The Rise of Europe

Chapter 1

The Rise of Europe

Chapter Summary

In order to understand the history of the modern world, we must not only examine Europe and its rise to ascendancy, but also the influences of other cultures and civilizations upon Europe. Convention dictates that modern times began around 1500, yet ancient civilizations like the Greeks and Romans exercised tremendous influence on what would become Europe through contributions to philosophy, science, law, and government. The spread of Christianity, which began in the Roman Empire and continued into the early Middle Ages with the conversion of barbarian tribes and the peoples of eastern Europe, gave Europe a common religion. The growth of the church and the increasing power of the papacy laid the groundwork for an ongoing struggle between secular and religious power. In the Early Middle Ages, Europe underwent social, economic, and political transformations as agricultural innovations encouraged population growth, towns and commerce flourished, and feudal relations laid the foundations for the growth of national monarchies. By about the year 1300, Europe had become a recognizable geographic, cultural, and political entity among the Mediterranean civilizations into which the Greco-Roman world had divided.

Chapter Outline

1.1. Ancient Times: Greece, Rome, and Christianity

i. Indo-Europeans

a. The Greek World

i. Greek culturalaccomplishments

ii. Classical Greek virtues

iii. Spread of Greek civilization

b. The Roman World

i. The Roman Empire

ii. The pax Romana

c. The Coming of Christianity

i. Emergence and spread of Christianity

ii. Christian beliefs

iii. Persecution of Christians

iv. St. Augustine

v. Caesaropapism

1.2. The Early Middle Ages: The Formation of Europe

a. The Disintegration of the Roman Empire

i. Founding of Constantinople

ii. Decline in the West

iii. Barbarian invasions

b. The Byzantine World, the Arabic World, and the West about 700

i. Byzantine Empire

ii. Arabic world

iii. Latin Christendom

iv. Germanic customs

c. The Church and the Rise of the Papacy

i. Growth of monasteries

ii. Papal authority

iii. Conversion of the barbarians

d. The Empire of Charlemagne, 800–814

i. Charlemagne

ii. Revival of learning

e. Ninth-Century Invasions; Europe by 1000

i. Second wave of invaders

ii. “Great Schism of East and West”

iii. Emerging Europe

1.3. The High Middle Ages: Secular Civilization

a. Agriculture and the Feudal System after 1000

i. Agriculture and population growth

ii. Three-field system

iii. Feudalism

iv. Capetian kings

v. The Normans in England

vi. The manor and serfs

b. The Rise of Towns and Commerce

i. Long-distance trade

ii. Growth of towns

iii.Town charters

iv. Corporate liberties

v. Guilds

vi.Towns and the decline of serfdom

c. The Growth of Monarchies and Government Institutions

i. Changes in monarchical rule

ii. Taxation

iii. Origins of parliaments

iv. The three estates

v. England’s Parliament

1.4. The High Middle Ages: The Church

a. The Development of the Medieval Church and Papacy

i. The church in crisis

ii. Reform efforts

iii. Gregory VII

iv. Lay investiture

v. Innocent III

b. Intellectual Life: The Universities, Scholasticism

i. The founding of universities

ii. Theology

iii. Arabic and Greek learning

iv. Thomas Aquinas

v. Scholasticism

c. The Crusades; New Invasions; Europe by 1300

i. Crusades to the Holy Land

ii. Other crusades

iii. The “rise of Europe”

iv. European civilization in 1300

Learning Objectives

Chapter 1 teaches students about:

the origins of global modern civilization and the historical trends of modernity in which Europe played a central role.
Greek culture, which laid the foundations for later developments in political science and philosophy, and the spread of that culture around the Mediterranean world.
the Roman aptitudes for law, government, administration, and military organization, which allowed them to control a far-flung empire.
the emergence and spread of Christianity, and the new sense of human life promoted by the Christians.
Christian dualism, which allowed for the separation of spiritual and political power.
the decline of the Roman Empire, and its fragmentation into the Byzantine Empire and Latin Christendom.
the dynamism of the second part of the Mediterranean, the Arabic world.
the influence of Germanic culture and the invading barbarians’ adoption of Roman culture.
the rise of new Christian religious institutions and the growing influence of the papacy.
the achievements of Charlemagne, which include a revival of learning and the reunification of the west for the first time since the Romans.
the appearance, by about 1000, of a recognizably European civilization.
the technological innovations in agriculture and the accompanying expansion of population that took place in the High Middle Ages.
the emergence of feudalism.
the growth of towns and commerce, and the challenge to the feudal order that towns represented.
the efforts of monarchs to consolidate their rule, and the ways in which parliaments checked monarchical power.
the causes for reforming the church in the High Middle Ages.
the founding of universities and the interests of medieval scholars in theology.
the crusades as one of the earliest movements of western expansion.

