Download 1000 to 1300 - Herbert Hoover High School

A P European History: Chapter 1, Europe to 1300
Early Human Cultures
The earliest humans appeared about 2 million years old. These hominids had brain size only 35% that of
modern humans, but they were able to devise tools, speak language and harness fire. In short, unlike the prehumans the came before them, they began to adapt nature for themselves. About 750,000 years ago they
began to disappear and were replaced by Homo erectus (Upright Man), the first true humans (with brains about
75% the size of modern humans). About 250,000 years ago, our direct ancestors, Homo sapiens (Thinking man)
appeared. Their even larger brains made self-awareness and reflective thought possible and so gave them such
an advantage that they replaced Homo erectus about 200,000 years ago.
During this Paleolithic or Old Stone Age, developing intelligence provided our ancestors with a powerful
edge for survival in the natural world which allowed them to adapt to varying climatic conditions and to
establish their species throughout the world. They constructed homes of rocks, clay, bones, branches, and
animal hides. They used manganese and iron oxides to paint pictures and created the first calendar around
15,000 years ago. They helped to cause or may alone have caused the extinction of many animal species,
especially some large mammals such as mammoths, mastodons and large kangaroos. They lived in huntergatherer societies, constantly moving from place to place in pursuit of food (wild game and plants), with some
groups sporadically establishing temporary settlements where they resided for much of the year.
In many ways, these early humans were very much like us in spite of their low technological skills. We know
that they dressed in animal skins, wore jewelry, and used tools that showed they knew how to make primitive
clothing. Their reflective thought is touchingly revealed in their graves in which human remains were buried
with personal items such as jewelry, tools and flowers. Their art (mostly found in caves) was pragmatic
(practical), focusing on “the hunt” and fertility (no food = starvation). Many scholars feel that male/female
interdependence created a rough social equality.
The Neolithic Revolution
Then, between 10,000 and 3500 B.C., a major change took place which fundamentally altered human history
and gradually freed humans from the precarious (dangerous) life styles of the Old Stone Age. Climatic shifts
associated with the close of the last Ice Age forced migration of game animals and changed wild crop
distribution. Slowly, sometimes by trial and error and/or by slow changes over time, many humans begin to
farm and begin to establish small farms, villages and eventually permanent communities, thus creating
history’s first revolution, the Neolithic Revolution (New Stone Age).
As humans experimented with grains and animals they domesticated (the dog actually found them), they
profited from the advantages of settled existence which meant that they were able to produce more food than
they needed to survive. Now humans could store surplus food for future need and begin to dominate the world
around them. In forested areas, hunter-gatherer peoples often adopted an intermediate step called Slash and
Burn - in which they cleared land (usually by burning) and farmed until the land was exhausted (depleted of
minerals) – then they moved on and repeated the process. In semi-arid regions like the steppes of Southern
Russia, people adopted another intermediate step and became pastoralists, domesticating sheep and horses.
It is very important to understand that the Neolithic Revolution took place at different times and at
different rates in different parts of the world. As a result, many historians prefer the term Agricultural
Transition. However, whether slow or fast, the change from hunter-gatherer to sedentary farming was
revolutionary! The Neolithic Revolution also created a technological revolution – Specialization of Labor, as
people began to develop more sophisticated tools such as needles, copper utensils and weapons, grinding
stones, sickle blades and pottery. And although animal skins were still used, weaving began to evolve, as
woolen and linen clothing become common. Moreover people began to smelt tin and copper to make a
stronger metal called bronze and so the Bronze Age replaced the Stone Ages.
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As Neolithic agricultural villages gradually replaced Paleolithic cultures, civilizations (as we understand them)
began to appear and were characterized by urban growth (towns and later, cities), more sophisticated
metallurgy (the use of metals) and the invention of writing. It is important to understand that for all this to
happen, people needed a steady supply of water and so most early farming civilizations were fluvial,
meaning that they developed along rivers. Thus, in addition to the Chinese (along the Yellow River) and Indus
River Valley (in modern Pakistan), the two civilizations that laid the foundations for Western or Classical
Civilization were the Mesopotamian and Egyptian.
The Mesopotamians, Egyptians and Hebrews
Mesopotamian Civilization arose between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern Iraq. Water from
these rivers made the area a center of wheat (millet) and barley production. Mesopotamian peoples were
skilled builders and artisans creating brick cities, beautiful pottery and skilled bronze work. They built
pyramid-like temples, called ziggurats, to honor their gods and goddesses. They were excellent
mathematicians and astronomers. They also used a base-sixty number system, which we still use in counting
minutes and seconds.
Between 3,000 and 2,300 B.C.E., the Sumerians developed the world’s first true civilization. They created
highly centralized city-states governed by theocracies (priests). The Sumerians also invented the wheel,
initially for making pottery (but quickly adapted to carts) and a written language using wedge markings in clay
called cuneiform. The first empire builder was Sargon, king of Akkad, who around 2,300 united all the
small Sumerian city-states. From 1,900 to 1,600, Sargon’s empire had fallen and the Babylonian Empire
dominated Mesopotamia. Their greatest king was Hammurabi created the world’s first law codes. Although
his law code favored the rich and powerful and was harsh and retaliatory (Lex Talonis – “an eye for an eye”), it
was nevertheless the first systematic law code in history.
Around 1,600 B.C.E., the Hittites (a people from Anatolia) overwhelmed the Babylonian Empire. The Hittites
were famous for their skill in using chariots and – more importantly – for manufacturing iron weapons and
tools; probably making them the first people to systematically use iron. (Some historians state that the Hittites
began the Iron Age) Later Egyptian invaders ruled Mesopotamia until around 911, when the Assyrians invaded
Mesopotamia. The Assyrians were a warlike society and used brutal repression to maintain their authority, so
much that, when their empire collapsed in 612 B.C.E., almost all vestiges of their society were obliterated.
The Neo-Babylonians followed the Assyrians and ruled until they were conquered by the Persians.
Egyptian Civilization dated to around 6,000 BC and was called the Gift of the Nile because the gentle
flooding of the Nile River (which left a thin layer fertile mud every year) made Egypt the Breadbasket of the
Ancient World. Egyptian history formally began around 3,100 B.C.E. when Menes (or Narmer) united Egypt.
Menes and his successors built a centralized state that is traditionally divided into three periods or Kingdoms.
The Old Kingdom appeared around 2,575 B.C.E. and lasted until 2134. Old Kingdom Pharaohs were
probably the strongest of all Egyptian rulers; they controlled most the Eastern Mediterranean and built the
great pyramids. Eventually, the Old Kingdom broke down under weak pharaohs and strong warlords. A
weaker and less centralized Middle Kingdom (2040-1640) followed, before invaders called the Hyksos
overran the Middle Kingdom. Around 1530 however, Pharaohs of the New Kingdom drove out the Hyksos
and brought another period of Egyptian dominance, which lasted until 1070. Pharaohs like Thutmosis III and
Ramses II ruled an empire that stretched from Nubia to the Fertile Crescent. After that Egypt fell into gradual
decline.
Like Mesopotamia, Egypt developed its own unique culture. Its pictographic writing was called hieroglyphics
in which symbols representing sounds and ideas. Religion played a powerful role in Egyptian life. Egyptians
believed that the gods had placed the pharaoh on earth as a living god to maintain authority. Thus, the Pharaoh
was the source of law and so Egypt never developed law codes like that of Hammurabi.
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Egyptian religion was polytheistic and yet it had a strong moral dimension in that after death every person
was judged and either rewarded or punished in the afterlife. Accordingly, the Egyptians had elaborate
mummification and burial customs to help a person to their journey to the next world. For a short time in the
New Kingdom, Egypt flirted with monotheism (the worship of one god) when the Pharaoh Amenhotep IV
named himself Akhenaten to honor the sun god Aten. His reign was short (he was probably removed by force)
and the old gods restored but his flirtation with monotheism may very well have influenced the Hebrews who
were living in Egypt at the time.
In technology, the Egyptians were skilled mathematicians, surveyors and engineers as their pyramids and
temples still bear witness. They were also skilled physicians (they even performed brain surgery) and the first to
use cement, as we know it. They were also the first to use the decimal system. They were skilled artisans, as
is evident from the jewelry, gold statues, glass beads, jars, figurines and ornaments discovered in their tombs.
The Children of the Hebrews
The Jews, although not as old as Mesopotamia or Egypt, were the third great civilization lay the basis of
Europe. They traced their lineage to Abraham who, around 2000 B.C.E. was told by his God to migrate
westward to a land called Canaan (today Palestine). His people were shepherds who were, in time, driven by
famine into Egypt where they were first welcomed, but later enslaved. [The Jewish-Roman historian Josephus
(37-100 C.E.) believed that that the Hyksos were the children of the patriarch Jacob who joined their brother Joseph in
Egypt to escape the famine. Moreover, Egyptian inscriptions during the same time refer to a people called Habiru]
The Hebrews spent 400 years in Egypt; and in their suffering, they remembered the God of Abraham and
prayed that he would deliver them. Then a charismatic figure, Moses, appeared among them. He claimed to
have talked to their God, Yahweh (or Jehovah) and, with his help, freed the Hebrews and led them through the
desert of Sinai back into Canaan or the Promised Land.
