Chapters - - -8 The Byzantine Empire and the Rise of Islam (450-145319 The Early Middle Ages (450-10001

10 The High Middle Ages (1000-1300)11 The Origin of European Nations (1150-15801

I ver hundreds of years, new civilizationsarose from the ashes of the Roman empire.The first of these arose in the eastern Romanempire, the Middle East, and Russia. The Byz-antine and Islamic civilizations in particulardeveloped political and religious empires andcenters of learning.

The vacuu11.lleft by the decline of Rome'sempire in western Europe after about 400 wasfilled by migrating peoples, the Germanicbarbarians. They worshiped pagan gods andfought for personal glory rather than out ofnational pride. Life again became rural asfeudalism brought a new political, economic,and social system. The Roman CatholicChurch remained the sole unifying element.

A thousand years later, kingdoms forged bythese peoples were well on their way to becom-ing the nations of modem Europe-at that timeEngland, France, Spain and Russia. With ordercame trade, a burst of learning, and artisticachievements to rival those of Rome. In thisunit, you will learn what common values andinstitutions emerged to give a sense of unity tothe Middle Ages. What events on the time lineshow some of the miles1;ones in this process?

As you read about these years of struggle,note how continuity and change went hand inhand as Roman rule gave way. In time new so-cial, economic, and religious institutions devel-oped to meet the needs and challenges of anew age. Despite foreign invasions and power-ful rulers, a concern for democratic ideas con-tinued in England.

(

,;c:

4

221'11 '11

II!i-J " :!j:

iii!

Chapter 8!)

developed between Byzantine Christians and Chris-tians of western Europe. Although the popes at Romeclaimed leadership, of all Christians, the Byzantinepatriarchs, or bishops, refused to accept that claim.Byzantine and western Christians grew to considereach other as heretics-people~whose religious ideasare incorrect.' In 1054 the Roman pope and theByzantine patriarch excommunicated each other-that is, they declared each other outside the church.The western church became the Roman CatholicChurch, and the eastern church became the EasternOrthodox Church. ""~ .

Read and Understand1. What great empire centered in Constantinople

flourished for a thousand years?2. What new faith spread from Arabia in the 600's?3. How did the Byzantine and Islamic empires influ-ence the Slavs and Turks? '

VOCABULARY patriarch, heretic, excommunicate,caliph, sultan

A new faith spread from Arabia.

Far to the south of Constantinople, a new religiongave rise to a new empire. Around the year 570 in theArabian city of Mecca, a child named Muhammadwas born to a well-to-do merchant family. At the ageof 40, he had a vision hailing him as a messenger ofAllAh I God J. He believed that AllAh was the same Godthe Christians and Jews worshiped and that he wasthe prophet of AllAh. Beginning in 613, he began topreach in M~cca. Opposition to his work was so great,however, that he and his few followers fled in 622 tothe town of Medina.

In Medina, Muhammad won many followers' forthe new religion that he called Islam, or "surrender toGod." Most were Bedouin, desert nomads who weredctring and experienced fighters. Muhammad led themin raids against caravans bound for Mecca. Thesemilitary victories increased Muhammad's prestige somuch that almost all the Bedouin converted to Islam.In 630, Muhammad and 10,000 followers re-enteredMecca in triumph.

After Muhammad's death in 632, a new leader,Abu-Bakr, ordered his teachings gathered into a bookwritten in Arabic. This book, the Koran, became theholy book of Islam. Wherever Islamic conquerorscarried the Koran, Arabic became the language ofworship, learhing, and lite;ra:ture.

Islam was a strict but simple religion, requiringfaith in Allah as God, with Muhammad the prophet ofGod; prayer five times a day; alms; fasting; and pil-grimage to Mecca. It also established certain laws andcustoms that came to characterize Islamic society.Islam attracted passionate believers who were readyto die winning converts to their faith. Thus, to spreadtheir religion, they began an era of conquest.

After the fall o,f the western Roman empire in thelate 400's, two new empires-arose in the region of theeastern Mediterranean. The Byzantine and Islamicempires were to dominate much of the Mediterran-ean world for a thousand years. Byzantine religion andculture spread to Russia, and Islamic beliefs and ideasspread to lands from Spain to'India. '

Constantinople ruled an eastern empire.As you have learned, the Roman emperor Con-

stantine moved his capital from Rome to a neweastern capital named aAer himself. This was Con-

astantinople, founded in 330 on the site of the oldWGreek seaport Byzantium. Set on the strait called the

Bosporus, Constantinople controlled the shippingbetween much of Asia and the Mediterranean jmap,page 1791. After the western Roman empire fell, rul-ers in Constantinople still held the eastern part-including Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine, Syria, andEgypt. This part became the Byzantine empire jmap,page 1811.

Less than a hundred years after Rome fell to thebarbarians, the Byzantine emperor Justinian soughtto win it back. He sent out armies that conqueredNorth Africa in 533 and defeated the Ostrogoths toretake Rome in 536. But the Ostrogoths fought back,and over the next 18 years Rome changed hands sixtimes. Justinian's wars left Rome ruined.

While the wars went on, Justinian built Constan-tinople into a wealthy city great with markets, palaces,and churches (City Tour, pages 182-1841. The uni-versity there taught Greek, Latin, law, medicine, andphilosophy to women as well as men.

One of the most enduring works of Justinian washis legal reforms. He set a group of scholars to assemblethe thousands of Roman laws into one code. The Codeof Justinian became the basis of Byzantine law for thenext 900 years, and much later of European law.

8 A.major factor i.n thedevelopm~n~ofthe~yzantineempue was a dispute over rehglon. Differences

23

to the Byzantine fonn of Christianity and contactswith the Byzantine empire deeply affected Russianculture.

. Meanwhile another group of nomads swept west- (ward out of Asia. These were the Turks, a horse-breeding people who h~d often served as soldiers inthe Islamic empire. Large groups of Seljuk Turks be-gan migrating into the Islamic empire around 970.Although they converted to Islam, they continued towar with other Muslim groups.

The weakened Islamic e~pire had already lostmuch of its territory. Spain had become an independentMuslim kingdom, and the Abbasid caliphs hadgradually lost parts of N ofth Africa, Egypt, and Persia.In 1055 B~ghdad fell to the Turks, who now becamethe ruling class. Their leader was called the sultan.

