The Early Middle Ages
500-1300
Why did Western Europe develop its own resources during the Middle Ages?
- Political and Social Systems
How did feudalism and the manor economy provide a measure of political, economic, and social order?
- Religious and Value Systems
How did the Roman Catholic Church spread Christian civilization throughout the Western Europe?
What new technologies sparked a revolution in agriculture and commerce?
How did Western Europe blend Greco-Roman, Christian, and Germanic traditions to build a new civilization?
- The Germanic tribes that migrated across Europe were farmers
- They created small communities and were governed by unwritten customs.
- Much different from the complex cities and governments of the Roman and Greek Empires.
- They were ruled by elected kings whose chief role was to lead them into war.
- Between 400-700 Germanic Tribes carved Western Europe into small kingdoms
- In 481 Clovis became the king of the Franks
- Clovis was an energetic leader and a ruthless conquerer.
- Under his leadership the Franks conquered the Roman province of Gual.
- Clovis ruled under Frankish customs but perserved the Roman legacy in Gual.
- Clovis' reign reached new heights when he converted to Christianity.
- Christianity was the religion of many of his subject.
- His conversion not only earned the respect of his captured subjects in Gual but he also gained an important ally in the Roman Catholic Church
- As the Germanic tribes divided up Western Europe, Islam swept out of the Middle East into the Mediterranean.
- Islam is a religion that emerged out of Arabia in 632.
- Within 200 years, Muslims believers of the Islamic faith, had built a great empire
- Christians watched as Muslim armies won countless battles throughout the Mediterranean overrunning areas of North Africa, Spain in route to France.
- In the Battle of Tours, the Franks were led by Charles Martel,
- His army defeated the Muslims stalling the Muslim invasion in to Western Europe
- To Christians the victory was a sign that God was on their side.
- Christians saw Muslim occupation in Spain and thorughout the Mediterrenean as threatening.
- This led to a hostile view of Muslim world.
- Even though the Europeans despised the Muslims they learned a lot from them especially in the areas of science and math.
The Early Middle Ages
Christians vs. Muslims
The Early Middle Ages
The Rise of Islam
Lesson Objectives
The Early Middle Ages
The Age of Charlemagne
- Around 800 the grandson of Charles Martel, Charlemagne (Charles the Great) united Europe
- His empire stretched from France, north to Germany back south to part of Italy.
- For 46 years Charlemange spent his time fighting the Saxon to the north near Germany, the Muslims in Spain, the Slavs and Avars in the east and the Lombards in Italy
- In a Christmas day ceremony Pope Leo III proclaimed Charlemagne emperor as a thank you for saving Rome from rebels that were threatening its sovereignty.
- Charlemagne reunited much of the old Roman Empire
The Early Middle Ages
Germanic Kingdoms
The Early Middle Ages
Life after Charlemagne
The Early Middle Ages
The Age of Charlemagne
- After Charlemagne died in 814 his empire fell apart
- His heirs fought for power for more than 30 years after his death
- in 843 his grandson drew up the Treaty of Verdun, which split the empire into 3 regions
- Charlemagnes death opened the doors for a wave of new attacks in Europe.
- The Muslims finally conquered parts of Italy more specifically Sicily and made it a hub of Islamic culture.
- Around about 896 a new group of people called the Magyars occupied parts eastern Europe present-day Hungary
- They moved west to Germany, France and Italy and occupied those regions for 50 years before being moved back to Hungary
- The Vikings however were the most destructive raiders in Europe.
- They emerged from Scandinavia in the most northern portion of western Europe.
- The area occupied by the Vikings is present-day Sweden, Norway, and Denmark
- The Vikings were great sailors, traders and explorers
- Leif Erickson crossed the Atlantic and setup a small colony in North America around the year 1000.
The Early Middle Ages
- Charlemagne worked hard to control the lands under his jurisdiction
- He appointed nobles to rule local regions
- He provided them with land, supplies and armies
- He maintained control of the nobles by sending out government officials called missi dominici.
- Charlemagne wanted to make his capital of Aachen the second Rome
- Charlemagne set up a palace school in Aachen
- He asked a well known educator Alcuin of York to run the school.
- He set up a curriculum of study based on Latin learning which became the educational model for medieval Europe
- The curriculum included grammar, rhetoric, logic, geometry, music, and astronomy.
The Great Leader Clovis