Accelerating Changes in the

WestThe High Middle Ages

1000-1300

What replaced the Roman order in Western Europe?

In what ways was European civilization changing after 1000?

Accelerating Change in the West, 1000-1300The pace of change in Western Europe picked up considerably in the several centuries after 1000.

● For the prior 300 years, Europe had been subject to repeated invasions that disrupted and threatened post-Roman Europe○ Muslim armies had conquered Spain and threatened the rest of Europe○ Magyar (Hungarian) invasions from the east○ Viking incursions from the north

● By 1000, these invasions had been checked and the invaders absorbed into settled society = relative peace and greater security and stability

● Greater stability and security combined with a warming trend which reached its peak in the 11th and 12th centuries, enhancing agricultural production

Accelerating Change in the West, 1000-1300This new phase of European civilization was commonly called the High Middle Ages (1000-1300)

● Population grew from about 35 million in 1000 to about 80 million in 1340● New lands were opened for cultivation in a process paralleling that of

China’s expansion to the South at the same time● Great lords, bishops, and religious orders organized new villages on what

had recently been forest or wasteland● Marshes were drained; land reclaimed from the sea in the Netherlands,

and tree were felled (By 1300 the forest cove of Europe had been reduced to about 20%)

Accelerating Change in the West, 1000-1300Increased production associated with agricultural expansion stimulated a considerable growth in long-distance trade (which had dried up in aftermath of Roman collapse)

● One center of trade lay in Northern Europe (England to the Baltic coast): wood, woolens, beeswax, furs, rye, wheat, salt, cloth, and wine

● Other major trading network centered on northern Italian towns (Florence, Genoa and Venice) who traded with the more established civilizations of Islam and Byzantium: silk, drugs, precious stones, and spices from Asia

● Great trading fairs merchants from Northern and Southern Europe met to exchange products of their respective areas = commercial bonds with more distant peoples

Accelerating Change in the West, 1000-1300Population of towns and cities likewise grew on the sites of older Roman towns, at trading crossroads and fortifications, and around cathredrals all over Europe

● Some had only a few hundred people, but others became much larger London had 40,000, Paris 80,000, Venice 150,000○ Constantinople 400,000, Cordoba 500,000, Hangzhou more than 1 million, Tenochtitlan

200,000

● These towns gave rise to and attracted new groups of people (merchants, bankers, artisans, and university-trained professionals such as lawyers, doctors, and scholars) ○ Many of these groups, including university professors and students, organized

themselves into guilds, associations of people pursuing the same line of work) = new and more productive division of labor into European society

Accelerating Change in the West, 1000-1300Between the 11th and 13th centuries, economic growth and urbanization offered European women substantial new opportunities.

● Women were active in a number of urban professions (weaving, brewing, milling grain, tailors, leather processors, midwifery, small-scale retailing, laundering, spinning, and prostitution); Widows of great merchants sometimes continued their husbands’ businesses

● By the 15th century, such opportunities were declining; most women’s guilds were gone; women were restricted or banned from many others. ○ Technological progress (water and animal-powered grain mills replaced hand mills);

larger and heavier looms○ Men took over these professions and trained male apprentices

Accelerating Change in the West, 1000-1300If urban roles were diminishing for women, religious life provided other possibilities

● As in Buddhist lands, substantial numbers of women, particularly from aristocratic families, were attracted to the secluded life of poverty, chastity, and obedience within a nunnery for the relative freedom from male control that it offered.○ One of the few places women could exercise authority and obtain a measure of education

■ Benguines (poor Northern laywomen; live together in celibacy; devoted to weaving and working with sick, old, poor)

■ Anchoress (withdrew to locked cell; devoted to prayer and fasting; spiritual guidance)

■ Hildegard of Bingen

Accelerating Change in the West, 1000-1300Growth of territorial states with more effective institutions of government commanding the loyalty, or at least obedience, of their subjects

● Since the disintegration of the Roman Empire, Europeans’ loyalties had focused on the family, the manor, or the religious community, but seldom on the state; Great lords had been recognized as kings, but their authority was limited and exercised through a complex/decentralized network of feudal relationships with earls, counts, barons, and knights, who often felt little obligation to do the king’s bidding

Accelerating Change in the West, 1000-1300Between the 11th through 13th century, monarchs of Europe gradually and painfully began to consolidate authority; creating French, English, Spanish, Scandinavian, and other states, each with its own language and culture

● Royal courts and embryonic bureaucracies were established● Groups of professional administrators appeared

Exceptions

● In Italy, city-state flourished as urban areas grew wealthy and powerful● In germany, Germans remained loyal to a large number of small

principalities within the Holy Roman Empire

Europe Outward BoundAccompanying the growth of European civilization after 1000 were efforts to engage more actively with both near and more distant neighbors = rise and medieval expansion of Western Christendom

● Took place as the Byzantine world was contracting under pressure from the West, from Arab invasions, and later from Turkish conquest = decline

Characteristics of ExpansionCharacteristics of Expansion

● Territorial conquest● Empire building● Settlement of new lands● Trading initiatives● Missionary activity

Which of these characteristics were displayed by Western Europe?

