7/8 World History. Week 21. The Dark Ages

Transcription

1 7/8 World History Week 21 The Dark Ages

2 Monday Do Now If there were suddenly no laws or police, what do you think would happen in society? How would people live their lives differently? Objectives Students will understand the social and economic effects of the fall of Rome.

3 Aftermath of the fall of Rome Scholars consider the year 476 to be the fall of the Western Roman Empire because that's when a Germanic general kicked the emperor there out of power. When that happened, Roman society began to change quite quickly. The original Germanic general did not stay in power long. People throughout the empire did not consider him to be their true leader, so they didn't listen to what he said. One of the first major changes was the collapse of the Roman army. Without a leader and steady supply of money, soldiers began deserting the army and returning to their homes to be farmers because they needed to make money somehow.

4 When the Roman army was no longer around to enforce Roman laws, people began ignoring the laws. For instance, if you murdered someone you were mad at, you knew that no one was going to come capture you, take you to prison, and execute you. The only thing you had to fear was the possibility that the victim's family would come after you. In the same way, rich people began ignoring laws about property. By 476, the rich people within the empire had already become richer than they'd ever been before by changing the laws to make it easier to take poor people's land. Now that there was no one around to enforce any laws at all, they simply started stealing people's land by hiring private soldiers to kick people off their land and kill them if they didn't leave. The period of time for about 600 years after the fall of Rome is known simply as the Dark Ages.

5 For the first 200 years of the Dark Ages, the rich people became richer and more powerful than ever before. The rich people used their huge amounts of money and power to allow the former empire to permanently break up into hundreds of small pieces, each ruled by the richest, most powerful person in the area. The poor people had no real choice but to submit. They had no money or supplies of food to try to revolt. They began working the rich people s farmlands in exchange for a percentage of the crops instead of actual money. With the passage of enough time, people just accepted that that's how life was. If you were born into a poor farming family, you'd live your life as a poor farmer. If you were the son of a rich man, you'd live your life as a rich man. The local rulers came to be known as noblemen. Because they were constantly at war with each other, they needed to have private armies. To keep their soldiers loyal, they paid them well and gave them the title of knights, and forced poor people to call them "Sir."

6 Noblemen Noblemen were not all equal to each other. Some were richer than others, and some had more land than others. To distinguish themselves from each other, they started calling themselves by different titles. The lowest type of nobleman was a baron. They usually lived in more remote areas and had more money and power than anyone around them, but they couldn't afford to build huge castles or keep large armies of knights. The highest type of nobleman was a duke. They usually controlled the areas around large, important cities and had huge amounts of money and giant armies. Between barons and dukes there were several other ranks of nobleman as well.

7 By the mid-600's, the very wealthiest noblemen began to call themselves kings. Kings considered themselves above the rest of the noblemen and demanded that they pay taxes as a form of respect. In reality, though, kings during the Dark Ages were not much different than dukes. It was more that they were in charge of the most important city in a large area, and sometimes formed alliances with the noblemen in his area to fight against other kings. During the Dark Ages, ranks of authority were very clear. Serfs (poor, landless farmers) were at the bottom. Knights were above serfs, and noblemen were above everyone. This social system is now known as feudalism. After centuries of living with feudalism, people began to see it as the natural order of life. They believed each position came with both responsibilities and benefits. Serfs had to do hard farm labor, but they didn't have to worry about defending themselves from invaders because there were knights to do that. Knights earned some money and didn't have to farm their own food, but there was always the possibility of dying in battle. Noblemen got to live a rich, comfortable lifestyle, but they had the responsibility of managing the entire society in their area.

8 Economy Under feudalism, the economy of Western Europe was very small and unstable. Trade between different areas was very limited because travel was so dangerous. Remote areas had no one acting as police, so robbery was extremely common, and that made people avoid long-distance trading. The economy was so small and local under feudalism that it made everything unstable. If the area had good weather and a lot of crops, everyone had a lot of food that year. If the area had bad weather or some kind of plant disease, everyone starved. The same principle applied to other things besides farming, such as craftsmen. If an area had two blacksmiths, but one of them died, the remaining one could start charging whatever he wanted because people in the area had no alternatives. In the feudal economy, noblemen hoarded most of their money, keeping large amounts of it locked up in their castles. They usually had their own private blacksmiths, shoemakers, dressmakers, and so on, who were forbidden from working for anyone else, no matter how much need there was in villages outside the castle.

9 Culture During the Dark Ages, the culture of Western Europe went into decline, just like the economy and government. Greedy noblemen were more interested in money and war than art and literature. The amount of all forms of art and literature, including sculptures, paintings, jewelry, and books, fell sharply during the Dark Ages compared to during the Roman Empire. Because trade also fell sharply, art and literature was not coming into Western Europe from other parts of the world either. The economic and cultural isolation of Western Europe during the Dark Ages had a huge impact on the languages of the region. Under the Roman Empire, many people around the Mediterranean Sea spoke Latin as their first language, and people who lived in further parts of the empire (like Gaul or England) learned it as a second language. During the Dark Ages, though, there was so little communication between different areas that the Latin language began to change. People in Spain, Gaul, and Italy began to pronounce Latin slightly differently, and use new or slightly different words from each other. By the end of the Dark Ages, people in those areas could barely understand each other. Page and illustration from an 8th century book

10 Exit Ticket What were the advantages & disadvantages of being a serf? What were the advantages & disadvantages of being a knight? Homework Early Castles reading & questions

11 Tuesday Do Now In this class you ve studied many important and powerful leaders, like Cyrus the Great, Alexander the Great, and Constantine. What are some of the traits that they shared? Objectives Students will understand the importance of Charlemagne s life and legacy. Students will understand the origin and role of monasticism in early Christianity.