Lecture/Discussion Topics

What does the word “modern” mean? What are some characteristics of modern societies? Do some modern societies retain features that are anti-modern?
What were the classical virtues expounded by the Greeks? Are those ideals still relevant today?
How was the pax Romana enforced and administrated?
What kinds of people found early Christianity appealing? Why? How did the new religion spread around the Mediterranean world?
What was the contradiction between Roman rule and Christianity? How was it resolved?
Why did Christianity provoke a revolution intellectually?
How were the barbarians incorporated into Roman society? In what ways did Roman law and political organization clash with Germanic customs? What aspects of Germanic culture did they maintain?
How did life for the average person change as the Roman Empire declined?
How did the Frankish kings use both Roman and Germanic customs to build the empire that reached its zenith under Charlemagne? How did they interact with the papacy?
What events and transformations helped Europe emerge as a political and geographical unit around 1000?
If you were a peasant during the Middle Ages, what changes in agricultural practices might you have incorporated into your own farming practices? What benefits would those innovations have brought to you and your family?
Slavery in western Europe disappeared as serfdom became more entrenched. What was the significance of the shift to serfdom? Compare the rights of serfs and slaves.
Did the reciprocity of the feudalistic order benefit peasants? Why or why not? If not, whom did the system benefit?
How did the growth of towns and commerce challenge the feudal order? What contribution did the development of town charters make?
What were the economic and political origins of towns? How did townspeople free themselves from feudal lords? What liberties did they enjoy, as a community and as individuals?
How did townspeople interact with serfs in the surrounding countryside? What benefits might contact with town life offer serfs?
How did guilds function? What was their role in town life, and more generally, in the medieval economy?
How did long distance trade increase opportunities for serfs and townspeople alike?
Imagine you are a monarch in the Middle Ages. How might you increase your revenues and consolidate control over a large territory? Who might resist your policies?
How did Pope Gregory VII hope to reform the church? What were his ideals? Who stood in the way of the realization of those ideals?
Imagine you are a student at a medieval university. Which subjects would you likely study? What kinds of pursuits would your studies prepare you for upon graduation? What kinds of topics might you debate with friends in your free time?
Was the struggle between secular power and papal authority resolved with the spread of Christianity? Why or why not?
Why was it so important to medieval scholars to resolve the seeming contradiction between faith and reason? Explain the conflict and discuss the solution that scholasticism proposed.
How much contact did Arabs and Europeans have during the Middle Ages? Describe the nature of those encounters, and what Europeans gained or lost from them.
Consider the lives of women during the Middle Ages. Taking into consideration class differences, what kinds of opportunities did medieval society offer to peasant women, the wives and daughters of craftsmen and merchants, and noble women? How did medieval society restrict opportunities for women?
Evaluate the crusades. How successful were they in achieving their goals? In what ways did the crusades represent a fusing of Christianity and feudalism?
In what ways was the “rise of Europe” an accomplished fact by 1300? Of the ancient civilizations and assimilated peoples, which ones had shown the greatest influence in shaping this new civilization?

Paper Topics

How did the Greeks lay the foundations for science? Consider the Greek myths, and the criticisms made of those myths by later Greek thinkers. How did both Greek myths and Greek philosophy compare with Christianity and Christian philosophy?
How did people living far from Rome experience Roman rule? Choose an area of the empire such as Gaul, Britain, or the Rhineland, and research the experiences of local peoples. To what degree did Romanization occur? Did local customs survive?
Write a biography of Charlemagne. What made him exceptional and the most-remembered Frankish king?
Research the Normans and the Capetians. How successfully did these two families negotiate the responsibilities of feudalism?
Choose either an Italian city-state like Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Florence, or Milan, or a northern free city like Nuremberg, Frankfurt, Augsburg, Strasbourg, Hamburg, or Lübeck. Describe the daily life of a typical merchant, his enterprises and his family life.
Research the origins of the order of Cluny. How were its ideas representative of criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages?
Consider the reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula. How did it represent a triumph for Christianity? How were Jews and Muslims treated in the newly founded Christian kingdoms?
Research on the economic, political, and religious implications of the Crusades. Investigate for further detail into its history and its significance.
Investigate the scientific achievements of Muslim scholars during the Middle Ages. How did European civilization benefit from those advances?

Multimedia Resources

Web Sources

Instructors should check the validity of each URL.

The following site contains primary sources on ancient Greece. Use documents as the foundations for a discussion of Greek culture, values, religion, or politics.

The following web pages provides links to Greet art and archeology and exhibits:

For an animated map of Alexander’s conquests, see the following site.

The following site, part of a project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, creates a “virtual Rome.” The site begins with a map of the ancient Roman Forum containing links to other sites.

The following site contains a virtual fly-through of the Roman colony of Corinth, which has been the site of a long-term archeological excavation undertaken by scholars at the University of Pennsylvania.

This site at FordhamUniversity contains links to Byzantine history and art (including photographs of monasteries, icons, city walls, and mosaics).

The following site records the homage and fealty done in 1110 by the Viscount of Carcassonne before Abbot Leo of the monastery of St. Mary of Grasse.

Films

TheBBC television series,The Great Philosophers, covered the philosophyofPlato among others. This series was presented by Bryan Magee and Myles Burnyeat.

In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great.This BBC television series retraced Alexander the Great’s travels. This series was presented by Michael Wood.

Julius Caesar (1953).This film adaptation of the play by Shakespeare wasdirected by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starred Marlon Brando, James Mason, John Gielgud, Louis Calhern, and Edmond O’Brien. It earned several Oscar nominations.

Europe in the Middle Ages: A Way Out of Darkness (2004). Thisfour-part series documented the Four Estates of the Middle Ages.

The Disputation (1986). This television movie was directed by Geoffrey Sax and starredAlan Dobie, Bernard Hepton, Christopher Lee, Helen Lindsay, and Bob Peck. This film recreates a public debate between Jews and Christians in Barcelona in 1263.

La Moine et la sorcière (Sorceress) (1987). This wasdirected by Suzanne Schiffman and starred Tchécky Karyo, Christine Boisson, Jean Carmet, Raoul Billerey, and Catherine Frot. It was based on an account of a thirteenth-century inquisitor of the cult of the so-called St. Guinefort, a greyhound believed to be capable of curing sick children.

Palmer, A History of Europe in the Modern World, 11eIM-1 | 1