Transcript european cultures

EUROPEAN CULTURES
EUROPEAN
SOCIETY
Middle Ages
• For centuries, the Roman
Empire controlled much
of Europe with stable
social and political order.
– Fall of the Roman Empire
isolated Western Europe
from the rest of the world.
– Trade declined
– Cities, bridges, roads, law
and order, and money all
fell into despair.
– Life for most people did
not extend past where
they were born, lived, and
died.
• The Crusades
– Pope Urban II
– Worried about the Holy Land, the birthplace of
Christianity, being controlled by Muslims
– Launched a series of “holy wars” to regain the
Holy Land
– The Crusades pulled Western Europe out of a
period of Isolation and despair.
– It reformed European Society, and
encouraged them to start exploring the world
around them.
FEUDALISM
• Political system
• The King gave estates to
nobles in exchange for their
loyalty and military support.
• The lack of a strong central
government however, often led
to warfare.
• Most nobles built castles for
defense.
MANORIALISM
• The economic ties
between nobles and
peasants is called
manorialism.
• In exchange for
protection, peasants
provided various services
for the feudal lord on his
manor, or estate.
• Most peasants were serfs
who could not leave the
manor without permission.
• An Improving
Economy
– New agricultural
inventions
– Food surplus
– Plow and horse collar
– Revived trade in
Europe and
encouraged the
growth of towns
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCH
• After the fall of Rome, the Church provided
stability and order in Europe.
• People who disobeyed the Church laws
faced excommunication.
– Excommunication barred people from
practicing church rites.
EXPANDING HORIZONS
• The Crusades helped change western European
society by bringing Europeans into contact with
Muslim and Byzantine civilizations of Eastern
Europe and the Middle East.
• Trade increased between western Europe,
eastern Mediterranean area, and the Middle
East.
– This heightened demand at home for Eastern luxury
goods, like spices, sugars, melons, tapestries, silk,
and other items.
– (Asia) Chinese and Indian merchants—Arab
merchants (moved goods)--Italian merchants
– Common medium of exchange (gold coins):
increased demand for gold from Africa to make gold
coins.
• Mongol Empire who controlled China
– Broke down trade barriers
– Opened borders
– Secured roads
– This encouraged more trade between all parts
of Asia and Europe.
• 1300’s the Mongol Empire collapsed and
trade became increasingly difficult.
– The flow of goods decreased
– Prices on spices increased
• Europeans began to look for a way to
reach Asia by sea.
NEW STATES,
NEW
TECHNOLOGY
• Beginning in the 1300’s,
a number of changes
enabled Europeans to
send ships into the
Atlantic looking for a
water route to China.
– Crusades and trade with
Asia weakened feudalism.
– New towns and merchants
gave monarchs a new
source of wealth to tax
– Armed forces protected
trade routes
– Monarchs relied less on
nobility and created strong
central governments.
• By the mid-1400’s,
Portugal, Spain,
England, and
France emerged as
powerful states in
western Europe.
• The Renaissance
– An intellectual
revolution
– Produced great
works of art and
started a scientific
revolution.
• Europeans acquired new technologies to
make long distance travel across the
ocean possible.
– Astrolabe: a device that uses the positions of
the sun to determine direction, latitude, and
local time.
– From Arab traders, they acquired the
compass and lateen sails, which made it
possible to sail against the wind.
– The Portuguese invented the caravel, a ship
that was easier to steer and that made travel
much faster.
PORTUGUESE EXPLORATION
• Prince Henry the Navigator set up a center
for astronomical and geographical studies
in Portugal.
• Bartolomeu Dias, reached the southern tip
of Africa.
• Vasco da Gama rounded the southern tip
of Africa, across the Indian Ocean, and
landed in India.
– Found a water route to Asia