The Hebrews reconquered Canaan and called it Israel. By 1000 BCE, the Israelites had set up a kingdom
under David and his son Solomon. David was noted for his love of Yahweh and Solomon for his wisdom, the
great temple he built and the power of his empire. After Solomon’s death his empire split into a northern
kingdom called Israel and a southern kingdom called Judah (after another of Jacob’s sons). Gradual decline set
in and in 722 BCE, the Assyrians destroyed Israel and scattered much of the population. In 586, the
Babylonians destroyed Judah and carried off much of the population to Babylon in the so-called Babylonian
Captivity. After the fall of the two kingdoms, many Jews lived in foreign lands; this was called the diaspora
or scattering. In 539, Cyrus the Great of Persia allowed many Jews to return to Jerusalem in the relative
freedom of benign Persian rule. After Alexander the Great, the Seleucids and finally the Romans ruled them.
Many Jews, inspired by the Prophets, believed that the Jewish state collapsed because the people had
disobeyed the commandments of Yahweh. During the Fourth century B.C.E., the Israelites began to call
themselves Jews. The Jews have never been a large population but they are important because (even more than
Mesopotamia and Egypt) their unbending belief in a single, all-powerful God and his demand for high
standards of ethics among his people would lay the basis for Christianity and significantly influence Islam.
The Glory that was Greece
However, more than any other ancient culture, the Greeks had the most profound impact on Western
Civilization. The Greek civilization grew up among the islands and rugged, mountain dominated areas of
south-eastern Europe. This rugged topography helped to create a civilization dominated by small, fiercely
independent, city-states; each once called a Πολις (Polis). These city states were fiercely independent and
often went to war with each other. Their rugged lands could not produce enough food to feed their growing
populations so they colonized the Mediterranean Basin from Spain to Italy to the Crimean Peninsula in
Southern Russia. By 650 B.C.E., they used iron weapons and developed a new military formation, the
Phalanx, a mobile formation of interlocking lines of heavily armed foot soldiers.
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Nevertheless, these early Greek states were highly conscious of a common, shared culture. They experimented
with many forms of organizing themselves by and 500; they had evolved four basic types of government. The
first was monarchy, where a heredity or elected king held power. The second was tyranny (i.e., dictatorship) or
the rule of the state by one man or tyrannos, who could be benevolent or harsh and cruel. Third was
oligarchy, or the rule of a small class of aristocrats, elites or nobility. Lastly, there was democracy in which –
to varying degrees – power is placed in the hands of the people (dēmos in Greek). And the most common form
of democracy used, was the Republic or a government in which people elect representatives to do the work of
government. The two city states always studied classical are Athens and Sparta.
Sparta: The Spartans were Dorians who had destroyed the Mycenaean Civilization of the Trojan War era
and invaded and occupied what is today the Peloponnesian Peninsula. They were the latest of the Greeks to
invade Greece from the north (the Balkans) and – as a result - the most warlike. Their government was headed
by a pair of hereditary kings who answered to an oligarchic-aristocracy and were two in number and served as
a sort of primitive check and balance system. The Spartans sole aim in education was to fashion soldiers, who
would be invincible on the battlefield. Weak children were exposed (left to die on hillsides). Boys began their
military training at the age of seven when they were taken from their mothers and lived in barracks. They
were taught to endure every hardship and discipline. From age twenty to thirty, they served in the army. At
30, they became citizens and left the barracks to marry and set up households, but they were still subject to
military and public discipline until the age of sixty.
The Spartans are important because they represented not only an early form of National Socialism (or a
government in which citizens exist to serve the state) but also a classic form of Oligarchy. The purpose of
marriage was to supply the state with necessary soldiers. Even after marriage, Spartan men ate in public mess
halls, were not allowed to use money and forbidden all luxury. In current English, the adjective Spartan
means simple, frugal, undaunted by danger or pain. By the 300s however, Sparta had lost much of its
disciplined character and enjoyed the pleasures of luxury and wealth - but still maintained a strong army to
keep the Helots (or the serf population who were brutally mistreated) enslaved.
Athens was much older than Sparta and its acropolis (or high fortified hill above the polis) had been inhabited
since Neolithic times. In fact, the history of Athens is longer than any other city of Europe. Athens developed
quite differently than Sparta; Sparta was an agricultural society; Athens was built on trade and commerce.
Early Athens was ruled by a king, who was the head of a powerful aristocracy. The king’s power was
curtailed very early. First, he had to share his title with a Polemarch (a general) and other officers called
Archons (magistrates). By 680, nine archons ruled Athens. However, they had to answer to the Council of the
Areopagus, which represented the interests of the aristocracy.
As Athens became a rich, maritime-trading power, her population grew and her economy expanded, and she
became the largest and wealthiest of the Greek states. But this success caused two problems: first, it created a
large class of poor people excluded from political life. Second, it caused social tensions because the rich used
their power to become richer and make the poor poorer. The result was that Athens was threatened with civil
war and class warfare. At first, the Council of the Areopagus appointed Draco, a man who did not hesitate to
take stern measures, to take control. Draco issued a famous law code which was both the first written
constitution of Athens and proverbial for its severity. (Draconian)
When Draco failed, the council then turned to Solon, whose reputation as one of the seven wise men of
Greece was forged in 594 by a famous compromise, whereby he let the aristocrats keep their wealth, but - at
the same time – canceled the debts of the poor. He also, more importantly, founded the Ecclesia, a legislative
body of all the citizens wealthy enough to devote their time to public affairs. The result was that poor could
vote, but only the aristocrats could hold public office. After Solon’s death in 558, Athens wavered for four
decades between tyranny, oligarchy and democracy.
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Finally in 510, Cleisthenes took charge and completed the reforms of Solon by making it possible for all
citizens to participate in government. Cleisthenes’ most famous reform was Ostracism or an annual
“election” which resulted in the expulsion of the individual felt to be the most dangerous to the state, but with
no loss of property or status. After Cleisthenes, the Ecclesia ruled Athens; it met three times a year to debate,
vote on laws and conduct the Ostracism Election. Day-to-day affairs were conducted by the Council of 500
whose members were chosen by lot from the entire citizenry and law courts enforced and interpreted the laws.
The Persians and Peloponnesian Wars
Cyrus the Great (c.590 – 530), became the Persian king in 558 and soon all Persia was under his control. In
546, he conquered Lydia; then Bactria; and in 539, he conquered Babylon and allowed the Jews to return to
Jerusalem. Cyrus founded an empire that stretched from India to the borders of Egypt. He was succeeded by
his son Cambyses (who conquered Egypt) and then his cousin, Darius the Great, who expanded the empire
into India, the Caucuses and Thrace. Darius was a superb administrator, who created an efficient bureaucracy.
He built a magnificent capital at Persepolis and constructed the Royal Road, a vast transportation system
complete with rest stations and inns. In short, he took the Persian Empire to the pinnacle of its power. His key
to success was his ability to gain the good will of conquered nations. His only failure was with the “pesky”
Greeks, whose population and military his empire dwarfed.
In 499, a few Greek city states in western Asia Minor rebelled against Darius. Athens sent help to the
unsuccessful rebels and Darius vowed revenge. In 492, he invaded Greece but his army was defeated at the
Battle of Marathon in 490. After his death, his successor, Xerxes, invaded Greece in 480 and, brushing aside
the Greeks at Thermopylae, he burned Athens to the ground but then suffered a major naval defeat a short
distance away at Salamis. The following year, a combined Greek army led by the Spartans decisively
defeated a larger Persian army at the Battle of Plataea. The Persians withdrew and fought skirmish wars for
the next one hundred and fifty years until the rise of Alexander the Great.
Athens emerged from the Persian Wars as the most powerful polis in Greece and she used her power to
dominate much of Greece. The years from 480 to 425 are considered to be the Golden age of Athens and,
under the leadership of Pericles (443 – 429), Athens became not only Greece’s strongest naval power, but a
center for scientists, poets, philosophers, artists and architects. The city became, in Pericles's words: The
School of Greece. Moreover, he used Athens’ riches to hire the finest artisans to rebuild the Athenian
Acropolis which Xerxes had destroyed. It was during this time that the Parthenon (Temple of Athena), the
Erectheum (Temple of Poseidon) and the Temple of Athena Nike (Athena victorious) were constructed.
Pericles organized the Delian League, which included most of the Greeks city-states with the major exception
of Sparta. Athens supplied the leadership, the soldiers and the ships; everyone else supplied the money. And
so in effect, the Delian League became an Athenian Empire and, as time passed, it became obvious that only
the Athenians benefitted from the alliance (the rebuilding of the Acropolis was greatly funded by Delian Treasury
monies). Needless to say, tensions eventually resulted in a Greek civil war, the Peloponnesian War, which
lasted from 431 to 404. This bitter and protracted war was led by Athenians on one side and the Spartans on
the other. When it was over Sparta won and Athenian power was broken. More importantly, the Golden Age not just of Athens but of all Greece – came to an end and Greece fell into steady decline.