The Turks next turned on the Byzantineeinpire. .At the battle of Manzikert in 1071, the Turks scoredan overwhelming victory. In the centuries that fol-lowed, a new group of Turks-the Ottomans-over-ran the Islamic empire. By 1400, they controlled allof Asia Minor. After a series of sieges, the OttomanTurks in 1453 captured Constantinople and ended theByzantine empire ITurning Point, pages 196-197).

Chapter Review " '

Within a hundred years after the death ofMuham-mad, Arabs had spread Islam westward across Egyptand North Africa to Spain and Portugal. They alsoconquered Palestine, Mesopotamia, Persia, andnorthwest India (map, page 189; chart, page i931.

The first leaders after Muhammad were called thecaliphs, "successors to the prophet." They wieldedboth political and religious power. The first four,known as the orthodox caliphs, were men who hadknown Muhammad personally. A new family ofcaliphs, the Umayyads, took power in 661 and ruleduntil 750. A revolt against the Umayyads broughtnew rulers, the Abbasids, to power. Their rise markeda split within Islam that became both religious andpolitical. Persian Muslims called themselves Shi'ites,and supported the Abbasids. Arab Muslims calledthemselves Sunni, or ortho,dox Muslims. .

The Abbasid rulers built a splendid new capital atBaghdad on the Tigris River in what is today Iraq (CityTour, page 1911. A rival to Constantinople in beautyand wealth, Baghdad became the center of Muslimcivilization. Baghdad also became a center of trade,the end of land routes from India and China. Itsmerchants developed new techniques, such as lettersof credit, that speeded the flow of goods.

The arts and sciences flourished at Baghdad withArabic as the language ofleaming. Christian, Jewish,and Muslim scholars, working in laboratories andlibraries, found treatments for disease, performed thefirst chemical experiments, invented algebra, andadopted the Hind~ syt:nbol for zero.

Define patriarch, heretic, excommunicate, caliph,sultan

Identify Byzantine empire, Constantinople: JUstinian,(Code of Justinian, Muhammad, Islam, Koran, Allah,Baghdad, Turks, Slavs, Rus, Kiev r

Answer.1. What factors enabled Constantinople to become a

great imperial city?2. How did the Islamic empire combine religious and

political power?3. What influences affected the development of the

kingdom of Russia?

Critical Thinking4. How might the expansion of the Islamic empire

have aided the exchange of ideas among Asians,Africans, and Europeans?

-

Connecting Past and Present,The split between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslimsstiliidoms large in Middle East affairs. In 1979,fundamentalist Shi'ite forces overthrew theIranian government. Iranian Shi'ite leaders triedto spread their brand of Islam throughout theMiddle East, but were opposed by the Sunnileaders of other nations. This basic conflict layat the robt of an eight-year war between Iran andIraq that. raged fro!111980 to 1988.

The empires influenced Slavs and Turks.Internal conflicts in time weakened both the By-

zantine and the Islamic empires. Both empires alsofaced the threat of invasion by nomadic groups mi-grating west out of Asia. These were the Slavs andthe Turks (map, page 196).

The Slavs entered eastern Europe from the grassyplains of central Asia and settled in the vast areabetween the Baltic and Black seas. Although theyattacked'the Byzantine empire, the Slavs admired itscivilization. By about 900, they began to convert toChristianity through the tea~hings of Byzantinemissionaries. \

The group of Slavs that dominated their new landwas the Russians. According to legend, their leadershad been hunters from Scandinavia who migratedinto Slavic territory. The Slavs invited these hunters,called Rus, to become their rulers. The year 862 is thetraditional date for the founding of Russia.

The first Russian capita} was the northern city ofNovgorQd (map, page 195). Later princes moved theirheadquarters south to Kiev, which was better locatedfor trade by river with Constantinople. Conversion

24

..Ji:i

Chapter450, 1000

Clovisi c~nversion led to a special partnership betweenthe Frankish kingdom and the Church.

On~ way that the Church adapted to ruralcondi-tions was by building monasteries-communities inwhich Chri_stians gave up their private possessions topursue lives of prayer. Women, called nuns, lived innunneries or convents; men, called monks, lived inmonasterie$. At these centers, men and women livedaccording t~ rules established by a monk namedBenedict Itex,t, page 204}. Benedict and his sisterScholastica sought to bring discipline and:'i produc-tive, religious way of life to monasteries and convents.

Holding this churchly kingdom together was thepope in Rome-the one figure able to span the earthlyand political kingdoms. Gregory I,..who became popein 590, strengthened the visiovof Christendom, as aspiritual community of believers. Amid the collapseof Rome, Gregory made the papacyan office of {!oliticalas well as spiritual power. He negotiated peace tiea~ieswith barbarians such as the Lombards and filled therole of a political leader in Rome. At the same time,he wrote religious books, and s~~nt out missionariessuch as Aug\lstine, who converted the Angles andSaxons in England. The pope thus became the hub ofa vast network that was both political and religipus.

Read and Understand

1. What new ways of life developed in Europe afterthe fall of Rome?

2. . How did Charlemagne revive the idea of empire?3. What were the effects of the Viking invasions?4. How did feudalism provide a government?VOCABULARY monastery, count, feudalism,lord, vas-sal, fief, manor, serf

~

Charlemagne revived the idea of empire.Of the small barbarian kingdoms that arose in

western Europe, the largest and strongest was that ofthe Franks (map, page 2021. The foundations for thegrowth of this kingdom were laid by the Franks'firstChristian king, Clovis. Clovis and his successors,known as the Merovingian dynasty, ruled for almost300 years. Their conquests stren~hcned the king-dom, but the problem of suceession remained aweakness. The kingdom almost fell apart each time aMerovingian king died, as sons competed for power.Because of such civil strife, the real power behind thethrone became the major domo, or mayor of thepalace. The major domo commanded armies andmade policies in the king's name.

In 714, Charles Martel (the "Hammer") becamemayor of the palace. Martel extended the power of theFranks and ended a Muslim push from Spain intoFrance at the Battle of Tours in 732. When he died,Martel passed his power on to his son, Pepin the Short.Pepin, who wanted to become king, shrewdlycooperated with the pope. Pepin agreed to fight the

The Early Middle Ages was an era in which newinstitutions slowly developed to replace those of thefallen Roman empire. It was a time of chaos anddisunity, yet also the beginning of a strong newcivilization. Forces of continuity and change workedto produce new political, economic, and social rela-tionships. Part Roman, part Germanic, early medie-val Europe emerged.New ways of life dev~loped in Europe. .

