Announcements

• Read Wiesner, chap. 8 for Friday, and be prepared to discuss.

• Pick up essays and other graded work from Prof. C.

• Note Revised schedule for next week, per online syllabus and as announced last class.

• Go Sox….

The “Middle Ages”

Why this name?

Why is this era important?

Dives and Lazarus

Images of “Medieval” world

Today’s Agenda

• I. High Middle Ages (900-1300)• Agriculture• Towns• Crusades

• Next week = Late Middle Ages (1200-1400)

• Medieval Society• Universities• Plague, etc.

High Middle Ages (900-1300)

• Major Themes:• Rural Agriculture (manorialism, demesne)• Rise of Towns• Economic expansion (int’l trade, new businesses)• Local Politics (Feudalism) & fragmented empires• Christian expansion (cathedrals, Crusades)• Intellectual growth (universities)• Religious fervor (mendicants, heresy, Inquisition)

• Rural, hierarchical, continuity in daily life = Tradition• Expansion, growth, new opportunities = Innovation

Medieval Agriculture

-everyone is involved in agriculture

-influences the calendar, military strategy, life expectancy, etc.

-prosperity

Medieval Agriculture

Agricultural surplus• New technologies

– more efficient mills– ability to harness horses

• New crops• New cultivation methods

– three-field system• increased land in cultivation every

year from 1/2 to 2/3rds • decreased risk of starvation due to

crop failure

A medieval manor and the “open field” system

Another Medieval Manor map:How does this compare to the previous map?

A new power in European politics: TOWNS

• Recall the link between “civilization” and “cities”– The collapse of Roman civilization was a

collapse of Roman cities and all that went with their culture and society

• c. 1000, towns began to re-emerge throughout Western Europe– revival of trade

• made possible due to growth of European population– 900: approx. 18.5 million– 1300: approx. 49.5 million

Map 11.1Towns Large and Small, c. 1350

Town populations, c. 1350

Where were towns?• Geography:

– trade routes (rivers, ports, roads)• Military:

– near castles built to establish a royal or noble presence in the countryside

• Ecclesiastical– seat of a bishop or archbishop

• Historical– often built on the ruins of a Roman settlement– Always fortified by walls

What town is this?

The Geography of urban growth; Paris, c.1200

“Left Bank” = Rive Gauche = Latin Quarter = Student zone

A Growing TownFlorence, Italy

1200: 15K pop.

1300: 96K pop.

1350: 30K pop.

Various medieval towns/cities(Mont St. Michel; Lucca; Munich; Dordogne)

Walled medieval cities(York, Bergamo, Carcassone)

The Crusades

Religion in the Medieval Mediterranean

Crusades

• 5 Ws• 1096-1215• Eastern Med. & “Crusader States”• Economic expansion; religious conversion; buoyant

optimism; Catholic-Orthodox antagonism; Turks’ invasion; chivalric knighthood.

• Saladin; Richard Lion-Hearted; Pilgrims & Knights

• Crucesignati = signed by the cross• Urban II: Call to Crusaders (p. 308, Noble)

• “Dius le vult!” (God wills it)….

• Ibn Al-Athir’s perspective on Crusades (p. 310, Noble)

Crusader Routes(see also Noble, p. 309)

Crusades I-IV

21st Century Crusades??

The Crusades live on….