In the first year of the war, Pericles delivered his famous Funeral Oration for the Athenian dead who had
fallen in the first year. The oration is important because in it he praised Athenian Democracy as being
fundamentally different from the governments of other Greek states. He said that in Athenian Democracy
political power rested not in a minority of people but in the whole of the people. Although the whole of the
people did not include women or slaves, the Athenians nevertheless laid the foundations for our modern
political ideas of majority rule, civil debate, impartial juries and rule of law. Therefore, they were the first to
lay the foundation for modern democracy, as we understand it. Athenian Democracy would also last 500 years
until Roman times, a feat (Think about it!) matched by no modern Democracy.
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Classical Philosophy
The Greeks were the first people to challenge the belief that the gods were responsible for what
happened to human beings. They began to use reason to search for meaning in the world and in human
existence. The earliest philosophers were the Sophists who were a group of wandering intellectuals who used
logic and argument (or rhetoric) to teach the art of persuasion. The Sophists questioned accepted ideas and
considered moral and ethical truths to be just opinions. They took money and were famous for turning right
into wrong, simple into complex and justice into injustice. They were notorious for instituting unjust lawsuits.
Socrates, (470 to 399) was the most important of the founders of modern philosophy. Socrates was a
stonecutter by trade and an outspoken critic of the Sophists. He was driven to understand human beings and
human affairs and he was famous for constantly asking: What was the greatest good? Socrates wrote nothing,
but his disciple Plato wrote down much of Socrates teachings, which were almost always accomplished by
questioning, so that today, instruction by questioning has come to be called the Socratic Method. Socrates
spent most of his time wandering though Athens engaging people in conversations. And in these
conversations, he gave himself entirely to ethical philosophy. He was an individualist; he spoke his mind and
insisted on personal integrity, honorable behavior, and working towards a just society. He made it clear that
honor and honesty were far more important than money or fame or political power.
Nevertheless, Socrates offended the powerful elite who accused him of “corrupting the youth of Athens”
(which really meant that he taught them to think; and even worse, to think ethically). So he was tried by rigged jury
and condemned to death. Since Socrates was a citizen and a defender in the democratic system, he willingly
submitted to even this unjust penalty because he maintained the duties of a citizen included obeying the laws
of the state. His most famous quote was the unexamined life is not worth living.
Plato (430 to 347): was Socrates most important disciple. Plato had a deep distrust of democracy because of
the unjust execution of Socrates. So he left Athens for ten years but returned and opened a school called the
Academy where he taught and wrote about his and Socrates’ ideas. His most famous works were the
Dialogues and the Republic. The early Dialogues reflected Socrates’ teachings and his probing moral
questions such as what is justice or right or liberty. In the later Dialogues, he dealt more with metaphysics or
science, and in the Republic, he sought to discover the nature of justice and describes an ideal state.
Plato believed that the world which we see is merely a pale and imperfect reflection of a perfect world, which
he called the World of Forms. In that world, the perfect everything could be found and men were obligated to
try to find that perfection. Plato uses the Allegory of the Cave or Plato’s Cave to explain his theory. In the
allegory people are forced to look at reflections of real images on a wall but they cannot see the real images.
According to Plato, these shadowy images are how we see the world, but through philosophy we are able to
begin to see these objects and ideas as they really are and then begin to create them, whether it be the perfect
temple, the perfect statue, the perfect painting, the perfect essay, the perfect poem, the perfect body, etc.
Thus, Plato believed that the secrets of the World of Forms could only be found by philosophers and so Plato
divided the ideal society into three classes: workers who produced that which was necessary to maintain
society, soldiers who defended the state and philosopher kings who would be specially trained to rule with
skill and justice.
Aristotle (384 to 322) viewed philosophy differently. Plato was a discursive philosopher (proceeding coherently
from topic to topic), Aristotle was a systematic philosopher (a scientist as he separated things into component parts or
constituent elements). Aristotle distrusted Plato’s Theory of Forms, which he considered unnecessary to
understanding the world. Aristotle believed that the senses could provide accurate information about the world
and its mysteries. Aristotle’s most important contributions were his metaphysical (or scientific) works, in
which devised rigorous rules of logic in his efforts to construct powerful arguments. He wrote about Physics,
Biology, Politics and Literature. Using observation, logic and reason, Aristotle developed his own ideas about
government and concluded that government by the many was better than government by the few.
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In his book, Politics, Aristotle taught that the rule of law is better than the rule of a few or an individual.
He was also concerned with ethics or the way people lived and he defined the Golden Mean as a moderate
course between two extremes. In Book 3, Chapters 6-7, Aristotle establishes his famous classification of six
types of government - divided between those that are good and those that are corrupt. The good types of
government were monarchy, aristocracy and polity (i.e., mature Athenian democracy), while the corrupt types
included tyranny, oligarchy and democracy (i.e., 'mob rule' or the immature, out of control democracy, such as killed
Socrates). For Aristotle, good government rules in the common interest of all while corrupt government
rules in the interest of those who rule.
It is very important to understand that Plato and Aristotle were suspicious of the democracy, which Socrates
supported, because both of them felt that democracy contained the seeds of mob rule, which led to instability
and injustice. Plato’s solution was to favor philosopher kings; Aristotle favored constitutional government in
which the rule of law limited popular sentiment. Aristotle called this form of government Polity. Plato and
Aristotle would also deeply influence Christian and Islamic philosophers until the 17th Century and provided
the intellectual framework that theologians would use to explain Christian teachings.
Hellenistic Philosophies
After the Peloponnesian War, Greece continued to decline until another Greek state began to take shape
around Greek invaders from the north, the Macedonians. Philip of Macedon (382–336) united most of Greece
by diplomacy and conquest; and his son, Alexander the Great (356 – 323) continued his father’s work and
conquered the Persian Empire. But he did more than conquer because he had a vision of a Greco-Persian
world in which cultures would mix together. He died too young to achieve his vision but four important
philosophies evolved in the Hellenistic World.
Epicureanism maintained that pleasure was the greatest good and emphasized minimizing harm and
maximizing happiness not only for oneself but for others, and that he meant that people should seek to find a
state of quiet satisfaction and freedom from the pressures of the (Hellenistic) world. Epicureanism was not
hedonism (love of pleasure itself), but a quiet state of satisfaction. (Today Epicureanism refers to the love of good
food.) The Roman poet Horace was an Epicurean. He captured the Epicurean spirit in his well-known Carpe
Diem poem: Seize the day and trust as little as possible in the future. Thomas Jefferson was an Epicurean,
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their
Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
Skepticism refused to take a strong position on any political, social or moral issue. In fact, skeptics were not
even sure that there was such a thing as fact or truth. Their goal was to find equanimity by which they meant
evenness of mind, a calm temper and complete composure under the pressures of the (Hellenistic) world.
Cynicism taught that the purpose of life was to live a life of virtue in agreement with Nature; and they
rejected of all conventional desires for wealth, power, health, and fame, and by living a simple life free from
all possessions. The most famous Cynic philosopher was Diogenes of Sinope, who lived in a tub on the
streets of Athens; he taught complete freedom of speech and practiced it to the point of rudeness and was
remembered for carrying around a lantern – even during the day – because he was “looking” for a wise man.
Stoicism taught that self-control, fortitude and detachment from distracting emotions (sometimes even
indifference to pleasure or pain) allowed one to become a clear thinker, level-headed and unbiased. Stoics
considered all human beings members of a single, universal family. The Stoics taught virtue for the sake
of virtue and, unlike the Epicureans and Skeptics, they did not seek to withdraw from the pressures of the
world, but taught that individuals had a duty to help others lead virtuous lives. This altruistic escape from the
pressures of the (Hellenistic) world was accomplished by emphasizing inner moral independence and
tranquility brought about by strict discipline of body and mind. They argued that a person’s chief business in
this life is to do his duty.
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The Legacy of Greek Culture
1. Humanism: the Greeks were the first true Humanists. They placed great confidence in the power of the
human mind and adopted the idea that man was the measure of all things. As a result, Greek athletics,
art (sculpture, architecture, painting, pottery, mosaics, etc.), poetry (both epic and lyric), drama and literature
glorified human achievement and the human form. The Greeks were fascinated with human energy and
how humans try win even when the odds are against them.
2. History: the Greeks also undertook Historia (which in Greek means investigations). Herodotus (485 to 425)
was called the Father of History because he was the first to try to research and verify the facts which he
presented in his History of the Persian Wars. A generation later, Thucydides (460 to 400), wrote a History
of the Peloponnesian War which was even more objective and accurate; and was praised for its direct,
graphic and condensed style.
3. Political Science: the Greeks were passionate about political theory and did not hesitate to debate the
merits of different (governmental) constitutional models. They naturally assumed that men could plan
governmental models and ideals such as justice and rule by law. This heritage was adopted by the Romans
and passed into Western political thought through the Renaissance.