Europe Outward BoundEuropean civilization was no exception to the characteristics of expansion.

● As population mounted, settlers cleared new land, much of it on the eastern fringes of Europe

● As Western economies grew, merchants, travelers, diplomats, and missionaries brought European society into more intensive contact with more distant peoples and with Eurasian commercial networks

● By the 13th and 14th centuries, Europeans had direct, though limited, contact with India, China, and Mongolia

● Europe was clearly outward bound and nothing would more dramatically reveal European expansiveness and the religious passions that informed it than the Crusades, a series of “holy wars”

Why did Europeans launch the Crusades?

Three Central Causes1. Muslims controlled the Holy Land2. The Byzantine emperor feared Muslim Turks would destroy

Constantinople3. Pope Urban II called for Christians to join a Crusade at the Council of

Cleremont

The CrusadesDuring the Middle Ages, European Christians launched a series of religious wars called the Crusades.

The goal of each of the Crusades was the same: to take Jerusalem and the area around it, known as the Holy Land, away from the Muslims and Jews, who also considered it holy.

● For Christians, it was the place where Jesus was crucified and buried● Many Christians also believed that Christ would come again only once

Christians held Jerusalem = vital for Christians to hold the city.● In European thinking and practice, the Crusades were wars therefore

undertaken at God’s command and authorized by the pope as the Vicar of Christ on Earth

Muslims Control the Holy LandBy the late 1000s, the city of Jerusalem had fallen to North African Muslims called the Fatimids.

Turkish Muslims (Seljuks) also swept through southwest Asia, taking control of Persia and other lands. After the Turkish conquest, stories spread throughout Europe that the Turks were persecuting Christians visiting the region.

● Once in control of Persia, the Turks attacked the Byzantine Empire, and in 1071 they destroyed the Byzantine army in the Battle of Manzikert.

● With most of his army gone, the Byzantine Emperor Alexius turned to Western Europe and Pope Urban II for help.

The Council of ClermontIn response to Emperor Alexius, Pope Urban II called church leaders to the Council of Clermont, where he described dangers faced by the Byzantines and called upon Christian warriors to put aside their differences to fight the Turks.

● Participation in the Crusades required participants to swear a vow, in return it offered indulgence removing the penalties for any confessed sin

● It also provided various material benefits, such as immunity from lawsuits and a moratorium on the repayment of debts

● Volunteers undertook the slogan, “God wills it!” for despite political, economic, and social motives, it was a religious war drawing upon Christian piety and warrior values of the elite, to provide security against mortal enemies threatening the spiritual health of all Christendom and Christians

What happened during the Crusades?

The Crusading TraditionThe most famous Crusades were those aimed at wresting Jerusalem and the holy places associated with the life of Jesus from Islamic control and returning them to Christendom

● Led or assorted by an assortment of kings, popes, bishops, monks, lords, nobles, and merchants, the Crusades demonstrated a growing European capacity for organization, finance, transportation, and recruitment, made all the more impressive by the absence of any centralized direction for the project

● They also demonstrated remarkable cruelty and the slaughter of many Muslims and Jews

Fighting the CrusadesNine organized Crusades set out from Europe between 1096 and 1291. Though they had different leaders and met with varying degrees of success, each Crusade had the same goal - claiming or protecting the Holy Land.

● First Crusade (1096): two groups - ○ (1) Peasants who had answered the call - unskilled in war, they did not fare well;

slaughtered non-Christian/Jewish communities in Europe despite protests from local and church officials; those that reached the Holy Lands quickly fell to the armies of the Seljuk Turks

○ (2) Trained knights - better prepared than peasants, but unprepared for harsh journey; food and water ran low and many resorted to looting towns and farms for supplies

○ Result: Conquest of several cities and the Holy City of Jerusalem with the massacre of the city’s inhabitants; creation of four states centered on Jerusalem, Edessa, Antioch, and Tripoli

Fighting the CrusadesWithin a few years, the Muslims had begun to recapture the lands that they had lost in the First Crusade. In 1144 they took the city of Edessa, the capital of one of the Crusader states. In response, European leaders called for a second Crusade. Among the Crusaders were King Louis VII of France and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine.

● Second Crusade (1147): was a failure; took no lands from the Muslims; forced to return to Europe empty handed; cemented the alliance between independent city-state of Damascus and Nur al din.

Fighting the CrusadesAbout 30 years after the Second Crusade in 1169, a new leader arose in the Muslim world Salah ad-Din (Saladin). He overthrew the Fatimids and took the title of sultan for himself. Saladin set out to take back the Crusader states. He succeeded in his conquest and drove the Europeans out of Jerusalem. In response Christians launched the Third Crusade.

