Christian Europe Emerges, 600-1200

1
Christian Europe Emerges,600-1200

• Chapter 9

2
The Byzantine Empire

• 600-1200

3
An Empire Beleaguered

• Christianity was adopted by Byzantine Emperors
• A single ruler had supreme power over religion
  and law
• Kept the eastern part of the old Roman Empire
  together

4

• Byzantines Enemies
• Arab armies took Byzantine Egypt, Syria and
  Tunisia between 634 and 650
• By 1100, 2/3 of the people in these formerly
  Christian lands were Muslim
• The empire fell to Muslim conquests by 1453
• Germanic, Slavic and Turkic in the north
• Seljuk Turks in the south

5

• Byzantines relationship with Europe
• The patriarchs of Constantinople questioned the
  Popes authority in their territory
• 1054 - There was a schism, or formal split
  between the Latin Church and Orthodox Church

6
Society and Urban Life

• The 500s Bubonic plague swept the area
• It was referred to as the Plague of Justinian
• Justinian was the emperor who ruled from 527-565
• Led to urban population decrease
• Barter replaced money transactions
• Urban wealth declined/the elite class shrank

7

• The power of remaining aristocrats and landowners
  increased
• The Byzantine government controlled all aspects
  of the economy
• May have slowed technological developments and
  economic innovations

8

• Constantinople seemed to thrive, while rural
  areas saw no improvement in technology
• Ex. Byzantine farmers were using old fashioned
  scratch plows while Western Europeans had begun
  using better technology
• Constantinople was seen by visitors to be a
  showcase of religion and prosperity on the
  surface, but was dark and lawless in reality.

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Cultural Achievements

• Hagia Sophia
• Constantinoples greatest architectural
  achievement

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• Also created lasting styles of painting and music
• Cyrillic writing
• Cyril and Methodius
• Orthodox missionaries that developed a writing
  system used by the Slavs that converted to
  Orthodox Christianity
• Still used by Russians and Slavs of the Orthodox
  faith

11
Early Medieval Europe

• 600-1000

12
A Time of Insecurity

• 711-Arabs and Berbers crossed the Strait of
  Gibraltar and took over the Visigoth kingdom in
  Spain
• They then moved into France.
• 732 Charles Martel (Charlemagnes Grandfather)
  stopped them

13

• The Carolingian family (Charles Martels) comes
  to power
• Pepin (Martels son) ruled from 751-768
• Under Pepin and Charlemagne, the Carolingian
  Empire contained Gaul (France), part of Germany
  and part of Italy
• The empire was split into three parts when
  Charlemagnes son, Louis the Pious died
• French speaking in the west (France) and the
  Middle (Burgundy) and German speaking in the east
  (Germany).

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• 793 a new threat
• Vikings, sea raiders from Scandinavia, began
  attacking the northern coasts of Europe and along
  the coasts of the North Sea.
• Pillaged monasteries, villages and towns
• Vikings had versatile ships
• Sails and oars
• Could sail in the stormy North Atlantic
• And could maneuver up rivers
• Between 800 and 1000 they settled Iceland,
  Greenland, and Vinland

15
A Self Sufficient Economy

• Germanic rule of the old Roman Empire
• Cities shrank
• Roads fell into disuse and disrepair
• Bartering rather than paying with coins
• Decline in literacy rates, allowed new Germanic
  customs to take over

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• Most of Western Europe began to rely on local
  resources
• Food shipments from territories like Egypt and
  Syria (that had been taken over by Muslims) were
  reduced.
• Manors became the primary centers of agricultural
  production
• A manor was self sufficient
• Had fields, gardens, grazing land, fish ponds, a
  mill, a church, workshops and a village

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• Manors formed when small landowners gave or sold
  their land to large landowners for political and
  physical protection
• Nobles (landowners) controlled the serfs.
• Serfs were agricultural workers who belonged to
  the manor
• They worked the land
• Could not leave the manor where they were born

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Early Medieval Society in the West

• Carolingian army
• Mostly cavalry
• Soon, being a mounted soldier meant that one was
  also a land owner
• Feudalism
• A society in which kings and lords gave land to
  their vassals for sworn military support.