While the Byzantine empire prospered in the east-ern Roman empire, the western half of the Romanempire belonged to the barbarians-Angles, Visigoths,Franks, Saxons, Jutes, Ostrogoths, and many others.Constant warfare disrupted trade and dealt a death-blow to cities. As Roman centers of government andtrade collapsed, city dwellers fled to the countryside.

As Europe became overwhelmingly rural, learningdeclined. The invaders could not read or write, andfew among the growing peasant class had the chanceto learn. Only priests kept literacy alive, but eventheir Latin was poor by classical standards. As bar-barian languages blended with Latin, regional Romance(Roman-based' languages such as French, Spanish,and Italian replaced the universal Latin.

The linguistic boundaries that emerged through-out western Europe were reflected in politi91 bound-aries. Warring Germanic tribes carved out kingdoms(map, 202) whose borders shifted with the fortunesof war. Family ties and personal loyalty, rather thancitizenship in a public.state, pound Germanic peoplestogether and made centralized rule of a large territory

impossible.While many old unifying forces crumbled, the

Roman Catholic Church stood firm-a symbol ofcontinuity iwa changing world. Missionaries such asSt. Patrick risked their lives to spread the Christianfaith among the barbarians. Some Germanic kings,most notably King Clovis of the Franks, converted..

25

I

j

iJI

,

to the Treaty of Verdun (map, page 210). In latercenturies, the middle region became a battleground.

New wav~s of invaders assaulted and plunderedEurope as ~harlemagne's emp~re waned (map, page ( c,

213). MuslIms from North Afnca threatened south-ern Europe. Magyar barbar~ans from central Asiapushed into eastern Europe. From the north by sea

came the dreaded Vikings.

i, ij'" I"

I 'III!; r! ~

The Vikings were Germanic peoples from thepeninsulas of Scandinavia-the region of today'sNorway; Sweden, and Denmark. They were knownby several names-Northmen and Norsemen, as wellas Vikings. Historians think that'rapid populationgrowth may have led to the search for wealth andplaces to settle. Conflict among local groups mayhave been another reason. The Vikings who firstraided western Europe worshiped pagan gods and tookpride in warlike names such as Eric Bloodaxe.

For 200 years, between about 800 and 1000, theVikings were a threat to the people of E).lrope, raidingvillages from Ireland to Russia. The prayer "Save us,0 God, from the fury of the Northmen," became partof daily worship in Christian Europe. The long, lig4tships of the Vikings enabled them to attack, plunder,and disappear before people could organize resistanceor obt~in help. Some ships sailed up small rivers or (landed in isolated bays. Other ships carried as many as300 warriors-a powerful fighting force that couldattack larger communities. Always, the element ofsurprise added tJthe dread that people felt.

The Vikings were not only warriors. At home, theywere careful farmers. In time, trade followed theroutes once used for raiding. Vikings eventually tradedeast to Russia and Constantinople, south to theMediterranean, and west across the Atlantic. By 900,Vikings had built prosperous settlements in Iceland.From there, explorers sailed west to Greenland andeventually to Newfoundland in North America.

Vikings also settled widely in western Europe-inIreland, the part of France that became known asNormandy, and England. In the early 900's, a Vikingleader gained control of part of Normandy and ruled as

a feudal lord under the French king.During the 900's, as Viking activity shifted from

raiding to trading, settlement, and peaceful rule,people's fear of the Vikings ended. An,other factor ~nthis change was the conversion of the Vikings toChristianity. Finally, a warming of Europe's climateallowed farming in Scandinavia ~d the settlementsin Iceland and Greenland to prosper. The effect was toreduce the need to find new lands for conquest. l[!

~

dangerous Lombards on behalf of the Church. Inexchange, the pope anointed Pepin "king by the graceof God.1I Thus began an informal, often upstablealliance between the popes and the Frankish;kings.

When Pepin died, he left a greatly strengthenedFrankish kingdom to his son, Charles. Charles' 46-year reign marked a high point in Frankish rule. InLatin, Charles became known as Carolus Magnus, orCharles the Great. In French, his nam f became

Charlemagne. Descendents of this dynami king wereknown as the Carolingian dynasty.

Charlemagne built an empire greate in extentthan ally known since the days of imp rial Rome(map, page 208). An imposing fi~re-s. feet, fourinches tall-Charlemagne led his troop in battle inhis many conquests. He believed hi self divinelychosen to spread the Christian faith nd so offeredconquered peoples baptism or death. jthin France,Charlemagne strengthened royal poWer by limitingthe power of his nobles. Wisely, he did not trust hiscounts, or rulers of Frankish counties. He sent outroyal agents to oversee the counts and personallyvisited every part of his kingdom to judge disputes andreward followers. Charlemagne also kept a close eyeon the management of his huge estates-the source ofboth Carolingian wealth and royal power.

One of Charlemagne's greatest achievements washis encouragement of learning. He ordered monasteriesand cathedrals to open sch09ls and encouraged thegrowth of monastery libraries. .

Charlemagne surrounded himself with scholars-English, German, Spanish, and Italian. He desiredtliat his scholars keep alive ancient culture and furtherChurch culture such as the art ,of illumination Ipic-

, ture, page 205). Charlemagne also invited Jews tosettle in his kingdom because they were literate andcould help with the work of government.

By 800, Charlemagne was the most powerful kingin western Europe. In that year, he traveled to Rometo put down an unruly mob that had attacked thepope. In gratitude, the pope placed a crown on

. Charlemagne's head and declared him emperor.News of "the coronation angered Byzantines, who

considered their own emperor the only true Romanruler. The crowning thus marked a further split betweenthe Greek Orthodoi Church of the east and theRoman Catholic Church of the west. Equally importantto later history, a pope had claimed the political ri~tto confer the title IIRoman emperor!' on a particular

, European }<ing.Charlemagne's only surviving son, Louis the Pious,

succeeded Charlemagne as king and emperor. Louis'three sons, how:ever, battled one another for theempire. This civil war caused ,a breakdown in centralauthority. In the end, Charlemagne's grandsons agreed

26

":ii'j

the fields, workshops, and woodlands of the manorIdiagram, page 218)..

