Ch. 9Europe: Early History

Classical Period (800 BC- 400AD) Middle Ages (400AD-1350AD) Pre-Modern Period (1350 AD-1850AD)

SECTION 1:

Greece and Rome!!!!

I. The Golden Age of Greece:• The Classical period of Greece reached its “Golden

Age” in the 400s B.C. • By that time, the city-state, or polis, had grown from

being ruled by a king to the almost direct rule of the people, or democracy. “Cradle of Democracy”

• Athens was the home of the world’s first democratic constitution.

• Athenian artists produced famous and influential works of philosophy, literature, and drama. Three great philosophers were Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

• During this period, city-states like Athens and Sparta often fought against each other because they wanted to expand their empires

• In the 300s B.C. Phillip II and his son, Alexander the Great, conquered all of Greece.

The Rise of Rome: • Rome was settled sometime around 1000 B.C. and

dominated much of the Italian Peninsula or the area around the Mediterranean Sea by 700 B.C.

• The Romans were a mostly agricultural society and were less likely to live in cities.

• Rome started as a monarchy, but changed to a republic. In a republic, people choose their leaders.

• The foundation of Roman law was the Twelve Tables. The “tables” were actually bronze tablets on which laws regarding wills, courts, and property were recorded, and the laws applied to all citizens of Rome, both common and noble.

. From Republic to Empire: • From 264 to 146 B.C. a series of wars transformed the

Roman Republic into the Roman Empire.• The peoples conquered by Rome were given Roman

citizenship and equality under the Roman law.• Under the empire, senators lost power to emperors, or

absolute rulers, of Rome. Caesar Augustus was the first Roman Emperor, and he initiated the Pax Romana.

• Jesus Christ was born in Palestine. Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the A.D. 300s which was under the rule of Constantine I.

• The Roman Empire, whose capital was Constantinople, began to decline in the early A.D. 300s. Some of the causes were reform in government coming too late, plagues that killed many people, and the crumbling of the frontier defenses in the north.

SECTION 2:

The Rise of Christianity: • It was during the Middle Ages that Christianity in the

form of the Roman Catholic Church became a political power in Western Europe. By the A.D. 500s, popes had become the leaders of the Church.

• In Eastern Europe, Christianity was known as Eastern Orthodoxy and was under the leadership of the emperors in Constantinople.

• The early popes sent missionaries, teachers of Christianity, to every part of Europe. Through its schools, the Christian Church greatly advanced learning in Europe.

• Beginning in the A.D. 1000s, the Church sponsored a series of holy wars called the Crusades.

The Holy Roman Empire

• A. The Germans combined their common law, the unwritten laws that come from local customs, with Roman law and founded kingdoms all over Europe–from Spain to England to Germany and Italy.

• B. One of the most important German kingdoms was that of the Franks, a Germanic people.

• C. In 771 Charlemagne was elected king of the Franks.• D. On Christmas Day in the year 800, Charlemagne was

proclaimed the protector of the Christian Church in the West and was crowned the head of the Roman Empire in the West, which became known as the Holy Roman Empire.

Medieval Society

• Most people during the Middle Ages were farmers who lived under feudalism.

• Under feudalism, lords would give land to a noble or knight to work, govern, and defend. In return, those who received the land swore loyalty to the lords and became their vassals.

• The feudal estate and basic economic unit was called the manor.

• Two types of farmers on the manor were tenants and serfs. Serfs were not as free and usually poorer than tenant farmers.

The Growth of Cities

• Towns in the Middle Ages were fairly independent and free of the feudal lords’ control. They served as centers of trade and manufacturing.

• Manufacturing came under the control of workers’ organizations known as guilds.

• Over time, some towns grew into cities and became political and religious centers as well.

• Kings won the support of the townspeople by building great cathedrals and granting the residents privileges and freedoms in written documents called charters.

SECTION 3:

The Renaissance

• The growth of cities and trade and the gradual breakup of feudalism led to the end of the Middle Ages.

• B. The Renaissance–sparked by an interest in education, art, and science–began around 1350 in cities of northern Italy and spread to other cities of Europe.

• C. Curiosity and enthusiasm for life were at the heart of the Renaissance.

• D. Noted Renaissance artists were Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarotti, painted the mural on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

• E. During the Renaissance, writers began to use the language they spoke every day instead of Latin or French, the language of the educated.

• F. The printing press with moveable type was invented around 1450 by Johannes Gutenberg. The printing press made books more numerous and less expensive, thereby encouraging more people to learn to read and write.

• G. Western European rulers became more powerful.

The Protestant Reformation: • Some people during the Renaissance believed

that Church leaders were more interested in wealth than religion. Others disagreed with corrupt practices of the Church.

• Because these Christians “protested” Catholic teachings, they came to be called Protestants. The movement to reform, or change, the Catholic Church was called the Protestant Reformation.

• Two Protestant leaders were Martin Luther, who organized his own new Christian Church that taught in German, and John Calvin, whose followers included the American Pilgrims.

The Age of Exploration • By the mid-1400s, Europe began to reach out beyond

its boundaries in a great age of discovery and exploration.

• In 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain sent an Italian navigator, Christopher Columbus, westward across the Atlantic searching for another way to Asia, thought he landed in the East Indies.

• The Dutch, English, and French soon joined the Spanish and Portuguese in exploring and settling and trading with the Americas, Asia, and Africa.

• Eventually–in addition to trade goods–people, diseases, and ideas were distributed around the world in a process called the Columbian Exchange.

Revolution: • A revolution is a great and often violent change. In America,

the colonies won freedom from their European mother countries. In Europe, people fought for freedom from their kings, queens, and nobles.

• Toward the end of the eighteenth century, people came to feel that they should play a greater, more direct role in government. John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau believed the government should serve the people and protect them and their freedom.

• In Britain, kings and queens were forced to accept a constitution, a plan for government that shared power, but gave most of it to the Parliament, a representative body that took power in England in the name of the people.

• In the 1770s, the American colonies revolted against European control and became a model for many revolutions in Europe and the Americas.

• The French Revolution stimulated other peoples to demand more personal and political control over their lives.

Lords

Nobles & Knights

Tenants

Serfs

THE MANOR