Worldology

-Christians churches controlled information, beliefs, and attitudes -Church becomes the most influential force in Medieval Europe -Kings gain political advantage if align with Church, and Church receive lands, wealth, and influence in the kingdom -Absolute authority à natural for Christian people to believe in their “divinely” appointed king, through the Pope
 * 1. ** **__ Impact of Christianity (490-600) __**
 * Roman Catholic in the West
 * Eastern Orthodox in Byzantine
 * The Franks, Visigoths, and Lombard converted to Roman Catholicism and remained in power


 * 2. ** **__ Reign of Charles Martel and Viking Raids (600-755) __**

-Founder of the Great Carolingian Dynasty; expanded the Frankish Empire to cover most of Europe -1st Frankish leader to consolidate Frankish power->most powerful kingdom of Medieval Europe -Pioneer the use of newly-advanced stirrups, introduce concepts of heavy infantry and permanent army to Medieval Europe à military advantage that gave to domination of much of Europe
 * Charles Martel (718-741)**

-Factors: -Around 600, began raiding the unprotected coastal lands of Britain and northern mainland
 * Viking Raids**
 * Warn weather makes it easier to travel longer distances by sea
 * No culture or religion stops them from acting this way
 * Scandinavia was becoming over populated, and farming couldn’t support the population
 * Monasteries were target because usually undefended and contained valuables
 * Slaves were also captures

-Reasons for the Rise
 * 3. ** **__ The Rise of the Franks (755-850) __**
 * Military advantages: pioneered advance stirrups for cavalry, closer contact to the Romans gave better military technology advantages, heavily armored infantry à first permanent, professional army in Europe
 * Geo-politics: expand from home territory, quick to convert to Roman Catholicism therefore easily accepted by Roman population, not threaten much by Biking Raids because of location
 * Politics: didn’t force high aces on conquered territories, allowed fair amount of local autonomy
 * Centralization: Clovis murdered all of his siblings and families of other tribes to consolidate rule and resulted in a single powerful nation
 * Leadership: successive, highly charismatic, and capable leaders like Clovis, Martel, and Charlemagne

-a military, economic, and social order; monarch grants feudal lords land in exchange for military service -Knights and peasants given smaller pieces of land in exchange for loyalty and military service -peasant were property of feudal lords à serfdom
 * 4. ** **__ Feudalism (840-967) __**
 * Create unified military protection


 * 5. ** **__ Christianity and the High Middle Ages and Expansion of holy Roman Empire (967-1060) __**

-Christianity dominated the continent -By 10th and 11th centuries, all barbaric people in Europe had been Christianized -Christian Crusades revive interest in Asia, stimulating Asian trade, and introducing Islamic science and enlightenment into Europe -Religion transcends nationalism and other loyalties -Belief in individual is serving a greater purposes helps large empires to further expand
 * Christianity and the High Middle Ages**

-Starting with Otto I the Great, the German Emperors were also called themselves the Holy Roman Emperors were able to control ecclesiastic authorities, appoint clergy, and even the pope himself -HRE remained decentralized; dukes have the ability to rule their own duchies within the empire
 * Holy Roman Empire** **Expansion**
 * This allow them to gain support for expansion to places such as Law Countries, Kingdom of Burgundy, Bohemia, Austria and Italy
 * 6. ** **__ Effects of the Crusades, Norman conquest of England and Magna Carta (1060-1240) __**

-Senseless Violence and Wars: -Undermining Church Moral Authority: -Distrust of Christians -Opened Way for Future Muslim Conquests of Europe -Asian Influence -Increased Anti-Semitism
 * Effects of the Crusades**
 * Christianity must displace Islam and Judaism at all costs, even if through violence
 * Death tool was mainly Christians and Muslims on the march around the Mediterranean
 * After captured Jerusalem, Muslim and Jewish residents were slaughtered, including women
 * Slaughter of Jews and Muslims were later used during the Protestant Reformation began in the 16th century, convincing many that the Roman Catholic Church was not the moral authority they pretended to be
 * Christians developed a ruthless and exploitive reputation due to killing Jews and Muslims
 * Animosity grew between Roman Catholics and Byzantine; Crusaders were compelled to conquer Constantinople with papal authority. This weakened Byzantine and gave way for the Ottoman to invade. Eastern Europe fell after that to the Ottoman Empire
 * Increase Europe’s knowledge of Asia; helped bring more cosmopolitan influence and may have gave way to the Renaissance
 * Loyalty to church rise as membership spread throughout Europe à Jew was an obvious target, Jewish communities destroyed, and slaughtered

-Normans from Normandy conquered England -Normans became ruling class of England
 * Norman Conquest of England (1066)**

-First step toward democracy since the end of Rome -King failed to keep economically important territories in France and abuse monarch powers à nobles frustrated -Nobles match into London, force King John to agree to the document ensuring certain rights
 * Magna Carta (1215)**

-Forced West -Superior Military Technology -Strengthening Numbers -Learned Diplomacy -Europe’s Weakened Condition · Perfect timing, Black Death plague was weakening Europe
 * 7. ** **__ Why the Golden Horde was able to dominate Europe and the Black Death Plague (1240-1350) __**
 * Why the Golden Horde was able to dominate Europe**
 * Unusual dry weather, for trade, and agriculture suffered in Asia
 * Advantage in horsemanship skills and superior bows because live nomadic lifestyle
 * Force conquered territories to join their force or die
 * Russian were afraid and submitted to their rule, with fair amount of autonomy, steep taxes and tribute were extracted
 * Opened to science and government philosophies through trade route from Europe to Asia
 * Government philosophies enhanced their ability to diplomatically appease conquered people
 * Mongols may have introduced the plague

-Great Famine of 135-317 -1347-Black Death (Bubonic Plague) Hits Europe -Social Consequences
 * Black Death Plague**
 * Bad weather in the spring of 1315 caused mass crop failures in Europe
 * Caused death of several million; high levels of criminal activity, murder, diseases and cannibalism
 * Wars were interrupted
 * Killed estimated 75 million, about half of European population
 * Caused by a bacterium found in rats in Central Asia
 * Introduced to the Arab and European worlds by invading Mongols, through trade and conflicts
 * Continued to reoccur in Europe on a much smaller scale but did disappearing completely in the 19th century
 * Increased Persecution of the Jews: blamed Jews for the plague, some Jewish settlements were exterminated
 * Peasant Revolts: peasant revolts became common because gov’t unable to stop plague; nobles and monarchs instituting wage controls when it should have increased
 * Papal Authority Weakens: Black Death was saw as a curse, but Church was powerless to stop it à contributed to philosophical questioning and critical analysis of the world
 * Lower-Class Leverage and Enlightenment: peasants benefit from higher wages due to the labor shortage; Renaissance and Enlightenment; people later seek academic knowledge rather than being superstition because it is clearly useless during the plague