Few peasants thought of life beyond the manor.Most were serfs bound to the land. Altho~gh serfscould not be bought or sold like slaves, they could notlawfully leave the manor. Only free peasants had thisright, but they rarely exercised it. In dangerous times,the right to stay-the assurance of food and protection-seemed more important than the freedom to leave.

Both nobles and peasants faced harsh lives. Althoughnobles had more food and warmer clothing thanpeasants, they lived in damp, drafty castles. Peasantsfared even worse. In good years, they ate coarse blackbread and whatever the gardens offered. In years of badharvests, they lived near starvation.

So grueling was life in the Early Middle Ages thatfew people risked trying new ways. Failure oftenmeant death. Yet slowly and over long periods oftime, changes did occur. By 1000, Europe stood poisedfor a revival in farming, government, trade, and learningthat would mark the start of a new era.

Chapter Review

Define monastery, count, feudalism, lord, vassal, fief,manor, serf

Identify Clovis, Gregory I, Charles Martel, Pepin the

Short, Charlemagne

Answer1. How did the Church provide unity and continuity

during the early Middle Ages?2. (a) How did a new political empire develop in wes-

tern Europe? (b) What political roles did the popeassume?

3. How did the role of the Vikings change between800 and 1 ODD?

Critical Thinking4. (a) What was the underlying principle of feudalism?

(b) What various needs of medieval life did it meet?

~

Feudalism became the basis forgovernment.

The decline of Roman institutions and the upheavalcaused by repeated barbarian invasions forcedEuropeans to develop new' patterns of life. Thesesprang up everywhere out of a common need for localgovernment, local protection, and local economicself-sufficiency. The new patterns that emerged weretogether called feudalism-a military, political, andeconomic system based on the holding of land.

At the heart of feudalism was an agreement betweena lord (land-owning noble) and a vassal (a person whoreceived land from a lordl. In exchange for a piece ofland, or fief, a vassal pledge1i to defend the lord against"all men who may live or ~e." To carry out that vow,the vassal in turn raised a private army, often bydividing up his fief among other warrior-vassals(diagram, page 2151.

To visu~lize feudalism, think of a pyramid. At thetop was the king. Next came the most importantvassals, who in turn became lords over other weaker,local vassals. Serving beneath the local lords wereknights-warriors whose lands were too small todivide. At the base of the pyramid were peasants whoowned no land, but did almost all the farm labor.

Feudalism as a system included all landowners-even noblewomen and church leaders. A womanmight inherit a fief from her parents or husband, orshe might control the, land in the name of a young son.In this role, she sent knights to war and commandedthe castle in the absence of a father, husband, or son.Church leaders too formed a part of the feudal system,owing the same military service as any other vassals.

Historians often describe feudalism in politicalterms as a system in which public power becameprivate. Unlike the Greek and Roman idea of publicaffairs, justice and political power_became the privatedomain of individuallordsj held at the local level. Thelord's manor, or landed estate, thus also became apolitical world unto itself.

The manor formed a basic, self-sufficient economicunit. It produced almost everything needed by thosewho lived there. Food, fuel, cloth, leather goods,lumber-these and other items were all produced in;i;~

~27

r Connecting Past a;;d Present; I

Chapter1000-1300

(--Read and Understand1. Why did farming improve and trade revive in the

High Middle Ages?2. What factors enabled Church leaders to wield

great power?3. How did royal governments grow stronger?4. What caused the revival. and spread of learning?5. Why did crusaders launch wars against the

Muslims?VOCABULARY burghers, bourgeoisie, guild, appren-tice, journeyman, cardinaL lay investiture, canonlaw, friar, jury, common law, chivalry, crusade

The era of the High Middle Ages is oft~n known asthe Age of Faith, symbolized by the to-wering cathe-drals of that time. It WilS an age of many otheraccomplishments also. New methods of farming andthe revival of trade improved economic conditions.While church leaders still held great power, new royalgovernments were gaining strength. The effects of thespread of learning and chivalry were offset by themilitary/religious ventures of the Crusades.

Townspeople formed a new social class in medie-val society. They were not nobles, priests, or peas-ants, and thus were not an integral part of the feudalsystem. Instead they became a new element as dwellersin walled towns called burghs. Ifl France, these burghdwellers, or burghers, were called the bourgeoisie, aname that came to mean middle class.

Because Jews never belonged to the feudal system,they too moved to the towns. There, they did workChristians could not or would not do. Because theChurch forbade money lending, Jews often becamebankers and merchants. By earning profits frominterest, they accumulated money to invest in long-distance trade. These two sources of revenue-bank-ing and trade-became the lifeblood of the new towns.

The selling of goods in towns often took place atfairs. Local fairs took place in towns with cathedrals.There, religious pilgrims could buy goods from arti-sans and traders anxious to sell their wares.

As towns grew, guilds developed to control crafts,prices,. and trade. A guild was an association of peoplewho worked at the same occupation. Only guildmembers could practice a given trade within a town.

(Membership was regulated by a strict system of ap-prenticeship in which parents paid a master a fee totrain their child. The young apprentice worked with-out wages from 3lto 12 years. At the end of thatperiod, the apprentice became a wage-earning jour-neyman who strove to complete a '!master piece"-the final step in winning membership in a guild.

Towns, being outside the feudal system, providedtheir citizens with certain freedoms. Townspeoplewere not vassals bound by bonds of loyalty and service.Many serfs from the manors sought freedom byrunning away to the towns. According to a saying ofthe times, "Town air makes you free."

Religious leaders wielded great power.

The Church had preserved civilization during theEarly Middle Ages. However, it also suffered thedisruptions of the times and the corruption thatsometimes comes with great power. However, theperiod between 1000 and 1300 was one of growth andreform. The founding of a new monastery at Cluny forreligious study and reform led the way. Other newreligious orders sought to improve conditions in theeveryday world. Reforms within the Church sought

Farming improved and trade revived.Change filled the air in the years 1000-1300 as a

new Europe emerged from the chaos of the EarlyMiddle Ages. New royal families came to power andcreated glittering, courts. Religious leaders reformedand strengthened the Church. Perhaps the mostimportant changes took place in agriculture.

The struggle for survival gave way to greater securityin living after about 1000. This change came aboutthrough humble improvements in farming thattogether increased the supply of food, New plows,improved harnesses, and the use of horses in place ofoxen helped (0 increase harvests. Also, villages beganto adopt a new method of farming called the three-field system Idiagram, page 224) that increased theamount of land under cultivation.

