Western+Europe

Finish chapter, notes on decline of medieval synthesis espirit chart on aztecs espirit on incas essay between Byzantine Empire and Western Empire

Worldology.
 * 1) **Impact of Christianity** (490-600)
 * 2) on Politics:
 * 3) Christianity became a strong foothold of information, cultures, and trade. To convert to Christianity, is to adapt to a strong center of knowledge and political power
 * 4) The Franks, Visigoths, and Lombards, and especially kings converted to Christianity, because of the wide-spread influence that the Church can provide, on politic insurance, and on geo-political events.
 * 5) With the idea a divine being, being the greatest source of power, kings who were endorsed by this common acceptance gain the benfit of being a holy figure to the people they ruled. This meant a stronger system of belief, and a anullment towards living in the dark ages or being uncivilized.
 * 6) Visigoths converted to gain a population that believed in it's actions, and to garner promotion towards old Roman values.
 * 7) Lombards's people already were largely Christians, therefore the consolidation created a new center of peace
 * 8) **Reign of Charles Martel & Viking Raids** (600 - 755)
 * 9) Charles Martel, the founder of the Carolinian Dynasty of the Frankish Empire, lead the Frankish Empire into the East, conquering over the Germanic tribes
 * 10) Grandfather of Charlemagne, the greatest European ruler of the Middle Ages
 * 11) introduced concepts of heavy infantry and permanent armies to Medieval Europe, which increased domination factor in the conquest of Europe by the Franks.
 * 12) Battle of Tours, Franks retook France from Muslim Armies, and saving Europe from a growing onslaught of Muslim conquest
 * 13) The Germanic Tribes east of the Franks were constantly absorbed into the Frankish Empire, maintaining language, culture, identity, which subdivided the French and German people
 * 14) The Viking Raids started near Norse, Sweden, Scandinavia, travelling and raiding lands into England, and the coast of the Frankish Empire
 * 15) Easy travel, increasing population, and their culture did not deny the right of pillaging, therefore they pillaged the wrecks/ships/lands into Anglo-Saxon England.
 * 16) They attacked mainly the undefended, valuable monasteries, for they contained treasures, knowledge, slaves, and where unguarded.
 * 17) **The Rise of the Franks** (755-850)
 * 18) Liberation of Rome 756: Cemented Franks as protectors of the Church, a title that would bring reverence toward's their domination in Europe.
 * 19) King Charlemagne 771: Became the greatest Medieval king in Europe, and the First King to be acknowledged as the protector of the Roman Catholic Church
 * 20) 800: Crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope
 * 21) 814: Death leads to Frankish decline
 * 22) Conquest of Germania 772-814: Franks conquered all Germanic lands east, entering into Slavic lands and into Slovenia and Croatia. Their expansion eastward attributed to their domination in Medieval Europe created an empire entering out of the Dark Ages
 * 23) Franks conquered Northern Italy, and provided protection of the Papal States from Lombard invaders
 * 24) Muslims entering into Europe from Spain were pushed backwards into the buffer states between the Pyrenees Mountains and halted the spread of Arabian Expansion
 * 25) Reasons behind the Rise of the Franks:
 * 26) Military Excellence: Tech +, better control of weapons while riding horses, and the Franks build off of the Roman's dominant technology in their conquest of Mediterranean society
 * 27) Also they introduced the idea of heavily armor necessary to prevent death-dealing injuries
 * 28) Geo-Politics: They expanded from their home territory, building off an existing power, which was easy to assimilate towards. It also helped that the Franks converted to Roman Catholicism, and that they were not raided by Vikings and Muslim Armies
 * 29) Politics: They promoted general happiness by lessing taxes, and allowed local rule to come up, rather than absolute imperial rule.
 * 30) Centralization: Frank's tradition was to divide evenly the possessions amongst all children, and this aided in the downfall of the Frankish Army after the lands were split into many ways
 * 31) Leadership: France was lucky to have all these powerful rulers behind the throne who militarily and charismatically were successful.
 * 32) **Feudalism** (840 - 967)
 * 33) Feudalism is a military/economic/social structure where lower classes receive large portions of land as gifts from Nobles/Kings in return for loyalty to the kingdom, and by providing military aid whenever needed.This was essentially a strategy to enslave the lower class population, where the lower class was held
 * 34) As Feudalism grew, the idea of fragmentation and devolution into many small kingdoms help discourage unification causing decline in Medieval Europe
 * 35) It help split Frankish Control into East and West Francia, which were then separated into 4 divided sub-kingdoms
 * 36) Fuedalism split the continent into fragments which then led to the diversification and
 * 37) **Christianity and the High Middle Ages & Expansion of Holy Roman Empire** (967 - 1060)
