Transcript History of Western civilization

History of Western civilization
Antiquity (before AD 500)
• The division of Europe into a Western (Latin)
and an Eastern (Greek) part
• the final separating Roman and Eastern
Christianity occurred only in the 11th century.
• invasion by barbarian tribes (Visigoths,
Ostrogoths)
The Early Middle Ages (AD 500-1000)
• the dominant faith in Western Europe:
Christianity.
• By the early eighth century, Iberia and Sicily
had fallen to the Muslims.
• the "West" became synonymous with
Christendom, the territory ruled by Christian
powers; Germany converted to Christianity;
Vikings became Christians, Magyars converted
to Christianity, Poles adopted Christianity
The High Middle Ages (1000-1300)
• By the year 1000 feudalism had become the
dominant social, economic and political system in
the West.
• the Great Schism (Catholic Church, Orthodox
Church)
• The Church was the most powerful institution in
Medieval Europe.
• the foundation for constitutional monarchy
(England, Magna Carta, Parliament)
• In 1095, Pope Urban II called for a Crusade to
conquer the Holy Land from Muslim rule.
The Late Middle Ages and Early
Renaissance (1300-1500)
• Hundred Years' War between England and France
(1337-1453)
• Another event to devastate Europe in the Later
Middle Ages was the Black Plague, which arrived
in the 14th century (a third of Europe's
population died).
• the growth of towns and cities in the West and
improved the economy of Europe.
• Renaissance began in Italy (a new age of scientific
and intellectual inquiry). the Renaissance spread
northwards to the rest of the West
• Around 1450, Johannes Gutenberg developed
a printing press, which allowed works of
literature to spread more quickly.
• reconquering the Iberia peninsula from its
Muslim rulers.
• In 1492, a Spanish expedition of Christopher
Columbus discovered the Americas during an
attempt to find a western route to East Asia.
The Renaissance and Reformation
(1500-1650)
• Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo, Isaac Newton
• These events led to the so-called scientific
revolution, which emphasized experimentation.
• The other major movement in the West in the
sixteenth century was the Reformation, which
would profoundly change the West and end its
religious unity (1517). Protestants, Calvinist
Church, Anglican Church
• the Thirty Years' War between Protestants and
Catholics (1618-1648).
The rise of Western empires (15001800)
• By 1500, Europe had caught up to the rest of the
world technologically and was beginning to
surpass it.
• Western explorers: Vasco da Gama, Christopher
Columbus, James Cook, and Ferdinand Magellan
• powers to arrive in the Americas were the Spain,
Portugal, Swedes, Dutch, English, and French.
• The West began purchasing slaves in large
numbers and sending them to the Americas.
• Westerners began establishing colonies in Africa.
• Westerners also expanded in Asia.
• The Pacific Ocean was also explored by
Europeans (Australia, New Zealand, Hawaiian).
• Europe's period of expansion in early modern
times greatly changed the world. The West
became more sophisticated economically,
adopting Mercantilism, in which companies were
state-owned and colonies existed for the good of
the mother country.
The Portuguese Empire (1415-1999)
Iberian Union (1580-1640)
Absolutism and Enlightenment (15001800)
• The West in the early modern era went through
great changes as the traditional balance between
monarchy, nobility and clergy shifted.
• An intellectual movement called the
Enlightenment began in this period as well. Its
proponents opposed the absolute rule of the
monarchs of their day, and instead emphasized
the equality of all individuals. (Locke, Voltaire,
Montesquieu, Rousseau, Smith…)
An age of revolution (1770-1815)
• The late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries in the West were dominated by a series
of revolutions that would change the West
forever, resulting in new ideologies and changes
in society.
• The first of these revolutions began in North
America (1776).
• The other major Western revolution at the turn
of the nineteenth century was the French
Revolution (1789).
The rise of the English-speaking world
(1815-1870)
• English as the dominant language, and English and
Anglo-American culture as the dominant culture of two
continents and many other lands outside the British
Isles.
• the greatest change in the West was the Industrial
Revolution.
• New ideological movements began as a result of the
Industrial Revolution.
• Capitalists emerged as a new powerful group, with
educated professionals like doctors and lawyers under
them, and the various industrial workers at the
bottom.
• Industrial technology was imported from Britain.
The first lands affected by this were France, the
Low Countries, and western Germany. Eventually
the Industrial Revolution spread to other parts of
Europe.
• New ideologies emerged as a reaction against
perceived abuses of industrial society. Among
these ideologies were socialism and the more
radical communism, created by the German Karl
Marx.
• There were changes throughout the West in
science and culture between 1815 and 1870.
Pasteur, Darwin, Romantic writers, artists and
musicians..
• Europe in 1870 differed greatly from its state
in 1815. Most Western European nations had
some degree of democracy, and two new
national states had been created, Italy and
Germany.
The Great Powers and the First World
War (1870-1918)
• By the late 19th century, the world was
dominated by a few great powers, including
Britain, the United States, and Germany. France,
Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Italy were also great
powers.
• Western inventors and industrialists transformed
the West in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. (Thomas Edison, Wright brothers,
automobiles, Petroleum, Guglielmo Marconi,
Alexander Graham Bell..)
The Second World War and its
Aftermath (1939-1950)
The Fall of the Western Empires
(1945-1970)
• Following World War II, the great colonial
empires established by the Western powers
beginning in early modern times began to
collapse.
• the rise of independence movements
The Cold War (1945-1991)