● Third Crusade (1189) Three kings set out from Europe, but only King Richard the Lion-Hearted (Richard I) of England fought in the Holy Land. ○ King Frederick Barbarossa of Germany/Holy Roman Empire drowned on the journey○ King Philip Augustus of France quarrelled with Richard in the Holy Land and returned to

Europe, taking his army with him

Fighting the Crusades● Third Crusade continued:

○ Great respect between both military leaders○ Stories of Saladin offering Richard horses and then use of his own doctor when Richard

fell ill○ Two men made proposals for peace, including an alliance of marriage between Richard’s

sister and Saladin's brother, which never took place because of religious differences.○ Despite mutual admiration,they fought fiercely for control of the Holy Land. ○ Although Richard won several battles against the Muslims, he was not able to drive them

out of the Holy Land or to take Jerusalem. ○ In the end, Richard returned to England, a few of the coastal cities remained in control of

the Crusaders, Jerusalem remained in control of the Muslims (although Christian pilgrimages would be allowed)

Fighting the Crusades● Fourth Crusade (1201): Crusaders on the fourth crusade set out in 1201

but could not afford to pay passage aboard Venetian vessels. In lieu of payment, the Crusaders agreed to attack the city of Zara, a port held by the Christian king of Hungary; angry over an attack on a Christian city, the pope excommunicated them all; pushing on to the Holy Land they reached Constantinople where they chose to ransack the city, making one of their leaders emperor; disorganization and weak leadership caused this crusade to fail.

● Later Crusades: Five other Crusades followed the sack of Constantinople; none successful

● By 1291, the Muslims had driven the Christians out of the Holy Land

Fighting the CrusadesCrusading was not limited to targets in the Islamic Middle East

● Christians crusaders, with similar spiritual and material benefits, waged war for centuries to reclaim the Iberian Peninsula from Muslim hands

● Scandinavian and German warriors took part in wars to conquer, settle, and convert lands along the Baltic Sea

● The Byzantine Empire and Russia (Eastern Orthodox Christians), were also on the receiving end of Western crusading, as were Christian heretics and various enemies of the pope in Europe itself

● Crusading, in short, was a pervasive feature of European expansion, which persisted as Europeans began their ocean voyages in the 15th century and beyond

What were the effects of the Crusades?

Effects of the CrusadesSurprisingly, the Crusades had little lasting impact, either politically or religiously, in the Middle East

● European power was not sufficiently strong or long-lasting to induce much conversion and the small European footholds there had come under Muslim control by 1300

● The penetration of Turkic-speaking peoples from Central Asia and the devastating Mongol invasions of the 13th century were far more significant in Islamic history

● However, the memory of the Crusades was revived in the context of a growing struggle against European imperialism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Effects of the CrusadesAlthough the Crusades did not accomplish their main goal, interaction with the Islamic world had very significant, long-term effects, changing Europe economically, politically, and socially

● Economic changes: ○ Muslims, Byzantines, and western Europeans had traded with one another before the

Crusades, however the Crusades enhanced existing trade as returning Crusaders picked up a taste for the many luxury goods available there, stimulating a demand for Asian goods, which they brought back with them upon their return

○ The influx of goods added to the changing European economy (Trade increased)○ They also learned the technique for producing sugar on large plantations using slave

labor, a process that had incalculable consequences in later centuries as this plantation system was transferred to the Americas

Effects of the Crusades● Political changes:

○ The Crusades led to the deaths to the deaths of many knights and nobles; those who did not return left their lands vulnerable; in some cases the king took control of unoccupied lands; more land gave more power (kings gained more power)

○ Spain, Sicily, and the Baltic region were brought permanently into the world of Western Christendom

○ A declining Byzantium was further weakened by the Crusader sacking of Constantinople in 1204 and left even more vulnerable to Turkish conquest

○ In Europe, popes strengthened their position for the time being in their struggles with secular authorities

Effects of the CrusadesSocial Changes:

● The cross-cultural contacts born of Crusading opened up channels of trade, technology transfer, and intellectual exchange, impacting European society○ Muslim scholarship and culture, together with Greek learning that it incorporated, flowed

into Europe, largely through Spain and Sicily

● However, the cross-cultural contacts hardened cultural barriers ○ The rift between Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism deepened further and

remains a fundamental divide in the Christian world today○ While some European Christians who had participated in the Crusades grew to respect

other cultures; others, especially those who had not participated, became more intolerant; many began to view non-Christians as enemies

Effects of the Crusades● Social Changes Continued:

○ Christian anti-semitism was both expressed and exacerbated as Crusaders on their way to Jerusalem found time to massacre Jews in a number of European cities and later in the Holy Lands

○ Jews and Muslims in the Holy Land, saw the Crusaders as invaders; after the Crusades, many people held onto those views (Relations between Christians, Jews, and Muslims became increasingly strained)

○ European empire building would continue, especially in the Americas, continuing the notion of God Wills it (God, Gold, Glory)

○ More recently over the past two centuries, both the Christian West and that of Islam have collided, and both sides have found many occasions in which images of the Crusades, however distorted, have proved politically and ideologically useful

Why did the people’s attitudes change after the Crusades?