4. Philosophy and Logic: the Greeks were the first to use philosophical and scientific inquiry to create the
effective use of logic in understanding the natural world. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle all developed new
ideas about truth, reason, justice and government.
The Grandeur that was Rome
After the death of Alexander the Great, Greek society fell even more quickly into decline as a new
superpower gradually arose in central Italy: the Romans who settled in central Italy around 2,000 B.C.E.
Much early Roman History is legendary and these legends tell of a Trojan hero, Aeneas, who, having escaped
from the destruction of Troy with a band of followers, underwent many adventures (as told in the Roman poet
Vergil’s Aeneid), and finally founded a colony in Italy. Later his descendants, twin boys, Romulus and Remus,
founded the city of Rome in 753 BCE. Rome’s history is divided into three periods: first, the Kingdom from
753 to 509; second, the Republic from 509 to 27 (some say 31); and finally the Empire from 27 to 476 C.E.
The period of Roman kings is semi-mythological but by 509 BCE, the Romans were strong enough to drive
out the last Etruscan king and found a republic. Much more is known about this period than that of the kings
because now legend gradually becomes history. Although Rome occupied a strategic location with easy
access to the sea and opportunities for trading, Rome was an agricultural society: conservative and patriarchal.
The citizen-farmer-soldier was the Roman ideal and, during these early years, most Romans were selfsufficient, independent farmers. However, as happens in most agricultural societies where land is the basis of
wealth, a small number of families become a ruling elite and acquired larger and larger tracts of land. These
mostly-wealthy aristocrats were called Patricians. The poorer Romans were called Plebeians.
Roman government during the Republic was a representative democracy consisting of elected assemblies and
headed by Aediles (city administrators), Quaestors (treasurers), Praetors (judges and generals) and Consuls (dual
heads of state) – and they all were answerable to a Senate which was comprised of retired consuls. During the
5th century (the Golden Age of Athens), the Patricians so dominated the Roman government that the Plebeians
threatened to withdraw and won the right to elect officials known as Tribunes who represented the Plebeians
in the government, and included the right of Veto. (Note: that Tribune also refers to mid ranking army officers).
Rome began as a tiny city-state and grew to be a huge empire whose glory and power would be imitated until
the twentieth century. Some scholars said that the Romans loved war but the best answer seems to be that the
conservative Roman mind always feared attack from its neighbors. Therefore, the Romans would attack first
but each new conquest brought the old problem of new and potentially dangerous neighbors.
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Throughout the 4th century (as Greece was declining and Macedonia growing), Rome fought a series of wars with
her neighbors and the greatest of these was with the great trading city of Carthage, which controlled a vast
trading empire in the western Mediterranean. They had the best navy since the Athenian navy, but a relatively
mediocre army. Between 264 and 146, they fought three wars, called the Punic Wars, and Rome won all
three. The most famous of these was the Second Punic War in which the Carthaginian general Hannibal
crossed the Alps and almost defeated Rome. In 202 BCE, the Romans took the war to North Africa and
destroyed Carthaginian power, reducing Carthage to a small city state.
Roman armies also conquered the Macedonian Empire as the more mobile Roman Legions outmaneuvered
and crushed the less maneuverable Macedonian Phalanx. Then the Romans absorbed Greece because the
various Greeks city states had been unable to keep civil order. So Rome cleared the seas of pirates, annexed
Greece and restored order. By 146, Rome had annexed all of Macedonia, Greece, Syria, most of Anatolia and
Spain, Italy, Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, and Carthaginian Africa (utterly destroying Carthage itself).
But in spite of these successes, Rome had a terrible internal problem. Conquest MAY HAVE brought
immense wealth to Rome; but the unequal distribution of that wealth created social tensions as wealthy
patricians turned captured land into Latifundia (large estates run by slave labor). In the process, wealthy
citizens bullied the small farmers and swallowed up their farms in order to increase their own wealth. Rome’s
early economy had been based on small, citizen-farmers, who grew wheat to make bread, the staple food of
their diet. However, the Latifundia owners preferred to raise cattle or cash crops like grapes for wine, which
made enormous profits but drove up the price of grain (because it now had to be imported) and drove the
peasants off their land into the cities, especially Rome, where they had no means of making a living.
This unequal distribution of resources slowly tore apart the Roman Republic. The government that had
worked so well for a small city-state, now crumbled under the social pressure of an increasing and
angry struggle between the haves and the have-nots, even as Rome’s empire was expanding.
Between 130 and 31 B.C.E. Rome was torn apart by social feuding that turned into civil wars and resulted in
much political instability and bloodshed. Julius Caesar became wealthy when he conquered Gaul in the 50s
but by 49 he had become too powerful. The wealthy hated him because he tried to help the plight of the poor
and he was assassinated in 44. A Triumvirate was formed between Octavian, (Julius Caesar’s nephew), Mark
Anthony, (married to Octavian’s sister), and a general named Lepidus. Lepidus was quickly edged out.
Octavian took control of Rome and the west, while Anthony took control of the east and made an alliance
with Cleopatra (who had already been his uncle Julius Caesar’s darling) and Egypt. Civil War soon again broke
out and Octavian defeated Anthony and Cleopatra at the great sea Battle of Actium in 31. Both Anthony and
Cleopatra committed suicide, Egypt (and its huge quantities of grain) became a Roman province and an
exhausted Roman world accepted Octavian as their leader.
Octavian became the virtual dictator of Rome. Nevertheless, he was too wise to take the formal title of king or
dictator for life. He spent the next four decades keeping up the show or facade of Republican government,
while he became princeps (or first citizen), and both quietly and fundamentally restructured the form of Roman
government. He centralized power and carefully ruled from behind the scenes. It is important to understand
that in reality, Augustus was a dictator by persuasion, using a combination of status, ruthlessness and
diplomacy to maintain his absolute power. His was a monarchy disguised as a republic.
In 27 B.C.E, he allowed the Senate to confer upon him the title of Augustus (exalted one), which implied that
he was of semi-divine nature. And he found loyal bureaucrats in wealthy merchants and landowners, who
provided him with a core of civil servants that would administer the Roman Empire until its last days.
Augustus ruled for an astonishing 45 years and when he died in 14 C. E., there was almost no one still living
who could remember the old republic. So popular was Augustus, that four members of his family succeeded
him. However, it is important to remember that the emperorship was never seen as hereditary. The theory was
always that the Senate affirmed the emperor, but in reality, it was the army who chose the emperor.
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The Roman Empire can be divided into four phases:
1. The Pax Romana was the period lasting from accession of Augustus to the death of Marcus Aurelius
in 180 C.E. Sometimes there were unstable periods but these were limited to the imperial families and
did not affect the ordinary citizen. Thus this period is often called the Roman Peace as it was a period
of great prosperity and contentment in the empire.
2. The Crisis of the Third Century signaled the beginning of the fall of Rome. During the 200s, the
empire began to experience internal and external challenges. The worst problems were overextension
of resources (the empire could grow no further), economic meltdown (severe inflation and shrinking tax
base), corrupt government and no clear rule of succession for emperors (succession was determined by
the whim of the army).
3. Fourth Century Revival: During the 300s there was a temporary revival. The emperor Diocletian
believed the empire was too big to be governed by one man so he divided it into east and west. His
successor Constantine (who legalized Christianity in his Edict of Milan) reunited the empire but built a new
capital in the east at Byzantium which became Constantinople (or the city of Constantine).
4. Collapse in the West; Survival in the East: In the fifth century the west slowly imploded. The
Barbarian Tribes poured across the Roman frontiers in search of land and (surprisingly) a safe haven. In
the east, the emperors hung on and Rome continued for another millennium as the Byzantine Empire.
The Old Covenant: Judaism
As we noted, the Jews chaffed under Roman rule; their province seethed with unrest and rebellion. As in the
days of Egypt, they wanted a deliverer. Finally, in 66, a group of radical nationalists, the Zealots, began a
bloody rebellion. Rome struck back hard. The Roman general (later emperor), Titus, destroyed Jerusalem in
70, tearing down the rebuilt Temple of Solomon and scattering the Jews around the Mediterranean Basin,
expanding the diaspora. Unlike Christianity, Judaism never seriously competed against the classical religions
in the Roman Empire for three reasons:
1. Most Jews did not believe in an afterlife. The religions of the Greeks and Romans believed in an
afterlife but it was gloomy and only a few heroes attainted a state of happiness. On the other hand,
Christianity and ancient Cult Religions (like the Cult of Isis from Egypt) promised a happy afterlife,
especially for good people.
2. Judaism itself was ethnically oriented and looked inwards.
3. Jews believed that they were the Chosen People and were not interested trying to make converts.
To understand the central core of Judaism it is necessary to understand that the Jews believed that
history and religion were inextricably interconnected. In other words, their religion was inseparable from
their social, economic and political lives. By the third century B.C.E., the Jews had written down their history
and religious culture from their rich oral tradition which became the Hebrew Bible. The central core of their
religion was belief in a single (monotheistic) God to whom they owed complete obedience and is found in the
first five books of their Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, or as they called it,
the Torah. These books they considered to be Yahweh’s covenant with his people.
