Historical Developments

• Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and the core beliefs and practices of these religions continued to shape societies in Europe.

• Europe was politically fragmented and characterized by decentralized monarchies, feudalism, and the manorial system.

• Europe was largely an agricultural society dependent on free and coerced labor, including serfdom.

Latin / Western Christendom

• Roman imperial order disappeared by 500 CE

• Roads fell into disrepair, cities decayed, long-distance trade dissolved

• Roman order replaced by highly localized society: fragmented, decentralized, and competitive

• Latin West did become fully Christian, but it was a gradual process lasting centuries

• It was Roman Catholic - centered on the pope

• Far more rural than Byzantium

• Slowly emerged as dynamic, expansive and innovative third wave civilization - combining elements of Greco-Roman past with culture of Germanic and Celtic peoples

Medieval Europe (Christian West)

• 550 C.E. to 900 C.E. Europe had a lot of problems

• Center of the post-classical West lay in France, the Low Countries, and southern and western Germany, with England eventually drawn in as well

• With weak states and little more than subsistence agriculture, intellectual activity declined

• Frequent invasions weakened the West

  • Raids by seagoing Vikings from Scandinavia

Latin / Western Christendom

• Roman legacy still persisted in military organization, laws, fines, and penalties

• Charlemagne (ruler of the Carolingian Empire) tried to recreate the unity of the Roman Empire, but failed

• decentralized society emerged - feudalism

• thousands of independent, self-sufficient, and isolated landed estates or manors was exercised by a warrior elite of landowning lords

• They were in constant competition

• In time, lesser lords swore allegiance to greater lords or kings thus  becoming their vassals

• Roman slavery gave way to serfdom

• the Church also filled the void left by the Roman Empire

• hierarchical organization of popes, bishops, priests, and monasteries - modeled on the Roman Empire

• Took over political, administrative, educational, and welfare functions

• Latin was the language of the Church

• Church became wealthy

• “top down” strategy of converting local “pagan” kings therefore quickly giving them access to the king’s subjects

• Were flexible in adopting some pagan traditions to assist in winning pagan converts

• By 1100 most of Europe had embraced Christianity

• Rulers provided protection for the papacy and strong encouragement for the faith

• In return, Church offered religious legitimacy for the powerful and prosperous.

• Rulers drawn to the Church because it gave legitimacy and desired ties to Roman Empire with its organization, wealth, and ceremonies

• By 1000, invasions (like Muslim armies from south, and Hungarian invasions from the east and Viking incursions from the north) - finally ended

• This provided security and stability for Europe to flourish

• Warming trend after 750 also helped (more agriculture = surplus = increased population)

• This led to High Middle Ages (1000-1300) - times of expansion and growth

• agricultural growth, increased trade, return to cities

• Cities & towns grew: London, Paris, Venice, Constantinople, Cordoba (Muslim Spain), Hangzhou (Song dynasty capital)

• Traded: wood, beeswax (for candles), furs, wheat, salt, cloth, and wine

• Increased trade led to more opportunities for women:

  • worked as weavers, brewers, midwives, retail, laundering, spinning, and prostitution

Blending of Cultures

• New culture was created combining remnants of Greco-Roman culture, the culture of Germanic tribes, and influences from the Roman Catholic Church

• Latin was used in the Church and all literate people

• Medieval scholars like Thomas Aquinas attempted to reconcile the natural philosophy of the classical world with Christian beliefs

• New forms of coerced labor appeared, including serfdom in Europe and Japan and the elaboration of the mit’a in the Inca Empire. Free peasants resisted attempts to raise dues and taxes by staging revolts. The demand for slaves for both military and domestic purposes increased, particularly in central Eurasia, parts of Africa, and the eastern Mediterranean.

• In some places, new forms of governance emerged, including those developed in various Islamic states (Abbasids, Muslim Iberia, Delhi Sultanates), the Mongol khanates, new Buddhist states in South, East, and Southeast Asia, city-states (Italian peninsula, East Africa, SE Asia), and decentralized government (feudalism) in Europe and Japan.

Manorialism

• Feudal political structure was paralleled by manorialism

• Characterized by local agricultural estates that were virtually self-sufficient and worked by serfs.

• Manorialism = system of economic and political relations between landlords and their personal laborers

• Most people were serfs, living on self-sufficient agricultural estates called manors

• Serfs received some protection from landlords; in return they turned over part of their goods to remain on the land

• Originated in late Roman Empire – strengthened by decline of trade and the lack of larger political structures

Feudalism

• From 6th onward, need to support armed men and horses for heavy cavalry (knights) without much cash or trade revenues led to the creation of the feudal system

• Feudalism = decentralized political arrangement

• military elite emerged

• lords gave land (to be worked by peasants or serfs) to their retainers in exchange for mutual obligations of defense and loyalty = LAND FOR LOYALTY!!!