 * 38) Small kingdoms turned into nation-states as a response to barbaric raids throughout Europe.
 * 39) Christianity dominated the continent. Nations all believed in the Church, and that gave rise to loyalties spreading throughout European Civilizations.by 10th and 11th century, people have gotten to be //civilized// denouncing raids and enhancing border defenses
 * 40) Crusades revived interest in Asia, with Asian trade and introducing the Islamic intellectual life back into Europe since the dark Ages,
 * 41) soldiers wanted glory, salvation, and potentially riches that derive from the onset of Christian Crusades, which created a strong military life style for the European Civilization
 * 42) The spread of the idea that religion is transcending traditional loyalties and aiding in the larger connection to God, helped spread a common trait amongst many in Europe, which again helped the Holy Roman Empire to expand.
 * 43) Starting with Otto I the Great 935, who was named the Holy Roman Emperor and had control of the Church, and the power to appoint clergy and the Pope himself.
 * 44) He appointed clergy up to Western Europe, which helped consolidate power throughout the entire continent.
 * 45) He helped saved Italy from decline, gaining the title as King of Italy
 * 46) Also the establishment of the Papal States expanded the Holy Roman Empire even more
 * 47) The Holy Roman Empire though remained decentralized, and contributed to the entirety of the Empire's fall
 * 48) Conquered over Bohemia, Burgundy, and the Dutch
 * 49) **Effects of the Crusades, Norman conquest of England and Magna Carta** (1060-1240)
 * 50) Effects of the Crusades:
 * 51) Senseless Violence and Wars: //Christianity must displace Judaism and Islam at all costs//. The crusader's march on the way to Jerusalem already created casualties in both parties, and the citizens of Jerusalem were slaughtered.
 * 52) Undermining Church Moral Authority: Protestant Reformation attacked the ^above stating and going against the Roman Catholic Church, and reforming the moral authority since the Dark Ages
 * 53) Distrust of Christians: As the Christians kept killing and killing people of other religions, they create their own persona as ruthless and barbaric people.
 * 54) Opened Way for Muslim Conquests: The rift between Roman Catholics and the Byzantine Orthodox Christianity created hatred towards Byzantium itself, which led to an attack/sacking during the Crusades, which weakened the Empire strongly, thus allowing Seljuk Turks to overun the Byzantine Empire.
 * 55) Asian Influence: Crusade's spread into the Muslim World gave way to Asian cultures, and Asian trade/goods/influences which later on impacted the Renaissance
 * 56) Increased Anti-Semitism: Church/loyalty to the church rose during throughout all of Europe leaving religious tolerance at a low, and led to destruction of Jewish homes and violence against Jews.
 * 57) **Why the Golden Horde was able to dominate Europe and the Black Death Plague** (1240 - 1350)
 * 58) Why the Golden Horde was able to dominate Europe
 * 59) Forced West: Mongols were had to move west because of weather and suffered from agriculture. Plus, they were dependent on Trade and were nomadic people
 * 60) Superior Military Technology: Due to their nomadic lifestyle, the Mongols were introduced to many cultures and technologies, therefore they had an arsenal of great weapons of destruction in which they imposed upon European civilizations to conquer and destroy the bits of control that they had.
 * 61) Strengthening Numbers: They increased their ranks through conquered territories, forcing defeated people to join and fight with them. They would slaughter all people causing ruse yet loyalty in the horde.
 * 62) Diplomacy: they dominated Northern trade routes from Europe to Asia,they learned of other aspects to civilizations besides military might, and extracted sciences and philosophies which helped to politically interest conquered people.
 * 63) Europe's Weakened Condition: Europeans were in the state of the Bubonic Plague, therefore it was easy to take over and control lands.
 * 64) The Black Death
 * 65) The most severe of famines in 1315-17 caused many to die, steal, and civilized nations entered into a state of disease and cannibalism. Large population were not supported.
 * 66) Killed around 75 Million people or Half of the European Population. It was introduced by the Mongol and prominent in Italy and France. Due to overpopulation the plague was easy to spread and would incur weaknesses throughout the kingdom
 * 67) The Europeans blamed the Jewish for the cause of the black plague, leading to increased persecution
 * 68) Peasants had no food, they were dieing, and monarchs and nobles still wanted to tax the people which they had no money for due to the famines and death
 * 69) The plague seemed to be a curse, and a lot of people blamed that on the Church and Papal authority, leading to a new sense of analyzing life and the world through philosophical understanding etc.
 * 70) Since a lot of people died, populations remained small for a time, leading to increased success to those who were living and a broad sense of finding out what the world meant which lead to the period of enlightenment.