What led to the growth of towns and cities in the Middle Ages?

Trade and TownsLarge cities became more common in the High Middle Ages fueled by growing trade in Europe. Most trade was controlled by merchants from Italy and northern Europe

● Italian Trade Cities: Italians were among the first to build a thriving trade economy, using their skilled sailors to find valuable goods from distant lands; the most important was Venice (used the Venetian warships to protect their trade with the Byzantine Empire and Muslim lands)○ Picked up goods from those areas farther east (silk and spices from China and India)○ Back in Venice, these goods were loaded onto wagons and sent north; because they came

to Venetian ports from lengthy Asian trade routes, they were expensive and very profitable○ Venice grew rich from trade; other Italian cities responded by (Genoa, Florence, Pisa, Milan)

creating their own trade routes; Italians soon controlled almost all trade in Southern Europe

Trade and Towns● Hanseatic League: a group of German cities and towns that worked

together to promote and protect trade in the north; controlled most of the trade between Europe, Russia, and the Baltic region

Which cities saw the initial growth of trade in the Middle Ages?

Trade and TownsAs goods poured into Europe through Italian and German cities, merchants needed ways to get the goods to customers; one place where buyers and sellers could meet was a trade fair which became a part of the economic system of medieval towns

Trade Fairs and Markets:

● Trade fairs were held in towns once a year; some could last for months, drawing huge crowds of merchants who serviced different parts of the economy; the fairs were staggered so that merchants could attend various fairs, offering a great variety of goods

● Fairs were not events attended by the average people; to attend everyday needs people visited local markets where they could buy locally-produced goods

Trade and TownsTrade encouraged people to use money once more, which had not been common in Europe for many years; previously workers had bartered, paying with goods

● Money and Credit: ○ As cities began minting their own coins, money became a more accepted method of

payment; workers began to demand coin for payment; coins were also used to pay taxes to lords

○ Some merchants allowed their customers to pay with credit, or the promise of a signed document that stated when and how the payment would be made

○ Increased use of money and credit led to the creation of Europe’s first banks where people could deposit money for safekeeping or request loans

○ Because religious laws prevented Christians from charging interest on loans, most money lenders were Jews; as non-Christians, Jews were barred from many other occupations

Growth of Towns and CitiesThriving trade and the increase in the use of money in Europe helped lead to the expansion of towns and cities. Hoping to make money, many peasants left their farms and villages fro cities where most of them worked as laborers

● New Technologies: Advances in farm technologies contributed to the move to cities○ The heavy plow increased the amount of crops people could grow on their land○ Other new technologies included the water mill and the windmill, which used the power

of nature to grind the wheat into flour○ These technologies meant that fewer people were needed to work on farms, enabling

more people to move to cities and try to build a life for themselves

Growth of Towns and Cities● Free Towns: Looking for places to conduct trade, merchants moved into

medieval towns; most of these towns were run by local lords who could charge any fees or taxes they wished. Merchants did not want to pay high fees or taxes on their goods.○ To avoid these fees, merchants appealed to kings for special charters for new towns○ These charters allowed the merchants to run towns in any way they wanted and in return,

they paid taxes to the king○ Towns grew quickly under the leadership of merchants○ In the High Middle Ages, more people than ever before were migrating to European cities

Growth of Towns and Cities● Guilds:

○ With so many people living in towns and cities, craftspeople began to see a need to organize themselves in order to protect their own interests, eventually creating trade organizations called guilds.■ All members of the guild had the same occupation■ One of the primary functions of a guild was to restrict competition■ Working together, members of a guild set standards and prices for their products,

providing mutual protection and insuring quality control■ Guilds also trained children in their crafts

● A child who wanted to learn a craft started as an apprentice (spending years living and working with a master, learning the basic skills of the craft)

● One an apprentice learned the basics of his career, he became a journeyman (some traveled from workshop to workshop, learning from many masters; difficult to become a master because of guild restrictions)

■ Most open only to men, though a few were dominated by women

What led to the growth of towns and cities in the Middle Ages?