One result of the greater and better supply of foodwas an increase in population. In the course of threecenturies, the population of western Europe grewfrom around 30 million to 42 million. As Europe'spopulation increased, the surplus 'rural populationbegan moving to the towns. Although small in com-parison to great cities like Constantinople or Bagh-dad, EurQpe's towns became powerful forces of change.

(28

J

Although the king was still what people called "firstamong equals," royal power was on the rise.

In England, kingship expanded through foreignconqu~!tt. In 1066, the mounted knights of FrenchDuke William of Normandy invaded England andsoundly 4efeated the English foot soldiers of England'sKing Harold at the Battle of Hastings. William thenstripped the English lords of their lands and declaredEngland hi~ personal realm. He kept one fifth ofEngtand for himself and distributed the rest of theland as fiefs to some 200 loyal supporters. In a singlestroke, William created the most centralized feudalkingdom in Europe. Henry II, great-grandson ofWilliam the Conqueror, further expanded the king'spower through the use of royal courts and theintroduction of the jury. A jury was a group of localpeople who answered questions about cases broughtbefore a royal judge. The use of royal courts and'junesreduced the importance of the lords' feudal courts. Italso in time provided a body of common law, the lawsshared by the whole kingdom.

French kings, too, looked for ways to expand theirpower. The breakup of Charlemagne's empire had leftFrance divided into about 30 feudal territories. In 987,when the last Carolingian died, French nobles choseone of them, the duke Hugh Capet, as king. Althoughweak, the Capetians succeeded as rulers by survivingwithout civil wars or rival claims to the throne. In theRrocess, the Capetians tightened their grip on theirown land, the fertile and centrally located regionaround Paris. From there, they expanded their power.

German kings fared worse than those of England.and France. German nobles continued to boast thatthey held the right to elect the king. As a result, noclear dynasty emerged after the death of the lastCarolingian. The strongest monarch in medievalGermany was Otto I, elected king in 936. Ottocemented his power base by turning to bishops andabbots of the Church for support. He dominated theChurch in Germany, and used this power to defeatunruly German princes. Otto then invaded Italy onthe pope's behalf. In return, the pope crowned Ottoemperor of what became the Holy Roman Empire.

Otto's efforts caused trouble for future Germa,nemperors who faced the wrath of Italian popes and ofnobles who resented German intrusions into Italy.One of his successors, Frederick Barbarossa ("redbeard" 1 used such brutal tactics in Italy that the popeand Italian merchants formed the Lombard League tooppose him~ When Frederick returned home in defeat,he found that the German nobles had whittled awayat..his power and dashed his hopes for a unitedGermany. Unlike England and France, therefore, Ger-many did not become a unified country at this time

(map, page 2351.

to end certain abuses. Church officials hoped to endthe influence of lords and kings by ordering theelection of popes at a meeting of leading bishopscalled cardinals. They also strove to end threewidespread practices: the marriage of priests, thebuying and selling of church offices, and lay investiture,or ceremoriies in which kings or nobles assignedchurch offices to people whom they could control.

Needless to say, these reform efforts sparkedconflicts between kings and popes. The most famoustook place in the 1070's between Pope Gregory VIIand Henry IV, emperor of Germany. Henry angrilyproclaimed the right to oversee German bishops,whom he had invested. Gregory, in turn,excommunicated Henry. Henry's bishops thus had tochose between loyalty to their earthly lord and totheir spiritual lord. They, together with the feudalprinces in Germany, chose to support the pope. Henrysaw that his position was hopeless. In winter, hecrossed the Alps to Italy to beg the pope's forgiveness.

In the 1100's and 1200's, th,e Church resembled akingdom. It was governed by a single ruler Ithe popelfrom a central capitalIRome). It retained a staff ofadvisers and diplomats and operated a system ofcourts. All Christians were subject to canon law, thelaw of the Church. Churches alto collected taxes. Onetenth of each family's income went to the Church.

As part of its spiritual role, the Church sought tosearch out heretics. The leading arm in the waragainst heresy was the Inquisition, an organizationassigned to finding and judging heretics. In the courseof its work, the Inquisition imprisoned, tortured, andexecuted thousands of people suspected of differingwith Church teachings. Gentler agents in the fightagainst heresy were wandering friars such as theDominicans and Franciscans. Through their simple,devout lives, they carried on the Church's work ofstudying religion and preaching to the poor.

In the Age of Faith, however, most people did notneed the Inquisition or the friars to prQmpt religiousfeelings. Their spiritual energy found expression inthe great Gothic cathedrals of this age. Now the old,thick-walled Romanesque churches gave way tomassive yet .delicate structures with soaring towers.Ribbed vaults, flying buttresses, and pointed archesldiagram, page 232) guided the eyes of worshiperstoward the heavens-and God. Each stained-glasswindow and carving made every cathedral whatscholars have called a "Bible for the poor."

; I11

Royal governments grew stronger.The prosperity of the High Middle Ages came, in

part, from peace. By 1000, the Viking, Muslim, andMagyar invasions had ended and order began to return.

29

reunite Catholics and Byzantines under one RomanCatholic banner. Knights sought to aid the Churchand to gain adventure and plunder. Merchants, whohelped pay for later Crusades, hoped to open trade

(with cities in the eastern Mediterranean.Starting in 1096 and ending in 1291, there were

eight official Crusades and countless unofficial onesImap, page 243). Throughout the battles, control ofthe Holy Land shifted between Christians and Turks.The fighting caused terrible suffering and the slaugh-ter of Jerusalem's peoples. The Fourth Crusade endedin the sacking of Constantinople by the crusaders.

The Crusades had brought together all the forcesof Europe's revival-religion, feudalisJ,n, and chiv-alry Ichait, page 2451. When their explosive energyfinally burned out in about 1300, the Middle Agesdrew to a close and an age of new natfon:statesunfolded.

Chapter Review

(1IIIl

Learning revived and spread.Prior to the 1100's, learning belonged largely to

monks and church officials. During the Higir Middle.Ages, this situation chang~d as literacy grew andspread to people outside the Church. At the,; center ofthis expansion of learning stood the university, aninstitution new to Europe. Athens, Baghdad, andConstantinople all had their universities, but suchcenters had not existed in western Europe. By the endof the 1100's, universities appeared in Paris,France,and Bologna, Italy.

