1200 - 1450

Question 1

Describe the emergence of nation-states (countries) in Europe

Answer 1

During Middle Ages, Western Europe was broken into feudal kingdoms
By end of Middle Ages, Western Europe began to organize along cultural and linguistic lines
Nation-states evolved on different timeframes

Question 2

Germany & Italy governance

Answer 2

• Reigning family in Germany died without successor to emperor so entered an interregnum (time between kings)
• Germany and Italy became decentralized in a group of strong, independent townships and kingdoms, similar to city-states
• This allowed merchants and tradespeople to become more powerful
• For example, Hanseatic League led region’s progress in international trade and commerce

Question 3

England governance

Answer 3

• Established identity early
• Strong monarchy since William the Conquerer (~1000 CE)
• But in 1215 CE, powerful English nobles force King John to sign Magna Carta which reinstated feudal rights of nobles and extended rule of law in growing burgher class which laid foundation for Parliament
• After a trial period for an assembly of nobles, responsible for representing different parts of England on on law-making and taxation issues, Parliament was established
• Later divided into House of Lords (nobles and clergy) and House of Commons (knights and wealthy burghers)
• House of Lords for legal issues and advising king
• House of Commons for trade and taxation

Question 4

Early France

Answer 4

• 987 CE - King Hugh Capet ruled only a small area around Paris
• For next 200 years subsequent kings expanded this territory
• Beginning in 12th century England began claiming large parts of present-day France
• English occupation of French-speaking territories led to revolts
• Hundred Years’ War between England and France eventually resulted in England’s withdrawal from France
• During war Joan of Arc forced British to retreat from Orleans and had a significant impact on war
• After war, royal power in France became more centralized
• Under Bourbons, France was unified and became a major power

Question 5

Early Spain

Answer 5

• Muslims conquered Iberian peninsula during Middle Ages
• 3 independent Spanish kingdoms and peasants largely split between Christians and Muslims
• Queen Isabella and Castile married Ferdinand, heir to Kingdom of Aragon thus uniting most of Spain
• Aligned rather than competed with Catholic Church for authority which ended religious toleration in region
• Began imperial quest that spread Spanish language, customs, and Christianity to much of New World

Question 6

Russia at beginning of this period

Answer 6

Eastern Europe and Russia were very different than West
Eastern Orthodox Christians spent a lot of time and effort defending selves from colonization of western invaders
1242 CE, Russia succumbed to Mongols under Genghis Khan (Tatars)
Tatars ruled large chunk of Russia for 200 years

Question 7

What important changes happened for Russia during this period

Answer 7

By late 14th, Mongol power started to decline and Russian princes of Muscovy grew in power
By late 1400s, Ivan III expanded Muscovy territory (area surrounding Moscow) into much of modern-day Russia and declared himself czar (emperor)
By mid-1500 Ivan the Terrible had centralized power over the entire Russian sphere, ruling ruthlessly and using the secret police against this nobles
Moscow declared Third Rome because cener of Eastern Orthodox Church

Question 8

What was the most common form of goverance during this period

Answer 8

Non-representative
Monarchies and oligarchies were most common

Question 9

What happened to governance in this period after classical regimes collapsed

hint: 3 groupings

Answer 9

1. New states quickly took their place, using some of the old states’ traditional souces of legitimacy but blending with innovative governing techniques, i.e. Byzantium and post-Han dynasties
2. Decentralization, giving rise to feudalism, i.e. medieval Europe and Japan
3. New forms of governance such as Islamic caliphates, Mongol khanates, and city-state systems in East Africa, Southeast Asia, the Americas, and Italy

Question 10

Should civilizations at this time be thought of as nation-states (formally defined political entities like we have today) or cultural spheres (ethnic similarities, shared traditions, or gov’t by a larger imperial power)

Answer 10

Depends on the region

Question 11

How did governance look the same in Europe after fall of Rome in 476 CE

Answer 11

• Roman law (especially Justinian code)
• Latin for educated classes
• Christianity as cultural and intellectual force but also a political force that provided a sense of unity in unstable times

Question 12

How did governance look in Europe over the 3 Middle ages in Byzantium and the rest of Europe

Answer 12

• In the east, Byzantium had wealth, cultural advancement, and a high degree of centralization throughout entire middle ages
• In rest of Europe, Early Middle Ages (500 - 1000) was a time of backwardness, decentralization, and perpetual military threat
• High Middle Ages (1000 - 1300) was a time of cultural and economic revival; nations are taking firmer shape
• Renaissance in Italy and Late Middle Ages (1300 - 1500) in rest of Europe see great centralization along with crises like Black Death, constant warfare, and social unrest

Question 13

How did feudalism in Europe begin

Answer 13

• After Rome’s collapse, no single authority took its place in Western or Central Europe
• Small and short-lived kingdoms role and fell. They were constantly menaced by migrating barbarians and Muslim invaders and weakened by decentralization; they lacked the money, military strength, and administrative tools to govern
• In 700s, Frankish kingdom hit upon feudalism (note that Frankish kingdom spawned Charlemagne’s empire)

Question 14

Describe feudalism

Answer 14

• Monarchs award land to vassals
• Vassals guarantee that land (fiefs) will be governed and protected, law and justice dispensed, and crops grown
• Obligations owed to each other by lords and vassals were formal and contractual (unlike Japan where relationships were governed by a more abstact sense of loyalty)

Question 15

From where did European nobles come?