The Jews were important because they were the first people in the world to believe that freedom meant
the responsibility to make correct moral choices. They believed that disobedience to Yahweh’s laws
brought consequences and linked political disasters (like the fall of Israel, Judah and the diaspora) with
widespread disobedience to the laws of the Mosaic Covenant. It is important to understand that the Jews
believed that men and women were made in God’s image and this produced a strong sense of societal ethics in
which the rich and strong were expected to help and protect the poor and the weak. This morality eventually
became the basis of the Western idea of equality before the law, which was foreshadowed by Aristotle’s and
the Roman’s notion of the rule of law or the idea that those in charge of government are obliged to run
government on behalf of the many and not for just the few.
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The New Covenant: Christianity
Jesus of Nazareth was arguably the most influential person ever to have lived. He was born about four
B.C.E. and was unknown until about the age of 30. He became charismatic preacher and many believed that
he worked miracles. Moreover, even though he taught devotion to God and love of his fellow men, he
offended many Jewish leaders because He claimed to be the Son of God. His enemies turned him over to the
Romans who crucified him about 30 A.D. His followers claimed that he rose from the dead three days later
ascended to a place called heaven. His followers called him Christ (Χριστoς “Anointed One”), and taught that
he promised eternal life to any person who followed him. At first only Jews followed his teachings; but later
non-Jews began to convert. His followers were soon called Christians.
Paul of Tarsus, both a Greek Jew and a Roman citizen, was an early convert to Christianity. Paul was a welleducated man and in his younger years persecuted the followers of Jesus of Nazareth. Then he had a
conversion experience in which he had a vision of Jesus. He converted and joined the Christian party. He did
not split from Jewish Christians, but began to travel and used the Roman roads and shipping lanes to carry
Jesus of Nazareth’s message to non-Jews. He founded many Christian Communities from Asia Minor to
Rome itself. He also wrote extensively and explained Christian teachings. Most Jewish Christians died out,
but Paul’s conversion of the Gentiles (the Jewish word for non-Jews) began a religious revolution. Paul’s unique
contribution was that in his thirteen letters or Epistles, he synthesized (combined or made compatible) Platonic,
Aristotelian, and Stoic thought with the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
Like the Jews, Christians were ethical monotheists and accepted the Jewish scriptures, but they added their
own scriptures and modified Judaism so that a new religion, albeit based on the old, emerged. Christian
communities grew in every major urban area in the empire and they made enemies because they did not
worship the state-sponsored gods. As a result they were often persecuted – but not as much a popular belief
often supposes. Christianity grew rapidly during the Pax Romana and became the most influential
religion in the Mediterranean world by the end of the third century because it (1) Its law of love
accorded honor and dignity to lower standing individuals; (2) it gave spiritual meaning to every act of
life; (3) it taught equality of the sexes and (4) promised eternal life for true believers.
As the Christian Church grew, it began to organize; it adopted a hierarchical form of administration (an
organization in which orders or ranks are each subordinate to the one above it). The basic unit was the Diocese
governed by a bishop assisted by priests (or presbyters) and deacons. All bishops traced their lineage (from the
bishops who consecrated them) back to the apostles and they in turn ordained all priests and deacons. These
were the clergy who were authorized to perform religious ceremonies, especially the Mass (or Holy
Communion, Lord’s Supper or Divine Liturgy), which commemorated the Last Supper. Gradually the bishops of
larger cities gained authority over bishops in nearby smaller cities and became archbishops, metropolitans,
patriarchs; and in Rome, Papa or the Pope. By the end of the Roman Empire there were five major
patriarchates: Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria.
The fall of the Western Empire
The Emperor Diocletian (r. 284-305) was afraid that Christians would be disloyal to the state and ordered the
last great persecution of Christians - and it utterly failed. Then in 313, his successor Constantine (as we have
seen), crediting the Christian God for a military victory that made him emperor, gave legal recognition to the
Christians in the famous Edict of Milan. Constantine himself became a de-facto (not necessarily official but in
fact) Christian, helping the emerging Church guided and even calling an Ecumenical Council at Nicaea to help
Christians decide matters of theology. He was baptized on his deathbed and most of his successors were
Christian. After the brief reign of Julian who tried to revive the official Roman cults, the emperor Theodosius
made Christianity the Roman State Religion in 380.
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Nevertheless, although the fourth century represented a brief revival, the fifth marked the collapse of the
West. Germanic tribes poured into the empire and barbarian kingdoms began to coalesce (take form) in Spain,
Gaul, Britain and even Italy, while in Constantinople, imperial authority barely survived but would rebound
and continue for almost a millennium. As imperial authority crumbled, Rome itself was sacked by Alaric in
410 and the Vandals in 455 before falling permanently to the Germanic chieftain Odoacer in 476.
Moreover, as the role of the state vanished, the role of the Church was enlarged. As Christianity triumphed,
the Church itself developed distinctly eastern and western traditions. The Eastern Church revolved around the
four Patriarchates: Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria and Antioch; and has come came to be called the
Orthodox Church. In the West, however, there was only the Pope or the Bishop of Rome. At first the eastern
and western churches were unified and serious decisions were made at Ecumenical Councils, (like the one
Constantine called) but as time went by East and West became estranged from each other, eventually causing
the Great Schism of 1054.
It is important to understand that in the West, as political authority crumbled, the Church – centered
around the Bishop of Rome - was the only stable institution that survived. These early popes and many
other bishops were the only ones to organize local government, defend against invaders and help the poor.
Pope Leo the Great (400-461), for example, met Attila the Hun in front of a defenseless Rome in 452 and,
miraculously, convinced him to spare the city. So it is not surprising that the Bishop of Rome was looked
upon as the center of both spiritual authority and secular leadership in the West. And it is important to
remember that as European states emerged in the early modern world, the popes sought to retain their power.
St. Augustine (354-430) was North African Christian who became the leading theologian of Western
Christianity in the late Empire. In his writings, he harmonized Christianity with Platonic thought so that
Christianity spread rapidly among the intellectual classes. In his book, The City of God, he sought to explain
the meaning of history and the world from a Christian point of view. His theory of Predestination would later
influence many leaders of the Protestant Reformation, especially John Calvin. Augustine’s most famous
quote (which ironically flies in the face of Calvin’s interpretation) was, "Love the sinner and hate the sin.”
Rome’s Cultural Legacy
1. Rome admired and therefore preserved Greek philosophy, literature and science;
2. The Romans were master builders and engineers as still seen in their temples and monuments;
3. The idea of imperial unity in the name of ROME remained a political concept that kings and
emperors would struggle to attain until the early twentieth century
4. Roman political thinking guided the formation of many emerging European states and deeply
influenced the American Founding Fathers. (Why do we have a Senate and not a Parliament?);
5. Roman Law remains one of the keystones of Western Law
6. The Roman Empire was the soil in which Christianity grew and flourished;
7. The language of the Romans, Latin, is still the official language of the Roman Catholic Church
The Byzantine Empire
Byzantium was an ancient trading city that lay on the Sea of Marmora which Constantine chose to be his new
capital in 330 C.E., mostly because of its strategic location. Byzantium has been called a transmitter society
because (along with the Muslims and the Irish) it preserved priceless treasures of literature and culture from
classical world. After the fall of the West, its stable government and military technology protected Western
Europe from both Islamic and nomadic marauders. When Europe was an economic backwater struggling
to rebuild after the Germanic invasions, Byzantium had the strongest economy in the world. The
emperor Justinian who ruled from 527 to 565 reconquered much of the west and more importantly ordered
scholars to make a systematic revision of Roman Law in his Corpus Iuris Civilis or Codex Justinianus,
which strongly influenced modern legal codes.
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As they expanded and contracted over the centuries, the Byzantines were survivors and arguably the best
diplomats in all history. They were deeply religious and their Iconoclastic Controversy (to destroy or not
destroy religious pictures called icons) foreshadowed many issues contested during the Protestant Reformation.
They survived at times against all odds. They reached their greatest strength under Basil II (r. 976-1025) but
fifty years later they suffered a crushing defeat at Manzikert. In 1205, Constantinople was sacked by
Western crusaders and the empire never recovered – losing more and more territory to the advancing Turks.
Even as their artistic contributions flourished and helped shaped the Italian Renaissance, their decline
hastened and Constantinople finally fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The Byzantines considered themselves
Hellenized, Christian Romans [Greek culture, Roman law and the Christian Religion] and, as such, left a profound
legacy in the Orthodox Church and the modern states of Eastern Europe. The great travel writer, Robert
Byron, once declared that the greatness of Byzantium lay in what he described as "the Triple Fusion": that
of a Roman body, a Greek mind and an oriental or mystical soul.
