Transcript 1_MEDIEVAL_OVERVIEW

Europe’s Middle Ages
476-1400 (app) CE
What happens when centralized rule disintegrates?
In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq and deposed its
dictator Saddam Hussein and his ruling apparatus. Let’s
consider the impact this has had on Iraq and the
challenges of creating a government that is in control.
What is the impact on:
Government
Belief
Economy
Social Structure
Impact of the Collapse of the Roman Empire
By 476 CE, the Western Roman Empire was weak and
overstressed. In that year, Germanic rebels murdered
the Emperor. Although wealthy landowners maintained
local power, slowly, parts of the empire broke up from
invasion, and Roman cultural life disintegrated.
What was Europe like during the Roman Empire?
What was the impact of the collapse (476 CE) on:
Government
Belief
Economy
Social structure
Impact of the Collapse of the Roman Empire
Impact of the Collapse of the Roman Empire
Impact of the Collapse of the Roman Empire
Impact of the Collapse of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
Western Europe during Middle Ages:
Government:
Centralized, Public
No central authority: lack
securitysmaller kingdomsprivate
armies
Belief:
church-state divide
Church has political, moral power; less
tolerant; dominates art and education
Economy:
urban, exchange
Exchange declineslocal production,
return to barter, lack of new ideas
Social Structure:
Citizenship, universal
law apply to all
People seek protection/security and
exchange rights (live in castes)
What and when are the Middle Ages?
Names
A. Middle Ages: Between Rome and
Renaissance, 476-1400 (generalization)
B. Medieval
C. Dark Ages (light=learning)
Feudalism is a political system that:
• Depends on mutual obligations between vassals and
Lords (serfs, knights, nobility)—each caste has a legal
obligation to the others.
• Depends on land in exchange for service (agricultural
production, defense) on a manor.
• Power is privately controlled rather than by the public
(rulers are not accountable to anyone).
• Led to expansion of land as Lords needed to constantly
reward others for service
Differences between slavery, caste and class
Caste:
Social relations w/in caste, hereditary, judged as group
member by law
Class:
Some mobility, birth shouldn’t matter, judged as an
individual by law
Slave:
Belongs to owner (serf belongs to land, can’t be separated).
Owner has little obligation
Impact of the Collapse of the Roman Empire
Impact of the Collapse of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
Government:
Belief:
Economy:
Social Structure:
Feudalism is
1.
2.
3.
4.
Caste:
Class:
Slave:
Name_____________________
Western Europe during Middle Ages:
Where and what is “The West”?
A new economy of merchants and
explorers develops in this area in
the 1500s--the Renaissance
imitates ancient Greeks and
Romans.
During the
Renaissance,
Greek ideas of
“western”
government,
culture
social structure
expanded West
with The Roman Empire (in red)
colonization
is finally divided. The
Western half is Catholic.
Origins of
monotheism