Global History & Geography Review Sheet #2
Spiconardi
 Medieval Europe
 After Fall of Rome in 476 AD there was no centralized government
 REGENTS QUESTION: After the fall of Rome, Europe can be characterized as a
Period of chaos and instability
 Referred to as the “Dark Ages”
 Catholic Church is the most powerful institution and the only unifying force in Europe
 Church provides order and stability
 Charlemagne
 Frankish king who built an empire that includes modern day France, Germany, and
parts of Italy
 Crowned “Emperor of the Romans” by Pope Leo III
 Helped spread Christianity to northern Europe
 Encouraged learning and set up schools and libraries
 Traveled to all parts of his empire to see the conditions and try and improve them
 After his death the empire collapses due to his sons’ inefficient governing
 Feudalism
 Political system in which local lords control their own lands, but owe military service
and support to a greater lord
 Feudal Structure
 King 
 Nobles 
 Lords 
 Lesser Lords 
 Knights 
 Peasants
 Chivalry – code of conduct followed by knights during the Middle Ages. * Similar code
in Japanese Feudalism called bushido. That was the code of the samurai. REGENTS
LIKES TO ASK ABOUT THE SIMILARITY. BOTH ARE CODES OF BEHAVIOR FOR THE
WARRIOR CLASS
 Manorialism – an economic system structured around a lord’s manor or estate
 Serf – a peasant bound to the lord’s land in medieval Europe
 Most serfs don’t live past the age of 35
 Church was center of their lives
 Worked the land for the lord and provided services, such as repairing fences, roads,
horseshoes, etc.
 The Church in Medieval Life
 The Church provided religious leadership as well as secular leadership
 Secular – having to do with worldly matters as opposed to religious matters
 Popes and kings fought over whose authority was higher
 Excommunication – to exclude from the Catholic Church for refusing to obey
Church laws
 Popes would excommunicate kings who challenged their authority
 Pope Boniface VIII issues papal bull that declares the authority of the papacy
superior to that of the monarchy (Last pope to have kings obey his orders)
 Investiture Controversy
 The Great Schism  At one point there are 3 popes.
 Church was largest landowner and taxed Christians 10% of their income (tithe)
 Church controlled learning. Monks and nuns preserved the ancient texts
 Medieval Cultural Achievements
 Gothic architecture
 Canterbury Tales by Chaucer & La Commedia by Dante
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Global History & Geography Review Sheet #2
Spiconardi
 The Crusades
 The Schism (1054) – Catholic Church splits into the Roman Catholic Church (West)
and the Orthodox Church (East/Byzantine)
 In 1093 the Byzantine Emperor Alexius asks Urban II for help against the Seljuk
Turks
 Urban II agrees because he believes he can reunite the Church
 Reasons for the Crusades
 Pope believed his power would increase in Europe
 Christians believed their sins would be forgiven if they took back the Holy Land
from the Muslims
 Nobles believed they could gain land in the Middle East
 Serfs hoped to escape feudal oppression
 Christians win The First Crusade, but lose the other crusades
 Impact of the Crusades
 Increase in trade
 Merchant class develops in Venice and other Italian city-states
 New goods brought to Europe (sugar, cotton, rice)
 Encouragement of Learning
 Muslims preserved Greco-Roman learning
 Europeans learn from Islamic advancements in math, science, and
architecture
 Feudalism is weakened
 Needed money to finance Crusades, so lords charged rent
 Religious intolerance
 Limited Monarchy in England
 English people are upset with King John III after he is excommunicated in 1215
 He fought many wars and lost quite a few
 Had high taxation
 Had to give up England to Pope in order to be readmitted to Catholic Church
 Magna Carta
 Nobles force King John to sign the Magna Carta, which placed limits on the king’s
power
 King now had to get Parliament’s permission to raise taxes
 Trial by jury
 Establishes common law
 Common law  Same laws are applicable to all people; no matter class, race,
religion everyone goes by and are held to the same laws. This is different from
Hammurabi’s Code
 The Bubonic Plague/Black Death
 Garbage  Rats  Fleas  Humans
 Disease originated in China and came to Europe via trading ships
 Trade between East and West comes to a temporary stop
 33% of European population dies
 Continues to weaken feudalism
 The Renaissance
 Humanism – intellectual movement at the heart of the Renaissance that focused on
worldly subjects (human achievement/potential) rather than religious ones
 There is an emphasis on the individual
 Challenging of the “old ways” of thinking
 Return to Greek and Roman culture
 Renaissance begins in Northern Italy due to developing merchant class
 Merchants and wealthy patrons like the Medici pay artists like Michelangelo and
Leonardo da Vinci to create artwork
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Global History & Geography Review Sheet #2
Spiconardi
 Niccolo Machiavelli
 Writes The Prince, which encourages rulers and leaders to use any means necessary
to achieve their goals
 Gutenberg’s Printing Press
 Books become more available
 Literacy rate increase
 Ideas and knowledge spread rapidly; access to new knowledge
 Reformation and Counter-Reformation
 Causes of the Reformation
 Renaissance thinking
 Monarchs wanting to break away from Church authority
 Problems in the Church
 Pope had become too powerful
 More concerned with politics than religion
 Indulgences – sale of the forgiveness of punishment for sins
 Martin Luther
 German monk who writes 95 Theses, which were 95 arguments against
indulgences
 Beliefs
 Believed people could only reach Heaven through faith alone
 All teachings must come from the Bible
 Priest should be allowed to marry
 No ornate vestments for priests
 Luther is excommunicated by Leo X
 Luther is supported by northern European kings and princes
 Luther is NOT out to start a new faith, but his followers call themselves
Lutherans and Protestants since the protested papal authority
 John Calvin
 Beliefs
 Could only gain salvation through faith
 Predestination – belief that God determined who was going to Heaven and Hell
before the beginning of time; your destination in the afterlife was already
determined by God
 Founds a theocracy in Switzerland
 Only could wear black, gray, and brown
 No fun, games, music
 King Henry VIII of England
 Wanted an annulment from the pope because his wife did not “give him a son”
 Pope refuses to grant annulment
 Henry VIII forms the Anglican Church of England and makes himself the head of
the new church and gives himself a divorce
 Also beheads two of his wives for being “disloyal”
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Global History & Geography Review Sheet #2
Spiconardi
 Counter Reformation
 Purpose was to strengthen the Catholic Church and stop spread of Protestantism
 Council of Trent
 Pope Paul III calls reform meeting in which the Catholic Church stands by its
teachings
 Outlaws simony and limits indulgences
 Effects of the Reformation
 New Christian faiths and denominations emerge
 Catholic Church loses power
 Pope lost much of his power and authority
 Religion no longer unites Europe
 Religious wars between Charles V and German Protestant princes
 Hundred Years’ War
 Conflict between France and England
 Marks the end of feudal Europe
 Increase in nationalism
 Joan of Arc
 Middle Ages vs. Renaissance
Middle Ages
Renaissance

Life centers around the Church
 Secularism

Live your life to enter Heaven
 Humanism

Art and music reflect religious
 Live life in the here and now
values
 Revival of Greco-Roman art

and architecture 
Gothic Architecture
reintroduction of columns and
realistic art
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