• basis of society was agriculture and labor was tied the land as serfs

• serfs could not be sold but were passed along with the land as chattel

• Greater lords provided protection and aid to lesser lords, called vassals

• Vassals in turn owed their lords military service, some goods or payment, and advice to the greater lords

• Feudalism was also present in Japan

Manorialism vs. Feudalism

• Feudalism describes the relationship between the king and his nobles in medieval Europe.

• Manorialism describes the relationship between a noble and his peasants in medieval Europe.

• Feudalism was thus primarily political and military, while manorialism was more economic and social.

Primogeniture

-Latin for "first born," the ancient rule from feudal England (except in the County of Kent) that the oldest son would inherit the entire estate of his parents (or nearest ancestor), and, if there was no male heir, the daughters would take (receive the property) in equal shares.

-The intent was to preserve larger properties from being broken up into small holdings, which might weaken the power of nobles.

Western Europe & Women

• Women had more freedom in earlier part of the period, both in convents (through the Catholic Church) and in craft guilds (for spinning, weaving, brewing, and baking)

• Had obligations to their feudal lord to be paid by labor

• By High Middle Ages, women were pushed out of most of the craft guilds, except for spinning and midwifery (and prostitution)

• Lost much of the independence that they previously enjoyed in convents

• The diversification of labor organization that began with settled agriculture continued in this period. Forms of labor organization included:

  • Free peasant agriculture

  • Nomadic pastoralism

  • Craft production and guild organization

  • Various forms of coerced and unfree labor

  • Government-imposed labor

  • Military obligations

Medieval Craft Guilds

The Craft Guilds were formed in a similar way to the Merchant Guilds. A group of tradesmen or craftsmen engaged in the same occupation joined together. There were Craft Guilds for every trade or craft performed within a Medieval city or town. These trades or crafts included:

• Masons

• Carpenters

• Painters

• Cloth Makers

• Tanners

• Bakers

• Shoemakers, or cobblers

• Candle makers

Rules of the Craft Guilds during the Middle Ages

The Craft Guilds applied rules to the way in which trade was conducted during the Middle Ages. These rules were included in the charters of the Craft Guilds and included:

• A ban on, or fines imposed, on any illicit trading by non Craft Guild members

• Fines were imposed on any Craft Guild members who violated the charter of their  particular Craft Guild

• Members of the Craft Guilds were protected and any member who fell sick was cared for by the guild. Burials of guild members were arranged and the Craft Guilds undertook to care for any orphans

• The members of Craft Guilds also provided protection of their horses, wagons, and goods when moving about the land as travelling during the Middle Ages was dangerous

The Craft Guilds ensured that their craft or trade effectively became a 'closed shop' or monopoly preventing any outside competition. Prices were fixed between members of the Craft Guilds. And the Craft Guilds ensured that high standards of quality were maintained. The number of Craft Guild members were also regulated, allowing a restricted membership in order to ensure that the numbers of Craft Guilds did not exceed the business requirements. As time went by the Craft Guilds became as important in the Medieval towns and cities as the Merchant Guilds and the members of the Craft Guilds demanded that they also shared in civic duties and leadership.

Increased Agricultural Productivity

• 9th century a better plow (moldboard) – a curved iron plate, was introduced that allowed deeper turning of the hard, European soil

• Also developed the three-field system where only a third of the land was left unplanted each year, to regain fertility.

• Champa Rice: a quick-maturing, drought resistant rice that can allow two harvests, of sixty days each in one growing season.

• Horse Collar: The horse collar was important in the development of Europe, as the replacement of oxen with horses for ploughing boosted the economy, reduced reliance on subsistence farming, and allowed the development of early industry, education, and the arts in the rise of market-based towns.

Europe Outward Bound: Crusading Tradition

• “medieval expansion” of Christendom took place as the Byzantine world was contracting

• Sharp reversal of their earlier roles where Byzantines were more advanced and interested in expansion

• By 13th and 14th centuries Europeans had direct contact with India, China, and Mongolia

• Also helped by end of Viking raids (they were interested in transatlantic ventures after 1000 CE - Newfoundland in North America)

• Nothing more dramatically revealed European expansiveness than the religious “hold wars” of the crusades, starting in 1095

• For Europeans, the Crusades were wars undertaken at God’s command and authorized by the pope

• Required participants to swear a vow and in return offered an indulgence (removed penalties for any confessed sins)

• Crusading drew on both Christian piety and warrior values of the elite

• Most famous Crusades were aimed at claiming Jerusalem and holy places associated with the life of Jesus from Islamic control

• Carved out four small Christian states, the last of which was recaptured by Muslim forces in 1291

• Demonstrated growing European capacity for organization, finance, transportation, and recruitment ⇒ impressive b/c they had no real central direction!

