MIDDLE AGES

1
MIDDLE AGES

• Began with collapse of Western Roman Empire in
  the 6th century AD and came to an end sometime in
  the 14th-15th centuries
  
• Once considered to be one long, bleak period of
  violence, ignorance, and superstition
  
• The Dark Ages
• Period did represent regression from achievements
  of the ancient world but it was not completely
  dark
  
• Preserved what was best of the ancient heritage
  and mingled it with new Germanic and, later,
  Arabic traditions to create a new civilization
  
• One that was capable of further growth and
  progress
  
• Major contribution to the creation of the
  foundation for the modern western world
  

2
MIDDLE AGES

• Western Europe
• Hodge-podge of loosely organized kingdoms
• Became even more fragmented as time went on
• East
• Highly centralized Byzantine Empire

3
CHARLEMAGNE

• Tried to overcome chronic disunity in Western and
  Central Europe
  
• Approx. 800 AD
• Established empire that included France, most of
  Italy, Germany, and part of Eastern Europe
  
• Took title of Holy Roman Emperor

4
BREAKUP OF CHARLEMAGNES EMPIRE

• Incompetence of his descendants
• Charlemagnes failure to set up an effective
  administrative system
  
• Invasions of the Magyars
• Invasions of the Vikings

5
POST-CAROLINGIAN EUROPE

• Hopelessly complex jigsaw puzzle of small states
• Each with its own ruler
• Sometimes with title of duke or count
• Nominally owed allegiance to kings but this
  allegiance was more theoretical than real
  
• Long-distance trade virtually disappeared
• Currency fell into disuse
• People reverted to barter system
• Cities shrank dramatically and sometimes
  disappeared
  
• Educational standards declined
• Even kings were illiterate
• Only form of unity was the Christian Church
• But even its intellectual standards had declined
  due to the prevalent ignorance and isolation of
  the times
  
• Europe had become a desolate rural world in which
  petty rulers lorded over tiny pieces of territory
  and ignorance prevailed everywhere

6
FEUDALISM

• Developed in response to the need of local
  warrior-aristocrats to protect and administer
  their territories in the absence of any sort of
  effective central authority
• Grant of a piece of land (fief) by a lord to a
  subordinate (vassal) in exchange for the vassals
  promise to provide lord with military service for
  a specified period of time
• Subinfeudation vassals having vassals of their
  own

7
FEUDAL PLAYERS (VASSALS)

• Feudalism also provided a decentralized form of
  government
  
• Vassals were supreme within their fiefs
• Made own laws
• Enforced them as he saw fit
• Settled disputes between people who lived on the
  fief

8
MEDIEVAL PEASANTS

• Small scale farmers who devoted their lives to
  growing enough to stay alive
  
• Lived and worked on manors
• Economic subunit of fief

9
MEDIEVAL MANOR and THREE FIELD SYSTEM OF ROTATION
Fields divided into narrow strips with each
peasant family holding a number of them in each
field
System designed to avoid complete soil exhaustion
Arable land divided into three fields, each in a
different state of cultivation
Fields rotated each year
10
PEASANT OBLIGATIONS

• Paid portion of harvest to lord of the manor as
  rent
  
• Also had to work a certain number of days a weeks
  on strips the lord retained for his own use
  
• Had to bring their legal disputes to the lords
  court
  
• Even had to pay a fee for the lords approval to
  marry
  
• Peasants were serfs
• Bound to the manor and their lord for life
• Also had to pay the Church the tithe and,
  later, had to also pay royal taxes
  
• Lot of peasant was one of backbreaking labor,
  deep poverty, no personal independence, and
  resigned and hopeless desperation

11
HIGH MIDDLE AGES (1000-1300)

• Cities grew in size and beauty
• Local and international trade revived
• Kings began to break down feudal system and
  create nation-states under their direct control

12
REVIVAL OF LOCAL TRADE

• Growth in European population after centuries of
  decline and/or stagnation
  
• Caused by increase in food supply
• Made possible by draining of swamps and clearing
  of forests by monasteries
  
• Created surplus people on manors
• Manorial economy could not support them
• Moved to long-dormant towns
• Created demand for agricultural products from
  countryside
  