media type="custom" key="7509311"

Summary on Manorialism: Manorialism was the economic and military system by which the Middle Age Lords imposed to control their manor, or "fiefdom". By permitting serfs, not slaves, serfs to embed their existence into the land, the Lord gives them rights through protection, during the rampant dark ages and declining era of Europe. In recipricol obligations, the serfs were supposed to return goods, taxes, economic value to their lords. They provided them with the economic aspect of civilization, and with more and more serfs, they gained economic significance in their manor and nation in whole. Also in reaction, the Lords distribute political anticipations, laws, taxes, and gave rise to stronger local authority than a central kingdom. media type="custom" key="7509273"

Summary on Fuedalism: In comparison to Manorialism, Fuedalism was the entire system of networks in a Manor, or domains. It pertains to the social hierarchy between kings, nobles, lords, clergy, and serfs, and peasents. It pertains to the economic result from the distribution of lands for political loyalty, where nobles gave the king a part of their goods, a taxation. It pertains to the military value through uniting a large network of local authorities who would fight for one king, emperor, monarch. It also pertains to the religious identity of the Christianized Europe, where the clergy were the higher class of holy authorities, ruling over Fuedal Lords and territories.

media type="custom" key="7545883" Summary: The Magna Carta was a reaffirmation of the supreme law to court it in a way in which the king couldn't een surpass it's codifications, thus creating a static law code, where nothing can be surpassed in it's advancement of law. In the Magna Carta, there are limits on Bailiffs, on the inheritance policies, and the separation of Church and State. It goes back to reaffirm and to support the idea that no one in the nation should be judged unfairly under given process of law, and that no arbitrary decisions will be made backing away from law. This confirms the structure of a governmental system, giving it static stability where it will be able to stand and support it's citizens through law and recreation/legal attitudes of the State.