12 Feudalism Quiz 1. What were poor, landless farmers called in the feudal system? 2. What were 2 of the 3 main functions of an early castle? 3. Name 1 defensive structure that many early castles had.

13 Charlemagne reading Monasticism reading

14 Exit Ticket Why do you think someone would choose to a join a monastery or convent?

15 Block Day Do Now What do you think makes someone want to change their religion? Do you know anyone who has done that? Objectives Students will understand the nature and timing of the spread of Christianity through Europe.

16 Christianity after the Council of Nicaea After the Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal within the Roman Empire and held the Council of Nicaea to unify its beliefs, Christianity began to grow and spread throughout the empire like never before. Less than 50 years after the death of Constantine, the Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the only legal religion within the empire. This action shocked many people from old, wealthy Roman families, who had largely resisted converting to Christianity. Once Theodosius made Christianity the only legal religion, he began dismantling Roman polytheism by shutting down temples and converting them to churches, outlawing divination, and allowing mobs of Christians to destroy ancient oracles and works of art depicting the pagan gods. He also shut down the Olympic Games in Greece, which had been held in honor of the Greek gods for hundreds of years.

17 Spread of Christianity When Christianity spread during the last century of the Roman Empire, it did so in particular ways. First, it was more popular in large cities than in the countryside, and within the cities, it was more popular among the poor and middle class than wealthy people. Christian missionaries (people travelling around trying to teach and convert people to Christianity) had started new Christian communities in all the major cities of the Western Roman Empire by the time it fell in 476. Second, missionaries were more active in the western half of the empire in the early years than in the east, which already had a large number of Christians by the time Theodosius made it the only legal religion. After the western half of the empire fell, the spread of Christianity slowed down because it became more dangerous to travel long distances.

18 Movement of Germanic Tribes Once the Western Roman Empire fell, chaos filled the region. Not only did the wealthy people begin stockpiling money and stealing and fighting each other for land, but huge numbers of Germanic tribes flooded into the area as well. Although large numbers of Germanic tribesmen had already moved into the area and contributed to its downfall, the Roman Army had kept the majority of these tribesmen outside of Rome's borders. Once, the army quickly fell apart, though, all the different Germanic tribes went on the move. Two Germanic tribes called the Visigoths and Vandals moved into Spain. A large tribe called the Franks moved into Gaul. Two tribes called the Ostrogoths and Lombards flooded into Italy. And two more tribes called the Angles and Saxons moved into England. The effects these tribes had on the existing areas varied from place to place. In Spain and Italy, the Germanic tribesmen mostly became the serfs of the new feudal noblemen, and adapted to the noblemen's Roman culture by switching to speaking Latin and converting to Christianity. In Gaul, they adopted the Latin language and Christianity, but became the new rulers of the area as well. In England, they adopted Christianity and became the new rulers, but never started speaking Latin and kept speaking their native language (the ancestor of modern English).

19 Conversion of Nations The process of the people of Western Europe converting to Christianity did not happen all at once. It usually started with kings and noblemen converting, who then made their knights and serfs convert as well. By the year 700, all the noblemen and kings of Western Europe had converted to Christianity, and so had many of the ordinary people, although pockets of polytheists continued to exist in Western Europe for another 200 years in more remote areas. Meanwhile, in Eastern Europe, a new group of people called the Slavic tribes began moving in from Asia. They were polytheists who were similar in lifestyle to the Germanic tribes, but spoke a different group of languages. The Slavic tribes had no concept of marriage or staying faithful to one partner, freely moving between as many romantic partners as they wanted, as often as they liked, which was very disturbing to Christians, who valued faithfulness in marriage to one partner. The Byzantines slowly converted the Slavic tribes to Christianity during the 800's and 900's, including the Bulgarians, Slovaks, Polish, and Russians. The Russian king Vladimir the Great was the first of his people to convert to Christianity, so he was made a saint by the Orthodox Christians.

20 Catholic vs. Orthodox As Christianity spread during the Dark Ages, the beliefs and organization of the Christian churches in the former Western Roman Empire and in the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire grew further and further apart, just as their governments and cultures had. The Christians in Western Europe called themselves Catholic, while the Byzantines in Eastern Europe called themselves Orthodox. Some of the differences between the two groups were based on details of religious beliefs, but the largest differences were about authority within the church and religious practices. Because of this split within the religion, new groups of people converted to the form of Christianity of their missionaries. For instance, Ireland was converted by Catholic missionaries because they were in Western Europe, so they became Catholic. But the Slavic tribes were converted by Orthodox missionaries because they were in Eastern Europe, so they became Orthodox. A Christian missionary from England named Patrick played a key role in converting the Irish people to Christianity, so he was made a saint by the Catholic Church.

21 Catholic Christians believed that the Bishop of Rome (who they called the pope), was the leader of the entire Christian religion. They believed the pope was chosen by God to be his representative on Earth, and had individual power to change official Christian beliefs and practices. They were also more willing to incorporate pagan holidays into new Christian holidays, like elements of the Roman holiday Saturnalia being incorporated into Christmas. Left: Francis I, the current Catholic pope; Right: Bartholomew I, the current Orthodox patriarch (leader of the Orthodox church) Orthodox Christians, on the other hand, did not believe that the pope was the leader of all Christianity, and that the only way to make changes to official Christian beliefs and practices was for all Christian bishops to come together in a council (like Nicaea), and agree on them together. They also did not like incorporating pagan holidays or practices into Christian ones.

22 Exit Ticket Why did certain groups of people convert to Catholic Christianity while others converted to Orthodox Christianity? Finish study guide Homework

23 Friday Do Now Look through your notes and study for the Unit 7 exam! Objectives Students will accurately recall and apply their knowledge in a testing situation.

24 Unit 7 Exam