Daily life in the CitiesThe cities in medieval Europe were small and crowded, with life there often being very unpleasant

● Streets were narrow and winding and often crowded with people, horses, pigs, and other animals

● Shops and houses, often three to four stories high lined both sides of the street, blocking sunlight, often resulting in them being dark inside

● Most cities lacked proper sanitation facilities, so trash and other waste piled up in the streets; rats and insects lived in the waste, making disease a common threat

● Additional threats included fire and crime○ The air was hazy with smoke from cooking fires, forges, glass factories, and tanneries○ Most buildings were made of wood that easily caught fire○ Violence was also common with criminal frequenting city streets

Daily Life in CitiesNot all aspects of city life were so dismal

● Cities provided benefits for the people who lived there○ Churches, eating halls, and markets were common places for people to meet and

socialize○ Guilds provided public entertainment in the form of plays and festivals for religious

holidays○ Sports were also common and teams of players from guilds competed in ball games

● The growth of cities helped bring about a greater familiarity with the wider world and allowed for the spread of arts and new ideas throughout medieval Europe

What was daily life like in medieval cities?

Catching UpAs civilization in the West evolved, it was clearly less developed in comparison to Byzantium, China, India, and the Islamic World

● European cities were smaller, its political authorities weaker, its economy less commercialized, its technology inferior to more established civilizations○ Muslim observers who encountered Europeans saw them as barbarians with more to be

praised in West African kingdoms where Islam was practiced and gold was plentiful○ “Their bodies are large, their manners harsh, their understanding dull, and their tongues

heavy… Those of them who are farthest to the north are the most subject to stupidity grossness and brutishness”

○ Thoughtful Europeans who encountered other peoples also recognized their comparative backwardness■ Marco Polo remarked that Hangzhou was “the finest and noblest city in the world”■ Spanish invaders were stunned by the size and wealth of the Aztec capital, especially

its huge market

Catching UpEuropeans proved willing to engage with and borrow from the more advanced civilizations to the east

● Growing European economies reconnected with the Eurasian trading system○ European elites eagerly sought spices, silks, porcelain, sugar, and much else available on

the world market○ Europeans embraced scientific treatises and business practices from the Arabs,

philosophical and artistic ideas from the pagan Greeks, and mathematical concepts from India despite their embrace of their “one true religion”

Catching Up● China was the most significant source of European borrowing, although

often indirectly■ Compass■ Papermaking■ Nautical technology■ Iron casting■ Public postal service■ Gunpowder

○ When the road to China opened in the 13th and 14th centuries, many Europeans, including Marco Polo, made the journey, bringing back tales of splendor and abundance far beyond what was available in Europe

○ When Europeans took to the oceans in the 15th and 16th centuries, they were seeking out the sources of African and Asian wealth.

● Thus the accelerating growth of European civilization was accompanied by Europe’s reintegration into the larger Afro-Eurasian networks of exchange and communication.

Catching UpIn this willingness to borrow, Europe resembled several other third-wave civilizations of the time

● Japan took much from China● West Africa drew heavily on Islamic civilization● Russia actively imitated Byzantium

Catching UpTechnological borrowing required adaptation to the unique conditions of Europe and was accompanied by considerable independent invention that resulted in a tradition of technological innovation that allowed Europe to catch up with, and in some areas perhaps surpass China and the Islamic world, by the 1500s

● Process is similar to the economic revolution of Tang and Song China● In Europe, technological breakthroughs first became apparent in

agriculture as Europeans adapted to the different environmental conditions following 500 CE○ Heavy wheeled plow to handle the dense soils of Northern Europe○ Heavy plow increased reliance on horses rather than oxen, leading to the use of iron

horseshoes and a more efficient collar (originating in China or Central Asia) that could handle a heavier load

Catching Up● Europe developed a new three-field system of crop rotation, which

allowed considerably more land to be plated at any one time

These were the technological foundations for a more productive agriculture that could support the growing population of European civilization, and especially its urban centers, far more securely than before

Beyond agriculture, Europeans began to tap non-animal sources of energy in a major way, particularly after 1000

● New type of windmill different than Persian version● Water-driven mill to grind grain and provide power for sieving flour,

tanning hides, making ber, sawing wood, manufacturing iron, and making paper

Catching Up● Devices such as cranks, flywheels, camshafts, and complex gearing

mechanisms, when combined with water or wind power, enabled Europeans of the High Middle Ages to revolutionize the production in a number of industries and to break with the tradition of depending wholly on animal or human muscle as source of energy○ Some European artisans and engineers even experiments with perpetual motion

machines, an idea borrowed from Indian philosophers

● Technological borrowing was also evident in the arts of war○ Gunpowder (invented in China) was first used by Europeans in cannons in the early 14th

century and by 1500, they had the most advanced arsenals in the world○ Advances in shipbuilding and navigational techniques, including the magnetic compass

and sternpost rudder from China and adaptations of the Mediterranean or Arab lateen sail, enabled vessels to sail against the wind - provided the foundation for European mastery of the seas

Catching UpEurope’s passion for technology was reflected in its culture and ideas as well as in its machines

● About 1260, the English scholar and Franciscan friar Roger Bacon wrote of the possibilities he foresaw:○ “Machines of navigation can be constructed, without rowers… which are borne under the

guidance of one man at a greater speed than if they were full of men. Also a chariot can be constructed, that will move with incalculable speed without any drought animal… Also, flying machines may be constructed so that a man may sit in the midst of the machine turning a certain instrument by means of which wings artificially constructed would beat the air after the manner of a bird flying… and there are countless other things that can be constructed.”