Islam
Islam is the youngest of the world’s major religions; it arose in the early 7th century C.E. on the Arabian
Peninsula and quickly transformed itself into an international cultural and political force. Its founder was
Muhammad ibn Abdullah who was born about 570 C.E. About 610 at almost 40, Muhammad’s life changed
when he underwent a series of religious experiences, including visitations by the Archangel Gabriel, who
told him that there was only one true God (Allah) and that Allah would soon bring judgment on the world. His
followers grew and became a tight knit community; and they began to write down Muhammad’s teachings
which were later compiled into their Holy Book, called the Quran. Muhammad began to refer to himself as
the “Seal of the Prophets” by which he meant he was the last prophet of Allah. Abraham, Moses and Jesus
all came before, but Muhammad was the seal; and it is important to understand that Muhammad held both
Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian New Testament in high esteem.
The result was that Muhammad was determined to spread Allah’s wishes to all mankind. Despite persecution
and his flight to Medina (called the Hijra), by 630 he was strong enough to conquer Mecca and surprised
many when did not kill his former enemies; rather he forced them to accept Islam. They built mosques and
expanded negotiating with and/or attacking Bedouin clans and towns forcing them to accept Islam. By
Muhammad’s death in 632, all of Arabia was Islamic.
Islam would continue its expansion with astonishing speed. In 632, Arab armies defeated the Byzantines at
the Battle of Yarmuk and seized Syria and Palestine. In 642, they defeated the Persians; and by 711, they had
created an empire that stretched from India to Southern Spain. Much of Islam’s success was because it
contained unifying beliefs that cut across cultural lines and even appealed to Christians and Jews, such as
uncompromising monotheism, egalitarianism (equality of its members), and a strong sense of community. Islam’s
Five Pillars, still binding on all Muslims, provide the basis of this underlying unity: Muslims must:
acknowledge Allah as the only God and Muhammad as his prophet; pray daily to Allah, facing Mecca;
observe a fast during the daylight hours of the month of Ramadan; contribute alms for the relief of the poor;
and, if possible, make the Hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca to honor Muhammad, at least once in their lifetime.
In the centuries after Muhammad’s death there also emerged the Sharia or Islamic Law, which offered
detailed guidance on every aspect of life. The Koran and Sharia made Islam a way of life as much as a
religion.
The Low Middle Ages: 500 to 1,000
th
th
In the 4 and 5 centuries, the Roman Empire staggered under the migrations and invasions of the Germanic
nations and the resulting collapse of central authority in the West began the period known in Europe as the
Middle Ages. Classical learning and culture gradually became a dim memory as Europe fragmented into
small, decentralized (the delegation of power from a central authority to regional or local authorities) states.
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It was the Franks who first organized a centralized state in the late fifth century. Their first important ruler
was Clovis (r. 481 to 511), who disposed of the last vestiges of Roman authority and transformed Frankish Gaul
into the military and political power in Western Europe. Perhaps the strongest unifying factor in Frankish
growth and self-awareness was Clovis’ conversion to Roman Christianity. Tradition holds that his wife,
Clotilda, a devout Christian, was the reason why. It is important to understand that when Clovis became
Christian, he (just like we will see with Vladimir of Kiev) expected all his people to convert as well.
When Clovis died, he divided his kingdom among his three sons. This led to a two hundred year period of
decentralization and feudalism. The Frankish state revived in the 720s however, under a remarkable man,
Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer). Charles, as the Mayor of the Palace, ran the Frankish State from behind
the throne and began to re-unify Frankish Gaul. He secured his reputation in 732, when he defeated a Muslim
army advancing into Europe from Spain at The Battle of Tours in Southern Gaul. By the time of his death in
741, he had reestablished the Franks as the rulers of Gaul. In 751, his son, Pepin the Short, took the royal
title Charles never claimed, and in 768, his grandson, Charles the Great or Charlemagne began a long reign
that would take the Frankish kingdom to the first “revived” Roman Empire in the West.
Charlemagne consolidated and expanded the work of his father and grandfather. He was an impressive man:
tall, stately and fair-haired; and a shrewd diplomat. He inherited what are now France, Belgium, the
Netherlands and southwestern Germany. By the time of his death, he had added northeastern Spain, Bavaria
and Northern Italy. His greatest headache was the Saxons of Northwest Germany whom he broke after 32
years of bitter fighting. Even the states of Southern Italy and Eastern Europe paid him tribute as their imperial
overlord. On Christmas Day, 800, Charlemagne was crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III. The
Byzantines bitterly resented it, but Charlemagne soothed their suspicions by putting forth the theory that the
Empire (in the west) had only been suspended in 476 and he was resuming the emperorship – only in the West.
Today Charlemagne is often called the founding father of both France and Germany - sometimes even as the
Father of Europe, as he was the first ruler of a united Western Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire.
Charlemagne was succeeded by his son, Louis the Pious (814-840) who gradually began to lose control of the
nobles. At his death his three sons divided the Empire into three parts, and soon, all central authority was lost.
We now enter the Crisis of the Ninth Century with three, new disrupting (invading) influences:
1. Muslim pirates raided all along the Mediterranean coastline and seized Sicily, parts of Southern Italy, and
even parts of Southern France.
2. Magyars (a semi nomadic people from Central Asia) invaded Eastern Europe and eventually settled in
Hungary, but raided Germany, Italy and even Southern France.
3. The Vikings were the most feared of all the invaders. From their Scandinavian homeland they raided
Russia, Germany, the British Isles, France, Spain, and Italy. They ended the Irish Renaissance. Following
the Russian river system, they raided as far south as Constantinople. Some Vikings even went to work for
the Byzantine emperors and became the famous Varangian Guard. Vikings also sailed the Atlantic and
established colonies in Greenland and Vineland (modern day Newfoundland).
With these new invasions came an even greater loss of centralized authority, Europe went into another period
of chaos, less destructive but more violent. Eventually, three areas of national authority arose:
1. In what is today modern England, King Alfred (871-899) built a navy and constructed fortresses to
challenge the Vikings and laid the basis for the Modern English State.
2. In Germany, Otto I of Saxony (936-973) of Saxony defeated the Magyars in 955 and was crowned Holy
Roman Emperor in 962. It is very important to understand that, although he laid the basis for the modern
German State, he was more interested in imperial power as Holy Roman Emperor and dreamed of a
Christian Roman Empire, not a German state.
3. In France, the Viking raids led to the establishment of a complex and decentralized France in which dukes
and counts were technically vassals of the king but really independent. After the death of the Last
descendent of Charles Martel in 987, Hugh Capet was elected king but France was not his to rule.
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Feudal Society
The Feudal System or Feudalism refers to both a political and social order, which decentralized public
authority into an elaborate society in which local rulers used their military powers to gain political power.
Like in Japan, the European Feudal System revolved around political and military relationships. The most
important relationship was between a lord and his vassal. The lord provided the vassal with a Benefice (or
grant) by which the vassal supported himself and his family. Benefices were usually grants of land, often
called Fiefs, but sometimes benefices were rights to income (such as from a toll bridge or mill), or rights to money
from a town or village, or even outright grants of money. In exchange for the benefice, the vassal owed his
lord obedience, loyalty, counsel (good, honest advice) and service, especially military service.
This complex system actually began to germinate (take root) with the Crisis of the Third Century and by the
ninth century, feudalism had become widespread and institutionalized across most of Western Europe. The
agricultural relationships of Feudalism were found in the Manorial System, which developed when free
peasants (farmers) needed protection from invaders or bandits. These peasants - over time - became neither
free nor slave and were called serfs.
At first, free peasants often turned themselves and their lands over to the local warlords for protection. As
time went by, the peasants became formally bound to the land. Occasionally they could move, but only with
the lord’s permission. But serfs had certain rights: to farm or work certain lands and to pass those lands on to
their heirs. In return, they had to follow the rules of the lord and pay obligations of labor or rent, usually a
portion of the harvest. Serfs worked on large estates called Manors (self-sufficient farms), which – over time became the property of the lord. So that which once belonged to the peasants eventually became the lord’s.
The lord and his deputies kept order, resolved conflicts and protected the manor.
Christian Europe
It is very important to remember that when the Western Roman Empire collapsed, the only surviving
continent-wide institution was the Roman Catholic Church. Both Clovis and Charlemagne made a deep
commitment to the Catholic Church and the popes, and they saw themselves as protectors of the Church. They
gave the popes political and military support and - in return - the popes gave them legitimacy. It is important
to understand that paganism, led by the druid priesthood, did not die quickly. Areas of paganism remained
until after 1,000 C.E., especially in rural areas and Scandinavia.
The Papacy (the pope and his bureaucracy) evolved rapidly during the Early Middle Ages. Before the sixth
century, the popes had worked closely with Byzantine authorities, but during the sixth century Rome began to
act more independently – mostly because Byzantine authority weakened in the West. The most important
person in this evolving papacy was Pope Gregory I (Gregory the Great, r. 590-604). He combined several roles
and accomplished much during his pontificate (reign). First, he was a temporal politician. He administered
the civil government of Rome and organized its defenses against the Lombards. Second, he was a church
politician and asserted papal primacy (or control) over other bishops. Lastly, he was a theologian and many of
his writings (especially his sermons) have come down to us. His aim was to emphasize the authority of the Church
over its members, especially in the sacrament of Penance, which required people to confess their sins to God
through the ministry of a priest.