The first university classes met in rented rooms,where students shared handwritten books. Because,paper and ink were scarce, students read books aloudand took exams orally. With a bacheior's degreefollowed by a master's degree, a scholar' could t~achanywhere in Europe.

An exciting aspect of learning in the High MiddleAges was the recovery of works by ancient scholars.Books once thought lost in the collapse of Rome hadbeen preserved by Arab scholars. Trade with theMuslims and the Byzantine empire now brought thegreat classical works to western Europe.

Classical writings both excited and troubledChristian scholars. The Greeks and Romans, whowere pagan peoples, had based their ideas on theirown power of reasoning. Could reason co-exist withfaith in the Bible? Yes, said a Dominican scholarnamed Thomas Aquinas. In a colossal work called theSumma Theologiae, Aquinas used reason to defendChurch beliefs about God and the universe. Reasonthus became a foundation of faith.

Learning also revived outside the Church. Heroicpoems about famous warriors, such as the Song ofRoland, created an interest in more popular literaryworks. These, poems reflected a complex set ofmedieval ideals known as chivalry. This code taughtknights to fight bravely in defense of their feudallord~their lady, and their he~venly Lord. Chivalry, togetherwith the idea of romantic love, led to a change in therole of wdmen, placing women on a pedestal. Theresult was that womens' lives became increasinglylimited to hon1e or convent. They exercised poweronly when their husbands went to war.

Define burghers, bourgeoisie, guild, apprentice,journeyman, cardinal, lay investiture, canon law, friar,jury, common law, chivalry, crusade

Identify Gregory VII, Henry IV, William of Normandy,Battle of Hastings, Hugh Capet, Otto I, Lombard League,Song of Roland, Thomas Aquinas, Crusades

Answer1. (a) What improvements in farming took plac~ in the

High Middle Ages? (b) What were their effects?2. How did popes centralize the ppwer of the Church?3. (a) How did kings in England and France increase

their powers?b) Why did Germany r~main divided?4..' (a) What changes occurred in learning during the

High Middle Ages? (b) What were their effects?

Critical Thinking5. In what ways did the Crusades demonstrate the

me'dieval spirit?

Connecting Past and Present

Disunity has characterized Germanythroughout its long history..Not until 1870 didthe states of northern and central Germanycombine to form a single nation with one gov-ernment. The quest for unity and national glory,however, opened the way for military expansionand the evil Nazi dictatorship of Adolf Hitler.After World War il, Germany was divided intotwo parts, Communist East Ge~any anddemocratic West Germany. In 1989, the fall ofthe Communist government once again raisedthe question of reunification. Could the twoparts, with different ways and values, success-fully combine again?

Crusaders marched against Islam.In 1096, between 50,000 and 60,000 knights joined

the crusade, or march eastward to recapture Jerusa-lem and the Holy Land from the Turks. The knightswere crusaders, fighters for a holy cause and the high-est expression of medieval chivalry.

What were the goals of the Crusades? Christianseverywhere wanted to free the birthplace of Jesus. Thepope hoped to expand the Church's influence and to (30

1'11::1

~

.~

Read and Understand

1. How did England and France develop as n.ations?2. What crises weakened the Church in the 1300's?3. What major hardships 'did Europeans face in the

1300's?4. How did the new monarchs differ from feudal

kings?5. How did Russia become an empire?VOCABULARY nation-state, nationalism, czar, boyar

During the four centuries from the mid-1100's tothe late 1500's, the feudal world began to give way asnew institutions and problems arose. England andFrance emerged as nation-states, while the power ofthe universal Church was weakened by internaldivisions. Plague-the terrible Black Death-andwar-the prolonged Hundred Years' War-over-shadowed western Europe in the 1300's. The 1400'ssaw the new nations-inc~ding Spain-inspired by afeeling of national unity and loyalty. Russia too becamea nation, though isolated and remote.

t England and France developed asnations.

I

In the 1200's, England and France, which had beeninterconnected by feudal lands and obligations, beganto follow separate paths. Henry II of England had beenthe feudal lord 11154-1189) of more than half ofFrance. These holdings, however, were lost by hissecond son, John, to the king of France, Philip II..

King John's loss of lands in France turned out tobenefit England in unsuspected ways. It forced theNorman feudal lords in England to decide whether tokeep their English lands or their French ones. This setthe stage for the two nations' separate development.

In order to pay for his wars with France, Johnneeded the support of his nobles, the barons, forhigher taxes. In exchange for that support, the baronsin 1215 forced John to sign a document that limitedhis power and protected certain rights of the barons.This Magna Carta, or Great Charter, stated that taxescould be levied only with common consent and thatpeople arrested or imprisoned had the right to theprotection of the law, or due process of law. Under-lying the whole document was the idea of limitedmonarchy-that the law was above the king. Themain ideas contained in the Magna Carta-no taxa-tion without consent, due process of law, and gov-

ernment limited by law-would in time shape thedevelopment of government in England. They wouldlater become the cornerstone of a new type of gov-ernment in the United States (Turning Point,. pages250-2511.

The year 1295 saw a further limitation on royalpower in England. Edward I was an able monarch whoimproved administration and strengthened the royalcourts. He also sought to gain the financial support ofthe middle class so as to limit his dependence on thebarons. When the king needed to raise-faxes,. hesummoned commoners as well as lords to a meetingknown as the Model Parliament. Thereafter,. com-moners-knights and burgesses-as well as the nobleswere members of all Parliaments called to discussnew taxes.

While England was limiting the power of its kings,.strong kings moved to centralize their power in France.Louis IX-Saint Louis,. who had a passion for justiceand a reputation for fairness,. created a supreme courtfor France. This action strengthened the monarchywhile weakening feudal ties. In 1302,. Philip IV invitedrepresentatives of the middle class,. as well as lordsand bishops-to a parliamentary council he called theEstqtes General. (Church leaders made up the iirstEstate,. feudal lords the Second Estate,. and the middleclass the Third Estate. 1 As with England"s Parliament,.the Estates General weakened the power of the nobilityand increased that of the middle class.

Between 1300 and 1500,. traditional feudal tiesslowly dissolved in England and France. Each countrymoved toward becoming a nation-state-a group ofpeople occupying a definite territory,. with one gov-ernment and 3; unified culture. In time,. loyalty to thenation replaced the old feudal ties.