In what ways did borrowing from abroad shape European civilization after 1000?

Pluralism in PoliticsUnlike the large centralized states of Byzantium, the Islamic world, and China, post-Roman European civilization never regained the unity it had under Roman rule.

● Rather, political life gradually crystallized into a system of competing states (France, Spain, England, Sweden, Prussia, the Netherlands, and Poland among others) that has persisted into the 21rst century and the European Union still confronts○ Geographic barriers, ethnic and linguistic diversity, and the shifting balances of power

among its many states prevented the emergence of a single European empire, despite periodic efforts to re-create something resembling the unity of the Roman Empire

Pluralism in PoliticsThis multicentered political system shaped the emerging civilizations of the West in many ways

● It gave rise to frequent wars● Enhanced the role and status of military men● Drove the “gunpowder revolution”● European society and values were militarized far more than in China,

which gave greater prominence to scholars and bureaucrats● Intense interstate rivalry, combined with a willingness to borrow, also

stimulated European technological development● By 1500, Europe had gone a long way toward catching up with their more

advanced Asian counterparts in agriculture, war, industry, and sailing

Pluralism in PoliticsEndemic warfare did not halt European economic growth

● Capital, labor, and goods found their way around political barriers, while the common assumption of Christian culture and the use of Latin and later French by the literate elite fostered communication across political borders○ Europe’s multi-state system thus provided enough competition to be stimulating but also

sufficient order and unity to allow economic endeavors to prosper

Pluralism in PoliticsThe states within this emerging European civilization differed from those in the east

● Their rulers generally were weaker and had to contend with competing source of power○ The Catholic church in the West maintained a degree of independence from state

authority that served to check the power of kings and lords○ European vassals had certain rights in return for loyalty to their lords and kings○ By the 13th century, high ranking nobles, acting through formal councils, had the right to

advise their rulers and to approve new taxes○ This three-way struggle for power among kings, warrior aristocrats, and church leaders,

all of them from the nobility, enabled urban-based merchants in Europe to achieve an unusual independence from political authority

Pluralism in PoliticsMany cities, where wealthy merchants exercised local power, won the right to make and enforce their own laws and appoint their own officials

● Some of them (Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Milan) became almost completely independent city-states

● In the case of other cities, kings granted charters that allowed them to have their own courts, laws, and governments, while paying their own kind of taxes to the king instead of feudal dues○ Powerful, independent cities were a distinctive feature of European life after 1100 or so○ By contrast, Chinese cities, which were far larger, were part of the empire and enjoyed

few privileges ○ Chinese states favored landowners over merchants, monopolized the salt and iron

industries, and actively controlled and limited merchant activity far more than the new and weaker royal authorities of Europe were able to do

Pluralism in PoliticsThe relative weakness of Europe’s rulers allowed urban merchants more leeway, paving the way to a more thorough development of capitalism in later centuries

● It also led to the development of representative institutions or parliaments through which the views and interests of these contending forces could be expressed and accommodated

● Intended to strengthen royal authority by consulting with major social groups, these embryonic parliaments did not represent the “people” or the “nation” but instead embodied the three great “estates of the realm” - the clergy (the first estate), the landowning nobility (the second estate), and the urban merchants (the third estate)

Why was Europe unable to achieve the kind of political unity that China experienced?

What impact did this have on the subsequent history of Europe?

War and ConflictEuropean political leaders fought numerous wars to gain more power for themselves. The two most violent and destructive of these wars, the Hundred Years’ War and the War of the Roses, both involved the kings of England

● Hundred Years’ War: In 1328 the French king died without a son. His closest kin was his nephew, King Edward III of England but he also had a cousin who had been serving as regent.○ The English wanted to rule both countries○ The French, not wanting to be ruled by the English, favored the regent and crowned him

King Philip VI of France○ In response, Edward invaded France with a huge army in 1337 marking the beginning of

the Hundred Years’ War■ Edward won victory after victory (better weapons - longbow and cannon)

War and ConflictAs the war progressed, new leaders took over the fight

● The English marched deeper into France under the new king Henry V, advancing all the way to the gates of Paris

● In 1429, a young peasant girl, Joan of Arc, helped change the course of the war○ She claimed that the saints had told her to lead the French into battled and despite

skepticism, the French prince allowed her command of the army○ Joan and her army marched to the town of Orleans and defeated a huge English army

before she led the French in several more victories○ She was later captured, tried, and executed by the English○ After Joan’s death, King Charles VII of France rallied his army and took back the land lost

to the English○ By 1453 France had driven the English almost completely out of their country