Monasticism: Monks became the most effective agents of promoting Christianity in pagan Europe and it was
St. Benedict of Nursia (480–543), who would organize Western Monasticism. In 529, he organized a
monastery community at Monte Casino just south of Rome. His monastery became a close-knit community,
held together by a set of regulations called The Rule. His ideal was expressed in the Latin motto: Orare et
Laborare (work and pray). This ideal rejected extreme asceticism preferring a life of prayer and simple work.
Like Byzantine monks, Western monks took three vows: poverty, chastity and obedience. Benedict’s sister,
St. Scholastica, (482-543) adapted The Rule for women and opened monasteries for women, thus providing
women the same opportunity.
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Monasteries became very popular and numerous and they quickly became the dominant feature in the social
and cultural life of Europe. They provided inns and shelters for travelers, orphanages, medical centers,
schools, libraries and scriptoria (places where books were copied). In this way they helped preserved much of
ancient culture. It is very important to understand that monks and nuns did immense, incalculable good
by serving the needs of the poor and rural populations. More than any other Christian institution, monks
and nuns handed down Christian values to countless generations of peasants. The monasteries also organized
much of the rural labor force for agricultural production and led the effort to turn forests and swampland into
productive farmland.
On the other hand monasteries often accumulated large landholdings and over time became quite wealthy.
They soon learned that luxury corrupts the simple religious life and the monks often became lazy and worldly.
Often, there would be cries (both in and out of the church) for reform. Sometimes the reform was internally
accomplished and monasteries “cleaned up their acts”, but more often, new monastic groups - looking back to
Benedict’s original vision of simple work and prayer - were founded.
The High Middle Ages: 1000 to 1300
We have seen how Otto of Saxony spent his lifetime creating a powerful state in Central Europe in order to
break the power of the feudal nobility and to re-create the Roman Empire. He became king of the Lombards,
adding Northern Italy to his German holdings and linking the destinies of Germany and Italy. In 955, he
defeated the Magyars at Letchfeld and in 962 Pope John XII crowned him Holy Roman Emperor. When he
died, he left an empire that stretched from Rome to Denmark. Otto was not only the founder of the Holy
Roman Empire (or the First Reich) but the ruler who began the association between the title of Holy Roman
Emperor and German kingship.
The Investiture Controversy: Psychology teaches us that rarely can there be two leaders; so it was inevitable
that friction arose when both the popes and the Holy Roman Emperors wanted to dominate the empire. The
first clash for power would come over the appointment of church officials (bishops, archbishops and abbots)
by the emperors. From the earliest days of the empire, imperial authorities had named these church officials to
their positions, since the higher clergy had political as well as spiritual functions. This practice was called Lay
Investiture and was opposed by the papacy. It is very important to understand that the popes never
questioned a king’ right to grant a bishop or abbot a fief and have him become a vassal, but the church
did object to kings naming bishops or abbots.
Round One in the power struggle came in 1075 when Pope Gregory VII, known as Hildebrand, (r. 1073 to
1085) ordered an end to lay investiture. When the Emperor Henry IV (1056 –1106) defied Gregory, Gregory
excommunicated him (in simple terms, took away his church membership and condemned him to hell) - and thereby
released his subjects from their duty to obey him. His subordinate princes rebelled and Henry acted fast. In
January 1077, he went to the pope at Canossa, a town in Northern Italy, and for three days stood barefoot in
the snow, beseeching the pope’s mercy. The pope lifted the excommunication and Henry managed to subdue
the princes, but imperial authority was permanently weakened, as the German princes won semi-independence
from the emperor, comparable to the warlords of Asia.
Round Two: in the struggle between emperor and pope came over not over Lay Investiture but political
interests in Italy. Among the most vigorous of the Holy Roman Emperors in the 12th century was Frederick
Barbarossa, ”the red beard,” who reigned from 1152 to 1190. Working from his ancestral lands in southern
Germany, Frederick sought to absorb the wealthy and increasingly urban region of Lombardy, which is today
Northern Italy. Frederick hoped this would help him to recreate the old dream of a revived Roman Empire.
The popes opposed him by working with other Christian states and Frederick was forced to give up
Lombardy. Again, the bottom line was that the popes gained temporal power and the vision of empire
was once again frustrated. However, in most other respects Frederick strengthened the Empire. (Frederick
would later join the third crusade and die in a drowning accident in Cilicia.)
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Voltaire, the 18th century French writer and philosophe, once quipped that the Holy Roman Empire was
neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. What he meant was that in reality it was a feudal, mostly German
and regional state. Although some of its emperors had much influence, it was in no way a rebirth of the
Roman Empire. But the idea did not die; nor kings nor emperors stop trying!
France
After the death of the Louis the Pious in 843, the Frankish Empire broke up into three kingdoms. Modern
France descends from the western kingdom, which was ruled by Louis’ descendents until 987. A new factor
was added in the late 800s, when Viking Normans (under their king, Rollo) carved out a state in Western France
on the Normandy Peninsula. The Normans created a unique culture when they quickly adopted Christianity
and melded with their conquered subjects. And so, ironically, although they were vassals of the French king,
they were – in reality - an independent kingdom.
We have seen that when the last Carolingian king died, the feudal lords elected Hugh Capet to be king. Capet
held only a small territory around Paris (the Île de France) and was far weaker than most of his vassals. But
during the next three centuries, his descendants slowly expanded their holdings and political influence. They
absorbed territories of vassals who died without heirs and forced the nobles to recognize Royal Law. By the
1300s, the Capetian kings controlled most of modern France.
Perhaps the two most important of these early kings were Philip II called Philip Augustus (r. 1180-1223), who
more than doubled the size of his domain by marriage alliances and skirmishes with the English; and his
grandson Louis IX (1226-1270), who participated in two disastrous crusades but who, nevertheless, expanded
royal authority by forcing the nobility to stop minting their own coins and use only money minted by the king.
England
In 899, Alfred the Great was succeeded by his son Edward who continued his father’s resistance to Danish
Viking attacks. But the 10th century witnessed fresh Viking invasions and the establishment of a Danish
kingdom, which gradually merged with the Saxon kingdom. The two famous kings of this era were Canute
the Dane (r. 1016 – 1035) who was famous for both his conversion to Christianity and his just reign; and
Edward the Confessor (r. 1042 – 1066), who was a sincere, pious ruler, famous for giving money to the poor
but failing to curb the growing power of the nobility.
After Edward’s death, William of Normandy claimed the English throne and defeated Edward’s, successor,
King Harold, in late 1066 at the Battle of Hastings. William remained Duke of Normandy, but became king
of England, known as William the Conqueror. He introduced Norman culture and feudalism into England.
He seized the lands of Saxon nobles and divided them among his Norman nobles. England now mixed French
with Saxon and Danish cultures, and this within 100 years would produce Middle English
During his long reign from 1154 to 1189, Henry II used the law to increase his authority. He set up a central
royal court in London and appointed Circuit judges who took the king’s law to all parts of the land. Thus was
created what we call Common Law (the same for everyone), helping to untie the country. Henry also used the
Grand Jury System or group of people who present to judges names of people suspected of crimes, out of
which grew the English idea of trial by jury. (12 people decide guilt or innocence).
In 1215, Henry’s son, King John, was forced to accept the Magna Carta, which guaranteed the rights of the
nobility and stated the king’s obligation to follow the law. Eight years later, John’s son, Edward I called for a
meeting of representatives to advise him and to help make the laws. This body was called Parliament and
represented the English nobility’s legal participation in government, which over time assumed more and more
governmental power at the king’s expense. (Later Parliament would divide into two houses: the bishops and
nobility met as the House of Lords, while knights and townspeople met as the House of Commons.)
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Growth of the Agriculture and Economy
As in the Low Middle Ages, serfs and monks continued to cut down forests, drain swamps and increase
arable (farmable) land and. Lords encouraged this to increase tax revenues and thus brought about the origin
of surnames. Yes, the sad news is that surnames were invented for taxing purposes.
Better Farming: Agricultural techniques continued to improve the 3-field system of crop rotation. Enriching
the soil became common place; watermills and heavier plows along with the horseshoe and the horse collar
(which enabled the horse to carry more burdens without blocking its windpipe) came into use. Introduction of new
crops, especially the cultivation of beans and peas, which not only added protein to the early medieval diet
(high in starchy grains) but also added nitrogen to the soil. Books and treatises (essays) on farming also began to
appear, especially on using new tools and domesticating animals.
Thus, the year 1000 is a transitional date; before 1000 the European diet was almost all grain, after 1,000,
grains were varied with meat, dairy, fish, vegetables and legumes. Thus, the population soared from 29
million in 800 to 58 million in 1200. Remember the axiom: More efficient agriculture means more people,
more people means increasing urbanization, increasing urbanization meant specialization of labor,
specialization of labor means increased trade and the beginning of business economy.
