Western Christendom after the fall of Rome
WHAP/Napp
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“In the early centuries of the postclassical era, history must have seemed more significant
than geography, for the Roman Empire, long a fixture of the western Mediterranean
region, had collapsed. The traditional date marking the fall of Rome is 476, when the
German general Odoacer overthrew the last Roman emperor in the West. In itself not very
important, this event has come to symbolize a major turning point in the West, for much
that characterized Roman civilization also weakened, declined, or disappeared in the
several centuries before and after 476. Any semblance of large-scale centralized rule
vanished. Disease and warfare reduced Europe’s population more than 25 percent. Land
under cultivation contracted, while forests, marshland, and wasteland expanded. Urban
life too diminished sharply, as Europe reverted to a largely rural existence. Rome at its
height was a city of 1 million people, but by the tenth century it numbered perhaps 10,000.
Public buildings crumbled from lack of care. Outside Italy, long-distance trade dried up as
Roman roads deteriorated, and money exchange gave way to barter in many places.
Literacy lost ground as well. Germanic peoples, whom the Romans had viewed as
barbarians – Goths, Visigoths, Franks, Lombards, Angles, Saxons – now emerged as the
dominant peoples of Western Europe. In the process, Europe’s center of gravity moved
away from the Mediterranean toward the north and west.
Yet much that was classical or Roman persisted, even as a new order emerged in Europe.
On the political front, a series of regional kingdoms – led by Visigoths in Spain, Franks in
France, Lombards in Italy, and Angles and Saxons in England – arose to replace Roman
authority but many of these Germanic peoples, originally organized in small kinship-based
tribes with strong warrior values, had already been substantially Romanized. Contact with
the Roman Empire in the first several centuries C.E. generated more distinct ethnic
identities among them, militarized their societies, and gave greater prominence to Woden,
their god of war. As Germanic peoples migrated into or invaded Roman lands, many were
deeply influenced by Roman culture, especially if they served in the Roman army. On the
funeral monument of one such person was the telling inscription: ‘I am Frank by
nationality, but a Roman soldier under arms.’” ~ Ways of the World
1- What is the traditional date marking the fall of Rome?
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2- Why is the fall of Rome considered a turning point?
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3- How was Western Europe transformed as a result of the fall of Rome?
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4- Why did “long-distance trade [dry] up”?
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5- Where did Europe’s center of gravity move? Why?
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6- What replaced the centralized rule of the Roman Empire?
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7- How were the Germanic peoples transformed as a result of contact with Romans?
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I. Fiefs and Faith: Western Europe after the fall of Rome
A. A highly fragmented and decentralized society with great local variation
B. Independent, self-sufficient, and largely isolated landed estates or manors
1. A manor was the lord’s land; an agricultural estate
C. Lesser lords and knights swore allegiance to lords thus becoming vassals
1. Vassals received land in return for military service to lords (Feudalism)
D. Roman slavery gave way to serfdom
1. Serfs were not personal property and could not be arbitrarily thrown off the
land rather they were bound to the lord’s land
E. Absence of central Roman authority, only security lay manors
II. Roman Catholic Church
1. Hierarchical organization (pope, bishops) modeled on Roman Empire
2. Began the process of converting many of Europe’s “pagan” peoples
3. Provided unity and stability during a time of political fragmentation
4. By 1100, most of Europe had embraced Christianity
5. Church was a center of literacy, received tithes (taxes), wealthy landowner
III. Church Controversies
1. Investiture Controversy during the eleventh and twelfth centuries
2. Church officials and kings debated who had the right to make Church
appointments but eventually Church officials were given the right
IV. Pace of change in West picked up in several centuries after 1000
A. By 1000, invasions had been checked and invaders absorbed into societies
1. Commonly called the High Middle Ages (expansion and commerce occurred)
V. Stability and Trade
A. Urbanization was proceeding as towns and cities once again attracted people
1. Groups organized themselves into guilds or associations of people pursuing the
same line of work in order to regulate professions
B. For women, religious life provided opportunities [nuns as in Buddhist lands too]
C. A further sign of change: 11th – 13th century, monarchs became more powerful
VI. The Crusades
A. Beginning in 1095, the Crusades or a series of “holy wars”
B. Crusaders were offered an indulgence, which removed penalties for sins
C. But by 1291, Muslim forces had recaptured all of the temporary Christian states
established in the eastern Mediterranean
1. “Successful failures”: Europeans lost permanent control of the land but gained
ideas from Islamic golden age
2. Europeans rediscovered their own classical ideas in Muslim libraries
3. Stimulated European scholars to seek out original Greek texts
4. But also tremendous cruelty: slaughtered Muslims and Jews
5. Crusading elsewhere too: Spanish waged war for centuries to reclaim the
Iberian Peninsula from Muslim hands (Reconquista)
6. Europeans also learned techniques for producing sugar on large plantations
using slave labor from Muslims
7. Muslim scholarship, together with Greek learning it incorporated, also flowed
into Europe, largely through Spain and Sicily
8. European empire building (Americas) continued crusading spirit
1- Describe Western Europe after the fall of Rome.