Answer 15

Those vassals who received the largest parcels of land in feudalism evolved into Europe’s noble class
These nobles typically subdivided their own land and became lords to their own vassals

Question 16

Describe the military function of feudal nobility

Answer 16

• Key function
• Vassals recruited foot soldiers form land given them
• Vassals fought as knights (elite amored cavalry) which required wealth and lifelong training
• Tournaments helped knights train

Question 17

What was the code of chivalry

Answer 17

Supposed to ensure knights acted as virtuous Christian warriors, dealing fairly with lower classes and treating women with respect
In real life was often broken

Question 18

What was the economic system of feudalism

Answer 18

Manorial system
Relied on labor of serfs who were peasants who were tied to a lord’s manor without the right to change profession or residence without permission
Serfs spend a certain number of days per month working directly for lord
Serfs owed lord a portion of own crops and livestock

Question 19

What motivated centralizing forces in the Early Middle Ages

Answer 19

Continued struggles against Muslim forces and Viking attacks, starting in the late 700s and lasting to ~1000

Question 20

Who was Charlemagne?

Answer 20

• Frankish monarch (768 - 814)
• Early state builder
• Defeated Vikings, Muslims, and barbarians
• Sponsored education, culture
• Created network of administrators and local officials to supervise growing territories which laid foundation for Holy Roman Empire
• Empire split apart due to grandsons

Question 21

What were most stable states in Western Europe during Middle Ages

Answer 21

England and France

Question 22

Why were the English and French royal families intertwined for several centuries in the middle ages

Answer 22

• Norman Conquest of 1066
• 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conqueror

Question 23

What was the impact of the Norman Conquest

Answer 23

Brought French-style feudalism to England
Fused Latin-based culture with the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon traditions already present in England

Question 24

Describe how England centralized while also restricting monarchy’s power

Answer 24

In 1215 the Magna Carta was imposted on the king by his barons; it guaranteed the nobility various rights
Later in 1200s, England’s nobility won right to form a Parliament, which made laws in conjunction with king and gradually becamse more representative
System of common law began allowing jury trials and observing basic personal liberties

Question 25

How did French kings begin to centralize nation

Answer 25

Capetian kings, who rule from Paris, followed typical route of increasing king’s power
During High and Late Middle Ages French kings conquered large territories that wished to remain independent (ie. Burgundy) or were claimed by England (ie. Normandy and Aquitaine)
Took years of fighting to untangle England and France’s competing claims over French territory
Last conflict was Hundred Year’s War (1337 - 1453) which coincided with soical unrest on both sides and Black Death (Joan of Arc played an important role in final French victory)
French monarchs not obligated to share power in any legally meaningful way

Question 26

Holy Roman Empire in Middle Ages

Answer 26

Large territory across middle of continent, especially German-speaking parts
Multi-cultural monarchy founded in 900s by Charlemagne’s heirs
Difficult-to-administer patchwork of duchies, kingdoms, and principalities - almost 200 in 1300s
Emperor’s powers were weak; position was not heriditary; each new emperor was chosen by leading noble families
Population was ethnically diverse (Germanic, Slavic, Italian, Hungarian, etc)
Hapsburg familiy gained permanent control of imperial throne in 1438 which increased central control

Question 27

Italy in Middle Ages

Answer 27

Even more decentralized than Holy Roman Empire
Much of northern Italty controlled by Holy Roman Empire
Parts of south Italy passed in and out of French, Spanish, Muslim, Byzantine, and Viking hands
Areas that remained free were governed as city-states, i.e. Forence, Milan, Venice and Naples
Rome was heart of Papal states

Question 28

Why was Italy birthplace of Renaissance

late 1200s to early 1300s

Answer 28

Italty was one of most urbanized regions of Europe and a major player in the Mediterranean trade network
Possessed economic prosperity and cultural dynamism

Question 29

What shaped medieval development of Spain and Portugal?

Answer 29

• Conquest at hands of Moors (Muslim invaders) during 700s
• Spent most of Middle Ages locked in long war, Reconquista, against Moorish armies
• Reconquista started in 1000s and lasted until 1492 although by late 1200s the Moors had been pushed into Grenada in southernmost tip of Spain

Question 30

What was the benefit of the Moorish presence in Spain and Portugal?