 * 1) Economic
 * 2) Manorialism
 * 3) A system of economics in which the taxation by the lord onto the Serfs produce the economy of the territory, and the lord then forth provides protection from war, and provide shelters
 * 4) Larger populations gave way to new markets on the horizon
 * 5) Whole lands were converted into Agricultural societies, to mass produce the required food goods for market
 * 6) This new market economy and commercial values began to combine with military and religious practices to semi inscribe fuedalism onto social standards and hierarchy
 * 7) Urban population stemed to 10% of the Population and were at most 100,000
 * 8) Tradesmen were influenced by the Crusades, those that had more cultures went into Constantinople and brought the goods home to sell
 * 9) Trade revived in some places in the West, and gave the Western Europe a strong economic and commercial sector to handle
 * 10) Again with population growth, came a new economic sector and the rise of a money system to carry the West on
 * 11) Which were invested into ships, and other marketing strategies
 * 12) Groups began to develop in the series of economic activities, such as the Hansetic League, northern scandinavia and Germany, which promoted economic trade along alliances
 * 13) Trading companies were greater and more stable than individual merchantism
 * 14) Economic Sector decreased after the black plague, and the viking raids occuring from Scandinavian people
 * 15) Growth capitalism, growth of trading and banking for merchantilist effects.
 * 16) Social
 * 17) Some people were to be considered serfs, a lower class person under the Lord, which was under the Noble, which was under the King
 * 18) Fuedalism provided the social hierarchy between the upper classes and lower classes.
 * 19) Strongest Position was to be heralded as Holy Roman Emperor, in which the powers were to be held from divine hands, therefore giving them strong local loyalty.
 * 20) but that loyalty was attacked during the Age of Scholasticism
 * 21) Greed in the Fuedal pyramid caused Nobles to ask for more and more, which caused the serfs to pay and pay and then complain and complain
 * 22) The gap between the Lord and the peasent increased greatly over the dark ages and the expanding tradition of cultural assimulation
 * 23) Guilds also formed as sometimes economic centers of activity, but also other times of social gatherings of peasents and lower class
 * 24) Women gained more significance in local activities, but failed to compete on the political level still
 * 25) although women could definitly become queen and the Magna Carta give women the right to inherit lands from their husbands
 * 26) it was still a mostlya patriarchal society
 * 27) Guilds created social alliances between groups of specific economic sector and businesses as alliance.
 * 28) Political
 * 29) Language was a barriar between nation's interactions with foriegn nations
 * 30) Western Europe erupted in many regional monarchies which created the split and fragmented social networks in the West
 * 31) Some use fuedalism to create their own nations, rules, economy, such as France with the strengthening of armies
 * 32) There was limited contact between the absolute Monarch and the peasent class system in which reduced/limited the King's powers
 * 33) The Magna Carta and the Creation of the Parliament, help seperate the powers of the Monarch into smaller pieces to use, giving to more democractic principles
 * 34) Parliament was seperated into 3 Estates, The clergy, the peasents, and the nobles
 * 35) Democratic principles resurfaced
 * 36) Religious beliefs in Christiandom gained larger powers on the political ranks
 * 37) Marriage gathered alliances between nations, no longer a local warfare
 * 38) Interactions
 * 39) Muslim advancement from Spain ended in the Battle of Tours through Charles Martel, ending Muslim interactions between Western Europe
 * 40) The hundred year battle between France and England was fought over border dispute and rightful claims
 * 41) Marriages between nations were more common in the era, and lead to the rapid political influence into many geo States
 * 42) The Pope ordered a series of 7 Crusades, all attacking Jerusalem, losing it, sacking it, taking away economic goods, and social customs
 * 43) Religious
 * 44) Church officials were also head political figures to, they controlled the geo-political landscape as well as the political atmosphere in legislation
 * 45) They regulated doctrines and charters, and it was essentially the Bishop who assigns the title of Monarch to the Fuedal System
 * 46) The holy Empire was the sole cause of the Christian force of faith in the Medievil Times
 * 47) Church also Provided new times for Reforming the state, because of some corrupt practices, they developed investitures and the removal of corrupt bishops and classes
 * 48) Tensions in the religious and Intellectual atmosphere caused rampant intrusion of practices through logic and understanding nature with out God's Miracles
 * 49) Mysticism and belief in Christianity spread as well, with the haranging image of Jesus, Mary, people tend to show a little more devotion during this era
 * 50) Intellectual
 * 51) There was very little intellectual activity, because most education usually focused around the clergy class, therefore there was a solitary value of Intelligence that was untapped in the dark ages
 * 52) There had been schools being started around the Late Charles Martel stages in which the church garnered new priests and clergy members
 * 53) Some of the most common practices were to collect ancient pieces of text, or art and perserve them to serve as cultural evidence of historic events
 * 54) Most post clasiccal thought came from the influence of Arabs, including the new idea of Scholasticism, which was the most common practice of philosophy at the time
 * 55) Religious Art came into play sooner, and so did the expansion of ideas of Gothic, styled churches, and domed buildings adopted from the hellenistic values of the past
 * 56) Literature was focused on the advancing studies of Philosophy, and gained new ground to the ideas of old culture, and spread of it throughout the era
 * 57) Peter alburn, thomas aquinas
 * 58) Societies developed venecular language between a coutnry or region, allowing for intellectual advancement
 * 59) Technological
 * 60) Vikings from Scandinavia raid into England, + reduce the intellectual atmotsphere b/c of warrior like society and dependence on war + violence rather than culture and advancements
 * 61) Agricultural Trends were hard to maintain, therefore the
 * 62) Mold board - allowed to plow deeper into soil, tilling and cropping
 * 63) Three-Field System - To till and produce better nutrients for the consumer good, while also renurioushing the soil
 * 64) horse Collars allow the horse to not choke and die
 * 65) Church expanded political territory, by spreading religion around a series of regions attracting popular interest and conformation
 * 66) The Crusades also spread disease and carried disease back and forth between the Muslims and the Europeans
 * 67) Western Europe was not yet as advanced to iron work or embrace more modern day techniques
 * 68) Focused more solely on Agricultural technolgies and gothic style religious churches