War and ConflictWars of the Roses

● The end of the Hundred Years’ War did not mean the end of political fighting in England

● Shortly after peace with France, two families began a war over the English throne: the Lancasters (red rose as their emblem) and the Yorks (white rose)○ Yorkists were successful at first. Edward IV of York took the throne in 1461 and won

victories over the Lancastrians○ Trouble began with his death when the king’s sons disappeared and Edward’s brother

Richard III became king■ He faced a number of uprisings, including a rebellion led by the Duke of

Buckingham (who had originally helped Richard gain the throne)■ Richard was eventually killed in the battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 while trying to

end another uprising

War and ConflictWith Richard’s death, a nobleman from one of the most important families in England, the Tudors, claimed the throne.

● Henry Tudor became Henry VII● He was related to both warring factions● He was married to Edward IV’s daughter, Elizabeth of York and related to

the Lancasters by blood● His rise to power marked the end of the Wars of the Roses and began a

new era in English history (Tudor monarchy)

In what different ways did classical Greek philosophy and science have an impact in the West, in Byzantium, and in the Islamic world?

Reason and FaithA further feature of this emerging European civilization was a distinctive intellectual tension between claims of human reason and those of faith

● Christianity had developed in a classical world suffused with Greek rationalism○ Some early Christian thinkers had sought to maintain a clear separation between the new

religion and the ideas of Plato and Aristotle○ More common by the was the notion that Greek philosophy could serve as a

“handmaiden” to faith, disclosing the truths of Christianity

● However, in the wake of Roman collapse, Western Europe had little direct access to the writings of the Greeks ○ Some Latin translations and commentaries did provide a continuing link to the world of

classical thought

Reason and FaithIntellectual life in Europe changed dramatically in the several centuries after 1000, amid a rising population, a quickening commercial life, emerging towns and cities, and the Church’s growing independence from royal or noble authorities

● The West’s developing legal system guaranteed a measure of independence for a variety of institutions - towns and cities, guilds, professional associations, and especially universities○ An outgrowth of universities (Paris, Bologna, Oxford, Cambridge, Salamanca) became

“zones of intellectual autonomy” in which scholars could pursue their studies with some freedom from the dictates of religious or political authorities

○ Freedom was never complete and was frequently tested

Reason and FaithIn this setting, European Christian thinkers (a small group of literate churchmen) began to emphasize the ability of human reason to penetrate divine mysteries and to grasp the operation of the natural order

● Example: In a monastic school in France, students asked their teacher Anselm to provide proof for the existence of God using only reason (without the Bible or other sources of divine revelation)

● The new interest in rational thought was applied to theology as an opportunity to provide a rational foundation for faith (not to replace faith or rebel against it)

● Logic, philosophy, and rationality would operate in the service to Christ● Some people opposed this new emphasis on Human reason

Reason and FaithEuropean intellectuals also applied their newly discovered confidence in human reason to law, medicine, and the world of nature, exploring optics, magnetism, astronomy, and alchemy

● Slowly and never completely, the scientific study of nature (“natural Philosophy”) began to separate itself from theology○ In European universities, natural philosophy was studied in the faculty of arts (seperate

from the faculty of theology), although many scholars combined both fields

● This mounting enthusiasm for rational inquiry stimulated European scholars to seek out original Greek texts, particularly those of Aristotle○ They found them in the Greek-speaking world of Byzantium and in the Arab World where

they had been translated into Arabic○ Led to an explosion of translations of Greek and Arabic into Latin, giving European

scholars direct access to the works of ancient Greeks and the results of extraordinary Arab scholarship in astronomy, optics, medicine, pharmacology, and more

Reason and FaithArab science, now translated, provided a boost to Europe’s changing intellectual life, centered in the new universities

However, it was the works of Aristotle and his approach to “scientific temperament” that made the deepest impression

● His works became the basis for university education and largely dominated the thought of Western Europe for five centuries after 1200

● Thomas Aquinas (13th century Theologian) integrated Aristotle’s ideas into a logical and systematic presentation of Christian doctrine

Reason and FaithIn this growing emphasis on human rationality, at least partially separate from divine revelation, lay one of the foundations of the later Scientific Revolution and the secularization of European intellectual life

● Nothing comparable occurred in the Byzantine Empire where knowledge of Greek language was widespread and access to Greek texts was easy○ Although Byzantine scholars kept the classical tradition alive, their primary interest lay in

the humanities (literature, philosophy, history) and theology rather than in the natural sciences or medicine

○ Furthermore, both state and church had serious reservations about classical Greek learning■ In 529 Justinian closes Plato’s Academy in Athens caliming it was an outpost of

paganism and the scholars dispersed into lands that soon became Islamic, carrying Greek learning into the Islamic world

