European Civilization in the Early Middle Ages, 750 - 1000

1
Chapter 8

• European Civilization in the Early Middle Ages,
  750 - 1000

2
Timeline
3
Europeans and the Environment

• Sparsely populated, heavily forested landscape
• Farming
• Less than 10 percent of land cultivated
• Low crop yields
• Climate
• Improving weather after 700
• Constant threat of natural disaster

4
The World of the Carolingians

• Charlemagne and the Carolingian Empire (768
  814)
• Pepin (751 768) deposed last Merovingian
• Charlemagne from Carolus Magnus, or Charles the
  Great
• Expansion of the Carolingian Empire
• Army gathered each spring for campaign
• Carolingians crush the Lombards in Italy (773)
• Disastrous campaign in Spain (777)
• Campaigns against the Saxons
• Bavarians, Slavs and Avars

5
Map 8.1 The Carolingian Empire
6
Governing Charlemagnes Empire

• Governing the Empire
• Income from royal estates
• Counts as administrators
• Missi Dominici
• System very inefficient
• Help from the Church
• Charlemagne as Emperor
• Pope Leo III (795 816)
• Charlemagne crowned emperor in 800

7
The Carolingian Intellectual Revival

• Scriptoria
• Carolingian Miniscule
• Carolingian Renaissance
• Alcuin of Northumbria

8
Monks as Copyists
9
Life in the Carolingian World

• The Church, Marriage and Sexuality
• Monogamy
• Divorce prohibited
• The nuclear family
• Christianity and Sexuality
• Celibacy
• Sexual activity permitted only within marriage
• Homosexuality
• Travel and Hospitality

• Diet and Health
• Bread as the basic staple
• Pork, wild game, dairy, eggs, vegetables
• Gluttony and drunkenness
• Medical practices
• Herbs and Bbleeding
• Magic

10
Disintegration of the Carolingian Empire

• Louis the Pious (814 840)
• Treaty of Verdun (843)
• Charles the Bald (843 877) Western Section
• Louis the German (843 876) Eastern Section
• Lothair (840 855) Middle Section
• Emergence of two different cultures
• Conflicts between the three sons of Louis the
  Pious

11
Invasions of the Ninth and Tenth Centuries

• Muslims and Magyars
• Muslims attack in Mediterranean
• Magyars settled in modern day Hungary
• The Vikings
• Germanic people from Scandinavia
• Warriors and shipbuilders
• Russia
• Ireland, England and France
• Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland

12
Map 8.2 Invasions of the Ninth and Tenth
Centuries
13
Castle at Les Baux Constructed as a Refuge from
Saracen raidsEight Century Provence, France
14
Replica of a Viking house in Denmark
15
The Emerging World of Lords and Vassals

• Feudalism
• Vassalage
• Lords and Vassals
• Larger horses and stirrups
• Act of Homage
• Fief-Holding
• Grant of land in exchange for military service
• Fragmented authority in the ninth century
• Subinfeudation
• Mutual obligations of lord and vassal

16
A Knights Equipment Showing Saddle and Stirrups
17
New Political Configurations in the Tenth Century

• The Eastern Franks
• The Saxon dynasty
• Otto I (936 973)
• The Western Franks
• The Capetians
• Hugh Capet (987 996)
• Anglo-Saxon England
• Unification under Alfred the Great (871 899)
• Growth of monarchial government

18
The Manorial System

• The Manor
• Peasants and Serfs
• 60 of European population had become serfs by
  ninth century
• Working the demesne (lords land) and paying
  rents
• Lords legal rights over the serfs
• Manorial administration
• Trade in Luxury Goods

19
Map 8.3 A Typical Manor
20
The Zenith of Byzantine Civilization

• Michael III (842 867)
• Foreign attacks continue
• Differences with the West
• The Macedonian Dynasty (867 1081)
• Increased prosperity
• Conversion of the Prince of Kiev, Russia
• Military Offensive in the tenth century
• Basil II (976 1025)

21
Emperor Leo VI
22
The Slavic Peoples of Central and Eastern Europe

• Invasion and Assimilation
• Western Slavs
• Poland and Bohemia
• Conversion by Germans
• Southern Slavs
• Bulgars
• Conversion by the Byzantine Empire
• Eastern Slavs
• Encounters with Vikings
• The Rus
• Kiev
• Vladimir (c. 980 1015)

23
Map 8.4 The Migrations of the Slavs
24
The World of Islam

• The Umayyad Dynasty
• Abu al-Abbas puts an end to the Umayyads (750)
• The Abbasid Dynasty
• New Capital in Baghdad
• Harun al-Rashed (786 809)
• Al-Mamun (813 833)
• Spain and the Continuation of the Umayyads
• Abd al-Rahman (756)
• Fatimid Egypt (973)

25
Islamic Civilization

• Arabic
• Cities
• Baghdad
• Cairo
• Cordova Population of 100,000
• Science and Philosophy
• Paper and Books
• Mathematics and Natural Sciences
• Chemistry and Medicine
• Ibn Sina (980 1037)
• Medical Encyclopedia

26
Discussion Questions

• How was Charlemagne able to unite and govern his
  large empire?
• What role did the Church play on family and
  everyday life in the Carolingian world?
• Why were the invasions of the Ninth and Tenth
  Centuries so damaging to Europe?
• What is the relationship between feudalism and
  manorialism?
• What liberties did peasants give up in exchange
  for land and protection from their lords?
• What impact did the Byzantine world have on the
  Slavic people of Central and Eastern Europe and
  vice versa?
• What were the factors that contributed to the
  flourishing of Islamic Civilization under the the
  Abbasids?

27
Web Links

• NetSerf The Internet Collection of Medieval
  Resources
• Internet Medieval Sourcebook The Carolingians
• Wharram Percy A Lost Medieval Village
• Corpus of Early Medieval Coin Finds
• Vikings The North Atlantic Saga
• Byzantine Studies on the Internet
• Baghdad Metropolis of the Abbasid Caliphate