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• Mounted soldiers required strong grain fed
  horses.
• Horses larger than the horses of Central Asia
• The knight became the central figure in medieval
  warfare by the 1000s.
• Land granted for military service was called a
  fief.

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• Marriage alliances
• Men that married daughters or widows of Lords
  that did not have sons could inherit that Lords
  land.
• Noble children often had no say in their marriage
• Noblewomen could own land
• Non noble women often worked alongside their
  husbands in agriculture.

21
The Western Church
22
Politics and the Church

• Both the emperor and the church thought they were
  in charge.
• The Pope actually crowned the Holy Roman
  Emperors.
• The Holy Roman Empire a loose group of German
  princes that named one of their own to rule.

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• Canon Law, or church law, allowed the Pope to
  control church land and the Bishops.
• Some of those Bishops were also vassals to other
  lords.
• There was also controversy over who has the right
  to confer authority on local abbots and bishops,
  the king or the Pope?
• Investiture Controversy

24

• The Concordat of Worms (1122)
• Emperor Henry V agreed that the emperor should
  not choose bishops and abbots, and the Pope
  agreed that the Emperor could name bishops and
  abbots as vassals as long as they were named so
  before their religious consecration.

25
Monasticism

• Christian Monasticism
• Idea originated in the east, but the Christian
  form developed in Egypt.
• Celibacy
• Prayer
• Life apart from society

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• Benedict of Nursia (480-547)
• Organized several monasteries in Southern Europe
• Preserved literacy and learning
• Monasteries and Convents
• Became places of learning
• Refuges for widows
• orphanages

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Kievan Russia

• 900-1200

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The Rise of the Kievan State

• Region between the Black and Caspian Seas and the
  Baltic and White Seas
• Different civilizations inhabited this region
  throughout history
• Region of forest dwellers and nomads
• Traded forest goods and slaves for goods and coins

29

• Rus-Slavic speaking people
• King Vladimir chose Orthodox Christianity in 988
• After sending a group of men out to research
  other religions.
• The group was impressed with their visit to
  Constantinople.

30
Society and Culture

• Political power came from trade, not land
  ownership
• Weak soil did not support a large population
• The spread of Christianity was slow
• Many people continued to revert to polytheism in
  times of need

31
Western Europe Revives

• 1000-1200

32
The Role of Technology

• New plow and harness made agriculture more
  productive
• The horse collar , 800
• Allowed for the use of horses to pull plows
• 1000-1200 the population doubled in Western
  Europe

33
Cities and the Rebirth of Trade

• Independent cities ruled by communes (groups of
  people)
• First appeared in Italy
• These cities turned to manufacturing and trade
• Some laws allowed serfs to be free after living
  in a city. This drew people to the cities.
• Spurs economic growth and increased trade

34
The Crusades

• 1095-1204

35
The Roots of the Crusades

• The Truce of God was promoted by the Latin
  Church.
• Christians could not fight each other during
  certain parts of the year.
• Powerful men in Europe were looking for more land
  to conquer
• Especially the younger sons of nobles
• Italian merchants wanted to increase trade in the
  Mediterranean

36

• Why the Holy Land?
• Pilgrimages to the Holy Land were important to
  Christians.
• Some returned with word of the Ummayad Caliphate
  falling from power in a small territory.
• Former Muslim rulers had allowed Christians to
  have safe passage to the Holy Land, but the new
  Seljuk kingdom did not.
• The Byzantine Emperor asked the Pope for help.

37

• First Crusade
• Pope Urban II asked Christian Europeans to help
  in 1095
• Captured Jerusalem in 1099
• 1187 Muslim forces retook Jerusalem
• Second and Third Crusades were unsuccessful
• Fourth Crusade - 1204
• Sacked Constantinople!

38
The Impact of the Crusades

• Exposure to Muslim culture
• Pasta
• Paper
• Refined sugar
• Colored glass
• Muslim philosophy and books on math, medicine,
  and science
• Arabic translations of earlier Greek works