Reason and FaithChurch authorities were suspicious of classical Greek thought, sometimes persecuting scholars who were too enamored with the ancients

● Even those who did study the Greek writers did so in conservative spirit, concerned to preserve and transmit the classical heritage rather than using it as a springboard for creating new knowledge

In the Islamic world, classical Greek thought was embraced “with far more enthusiasm and creativity” than in Byzantium

● A massive translation project in the 9th and 10th centuries made Aristotle and many other Greek writers available in Arabic○ That work contributed to a flowering of Arab scholarship, especially in the sciences and

natural philosophy between about 800 and 1200○ It also stimulated a debate about faith and reason among Muslim thinkers, many of

whom greatly admired Greek philosophical, scientific, and medical texts

Reason and FaithAs in the Christian world, the issue was whether Greek thought was an aid or a threat to the faith

● Western European Church authorities after the 13th century had come to regard natural philosophy as a wholly legitimate enterprise and had thoroughly incorporated it Aristotle into university education

● Learned opinion in the Islamic world swung the other way - though never completely disappearing from Islamic scholarship, the ideas of Plato and Aristotle receded after the 13th century in favor of teachings that drew more directly from the Quran or from mystical experience○ Nor was natural philosophy a central concern of Islamic high education as it was in the

west○ The integration of political and religious life in the Islamic world, as well as in Byzantium,

contrasted with their separation in the West, where there was more space for the independent pursuit of scientific subjects

In what different ways did classical Greek philosophy and science have an impact in the West, in Byzantium, and in the Islamic world?

Religious Challenges of the Late Middle Ages - Religious Crises

● When King Edward III of England, invaded France in 1346, Europe was in turmoil. Europe faced challenges to the religious, political, and social order. Because Christianity was the one element that tied most Europeans together, religious crises were a grave threat to all of society.○ One issue facing the church in the High Middle Ages (1100s) was increasing heresy, beliefs

that opposed the official teachings of the church■ In many cases, people accused of heresy were de-emphasizing the role of the clergy

and the sacraments■ These beliefs threatened clergy as it threatened the social order in the church■ Determined to stop the spread of heresy, the church attempted several ways to

stamp it out● Primary method: inquisitions, legal procedures supervised by special judges

who tried suspected heretics. If the accused was found guilty, they were punished by local authorities

Religious Challenges of the Late Middle AgesReligious Crises

● The church also tried fighting heresy through Christian education○ In the early 1200s, two men Francis of Assisi and Dominic of Osma, created new religious

order to spread Christian teachings○ Members of these orders, called friars, took vows of poverty and obedience (like monks),

and then lived in cities among the people to whom they preached○ The teachings of the friars was considered a great weapon against heresy

● Another method used to fight heresy was war○ In 1208, Pope Innocent III called for a crusade against a group of heretics who believed in

dualism in southern France○ Christian soldiers from northern France spent 21 years trying to eliminate heretics in that

region

Religious Challenges in the Late Middle AgesAdding to the turmoil in the medieval church was a dispute over the papacy

● In 1309, after political fighting in Rome forced the pope to flee the city, he moved to Avignon in southern France

● Consequently, the next several popes lived at Avignon in a palace● Seventy year later, Pope Gregory Xi decided to return to Rome● When Gregory died later that year, there was disagreement over who

should become the new pope○ As a result, two men - one in Rome and one in Avignon, claimed papal power○ The conflict went unresolved for nearly 40 years and the resulting confusion weakened

the church’s influence

What religious challenges did Europeans face in the later Middle Ages?

Overview of Challenges of the High Middle Ages● Heresy threatens the Christian church; the inquisition and new religious

orders, such as the friars, are introduced to society in order to help eliminate heretics in Europe

● A dispute over the rightful claim to the papacy leads to confusion and disorganization in the Roman Catholic Church

● The Hundred Years’ War is fought between England and France over the heir to the French throne. Joan of Arc emerges as a leader among the French troops

● The War of the Roses are fought to determine which family would rule England. Henry VII of the Tudor family takes the throne

● The Black death wipes out one-third of the populations of Europe and China and brings about the end of the manorial system in Europe

Continuity & Surprise in Worlds of Christendom● The crusading element of European expansion is similar to the motives of

later Spanish and Portuguese explorers● Europe’s freedom for merchant activity and eagerness to borrow foreign

technology contributed to the growth of capitalism and industrialization in later centuries

● The endemic military conflicts of European states, unable to recover the unity of the Roman Empire, found expression in the world wars of the 20th century

● The controversy about reason and faith resonates still in debates about the authority of the Bible in secular and scientific matters

● The rift between Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism remains one of the major divides of the Christian world

● Modern universities and the separation of religious and political authority likewise have their origin in the European Middle Ages