• Also demonstrated cruelty → slaughter of many Muslims and Jews

First Crusade (1095-1102 CE)

• Military campaign by western European forces to recapture Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim control.

• Conceived by Pope Urban II following an appeal from the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos, around 60,000 soldiers and at least half again of non-combatants set off on their quest.

• After campaigns in Asia Minor and the Middle East, great cities such as Nicaea and Antioch were recaptured and then, on 15 July 1099 CE, Jerusalem itself.

• Many more crusades would follow, objectives would widen, as would the field of conflict, so that even Constantinople would come under attack in subsequent campaigns.

Fourth Crusade (1202-1204 CE)

• Pope Innocent III wanted to retake Jerusalem from its current Muslim overlords.

• However, in a bizarre combination of mistakes, financial constraints, and Venetian trading ambitions, the target ended up being Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire and the greatest Christian city in the world.

• Sacked on 12 April 1204 CE, Constantinople was stripped of its riches, relics, and artworks, and the Byzantine Empire was divided up between Venice and its allies.

• The Fourth Crusade thus gained its infamous reputation as the most cynical and profit-seeking of all the crusades.

Effects of the Crusades

• Crusades had little lasting impact (politically or religiously) in the Middle East

• European power was not strong or long-lasting enough to induce conversion

• Invasions of Turkic-speaking peoples and Mongols were much more significant

• Had more consequences for Europe

  • Spain, Sicily, and Baltic region brought permanently into the world of Christendom

  • Byzantine Empire further weakened by sack of Constantinople

  • Europeans picked up a taste for many Asian luxury goods

  • Europeans learned techniques of producing sugar

  • Muslim scholarship (along with Greek learning it incorporated) flowed into Europe

  • Opened channels of trade, technological transfer, and intellectual exchange

  • Rift between Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism deepened (still a big divide in the Christian world)

Changes in trade networks resulted from and stimulated increasing productive capacity, with important implications for social and gender structures and environmental processes. Productivity rose in both agriculture and industry. Rising productivity supported population growth and urbanization but also strained environmental resources and at times caused dramatic demographic swings. Shifts in production and the increased volume of trade also stimulated new labor practices, including adaptation of existing patterns of free and coerced labor. Social and gender structures evolved in response to these changes.

Humanism

• System of education and mode of inquiry that originated in northern Italy during the 13th and 14th centuries

• The term is alternatively applied to a variety of Western beliefs, methods, and philosophies that place central emphasis on the human realm.

• Emphasis on human form and reason over religion and assumed truths

Marco Polo

• Italian explorer

• Traveled to China, forcibly lived in the Yuan Dynasty under Kublai Khan

• Wrote a book about his travels

• Inspired more travel and trade as a result of people reading about his travels

Little Ice Age

• Climate interval that occurred from the early 14th century through the mid-19th century, when mountain glaciers expanded at several locations, including the European Alps, New Zealand, Alaska, and the southern Andes, and mean annual temperatures declined

• In China, then as now the most populous country in the world, the Ming dynasty fell in 1644, undermined by, among other things, erratic harvests.

• In Europe, rivers and lakes and harbors froze, leading to phenomena such as the “frost fairs” on the River Thames

• Birds iced up and fell from the sky; men and women died of hypothermia; the King of France’s beard froze solid while he slept.

• When peasants had no surplus grain, this system collapsed. If local crops were failing, trading at a distance, to bring goods from farther afield, was critical.

• Money, and the ability to buy and sell with cash or its equivalent, took on a larger role.

Origins of Russia

• The first modern state in Russia was founded in 862 by King Rurik of the Rus, who was made the ruler of Novgorod.

• Some years later, the Rus conquered the city of Kiev and started the kingdom of the Kievan Rus.

• Over the 10th and 11th century the Kievan Rus became a powerful empire in Europe reaching its peak under Vladimir the Great and Yaroslav I the Wise. During the 13th century the Mongols led by Batu Khan overran the area and wiped out the Kievan Rus.

• In the 14th century the Grand Duchy of Moscow rose to power. It became the head of the Eastern Roman Empire and Ivan IV the Terrible crowned himself the first Tsar of Russia in 1547.

• In 1613, Mikhail Romanov established the Romanov dynasty that would rule Russia for many years.

• Under the rule of Tsar Peter the Great (1689-1725), the Russian empire continued to expand. It became a major power throughout Europe. Peter the Great moved the capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg