renaissance
1. 1300’s to 1500’s
2. Renaissance means “rebirth”
3. Bring back the Ancient Roman and Greek writings
4. Italy became heart of Renaissance
5. Extremely wealthy trading cities Florence, Venice and Milan
6. Patrons of the arts: the Medici family gave money to art (Michelangelo)
III. Humanism
1. Emphasis on the individual and their achievements
2. New focus of life on earth
3. People became secular (indifferent of religions)
4. Father of Humanism Petrarch
5. Ex. Sonnet to Laura
IV Art of the Renaissance
1. Medieval paintings were flat, dull, stiff and religious
2. Renaissance focused on humanistic, realistic, perspective, color, detail, secular and religious
paintings
3. Based on Greek and Roman styles
Architecture:
1. Used columns, arches and domes
Art:
2. Leonardo Da Vinci
3. Renaissance man: painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, engineer, anatomist, musician and
mathematician
4. Painted Mona Lisa, Last Supper
5. Drew flying machines and submarine
6.
7.
8.
9.
Michelangelo
Sculptor, architect, painter, poet
Painted Sistine Chapel on his back for four years 1508-1512
Sculpted statue of David
Literature
1. Dante: The Divine Comedy
2. Cervantes: Don Quixote
3. Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales
4. Shakespeare: Hamlet, Othello, Romeo & Juliet, King Lear
Political Writing
1. Machiavelli: The Prince, “the end justifies the means”
2. Political theory, ruthless leader
3. Taught rulers how to rule
4. Leaders do whatever is necessary to rule
5. Better to be feared than loved
6. All of these writers used vernacular, writing books in their common language
V The Northern Renaissance
1. Renaissance spread to north Europe
2. Flanders in Netherlands popular city
3. Produced Jan van Eyck
4. German Painter Albrecht Dürer spread Renaissance style
5. Rembrandt
Printing Press
1. Johannes Gutenberg
2. Created first movable type printing press
3. Increased number of books circulating
4. Literacy increased
5. Bible was first book copied
Aim: How was the Protestant Reformation born and why was it a turning point in history?
I. Pre-Reformation
a) Christian humanism: people wanted to reform Catholic Church
b) Erasmus: criticized abuses in church and of Monks
c) 1450-1520- corruption in church
d) Pope’s corrupt with political power and greed
II. Church Abuses
1. 1500’s church needed money
2. Wanted to beautify the churches and pay Renaissances artists
3. Sold indulgences: instant salvation for money
4. Also raised prices on sacraments: marriage, baptism, etc.
III Martin Luther
a. 1517 German monk
“Erasmus
b. rejected church practices
laid the egg
c. posted the 95 theses on Wittenberg church
that Luther
d. he was against the sale of indulgences
hatched”
e. Claimed that faith alone will grant salvation
f. Bible is the only source of truth
g. Priests should marry
h. Mass and sacraments done in all languages not just Latin
i. Asked by Pope Leo X to recant
j. He was soon excommunicated
k. German princes protected Luther
l. 1555-Peace of Augsburg
m. German Princes chose religion of the state
n. People could choose to be Catholic or Lutheran
o. They could also move to a German state practicing their religion
IV John Calvin
a. Follower of Luther
b. Believed in predestination
c. This was a belief that God had already chosen who will be saved
d. Set up a theocracy in Geneva, Switzerland
V King Henry VIII
a. Wanted a male child, his wife didn’t have any
b. Wanted a divorce but pope wouldn’t allow it
c. He then blasted the pope and set up the Church of England
VI Effects
a. Loss of religious unity in Europe
b. Thirty Years war 1614-1648 was a Religious conflict
c. 1648 a truce was declared.
d. It was agreed that a few countries including England, Scotland and Germany would stand as
"Protestant" lands.
e. The rest remained Roman Catholic.