The Church faced a crisis in the I 300' s.Just as feu&l ties weakened after 1300, so did the

power of the Church. Pope Boniface VIll, an able butstubborn leader, tried to force the kings and emperorsto obey him as they had obeyed earlier popes. He didnot realize that those earlier power struggles hadweakened the prestige of his office, while royal powerwas growing. The result was a series of disagreementsbetween popes and kings that further weakened papal

power.The first quarrel, between Philip IV of France and

Boniface VIII, concerned the taxing of Church ~roperty.I31

(

When Boniface declared that the tax was wrong becausethe pope's power was supreme, the king had hissoldiers kidnap the pope. Boniface died as a result.

Philip then persuaded the Church I s cardinals toelect a French bishop as pope. This pope, Clement V,moved the papacy to Avignon in France and ruledfrom there. Later, in another conflict qver the papacy,two popes were chosen and installed. This divisionwas called the Great Schism. It ended in 1417 when aChurch council elected Martin V as the sole pope.

Episodes such as the move to Avignon and theGreat Schism led many people to ask where trueauthority in religion resided. In the late 1300's and1400's, an English professor'named John Wycliffe anda Bohemian (Czech! professor named John Huss taughtthat the Bible, not the pope, was the final authority forChristians. To help believers read the Bible, bothscholars translated it from Latin into their native

language.Because the popes he criticized were French,

Wycliffe became a national hero in England. He diedpeacefully in 1384. Huss met a different end. By thejudgment of the Church's Council of Constance, hewas burned at the stake for heresy in 1412. YetWycliffe and Huss had sown the seeds of a greatchange that in the 1500's would further weaken theChurch-the movement known as the Reformation.

The 1300's brought plague and war.

The conflict began in 1337 over an English king'sclaims to lands in France. Fought almost entirely QnFrench soil, this war lasted on and off until 1453jmap, page 260). Like the Black Death, this HundredYears' War, weakened feudal practices and values.

The Hundred Years' War illustrated the new feelingof nationa1ism-a loyalty to one's country and peoplethat cut across class lines. Kings :were now truenational leaders, not merely the strongest feudal lords.English national pride soared in 1415 when Henry Vand his 8,000 soldiers defeated 50,000 French troops (at Agincourt.

The French found their great national hero in a 17-year-old shepherd girl, Joan of Arc. In 1429, while shewas tending he' father's sheep, Joan heard voicestelling her to drive the English out of France. Joanpersuaded the French crown prince, Charles, to giveher command of an army. On May 7, 1429, Joan ledFrench troops to victory against the English at Orleans.The victory enabled the prince to be crowned as KingCharles VII. It also awakened France's nationalisticspirit and its resolve to win.

In 1430, Joan was captured by the English and laterburned at the stake as a witch and a heretic.jIn 1920the Church retracted the judgment of heresy anddeclared Joan a saint.) Nonetheless, Charles wasinspired to win back almost all of France by 1453.England lost all its remaining feudal lands in Franceexcept the seaport of Calais:

New monarchs ruled in western Europe.A new type of monarch ruled in the new nation-

states of western Europe. The rulers who came topower between 1450 and 1500 no longer relied solelyon the structures of feudalism such as feudal dues andvassal lords and ~nights. Inste~d, theyhad ~ew sour~es (.of power. These Included taxatIon, professIonal armIes

The 1300's were marked fiy a series of disasters inEurope. Declining fertility in the soil led to smallercrops, while a period of co~d caused smaller harvestsand fam,ine. Worst of all, however, was the plague.

In 1347, four trading ships from the Black Seabrought to Italy a horrible new disease, the plaguecalled the Black Death. Its victims were identified byblack swellings at the neck and joints. The plaguekilled 25 million people, one third of Europe'spopulation, in five years. The plague returnedperiodically-in 1361, 1369, 1374, 1390, and on'intothe 1600's. European society was torn apart as wholevillages were wiped out.

The decline in population had far-reaching effects.A shortage of workers crippled the manor economy.No longer, was there a large supply o~peasants andserfs bound to the manor. As workers became scarce,peasants began to demand higher wages. Serfdombegan to disappear.

The nobles resisted peasant demands for higherwages. In return, many peasants revolted, sometimeskilling their lords. Although the nobles succeeded inruthlessly putting down the revolts, the ideal societyof the Middle Ages had vanished.

As if the plague were not enough, war too broke outand devastated France and England (text, page 2581.

32

: Decline of Feudalism,

Causes EffectsNew weapons such Endedwanare based on knights

: as the longbow and walled castles! and cannoni Rise of Trade Revival of cities and growth of aI middle class

Decline of self-sufficient manorsand rise of fairs

Start of a market

Economy

Increased the importance ofmiddle class and weakened tiesbetween kings and nobles

Development ofparliaments

Redirected loyalties to one'sland and peop)e

Nationalism andnew monarchs

~

ruled from 1462 to 1505. (Constantinople had fallento the Turks in 1453.1 After marrying the niece of thelast Byzantine emperor, Ivan began calling himselfczar, the Russian word for caesar. In 1480, Ivanrefused to pay the Mongols' tribute, and Russiantroops faced down a Mongol army. His kingdom wasthereafter free of Mongol control (map, page2661. IvanIII, called Ivan the Great, tripled his empire's size.

The next important Russian czar-Ivan IV, or Ivanthe Terrible-reigned from 1533 to 1584. King at theage of three, Ivan watched the power struggles betweenhis mother, who ruled for him, and the boyars (nobles)who sought to control the throne.

Until he was 30, Ivan expanded his kingdom throughvictories against the Mongols. Within Russia, heruled justly and established a code of laws. Then, in

. 1560, his beloved wife Anastasia died. Iv,an's "goodperiod" was over and his "bad period" had begun. Ivanbecame extremely cruel, organizing a private policeforce to hunt down thousands of boyars andcommoners. He was succeeded by weaker rulers.

Chapter Review

drawn from every class, and educated middle-classofficials allied with the kings against the nobles.

Before a new monarch could take power in England,the country had to endure a civil war. In the Wars ofthe Roses (1455-14851, the families of Lancaster andYork fought for the crown. The death of Richard ill in1485 marked the end of those wars and also the end ofEngland's medieval period. The new king, HenryTudor, known as Henry VII, was related to bothfamilies. As king, Henry encouraged trade and chosehis ministers from the middle class (chart, page 2631.He also avoided wars, limited the power of the nobles,and made himself the richest man in England.