 * 1) During the late 1300's overpopulation and disease became a problem
 * 2) Also the added effect of the hundred year's war brought more taxation and famine
 * 3) In the end, the French won, overturning fuedalism, because of new practices of gaining military power through payment rather than loyaltyies and nobility
 * 4) Social tensions amongst hierarchy arose
 * 5) economy was being demanding and being too much of a burden, because of the higher decrease of population, the taxation rates rised up and challenged Europe's fuedal system
 * 6) Traditional military values have changed. With the demand of cannonballs and gunpowder, war tactics changed and became increasingly difficult
 * 7) The aristocrats didn't disappear though, they became more chilvarious, they adopted a more extravegeant life style of polite manners and behaviors
 * 8) Religious piety was an ongoing occurrance, people wanted to celebrate the religion, but then again the clergy was sometimes more focused on the political advantages rather than on their status as clergy.
 * 9) there were several heresies arrising to those in England and Bohemia in which they preached high hierarchal establishment through the divine rights
 * 10) Break down of Artistic and intellectual decline
 * 11) rational thought was not supported/banned from religion
 * 12) new art and new literature started to develop in order to become more fruitful, suggesting a shift in artisitc cultures and values emphasized in life during the decline period
 * 13) new art and intellectual cultures started to take shape, transitioning to a new found sphere of thought and customs
 * 14) Postclassical West and its Heritage
 * 15) The postclassical West most often can be seen as a mix between the Roman glory and the more modern sense of Europe.
 * 16) But the Middle Ages were growing in population, trade and intellectual activities.as the dark ages started moving towards the end(because the slight growth in economic and intellectual activity helped move Western Europe forward towards a more distinctivly properous period.
 * 17) But Western Europe definitly had influence from plenty of subjects, including the Arabs and the past Roman Empire
 * 18) imitation and copying/building off of old customs also can be seen in many other civilizations including within Europe, Africa, Japan, and Russia, and other emerging civilizations.

Summary: Western Europe was on the other side of the Byzantine Empire, broken down between the Visigoths, the Franks, and the Lombard, with Scandinavian vikings occupying the northern regions, and the Muslims occupying north Africa. There wasn't a lot to work off of, especially since the fall of the Roman Empire brought on separation between the entire Western Europe. The greatest remaining power though remained, and that was Christianity. Christianity defined most of the Western political and religious/social lives in the West. They held Geo-political events, had power to be designated to the highest clergy official, the Pope, in which got to decide holy roman emperors for the name sake. Christianity became a binding force to most political leaders, especially if they wanted loyalties with the commoners during the Feudal period. Obviously it was apparent that serfs and peasants would follow a leader if the leader was a divine figure or because of a common interest between them and the people. Plus along with Christianity ruling over the western region, Fuedalism took over as the main political and economic system. Frankish rule occupied most of France and the Frankish emperor, Charlemagne expanded the frankish border to Germany where the spread of new territory and manorialism/fuedalism created expanded innovation of technology to keep pace with the popular dissent in the serf population. This expanding social climate helps emphasize the growing climb from the first onslaught of dark ages caused by the Fall of Rome and a territory of fully seperated warrior nomads that started to transition into growing distinct civilization and continent full of seperate states ruled over by political leaders who often times inherited many of their lands and power through inheritance as stated in the Magna Carta in 1215. This sort of practice lead into the modern day Europe, where poltiical boundaries started to get more defined and more nations started appearing because of these practices of inheritance. But besides the political and economic sectors of Western Europe, the cultural and intellectual sectors started becoming more defined as well. Sure they may not have been as dominant as the hellenistic period, but it was a rise from the past, with scholasticism taking place as an influence from the Crusades, and trading units started forming to induce more economic oppurtunities. And the agricultural sector started growing as the population increased and more land was garnered into different societies. Gothic architecture dominated the West, with a synthesis of the old and the new. A lot of Western European styles and infleunces come from this medievil synthesis, from where postclassical middle ages started to build off of Religion, off of old political documents and combining the old ideas and systen with newer system such as canonballs offering new power and choice in military power, which greatly reduced the strength of fuedalism or the mix between Romanized Glory and the more modernized approach of guilds and units to facilitate trade. And then from 1348 to 1380, the black plague occurred, also being doubled up with the hundred year war from 1338 to 1453 which took a huge toll out of western europe and it's social and political systems.