Download Medieval Western Europe

Western Europe in the
Middle Ages
European Middle Ages
• Early / Post-Classical
–“the Dark Ages” disorder, disunity,
despair
• High Middle Ages
–Rise of crown, commerce & cities
• Late Middle Ages
–3 disasters: church scandal,
100 years war & BLACK DEATH
Post-Classical/ Early
Middle Ages
• 550 – 900 CE – fragmented &
chaotic
• Catholic church only source of
intellectual development & literacy
• Church power
• Manorialism
• Feudalism
The Franks
• tribes unified (by Clovis)
• Converted to Christianity (by Clovis)
• Muslims/Moors halted at Tours (732;
Charles Martel)
• Aided the Pope
• Charlemagne - strong but brief Empire
• Crowned Holy Roman Emperor
• Split / Viking invasions/ disunity
The Angles & Saxons
• Invaded Britain (which was
defended by “King Arthur”?)
• Small kingdoms
• Adopted Christianity 7th century
• 9th century – Alfred the Great
• Danes / Vikings
• Became known as England (land
of the Angles)
Transition
• Europeans were newer to
“civilization” than the Middle
East
• Decline of Islamic and Mongol
influence
• Important changes in West…
High Middle
Ages
The Rise of a Medieval Urban
Culture
Feudal Monarchies and
Political Advances
• primogeniture
• Holy Roman
Emperor
• Capetian kings
• Norman conquest
• More stability
Limited Government
• Church main authority
• Aristocrats vs. monarchical
power /Magna Carta
• 1st English parliament
• Three key estates
• Conflicts church &
Kings
The West’s Expansionist
Impulse
• Reasons
•
•
•
•
–Pop growth
–Memory of Rome
–Religious zeal
Reconquest of Spain
Vikings
Crusades
cultural diffusion & trade
Western Civilization
• Christianity was
unifying element
• Little classical
thought before 1000
• Crusades 
classical works
• Aristotle especially
Trends…
 warming in Europe
 food production
 population
 strong monarchies
 travel
 trade
 towns…
 urban culture
Rise of
Trade,
Towns, &
Cities
Role of Italy
• Italian towns had not decayed to
same degree as rest of W. Europe
• Italy’s location – trade cities
• Crusades resulted in trade of goods
– luxury items from the east &
middle east
• Connection between Mediterranean
trade system & rest of Europe
Flanders
•
•
•
•
Belgium and N. France
Textile capital of Europe;
woolen industry
Center of trade in European
Northern Coast: across France,
down Rhine River and across
English Channel
Hanseatic League
• Trading towns along
Baltic Coast
• 70 member cities
• Established permanent
trading routes
• Traded in fur, timber, fish, grain
• Violators punished by boycott or
war
• Medieval Fairs
• Champagne (France) had the
best known fairs
lasted 4-6
weeks and
were held
several times
per year
• Development of Money
Economy
• led to decline of feudal system &
emergence of market economy
• Capital: wealth earned,
accumulated and invested
• Coinage – silver, then gold
• Banking - Italian “banca” =
money changers table
• European traders less wealthy than
Islamic counterparts
Growth of Cities and Towns
• Resulted from:
• the revival of trade
• serfs leaving manor
for opportunities
• strong monarchies
• Developed Where?
Near well-traveled roads, transfer
points or waterways
• Conditions in
Towns:
• Crowded
(epidemics spread
quickly)
• filthy
(sewage/stench of
animals)
• violent, noisy
(don’t go out after
dark!)
But provided opportunities...
Guilds: Business Organization of Merchants
and Artisans
–set quality standard
–loans to members
–ill / disabled members
–Protected businesses
–set prices /conditions
–prohibited competition
–supervised training…
Apprentice System
of Craft Guild
• Apprentice: worked for master without
pay to learn skills
• Journeyman: worked for daily pay;
submitted work to guild for approval to
become master; could work in other
towns
• Master: artisans who owned their own
shops & tools & employed less-skilled
workers as helpers
Universities Develop
• Begin as learning guilds (an
association of people organized for
the purpose of learning and teaching)
• Limited to specific subjects (ex:
theology, law, medicine)
• Academic degrees develop (B.A.,
M.A. PhD)
Scholasticism
• Intellectual movement that
attempted to reconcile faith
& reason
–Faith = Church teachings
–Reason = Aristotle’s logic
–Scholastic philosphers:
Thomas Aquinas
•
•
•
•
13th century Italian priest
Wrote Summa Theologica
reason was God’s gift
church doctrine could be supported
through logic
• Proposed 5 logic proofs of the
existence of God...
Proof #1: Argument of Motion
Everything is in motion and what is in
motion must be moved by some
mover. Thomas concluded that
reason demands that there must
have been a “first mover” or
“unmoved mover” and this is God.
Vernacular Literature
• Vernacular: language of everyday
speech
–people spoke the language that had
developed in their own countries
from Latin or German roots (Eng, Fr,
Ger, Ital, Span)
–each kingdom a distinct identity
–literature more accessible
Vernacular Writers
• Dante Alighieri: The Divine
Comedy, epic poem in Italian that
describes an imaginary journey
through hell, purgatory and
heaven
• Geoffrey Chaucer:
Canterbury Tales
–English narrative poems that
described a group of pilgrims who
tell stories to amuse one another on
their way to Thomas Beckett’s
shrine
Gothic Architecture
• Characteristics: walls high & thin,
flying buttresses supported weight of
roof, large stained-glass windows,
pointed arches
• Symbolism:
–ground plan in shape of a cross
–with high walls and pointed arches,
everything appeared to be “reaching
towards heaven”
Cruciform plan
Flying Buttresses
Clerestory
Windows
Chartres
the nave
Illuminated
Page
Global Connections: Medieval
Europe and the World
• Europe seemed threatened by
outsiders, yet adopted many of
their ideas and trade
Decline of the Old Order
• Byzantium
and Abbasid
fall (rise of
Ottoman
Turks and
Mongols)
Rise of the West
Sources of Dynamism: Medieval
Vitality
Imitation and International
Problems
Secular Directions in the Italian
Renaissance
Human Values and Renaissance
Culture
Iberian Spirit of Religious Mission
Western Expansion: The
Experimental Phase
Early Explorations
Colonial Patterns
Outside the World Network
Political Issues in the Americas
Expansion, Migration and
Conquest in Polynesia
The Problem of Ethnocentrism
Isolated Achievements by the
Maoris
Adding Up the Changes
Problems for Europe
• Black Death (1348)
• Avignon Papacy / Great Schism
• Hundred Years War
Global Connections: 1450 and the
World
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•
•
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Changes and continuities were present
Muslims still active
Mongols offer new contacts
Decline Mongols returns attention to
Indian Ocean trade
• Southeast Asia drawn into trade
• African merchants connected to Middle
East