Urbanization accelerated: cities founded during Roman times such as Paris, London and Toledo became
thriving centers of government and business - and new cities began to appear such as Venice in Northern Italy
and Bergen in Norway. Urbanization and increased specialization of Labor led to the development of industry.
A good example was the woolen industry which appeared almost everywhere, but most especially in the cities
of Italy and Flanders, which became lively centers for the spinning, weaving and dying of wool.
The revival of cities was most apparent in Italy and was hastened (hurried along) by increasing trade with
Byzantium and Muslim nations in the Middle East. Italian merchants (eager to gain access to the Silk Roads –
trade routes to Asia) established colonies in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Seas in order to export salt,
olive oil, wine, wool fabrics, leather products and glass in exchange for gems, spices, silk, and other goods. In
the process, the Byzantines and Muslims were cut off and cities like Florence, Pisa, and Naples grew in
wealth with Venice and Genoa becoming the most powerful of these city states.
Trade also grew in Northern Europe. The Baltic and North Seas witnessed a well-developed trade network
known as the Hanseatic League, which was an association of trading cities stretching from Novgorod in
Russia to London and embracing all the significant commercial centers of Poland, Northern Germany and
Scandinavia. They exported grain, fish, furs, timber and amber for luxury goods. As in Post-Classical China
and the Islamic world, increasing trade stimulated the development of credit, banking and business
organization. Letters of credit freed traders from carrying money. Partnerships and the beginnings of
corporations also took root, and, due to the limited liability of partnerships and corporations, stimulated new
growth.
Social Changes
During the High Middle Ages, Medieval thinkers frequently held that society consisted of three classes:
“Those who pray; those who fight, and those who work.”
First Estate:
Second Estate:
Third Estate:
The Clergy of the Roman Catholic Church - from simple priest or Archbishops
The fighters came from the ranks of the feudal nobility
The majority of the population; peasants and the small, growing middle class.
This middle class consisted of merchants, artisans, butchers, bakers, fishmongers, pharmacists, physicians and
lawyers. As the economic climate improved and the towns grew into cities, the middle class was more and
more able to manage its affairs independent of feudal obligations; and over time most towns secured charters,
which gave them de facto independence and freedom from taxation.
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Within cities, workers organized guilds which set standards of quality, trained new membersset quotas to
maintain a balance between supply and demand, and determined prices and wages. Guilds had a social
dimension as well such as comradeship and mutual support. They built halls for social events and provided
financial support for those who fell ill. They even organized funerals and assisted widows.
Women: The High Middle Ages – within the context of a male dominated society - also provided increasing
opportunities for women. Such opportunities were rare in the countryside where women still continued to
perform traditional farming chores, but cities gradually allowed women limited access into the working class.
Gradually women began to work beside their husbands in the trades like shop-keeping, brewing or baking,
and they came to dominate other trades like midwifery, the decorative arts and textile manufacturing. So,
many guilds admitted women and a few were exclusively for women.
Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122 -1204) was probably the most celebrated woman of her day. Her father saw to it
that she had the best education possible: she could read and speak Latin, and was well-versed in music and
literature. She also enjoyed riding, hawking, and hunting. She was married to Louis VII of France, but later to
Henry II of England. Thus she was the queen of France and queen of England and the mother of two kings:
Richard the Lionhearted and John. But she was far more famous for her own court in Poitiers, where she
supported troubadours, promoted good manners, refinement and romantic love.
Chivalry was in informal but widely recognized code of ethics and refined manners that encouraged Christian
conduct in all affairs, and which was fostered by church officials. Troubadours were a class of traveling
poets, minstrels and entertainers patronized by aristocratic women. Their entertainment often focused on
chivalry, but also on refined behavior, social politeness and love. Troubadours were most common in
Southern France and Northern Italy, but took much of their inspiration from the love poetry of Muslim Spain.
However, this did not mean that women had gained equality with men. But many aristocratic women could
and often did exert a great deal of political and cultural influence. Christine de Pizan (1364–1430) was a
Venetian, medieval writer, rhetorician, and critic, who strongly challenged misogyny (hatred for women) in the
male-dominated society. She wrote forty one treatises, most of which defended the contributions of women
and established her as Europe’s first professional woman writer.
The Church
The Roman Catholic Church was the heart of Western Christendom and its ministers guided Europeans in
religious and ethical matters. It was also responsible for our modern educational system. Bishops in France
and northern Italy organized Cathedral Schools which, by the 12th century, had established formal curricula
(courses of study) concentrating on the liberal arts, especially literature and philosophy. The academic
curriculum consisted of the Trivium (grammar, rhetoric and logic) and the Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry,
astronomy and music). But the most important curriculum was theology, the queen of the sciences, in which
students studied the Bible and the church Fathers, as well as the major Latin authors.
As time passed, student and faculty guilds sprang up; and the larger Cathedral Schools became the first
universities, which conferred academic degrees. With increased communication with Byzantium, the
universities soon rediscovered the works of Aristotle. During the thirteenth century, a growing understanding
of Aristotle and his ruthless rules of logic brought about a school of Christian thinking called Scholasticism
which used the art of argument (rhetoric) to harmonize the beliefs and values of Christianity with the values
of Greek Philosophy.
The most famous Scholastic Theologian was St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) who taught at the University of
Paris. While holding fervent Christian views, Aquinas saw no contradiction between Aristotle and Christian
revelation (Holy Scripture). In his Summa Theologica, he created a manual in which he used Aristotelian logic
to explain such concepts (and moral dilemmas) such as the existence of God, what conditions make a just war,
an explanation of church doctrines such as transubstantiation and questions of ethics and morality.
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The church also administered sacraments which were holy rituals for bringing God’s grace to the people.
There were seven: Baptism, Penance, Confirmation, Communion, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders and
Matrimony. The most important was the Holy Communion or the Eucharist or Mass, which was a ritual
meal, remembering the Last Supper. The church taught that a person must receive this sacrament at least once
a year (at Easter) to be in good standing. Many people went to mass daily and devotion to the Eucharist was
widespread, but unfortunately, many superstitions grew up around the Mass, such as it being able to protect
people from danger or help them in worldly affairs.
Devotion to the saints was another way popular religion was expressed. People popularly prayed to the Saints
who were holy men and women who had died and were believed to have gone to heaven. There they could
help those still on earth by their prayers. Many cults grew up around the Invocation of Saints (Prayer to the
Saints for their help or intercession) and the most popular cult was the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus of
Nazareth, who personified the Christian ideal of womanhood, love and sympathy.
But the cult of the Saints was also the root of many abuses. Many superstitious people believed that such and
such a saint could cure diseases or work miracles. People went to shrines like St. Peter’s in Rome or
Santiago de Compostela in Spain to pray to these saints. It is not the place of this course to say whether or
not miracles happened but there were many greedy priests who often made much money off desperate and
superstitious people and even sold the sacraments of the Church for profit. These abuses would become a
great battle cry of Martin Luther as he fired the first shots of the Protestant Reformation.
Another area of great goodness and parallel abuses were the religious orders. There is an old axiom from the
Early Middle Ages, “Holiness begets discipline; discipline begets abundance; abundance begets laxity.”
Religious orders began with the idea of St. Benedict’s motto “orare et laborare (pray and work) but over time
the monasteries became wealthy and that led to laxity and materialism causing a loss of the original purpose
of finding God in a community. Secular clergy also struggled with the same abuses.
The Crusades
We have noted that in 1071 the Seljuk Turks crushed a Byzantine army at Manzikert which led to a Muslim
occupation of Anatolia and came as a great shock to Western Europe. Coupled with the occupation of the
Holy Land by Muslim states, Pope Urban II in 1095 called for Christian knights to take up arms to free the
Holy Land from Muslim domination. There were many crusades but four concern us. The First Crusade was
organized in 1096 and by 1099 they had captured Jerusalem. They established the kingdom of Jerusalem,
which survived (in spite of a dismal Second Crusade) until 1187 when it fell to the Muslims under a charismatic
leader Salah al-Din or Saladin. Then a Third Crusade (1189-1192) was organized to win back Jerusalem. It
was led by three famous kings: Richard the Lionhearted of England, Philip Augustus of France and
Frederick Barbarossa, the Holy Roman emperor who drowned on his way to the Holy Land. Although the
crusade ended in a stalemate with Saladin’s forces still holding Jerusalem, the crusade nevertheless won rights
for Christian pilgrims to visit the holy land. Finally there was a Fourth Crusade (1204) which was both a
disgrace and another disaster, and ended up by sacking Constantinople and gravely weakening the Byzantine
Empire.
The effects of the crusades included a worsening of Christian-Muslim relations. Economically, however, the
Crusades dramatically encouraged trade between Europe and Middle East, especially for luxury goods such as
silk, cotton and spices. The crusades also helped bring paper production, the use of Arabic numerals and a
drink called coffee to Europe. But perhaps, in the long run, the most important commodity brought back to
Europe by the crusaders was granulated sugar.
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