Answer 30

Science, technology, and deep understanding of Greek philosophy brought to Spain by Muslim and Jewish scholars (eventually spread to rest of Europe)
Beauty of Moorish art and architecture

Question 31

What was an important legacy of the Reconquista

Answer 31

Intense religious hostility toward Muslims and Jews by Spanish and Portuguese Catholics, both during and after war
Tradition of regional autonomy in Spain, where existence of ~6 different kingdoms excluding Portugal, delayed full centralization until late 1400s

Question 32

What was the strongest and most advanced state in medieval Europe

Answer 32

Byzantium

Question 33

Byzantium in the Middle Ages

Answer 33

• Capital, Constantinople, sat at the crossroad of Europe and Asia
• Played role in Mediterranean trade, Silk Road commerce, and, indirectly, the Indian Ocean
• Emperor used Eastern Orthodoxy to legitimate rulership and took advantage of large and elaborate bureaucracy, left from Rome, to administer territory
• Byzantine emperors were great strategist - used complex fortifications, naval power, advanced technology, and diplomatic skills to fend of multiple enemies at once

Question 34

At what point did Byzantium begin to decline

Answer 34

In 1071 the Seljuk Turk defeated Byzantium in battle of Manzikert which began the empire’s decline

Question 35

When did Byzantium come to an end

Answer 35

In 1453 the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople and conquered Byzantine state
Turks made effective use of gunpowder to achieve this victory

Question 36

How did Christianity differ in Catholic Europe and Orthodox Byzantium

Answer 36

• Orthodox doctrine of caesaropapism held Byzantine emperor up as supreme authority over worldly AND spiritual affairs
• Catholic Church promoted ideal of Christendom (Europe as a single civilization, joined by a common allegiance to Christian church), arguing Pope’s political authority should be higher than any monarch
• Catholic Church owned vast amounts of land and had right to collect tithes from general population
• Popes heavily influenced how European monarchs rules and had power to declare holy wars (crusades)

Question 37

Holy Inquisition

Answer 37

Set of special courts that punished religious non-conformity in Western Europe
Established in 1231

Question 38

Eastern Europe in Middle Ages

Answer 38

• Much of region was brutally Christianized and dominated by Teutonic knights from German states
• Threatened by Mongol’s push West during mid-1200s
• Threatened by Ottoman Turk’s invasion of Balkans during 1300s and 1400s
• Poland, Croatia, and Hungary flourished for a while as stable states

Question 39

Russia in middle ages

Answer 39

Loose confederation of city-states
Prices ruling cities owed allegiance to grand prince of Kiev but feuded constantly leaving them weak and divided
Mongols arrived in 1240s (Tatars under Genghis Khan)
Tatars ruled lrage chunk of Russia for 2 centuries leading to cultural rift that further split Easter and Western Europe

Question 40

Russia after Mongols

Answer 40

By 14th century Mongol power started to decline and Russian princes of Muscovy grew in power
By late 1400s, Ivan III expanded Muscovy territory into much of modern-day Russia and declared self czar
By mid-1500s Ivan the Terrible had centralized power over entire Russian sphere, ruling ruthlessly and using secret policy against own nobles

Question 41

Why did Catholic Europe fight crusades?

Answer 41

Convert non-believers to Catholocism (ie. Teutonic Knights’ in Easter Europe)
Crush Christian sects the pope considered heretical
Combat non-Christian foreigners (i.e. anti-Muslim Reconquista)

Question 42

What was the First Crusade?

Answer 42

1096-1099
* Sparked by Byzantine requests for military aid against Seljuk Turks who had smashed Byzantine forces at Manzikert in 1071 and then gone on capture Jerusalem and the Holy Land
* Thousands of crusading knights and followers gathered in Constantinople then drove south to Jerusalem which took by siege in 1099
* Cemented a military and economic presence in Middle East for next 2 centuries by established a series of Latin Kingdoms on Mediterranean’s eastern shores
* Lack of unity among Arabs, Turks and other Muslims was a key reason for initial success because weakened Abbasids and rivals were incapable of organizing resistence
*

Question 43

Describe crusades after First Crusade

Answer 43

Over time Muslims improved efforts to expel Europeans and many Crusades that followed First were European responses to major Muslim victories
Saladin recaptured Jerusalem in 1187 and held back the Third Crusade that followed
After 1200 Crusades lost their focus
Fourth Crusade turned into a Venetian-backed trade war against Christian Constantinople, which was savagely sacked
Other crusades failed miserably
Latin Kingdoms shrank during 1200s and Europeans abandoned last major outpost in 1291

Question 44

Long term impact of Crusades

Answer 44

• Worsening of relationship between European Christians and Muslim Middle East
• Greater awareness of East among Europeans
• • European awareness of technology Middle Easterners had adopted from China

Question 45

Prior to 600 CE, what were the dominant civilizations in the Middle East

Answer 45

Byzantine Empire
Persia

Question 46

What event transformed the Middle East in the Middle Ages

Answer 46

Appearance of Islam
Islam spread through Arabia and beyond during 600s and 700s, destroying Persia and threatening Byzantium
Vast territory including Spain, most of North Africa, virtually all of the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia came under Islamic control