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2- What was a medieval manor [the Middle Ages or Medieval Period dates from the
fall of Rome to the Renaissance – although some scholars consider the Renaissance
part of this period]?
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3- Define a vassal.
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4- Define a serf.
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5- Define feudalism.
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6- Therefore, feudalism is a political and military system based on loyalty and
exchanges. Look at the diagrams of the feudal hierarchy and the manor below.
Identify three characteristics of each.
7- What did the Roman Catholic Church provide in medieval Europe?
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8- What was the outcome of the Investiture Controvery?
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9- How did guilds impact transform the lives of craftsmen and merchants?
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10- How did the High Middle Ages differ from the early years of the Middle Ages?
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11- What were the Crusades and why were the Crusades considered successful failures?
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12- The Middle Ages refers to a period of one thousand years in Western Europe after
the fall of Rome. Yet is this title too simplistic? Explain your answer.
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13- How was the feudal hierarchy similar to the Hindu caste system? ________________
1. Which of the following most helps to
explain why the collapse of political
institutions was more devastating to the
Roman civilization than to Han China or
Gupta India?
(A) Political institutions in Rome were
weaker to begin with.
(B) Roman emperors had more power than
did Han or Gupta emperors, so their
downfall eviscerated the Roman Empire.
(C) Han China and Gupta India had strong
religious/philosophical traditions to provide
continuity.
(D) The Romans were economically more
self-sufficient than the Han or Gupta, so
they had no long-distance trade to cushion
their fall.
2. Which of the following was an important
reason for the fall of the Roman, Han, and
Gupta empires?
(A) A long period of drought that destroyed
crops and livestock
(B) The use of slaves in their armies
(C) Intensified invasions and security issues
along their frontiers
(D) A refusal to tolerate Christianity
“The Crusader states were able to cling to
survival only through frequent delivery of
supplies and manpower from Europe.
[They] were defended primarily by three
semi-monastic military orders: the
Templars, the Hospitallers, and the
Teutonic Knights. Combining monasticism
and militarism, these orders served to
protect pilgrims and to wage perpetual war
against the Muslims.”
Palmira Brummett, world historian, 2007
“Whenever I visited Jerusalem, I always
entered the al-Aqsa Mosque, beside which
stood a small mosque which the Franks had
converted into a church.… [T]he Templars
… who were my friends, would evacuate the
little adjoining mosque so that I could pray
in it.”
Usamah ibn Munqidh, Muslim historian,
Jerusalem, circa 1138
The second passage does not support the
first passage because the second passage
(A) shows that an influx of manpower from
Europe was not critical for the survival of
the Crusader states
(B) shows that Muslims vastly outnumbered
Europeans in the Crusader states
(C) minimizes the importance of
Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights in the
administration of the Crusader states
(D) presents an incident in which a military
order supported a Muslim traveler
The Vikings:
“From the eighth until the twelfth century, the European north Atlantic was primarily the
province of marauding sailors and raiders from the north. These Vikings were the
ancestors of today’s Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes. They were also colonizers,
fishermen, and traders. One group from Norway began to settle Iceland around 870 and
Greenland about 982. Under Leif Eriksson they reached Newfoundland in North America
about 1000 and established a settlement there as well, but it did not endure. Danes and
Norwegians plundered along the entire Atlantic coast of Europe, with especially early and
devastating attacks on Lindisfarne off the northern coast of England (793), Dorestad in
Frisia (834), and Nantes in France (842), where they murdered the bishop and all his
clergy…These Vikings were also traders and colonizers who fostered urban development
and trade in the places they conquered.” ~ The World’s History