• Stimulated demand for manufactured products
• Sparked revival of local trade and commerce

13
CRUSADES

• In theory, purpose was to take back the Holy Land
  from Moslem Turks
  
• Caused tremendous human and material damage
  without permanently achieving purpose
  
• Created demand for Middle Eastern luxury products
  among returned Crusadersthus stimulating
  international trade
  
• Revival of local and international trade created
  Commercial Revolution
  
• Introduced modern capitalism

14
WILLIAM I (THE BASTARD) OF ENGLAND

• Conquered England in 1066
• Wanted to bypass feudal system and exert direct
  control over his realm
  
• Divided England into shires, each administered by
  a shire-reeve (sheriff)
  
• Did end run around feudal system by creating an
  alternative and parallel system
  
• Similar system devised by Philip Augustus in
  France

15
THE CHURCH

• Administration of pope was larger and more
  sophisticated than that of any king
  
• Wealth of the Church was greater than any king or
  merchant
  
• Also largest landowner in Europe
• Popes contended with kings on a equal basis
• Using powerful spiritual weapons
• Excommunication
• Interdict

16
SUMMARY

• High Middle Ages were a period of progress and
  prosperity
  
• Cities grew in size and beauty
• Trade revived
• Kings reasserted their power over their realms
• Church was at its peak of power and prestige
• Then it all came crashing down in the 14th
  century
  
• Crisis of the Late Middle Ages

17
CRISIS IN THE CHURCH

• Babylonian Captivity
• 1309-1372
• Popes fell under the control of the French
  monarchy
  
• Forced to move to the southern French city of
  Avignon
  
• Lost much power and prestige
• Great Schism
• Late 1370s
• Two, and for a while three, men all claimed to be
  pope at the same time
  
• Threw the church into confusion
• Crisis resolved in 1415 but Church prestige had
  been permanently damaged and many Christians were
  left confused and/or cynical

18
100 YEARS WAR

• Caused by dispute over French throne by France
  and England
  
• Lasted actually 116 years
• France won
• Introduction of longbow rendered the heavily
  armored horseman obsolete
  
• Hundreds of thousands people died, decimating the
  population growth of earlier years
  
• Heavy taxation provoked peasant uprisings
  (jacqueries)

19
THE BLACK DEATH (BUBONIC)

• Started in China in 1331
• Traveled across Asia to Black Sea region
• Picked up by Italian merchants and taken to
  Europe
  
• Spread from Italy to Germany, France, Spain, and
  England
  
• Europeans could not cure it or prevent it from
  spreading
  
• Catastrophic results
• 25 of population killed
• Some cities lost 75 of their population
• Plunged Europe into a severe depression

20
ARTISTIC THEMES IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES
Danse Macabre
Four Horsemen Of Apocalypse
21
BYZANTINE EMPIRE
22
JUSTINIAN AND THEODORA

• Conquest of old Western provinces
• Justinians Code (compilation of Roman law)
• Construction of Santa Sophia (Church of the Holy
  Wisdom)

23
BYZANTINE ACHIEVEMENTS

• Empire renown for its wealth, power, and military
  strength for centuries
  
• Army threw back or weakened wave after wave of
  would-be invaders
  
• Persians, Arabs, Seljuk Turks, and others
• Saved Western Europe from conquest
• Civilized barbarian tribes on fringes of Europe
• Russians
• Converted to Christianity by Byzantine
  missionaries
  
• Gave them alphabet they still use today
• Cyrillic alphabet

24
BYZANTINE CHRISTIANITY

• Church had fallen under the control of the
  emperor
  
• Through his puppet, the bishop of Constantinople
• Created tension with the pope
• Resulted in split within Christianity in 1054
• Roman Catholic Church
• Headquartered in Rome
• Led by pope
• Eastern Orthodox Church
• Headquartered in Constantinople
• Led by bishop of Constantinople (and Byzantine
  emperor)
  
• Shattered unity of Christian Church forever

25
END OF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE

• Territory of empire shrunk over centuries
• Only included Constantinople and parts of Asia
  Minor and southeastern Europe by 1200
  
• Constantinople falls to Ottoman Turks in 1453
• Renamed city Istanbul
• End of Byzantine Empire