New monarchs also appeared in Spain. In the 1400'sone Muslim and four Christian kingdoms occupiedthe Iberi~ peninsula (map, page 2641. The marriageof Isabella of Castile to Ferdinand of Aragon, in 1469,brought the two largest Christian kingdoms intoalliance. Their objective was to unite Spain as aCatholic nation. First, they determined to achieve theReconquista-the reconquering of ~ll Spain forChristianity. In 1492, Isabella led her army in capturingthe Muslim kingdom of Granada.

That same year, Isabella and Ferdinand ordered allSpain's Jews either to ronvert to Christianity or toleave the country. Three quarters of the Jews-about150,OOG-left Spain to live in other countries. Still notcontent, Isabella and Ferdinand revived the Inquisitionto discover and torture Jews and Muslims who hadconverted to Christianity. The loss of its Jewish andMuslim.populations united Spain religiously. At thesame time it hurt Spain economically, intellectually,anq artistically because most Jews and Muslims hadbelonged to the educated or the middle class.

edI.

gC

Define nation-state, nationalism, czar, boyar

Identify Magna Carta, Model Parliament, Boniface.VIII, Philip IV, Great Schism, John Wycliffe, John Huss,Black Death, Hundred Years' War, Joan of Arc, HenryVII, Ferdinand and Isabella, Ivan III, Ivan the Terrible

Answer1. How did England and France differ in their early

development as nations? A,

2. (a) How was papal power in the 1300's challengedby a king? (b) By two scholars?

3. How did the natu!e of warfare change during theHundred Years' War?

4. What three major sources of power did the newmonarchs of the 1400's develop?

Critical Thinking5. What factors enabled Moscow to become the

dominant Russian kingdom?:r

0

d

IS

3. '

:e

Connecting Past and PresentIf the 1400's was an age of powerful new kings

in Europ'e, the twentieth century saw the near-extinction of monarchy there. World War Ismashed royalty in Italy, Germany, and Austria-

Hungary.Today the European nations of the United

Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Belgium,and the Netherlands are constitutionalmonarchies. The monarchs of these nations havelittle real power. They serve as symbols of thestate and of national pride.

to

Iy

.1d

es

e.<l

A new empire arose in Russia.As nation-states were developing in western Europe,

another nation was taking shape in eastern Europe.Russia in the early 1200's was a Slavic kingdomcentered in the city of Kiev and greatly influenced bythe Byzantine empire. In 1240 the Mongols, fiercenomadic horsemen from Central Asia, slashed theirway 1nto Russia and destroyed the government atKiev. Elsewhere, the Mongols allowed the variousSlavic princes to continue ruling as long as they paidtribute.

The state of Mescow, in the northern forests,suffered less from Mongol raids than did southernRussia. Located near the headwaters of three greatrivers, it had the potential to control most of Russia'strade. Under the Mongols, the princes of Moscow roseto increased power. In 1328, a prince known as Ivan Ibegan to take over neighboring states. By the 1400's,Moscow was the strongest of the Russian states.

Russia became a true empire under Ivan ill, who

3

".

..¥,,'.

(

{

!, i i

'")I'11I'! ~

) :,

;: J! I, 1.[

I

Social Institutions The decline of Rome stimu-lated the development of new social institutions. Anew system known as feudalism became the basisfor medieval society. Feudalism was based on per-sonal bonds of loyalty between lords and their vas-sals. The great majority of people in medieval Europe,however, were neither lords nor vassals. Most peoplewere serfs, who lived on small, self-sufficientmanors.

Feudalism and manorialism provided stable socialand economic structures that enabled western Eu-tope to revive. During the later Middle Ages; kingsbegan to expand their power by slowly combiningtheir lands into unified kingdoms. By the early1500's, powerful nation-states were emerging in En-gland, France, and Spain.

The Rise of Democratic Ideas The Magna Cartaand the creation of Parliament in England markedimportant milestones in the rise of democratic ideas.The Magna Carta established the principles of lim-ited monarchy, due process of law, and the need forcommon consent to levy taxes. Since the MagnaCarta required "the common consent" of the king-dom to raise taxes, Edward I called together the lordsand representatives from the' knights and burgesses.His Model Parliament further limited the monarchyand established the principle of representation of cer-tain groups of the common people.

.Analuzing Historical Themes

l11e ~iddle J\ges provide an iDlportant exaDlpleof how continuity and change helped shape new so-cial institutions. They also Dlade significant contri-butions to the rise of deDlocratic ideas.

Continuity and Change Western Europe, the By-zantine eDlpire, and the IslaDlic eDlpire all eDlerged£rODl the ruins of the RoDlan eDlpire. The processesof continuity and change played an iDlportant rolein shaping the distinctive characteristics of each

region.The Byzantine eDlpire consciously preserved

RoDle's political heritage. The eDlperors saw theDl-selves as the rightful heirs to the power of J\ugustus.For exaDlple, Justinian's faDlous code drew upon thelaws and opinions' of RODle's greatest legal writers.While the Byzantines Dlaintained RoDle's politicalauthority, they gradually developed a new branch ofChristianity known as the Eastern Orthodox Church.l11e religious division between RoDle and Constan-tinople becaDle final when the pope and the Byzan-tine patriarch excoDlDlunicated each other in 1054.

The collapse of RoDle had a devastating iDlpact onwestern Europe. The barbarian invasions disruptedtrade, destroyed towns, and dealt a serious blow tolearning. By the year 600, priests were the only Eu-ropeans who were literate. While RoDle's politicalauthority vanished, the RoDlan Catholic Church sur-vived and becaDle the Dlain civilizing force in west-ern Europe.

The sudden eDlergence of IsiaDl had a decisive iDl-pact. upon the ~editerranean world. During the longyears of RoDlan rule, the lands surrounding the ~ed-iterranean had adopted Greco- RoDlan culture and theChristian religion. The IslaDlic conquests split the~editerranean area into rival regions controlled byChristians and ~usliDls. The IslaDlicfaith and A.rabculture provided the ~usliDl world with strongbonds that still exist today.

1. Give examples of how the processes of continuityand change affected western Europe, the Byzantineempire, and the Islamic empire.

2. Name two institutions that helped shape Europeanlife during the early Middle Ages.

3. What key democratic principles were establishedby the Magna Carta and the Model Parliament?

c

34